This week’s word for Tuesday Tales is meat. This one was interesting and easy to incorporate as I was writing a restaurant scene to set the local mood. I would have loved to use meathead in some way but it wasn’t in the cards even though I could have had her call the detective that name, right?
I’ve named this story Til Murder Do Us Part.
Don’t forget to check out the other stories here.
Margot stalked out of the police station without stopping to talk to the arrogant detective’s supervisor. She wanted to with all her soul but after the last moments of the meeting with Richard Higgins, she realized that she could very well be in legal trouble herself with the methods she’d used to track Paul Murdock to Pensacola. It was hard for her not to report the man’s insubordination and rudeness but she needed to protect herself.
At a loss what to do next, she got in her car and drove away from the police station on Hayne Street and made her way to Cervantes Street and to The Coffee Cup. She’d grab a lunch special at the counter there and see if she could reach the investigator she’d hired to get his thoughts on her next move. She’d only been in town a few days but when a local recommended the diner to her, she ate there and loved it. Today she knew she would find the comfort foods of meat and potatoes it offered to be the perfect thing to ease her wounded pride. Wheeling in to the parking lot behind the place, she was surprised to find several local police cars there.
She got out of the car thinking it was probably a favorite lunch place for the cops since it was so close to the station. Shrugging, she went in and found a place at the counter to sit. There was a table near the door with four police officers seated there. She nodded at them as she sat. Yep, had to be a cop hangout.
Pulling out her phone, Margot inhaled the smell of the delicious food cooking. It was fried chicken day for sure since that was the aroma permeating the air. She ordered the special and while she waited, she sent a text message to her investigator to meet her after lunch at Plaza Ferdinand.
When she arrived at the grassy park on Palafox Street, Margot immediately noticed the investigator, Mike “Mitch” Mitchell seated on one of the benches facing an obelisk in the middle of the park. He was hard to miss since he wore a fedora as if he were a PI from the 1930s or something. It was an odd affectation but he was so good at his job Margot didn’t let it bother her.
Walking toward him, she watched as he fed a few pigeons that gathered around his feet. Why would he be feeding those rodents with wings? They carried all kinds of disease and she planned to set him straight on why he needed to stop encouraging them to be around people.
Jillian Chantal 
Great excerpt!
By: Vicki Locey on February 18, 2014
at 6:21 am
Thanks.
By: Author on February 18, 2014
at 6:43 am
Love this quirky character with the fedora. My dad wore one of those. Makes him stand out and the story take an interesting turn.
By: jeanjoachim on February 18, 2014
at 7:00 am
Thanks Jean. My son went through a fedora phase when he was young and even inherited some of his grandpa’s fedoras. I love them.
By: Jillian on February 18, 2014
at 7:09 am
LOL. Love the PI. Doesn’t seem he will care much on her opinions of pigeons.
By: sadiecass on February 18, 2014
at 9:09 am
LOL Sarah, you’re probably right there. hehehe
By: Author on February 18, 2014
at 9:58 am
Loved the line about the fedora!! snappy TT
By: alleemae on February 18, 2014
at 5:51 pm
thanks Alleemae. I love that the fedora is a hit.
By: Author on February 18, 2014
at 6:18 pm
I need to Google the fedora once I get home. Lol
Is this a new story? I like it.
By: Iris B on February 18, 2014
at 8:58 pm
It’s a continuation of last week which was new then. It’s the opening of chapter two.
Check out fedoras. They are cool.
By: Author on February 19, 2014
at 7:08 am
A very visual scene, and like everyone else loved the mention of the fedora.
By: Sherry Gloag on February 19, 2014
at 3:31 pm
thanks Sherry. I can see that I will have to make Mitch a much bigger part of this story. LOL!
By: Author on February 19, 2014
at 3:44 pm
Nice scene! I LOVE the title!
Nice way to work in the prompt too.
PS Congrats on your great new cover & contract!
By: trishafaye on February 22, 2014
at 11:34 pm
thanks Trisha- I was shocked when I was watching tv last night and an announcer mentioned “Til Murder Do Us Part” as part of a lead in to a new show coming soon about women who kill their husbands. Maybe I subconsciously heard it before??
Thanks re: Cover and contract, too. I’m stoked.
By: Author on February 23, 2014
at 9:31 am
She sounds like a tough broad, but I’m betting she’ll end up feeding the birds too.
By: Morgan K Wyatt on February 23, 2014
at 7:26 pm
LOL Morgan. Maybe so. *smiles*
By: Author on February 23, 2014
at 7:38 pm
love your characters. Margot was the name of my grandmother.
By: Stefan Ellery on March 3, 2014
at 5:32 pm
I love the name Margot, Stefan. Very cool that your grandmother had that name.
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By: Author on March 3, 2014
at 7:17 pm