Wanda Watkins and Gloria Crawford, Wanda’s mother, have been
trying to find a suitable house for Gloria and Ben, Wanda’s father, to retire
to. The town of choice was Ruidoso, New Mexico, and as Julie, their real-estate
broker, tried to find the perfect house for the retiring couple, it was
becoming clear these ladies were hard to satisfy. Finally they saw a listing that might be the
perfect house for Gloria and Ben to retire to. Julie arrived at the house, and
cheerfully opened the door. The ladies looked the house over only to find a dead
body. They had stumbled into a house full of clues, and as fate would have it,
they had unwittingly arrived at the precise moment the murder was taking place.
They themselves, had barely missed being killed by the murderer. When the
police arrived, they declared the body to be an old man, and claim he died of
natural causes. Why were the police covering up a murder? Who was the dead
woman? What connection did this have to Gloria’s past? The answers to these
questions and more are in the short story Murder
at 421 Sierra Glen Drive.
