Jillian Chantal

This week, the writer’s of Tuesday Tales are writing to the word prompt pan. I finally wrote the end of the Regency tale I’ve been sharing for what seems like forever. I am now working on Book Two of a series about a woman who fell and hit her head and can now see ghosts. I wrote the last one for NaNoWriMo 2021. It has been edited and is waiting for cover inspiration.

Here, we find out heroine and Andrew Jackson in the morgue while the coroner performs a necropsy. The Marie referred to is Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen. There has been a number of animals found victims of ritual killings and our heroine is assisting the police with the investigation–along with some help from Andrew Jackson and Marie Laveau.

Check out the other tales here.

The coroner cut into the possum. He started with the cut on the top of the skull to remove the brainpan. When it was off, he gently placed it in the metal pan that was always used to hold the organs for weighing. It clanged a little on the stainless steel. Lu noticed Jackson shudder and turn away. So, something the old ghost finds distasteful?

Jackson had been strangely silent for the last moments and she wondered if he was also disturbed by the man with the screwdriver in his eye. He was the only one in the room besides her who could have seen the man sit up.

As if he’d read her mind, Jackson said, “I am not one who cares for this kind of show. I am only staying because Marie will want all the details.” He shuddered again. “Who created that tool that is in that gent’s eye? It seems a cruel weapon.”

She wanted to respond but wasn’t sure how to without alerting Broussard that she was talking to someone not there. Eventually, she figured it out. “Screwdrivers sure aren’t supposed to be used that way, are they? Can you imagine choosing it as a murder weapon?”

Broussard tsked. “No one says it was.” He glared over at her. “Except you, for some reason. And you’ve even got the detective believing it.” He waved his scalpel in the air. “Now, hush and let me get this nonsense done so I can get back to more important things.”

“This is important, Broussard,” Malcolm said.

They allowed him to work in silence for a while, with the only sound being the sound of cutting and Broussard talking into his little recorder making a record of his findings as he worked.

Even Andrew Jackson stayed silent which was not his norm.