Luna-Sea

by Jessica Sherry

  “I’ve been asked to assure you that the contents could inspire dire results, and should be handled with the utmost seriousness. Rejecting the gift could insight the giver to allow these dire results-”

  “I don’t care what he does to me-”

  “And though these wouldn’t harm you directly, they would harm others, particularly your family members.” Mr. Huntley picked up the package and handed it to me again.

  I already had a souvenir from Chris Kayne. His notebook. I’d pick-pocketed it at the lighthouse. It wasn’t filled with novel ideas as he’d claimed. Page after page of odd fractions: 56/143, 1/43, hundreds on a page, filling up the entire thing. Utterly useless. I’d stuffed it in my kitchen junk drawer, having forgotten to turn it over to the police, just like I’d held on to Darryl Chambers’ painted sand dollar (which I later returned to Raina). An accidental oversight, at least at the beginning, and laziness mixed with stubbornness thereafter. But, this time, I didn’t feel guilty about withholding evidence.

  Mr. Huntley nodded, and turned to leave. I didn’t move from that spot until Mr. Huntley had made it back to the black car blocking my alleyway. I took a deep breath. I had no choice. I took the so-called gift inside the apartment and tossed it on my kitchen table.

  Once I got over my anger at being micromanaged by Chris Kayne, I tore it open and dumped the contents onto the table. A thick folder. An old book. A note.

  Delilah, Well played! I have very much enjoyed our time together, and I hope you’ll accept this small token of my affection – a book from my personal collection and some other interesting reading. If you are to continue fighting, then you should arm yourself appropriately. I trust that this will help you in your endeavors. Love, Chris

  The note was hand-written on thick paper with a fountain pen. The book’s cover was worn brown leather – a first American edition of Frankenstein – and upon the realization, I dropped it to the table, afraid to touch it. The book was easily worth the price of a car. Once I caught my breath, I opened the file folder to find a stack of dossiers – at least a dozen paper clipped bunches. Why Chris Kayne would put such materials together were a mystery, but judging from the top one – Clara Duffy-Saintly – they were meant to poison me and my family. I spied vital information that spilled into text and flipping through her clipped together pages, bank statements. I looked away and closed the folder.

  Though there was a strong side of me that wanted to make a pot of coffee and read people’s secrets like I was enjoying a tawdry novel, I couldn’t. I couldn’t even look beyond Clara’s stack to see who else might be in there. Could Sam be in there? I didn’t want to know. So, I took the file, the book, the note and stuffed them where I’d put his notebook – my kitchen junk drawer. I buried people’s secrets beneath all the important stuff intermingled with keys I no idea what they opened, lighters and matchbooks, old business cards, and leftover fast food condiments.

  This was just Chris Kayne’s attempt to control me. Like the picture left on my computer, he wanted to see how I’d react, wanted to entice me to join him in his dark and twisted world. No. I wouldn’t dare.

  Tipee may seem small and boring, but it’s a lot like the ocean. On the surface, everything’s moving along like normal, but underneath, well, there’s a whole world we don’t see. Chris Kayne’s words the night of the Peacock party haunted me. Dark whispers surrounded my soul with those pages loitering in my kitchen.

  Still. I didn’t throw them away.

  Thank you for sticking around and reading Luna-Sea: A Delilah Duffy Mystery!

  Hope you had as much fun reading as I did writing it (that’d be like mega-industrial-sized, best-time-ever kind of fun)! Course, even if you had so-so fun, that’s okay. Fun is fun, and there’s more to come!

  The case may be solved, but the story continues.

  Will Delilah meet her nemesis again? What’s up with Sam? And, seriously, will there ever be a truce between her and her aunts?

  Find out in the next Delilah Duffy installment, coming soon!

  In the meantime, check out my website www.jessicasherry.com. I’d love to hear from you – it’d be a welcomed break between planning murders and planting clues. And, if you give me your email, I’ll keep you updated on future releases, life in general, and opportunities for free stuff.

  Thanks for supporting this second-time, self-published author! Please share your thoughts by leaving a review!

  Blessings and Happy Beach Reading!

  About the Author

  Hello, there. Stuck around to the bitter end, huh? Okay, you must want to find out a little about me. I’m not sure why. You may want to delve into that deeper with your therapist. In the meantime, here it goes.

  When I told my parents about my imaginary friends as a preschooler, they may have suspected I’d end up doing something creative. The novel I started in the third grade should’ve clinched it. Still, my mom wanted me to be the first woman president (yes, of the United States). I think she still might. However sorry I was to disappoint her (not really), writing is way more my thing! Besides, I can’t pull off pantsuits.

  Third grade was a big year for me. I started my first novel, debuted scenes from that novel to my classmates, and made straight A’s – not sure if that correlates, but it happened. Now that I think of it, that was also the year I got baptized and first got in trouble at school (don’t tell my mom). Again, not sure that correlates, and I’m not sure which happened first. Hopefully, the baptism came after the trouble. Anyway, writing was my thing, solidified in third grade.

  Just because you know what you want to do with your life doesn’t mean it’s going to happen easily. Writing’s never been a choice, but it’s always a challenge, particularly the publishing side of it. It took forever to get here. It’s been a long, bumpy, often dark road with fallen rocks and booby traps. But, I’ve managed to go slowly and stay out of the ditches.

  When I’m not navigating that, I’m living a regular, coffee-fueled, race-around-town life. Joe and I have been married… I forget… a long time. We have two super cute kids, Ethan and Abby. We live in Williamsburg, Virginia with our two dogs. We like keeping things real with dog hair on the floor and dust on the picture frames. We kick it old school by being really involved with our church and by enjoying the simple things. Walks in the park. Cruising in the Jeep. Laughing at everything. If I could just move the beach to my backyard, then everything would be perfect.

  Yes, the beach. I love it. Could you tell? Though it’s not far away, it’s not close enough. In the Bible, God’s love is described as too great to understand fully and we are challenged to understand “how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is” (Ephesians 3:18-19). The ocean helps me conceptualize God’s love, so it’s no wonder that I feel closest to him there. God and I are tight always, but we’re really hanging out when we’re at the beach.

  Right about now, it’s time to close the book. There’s more to come, promise. But, if you can’t wait, check me out online at www.jessicasherry.com. If you dare, contact me, because right now, this relationship is seriously one-sided. Sign up for my email list and you’ll really join in the fun. Peace out!