Family Can Be Murder

by Karen Singer

  Jenni …with an i

  Book 1

  Family

  Can Be

  Murder

  By

  Karen Singer

  Text Copyright © 2019 Karen Singer

  All Rights Reserved

  This story is nothing but a work of total fiction. None of the characters are real. None of the events actually took place. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various companies referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication or use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark companies.

  Cover design by Gerard Hamdani

  Book Cloud Designs

  Jenni …with an i

  Book 1: Family Can Be Murder

  Book 2: Daddy Came Calling

  Book 3: Curl Up and Die

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Other Karen Singer Books you might like:

  Chapter 1

  “Oh…shit!” Jenni exclaimed as she stared at the body on the path. The knife sticking out of its back could only mean one thing – murder! A moment later, Jenni realized something else. Someone was going to blame her for it.

  But that’s not where this story really begins. It begins a month earlier back in Gainesville, Florida where Jenni lived with her Aunt Sally. It begins in the month of September when the Florida heat is still hot and oppressive. And it begins with a simple phone call.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “It’s my seventy-fifth birthday, and I want everyone to be there! And that includes you and Kyle.”

  “Mom, you know she doesn’t want to be called Kyle anymore. It’s Jenni. And I can guarantee that if you try to call her anything else, she’ll give you an earful about it.”

  “Well he’s still a boy, isn’t he?”

  “Technically. But that’s about as far as I can guarantee. According to her, she’s a girl and she always has been. You know that!”

  “Well, whoever he is…or she is, he’s still your brother’s son…”

  “Daughter now.”

  “Whatever. He…or she…whatever, is still my grandchild and I want him there!”

  “Good luck with that!” Sally Withers muttered, knowing that getting Jenni to agree to go was an exercise in futility.

  “Just get him there. I don’t care how you do it. Just do!”

  “Mom, she’s not going to go!”

  “Then throw him out! You should never have taken him in in the first place.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not going to do that.”

  “I don’t care if you think you can or not. If he doesn’t go, then he’s not part of this family, and I won’t leave a single red cent to him when I’m gone. And if you don’t get him there, then I’m not going to leave anything to you either Sally! None of you care enough about me. All you want is my money!”

  Sally silently groaned. Since her mother had won that lottery eight years ago, she and her father had been doing their best to spend all that money anyway. But she guessed that the two hundred and thirty million dollars they had wound up with after taxes would probably be hard for even them to spend all of. And ever since that winning, her mother and father had been holding that fortune over the heads of the entire family. But as much as Sally could really use some of that money, she was getting awfully tired of the situation…and her mother’s tight-fisted control of it. As far as she knew, since they had won the money, her mother and father hadn’t given a single red cent of it to anyone else – at all! Which, she guessed, made this current situation that much more out of character for her. She was suddenly spending an absolute fortune on this birthday party – seventy-fifth or not.

  “Mom,” Sally tried again. “She’s not going to go. Especially not if the rest of her family is going to be there.”

  “I know I already told you that I’m paying for everyone’s travel costs, whether they fly there or drive. And I also know that I’ve told you that I’ve already reserved the entire hotel on that little island, so essentially for that one week, I own the whole damn place. But did I mention that I’ll be giving everyone in the family a thousand dollars after my birthday dinner on Friday?”

  “A thousand dollars?” Sally asked skeptically. “Really?”

  “A thousand! Please keep that to yourself though. I don’t want anyone else to know.”

  “Is that over and above the travel costs?”

  “Damn it!” her mother exclaimed. “Yes! Okay!”

  Sally suddenly realized that her mother hadn’t had any thoughts at all about giving anyone any money…other than the travel expenses and paying for their rooms and meals at the hotel. But if she was going to do it…. “Mom, I’ll tell her. I know she needs the money pretty bad. Me too for that matter.”

  “Well see that you convince him to come! That’s all I care about, having everyone there for me. I only turn seventy-five once. I can’t do it again.”

  “You know Mom, that if I do manage to convince her to come, she’ll only come as Jenni, not Kyle.”

  “I don’t care. I want all my children, all my grandchildren, and all my great-grandchildren there – one way or another!”

  Sally sighed. “Fine Mom. I’ll talk to her. But I can’t guarantee anything with her at all!”

  “Convince her…or him. Whatever. Just get him there!”

  Sally realized her mother had hung up on her. She knew Jenni pretty well. Better than probably anyone in the world, and there were still some major things about Jenni that she didn’t know. But one thing that she was absolutely sure of, was that getting Jenni to go would be an almost impossible task. There was just one thing that might make the difference. One thing that might turn the tide. Jenni, like her, needed money – even more than she did. And a thousand dollars could be a big incentive to her. But would it be a big enough incentive to actually get her there? That remained to be seen.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Sally heard the apartment door opening…and closing. Jenni was back. She never knew when Jenni would be coming home, or going out. She knew that Jenni worked…somewhere, but Jenni refused to tell her where or even let her know what kind of work she was doing. But Jenni was twenty years old. Old enough to work things out for herself. And she knew that Jenni had lots of things to work out.

  Jenni was transgendered. Even though she’d never seen a doctor about it, there had never been any doubt about that since she’d been born. But Sally’s brother, Andy, Jenni’s father, had refused to allow anything to ever be done about it. He had refused to allow the situation to even be discussed, and Jenni’s mother, Cassie, had been just as adamant about it. Neither of them had ever allow their son to express himself as a girl in any way at all. Never! And that was despite the way that Kyle had acted ever since he was born – like a girl.

  In desperation, two years ago, Kyle had finally come to her and asked if he could live with her – the way he thought he should be living, as a girl. She had initially turned him down when he asked, despite his desperate begging.
She knew he had literally gone to all the rest of the family about the same thing, and every last one of them had turned him down flat. But when he had come back and asked a second time, she had finally agreed, despite what the entire rest of the family thought about it.

  She’d never come out and say it, but taking Kyle in and letting him start living as Jenni, had turned out to be the best decision of her life. It wasn’t that she approved of what Kyle was doing, it was more like she disapproved of the way the rest of the family treated him, which was even worse now. And she knew for a fact that Jenni held a lot of dislike for the entire rest of the family because of it. And don’t ever start talking about her parents around her!

  So getting Jenni to agree to go to a week-long family get-together, even if it was on a resort island in the Florida Keys, was something that she knew Jenni would be pretty much vehemently against. The only thing was…the money. Jenni needed money – for lots of things. And Sally knew that Jenni was fairly desperate to get it. Desperate enough that Sally worried about how Jenni was bringing home what money she did.

  But the question was, would Jenni, as much as she hated the rest of her family, be willing to put that hatred aside for a thousand extra dollars? She wasn’t sure. In truth, she really doubted it.

  She lifted her head as she saw Jenni come into the kitchen. Jenni’s straight light-blond colored hair hung down and was curled slightly inward just below her chin. It looked…cute on her! The thin red hairband she had in it to hold it away from her face looked perfect with it.

  She had been marveling for a year now at Jenni’s shape. She knew perfectly well that Jenni couldn’t afford hormones or even therapy, yet somehow, she had altered her male body shape to look much more feminine than masculine. The only thing was, that Jenni was skinny. Too skinny. And Jenni insisted on keeping herself that way. But despite that, if she overlooked a few tiny things, Jenni looked just plain cute! “Hi dear,” she called.

  “Hey Aunt Sally,” Jenni replied as she came into the kitchen.

  That was another thing Sally had been marveling at. It had taken Jenni a while, but her voice sounded awfully female to her now. “How was your day?”

  Jenni shrugged. “Pretty good.”

  “Did you do anything interesting today?” she asked, trying to get some idea of what Jenni did every day…and sometimes at night too.

  Jenni shrugged. “It’s all interesting.”

  “Like what?”

  Jenni turned and gave her that mischievous smile of hers. The smile that always melted Sally’s heart, even though once again her questions had been shut down.

  “Want me to fix dinner tonight?” Jenni asked.

  That was another thing that Sally had discovered about Jenni. She didn’t mind helping with the cooking, or the cleaning, or anything else around the house either. Very often, she went to do the laundry, only to discover that Jenni had already taken care of it. “Sure, if you want. In fact, why don’t we work on it together.”

  Jenni’s face lit up. “Super!”

  Sally grabbed her apron from where she usually threw it, on the corner of the kitchen counter. Jenni rarely ever used an apron. But the slacks and top she was wearing, while nice, weren’t that nice. “I wanted to talk to you about something,” Sally started as Jenni looked through the refrigerator.

  “Uh-huh?” Jenni replied with her head stuck out of sight.

  “Grandma’s seventy-fifth birthday is coming up next month.”

  “Whoop-dee-do!” Jenni replied sarcastically as she exited the refrigerator with a big bowl of salad in one arm, while making a circle motion with a stick of celery in her other hand. She stuck the celery in her mouth.

  “She’s having a family gathering in her honor for it.”

  “So?” Jenni, with the celery stick still stuck in her mouth, turned to her aunt, “You’re thinking of going?”

  “Jenni, she’s my mother. And your grandmother!”

  “Huh! Could have fooled me.”

  “Jenni, don’t hold anything against her.”

  “What did she ever do for me? Nothing! And look at all the money she’s got. Have you ever seen any of it?”

  “No. Not really.”

  Jenni looked at her skeptically.

  Sally sighed. “Okay, none at all. Nobody else has either, as far as I know.”

  Jenni grabbed a large fork and spoon and began tossing the salad. “It’s okay,” Jenni said. “I get it. She’s your mother. Go. Have a good time.”

  “Thanks,” Sally said rather sadly. “It just that, there’s a bit more to it than that.”

  Jenni turned her head toward her. “Like what?”

  Sally took a big breath. “Grandma’s booked an entire hotel for a full week, on an island down in the Florida Keys. And that hotel is the only thing on that island.”

  “Cool! You love the beach.”

  “Yes, I do. But Jenni, Grandma specifically called to make sure you go too.”

  Jenni pulled the celery stick from her mouth. “Is anyone else in the family going?”

  “All of them,” Sally replied. “Grandma is going out of her way to make sure that every last person in the family will be there. As she said, her children, her grandchildren, and even her great grandchildren will all be there.”

  Jenni raised the fork in her hand as if to make a point. “Not all of them!”

  “All!” Sally insisted. “You need to go too.”

  Jenni smirked at her. “Fat chance, and you know it!”

  Sally sighed. “Jenni, it wouldn’t hurt you to put your pride aside just this one time and go like everyone else in the family.”

  “And have them all spend the entire time telling me what they really think of me? No way! Besides, I’m pretty sure that none of them consider me to be part of the family anymore anyway.”

  “Grandma does.”

  Jenni rolled her eyes. “Well that’s news to me.”

  “So go! For her!”

  “No! Forget it! And don’t worry about me. I can certainly take care of myself while you’re gone.”

  “I’m not worried about you taking care of yourself. You’re a grown woman…or…okay, woman. And damn it, I don’t know how you do it, but you even look like a woman!”

  Jenni smiled, walked over to her aunt, and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. “Thanks,” she said brightly before sticking the celery back in her mouth and going back to dishing the salad out into two smaller bowls.

  “That’s not the point,” Sally said.

  “So what is? I’m not going,” Jenni replied.

  “The point is, you need to go!”

  “I don’t need to go! Why would I? Go and be miserable for an entire week? Go and have to put up with everyone looking weird at me and saying things to me that are only going to make me mad? Go and…and do what with myself? In case you haven’t realized it yet, me and the beach aren’t ready for any kind of relationship. I’m not ready yet to put a bathing suit on and go sunning myself out on the sand.”

  That surprised Sally. “You aren’t?”

  “Aunt Sally. Really?”

  “No. I mean, well, you look so darn…good! Cute!”

  Jenni went back over to her, wrapped her arms around her, squeezed, and then gave her aunt another peck on the cheek. “Thanks,” she said happily. She backed away and headed for the refrigerator again. She stopped before she opened it. “You have to know that all of…this,” she said, gesturing down at her body, “is all fake. It’s all just illusion.”

  “Well if it’s an illusion, then it’s pretty darn good!”

  Jenni smiled. “Thanks Aunt Sally. I try.”

  “Yeah. I’m sure you do. I know you’ve been trying hard since you moved in here.” She watched as Jenni disappeared behind the refrigerator door. “Grandma said she’s giving everyone who goes a thousand dollars – over and above the travel costs.” She saw Jenni quickly back out from behind the refrigerator door to look at her, the expression on her face now looked serious.


  “Grandma said that?”

  “Believe it or not. I was completely floored when she told me.”

  Jenni shook her head. “Damn it! What I could do with a thousand dollars.”

  “I know,” Sally replied. “Which is why you need to go. Put up with everyone for that one little trip.”

  Jenni leaned against the open refrigerator door and seriously thought about it. A thousand dollars. All at once. It would go a long way toward helping her get her own car…which would go a long way toward helping her make more money. Money that she desperately needed. Without that money, she’d never be able to afford the doctors, or the hormones, or any part of her transition. She needed that money! But what she didn’t need was the constant condemnation she would get from every last person in the family over her life. Everyone that is, except her Aunt Sally. She finally shook her head. “No way! I don’t need the money as bad as that!”

  Sally just sighed and shook her head. She had tried.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “Hey Shirley,” Jenni called brightly as she strode into the small office space.

  “Morning Jenni,” Shirley Bosch returned.

  Jenni stopped at the open doorway leading into the inner office. “Hey Mister Bosch,” she called to her boss behind his desk.

  “Morning Jenni,” Robbie Bosch called back.

  Jenni walked over to the small table they had cleared off just to give her a work space. All the files that used to be piled on it were now piled on the floor next to it. Nobody had ever bothered to put them anywhere else. She pulled her backpack purse from her shoulders and pulled her old laptop computer out of it before sitting down in the cheap folding chair. While she waited for her computer to boot up, she sat there thinking about her grandmother. A thousand dollars. What she could do with that much money! Her thoughts immediately turned to all the clothes and jewelry she could buy. But those things were entirely secondary. Her ultimate goal was to get into a transgendered program somewhere and finally begin her transition…or continue it. In truth, she had been living entirely as a female for almost two years now. And she loved every bit of that time. But she still couldn’t wait to get some hormones in her body to change it into something far more real. It was like her entire life right now was nothing but window dressing. She didn’t want window dressing. She wanted the reality that the window dressing only mimicked. And she was getting desperate to get that reality.