FLASH FICTION CONTEST #5

One week after the murderer of Henry Woodlaan, the Duke of England- people of the village of Vintzanberry grew more and more restless every day.

The parents of the town were now very careful not to let their own children wander about, the children could not play anywhere without having a watchful eye upon them. The Duchess was the most upset and spent most of her time in her bedroom, hiding her sorrow from the village people. Vintzenberry was no longer the care-free town with townsfolk humming as they hung up clothes to dry or where children gleefully played tag throughout the town square. Now it was all silent and quiet with the frequent sound of doors closing.--- On Tuesday, March 17th, Lizzie Jenise woke up to the smell of coffee, she got dressed, and went downstairs, finding her mother drinking a cup of coffee. “ Ah, Lizzie, good morning, I'm going over to the Duchess and bringing her tea since she's feeling ill, the babysitter will be over in a minute.” Lizzie reluctantly nodded, Lizzie's mother hugged her and went out the door.

“Christine! The Duchess is in her room, thank you for coming.”

The housekeeper said when she answered the door “thank you” Lizzie's mother, Christine replied as she went to Marie Woodlaan’s room, finding her laying in bed

 “Thank you Christine, I’m feeling better already,” the Duchess said after Christine had given her the tea she made

“You are most welcome, your grace,” Christine replied “I’m very sorry for what happened to your late husband, I hope you get better soon.”

“Yes, thank you,” The Duchess said sadly at the mention of the Duke.

On the way down the steps of the Duchess’s mansion Christine found a small white letter lying on the last step and it was addressed to a man named Toby Grenalds, there was no envelope and it was from someone named Ella Tese. Curious, Christine unfolded the letter and to her surprise this is what it said: “ Dear Toby, thank you for your kind assistance, the plan succeeded and I must admit, I did not think it would, he did not expect anything of the sort and I have already signed the contract to withdraw the money, again I thank you for your most utmost work, I will see you soon, Sincerely Marie Woodlaan” according to the letter the duchess was Elle Tese and she and a man named Toby was clearly up to something, Christine was about to take it in the car with her when she noticed a small dried up stain on the down right corner of the letter which seemed to be a splatter of dried up blood, beneath it there were small letters that Christine could barely make out as “I left a small drop of his blood on this page, evidence he is dead, again, thank you.”

Christine did not know of any recent deaths except for Henry Woodlaan, suddenly the letter made sense, the Duchess had worked with Toby to kill somebody -- her husband.

2 days before Lizzie’s mother picked up the letter, a letter was accidentally delivered to Christine instead of the Duchess, this was because the mailman had simply read the address wrong, Christine had ripped off the envelope and what she saw was very strange indeed, “ Marie, I poisoned the pasta and now he is well dead, how? I mixed the sauce with a plant called “deadly nightshade". He was immediately poisoned. I expect the money in 3 days, thank you, from Toby”. 

Christine was now sure they were the ones who murdered Henry and these are the facts on what happened next.

Christine reported to the police about the letters, The Duchess and her assistant Toby were arrested and imprisoned. Their original plan was to split the Duke's will after he was dead, the Duchess grew very impatient for money. She merely killed her husband and was going to withdraw the money from his will and share it with Toby.

This is the end of the story.