Month: January 2019

Presented by SHANNON MUIR’S INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS

Presented by SHANNON MUIR’S INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS

SPONTANEOUS CHOICES SHORTS features short serialized fiction by author Shannon Muir, that may be later released as part of e-book or print collections. In 2019, these serials will appear every second and fourth Thursday (and fifth Thursdays as they occur) beginning January 17, 2019. The story line featured over the next sixteen days is “A Spontaneous Kind of Mystery,” featuring the return of Marnie and Zane. This is part 12 of 16.

Marnie didn’t know what else to say. She couldn’t reassure her friend Sophia, or give any concrete proof that their suspicious about Colby were correct.

“I’m going to reach out to Holly and be sure she’s fine!”

Sophia hung up on Marnie before she even had the chance to say anything more. Meanwhile, Marnie turned her thoughts back to her own research. It would definitely be a long night, with little sleep for any of them. Marnie decided to put her energy into finding out who Colby’s mother might be, to see if the Colby they dealt with was indeed the same one Tessa thought he might be.

The next piece of information she needed would be Colby’s last name.

Marnie sat down at her computer and tried to figure out how to search. Colby might be a local college student working at the bookstore; she did know there was a community college near that area of town. Since Fall already came and went, maybe he’d done something of merit to be mentioned in the school paper there.

Marnie went to the community college website, found the news section, and from there located the community college’s student paper. In the search box she typed one word: COLBY.

She knew it to be a long shot, but at this point she didn’t know what else to do.

Marnie tapped the magnifying glass icon to begin the search and waited.

The search returned a Student Staff profile.

COLBY CRALLE

It listed both the current school year and the prior school year as his terms on staff.

More importantly, it also had a picture of the same young man they’d seen buying coffee.

Marnie read the paragraph about Colby aloud.

“Colby joined the school paper staff while still a senior in high school in Aubryville, doing a series of special reports on being a bridge student on our campus. Now a freshman at the college, Colby works as a Staff Writer on Arts and Culture stories.”

Marnie immediately recognized the name of the town where Colby went to high school as being not far away from the city. Just days earlier, they’d met Blake there while trying to learn more about the Royales. The connection didn’t surprise her.

Now, Marnie realized the time to be getting late in the evening. Zane told her to contact if there was anything more, but it seemed a bit late. All she had was a cell phone number.

She decided to text him, even though she wasn’t sure if it was a personal or work phone or not. Marnie decided to keep it pretty vague, just in case.

So she sent a text that simply read:

THE LAST NAME YOU ASKED ABOUT IS CRALLE.

With that, Marnie decided to go to bed. There wasn’t much more she could do tonight.

Presented by SHANNON MUIR’S INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS

SPONTANEOUS CHOICES SHORTS features short serialized fiction by author Shannon Muir, that may be later released as part of e-book or print collections. In 2019, these serials will appear every second and fourth Thursday (and fifth Thursdays as they occur) beginning January 17, 2019. The story line featured over the next sixteen days is “A Spontaneous Kind of Mystery,” featuring the return of Marnie and Zane. This is part 11 of 16.

Once she got home, Marnie phoned Blake back up. She knew how late it was, but right now she didn’t care. Besides, she felt Blake owed her.

“Marnie?” Blake said, groggily.

“Look,Blake, I know it’s late, but I need your help. You are a librarian with access to research tools. I talked to my sister about all that’s been going on.”

“That’s great you two are still talking. But why are you bothering me in the middle of the night?”

“My sister thinks that the Colby kid we saw at the cafe might be an illegitimate son of Hampton Royale, the father of my sister’s ex-husband, who ended up not getting what he was promised in the will. As an illegitimate son yourself, I’m thinking you’d probably know how to look the quickest to verify a story like that. Tessa’s concerned we’re all in danger. Look, I’m still not happy at how you handled things with the police, but this is your chance to make up for it.”

“I’ll check remote databases from here and get back to you as soon as I can,” Blake promised her.

As she hung up from talking to Blake, Marnie knew what she needed to do next. She dreaded doing it, especially this late. Zane might not answer her, or get upset she called so late. However, this area would be his expertise.

Slowly, she dialed the numbers. Zane did answer.

“Marnie, do you realize how late it is?”

“Yes, yes Zane, I do and I’m sorry. But I need your help.”

“I can’t just drop everything and come rescue in the middle of the night!”

“Oh, sorry. That’s not the advice I mean. I need your expertise as a male nurse.”

Zane’s tone changed; this piqued his interest.

“What can I help you with?”

“Did the police ask you about some murder at the cafe we went to?”

“They did. I didn’t know a thing.”

“Well, that kid in front of us in line that caused a fuss, Colby? He might be related to my sister’s ex.”

“Whoa, that’s deep. But I’m not following what that has to do with me.”

“My sister thinks his mother might have been one of Hampton Royale’s care nurses not quite twenty years ago. If I needed to locate someone with a current or past nurse’s license, how would I go about it?”

“I can tell you, but shouldn’t you leave that to the the police?”

“I need to see if my sister’s theory is true before I go back to them. Please, give me a hint where to look. That’s all I ask. I’ll do the legwork myself.”

“You could ask Blake for help.”

“He’s on a different assignment, following the paternity angle. I’m verifying who his mother is. I can handle this if you point me the right way. Please, Zane.”

“There are some databases to do that,” Zane explained. “But you’ll definitely need a name for those, possibly additional information depending on what you are needing. And not all are open to the public. If you do come up with a name, let me know, and I’ll see how I can help.”

Marnie figured Zane must not be too upset with her if he was willing to help in some capacity.

“I’ll let you know if I find anything more. Sorry to bother you, Zane.”

“Looks like we’re in this together. Have a good night, Marnie.”

Zane hung up, but Marnie didn’t feel rejected – just concerned that they might be missing a very important clue and running out of time.

Now she decided to call Sophia.

“Marnie, I am so glad you are okay! The police have been asking so many questions about what happened. I still can’t get a straight answer, just a hint that it is someone who works with Suzette. They won’t even tell me if it’s Holly. I’m so concerned about my friend!”

Marnie told Sophia what Tessa shared with her.

“I’m so glad you went to your sister, but now I’m really afraid. What if you’re right and it is this Colby kid? If he’s taking out revenge on people who work for Suzette, Holly comes in and does contract work for her. Since she still needs to get paid, I’m sure she’ll go back. Oh, I hope she’s not in danger!”