SPEED CITY SISTERS IN CRIME

SPEED CITY SISTERS IN CRIME

Monday, November 14, 2016

Magna Cum Murder: Flash Fiction Contest Honorable Mention by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Speed City Sisters in Crime again sponsored the Flash Fiction Contest at this year's Magna Cum Murder in Indianapolis, one of the nation's best mystery conferences. Here is the second Honorable Mention Flash Fiction Contest winner. 


A Question of Aesthetics
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Spofforth eyed the artist at his multi-hued canvas, a coffee cup in one hand, a paint brush in the other.
“I understand the how, Jacobson,” Spofforth said. “I’ll give you this – it was clever.”
Jacobson nodded, acknowledging the compliment. “If you’ll forgive the pun, I knew it would take someone with your palette of experience to catch me.”
Spofforth nodded in return. Only as he climbed the stairs to the studio a few minutes earlier, alone, had he allowed himself a self-congratulatory moment. Three detectives had failed to solve the mystery of the young woman’s stabbing death before they’d called him in from retirement.
“But why?” Spofforth said. “I’ll, well confess you have me there.”
“And if I tell you?” Jacobson said.
“It changes nothing. Motive, as you know, is not required for conviction. Did she spur you advances?”
“Hardly.”
“Owe you money? Or vice versa?”
“Please.”
“A secret, then. Something she threatened to expose?”
“Perhaps in her imagination. Time is short. May I explain?”
I’d welcome it.”
“The solution is in the painting, and the nuances it requires, “ Spofforth said.
“Nuances?”
“I value a particular shade of red that’s hard to come by,” Jacobson said, reversing the brush to reveal a gleaming blade at the tip. He leaped forward and plunged it into Spofforth’s chest before the retired detective could move.

“Simple aesthetics,” Jacobson said, using the coffee cup to collect the gushing blood. “She – and you- helped color my imagination.”

No comments:

Post a Comment