Tuesday Tales: From a Picture.

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in Canada. There is a lot I’m not grateful for so far in 2020, but the fact that I and my loved ones are all healthy, is truly something to celebrate.

This is picture prompt week. One a month those of us who are part of this blog have a picture rather than a word prompt to work with. Sometimes the pictures lend themselves easily to the texts; at others, we have to be creative. Since I’m trying to provide the first chapter as closely as I can before i start jumping ahead in the story, I’ve done just that. As always, picture prompt scenes are limited to 300 words. Here’s the prompt I chose.

“The tattoo,” she answered. “I was going through the latest missing persons’ reports earlier tonight, and I saw it. Show him, Mitch.”

The coroner bent down once more and gently turned the body onto its side, flesh slipping out of place as she did. On the left shoulder blade, an angel’s wing, beautifully depicted and lifelike, stood out against the darkened skin where the blood had pooled, the name, Sally, engraved under it.

“It looks like you’re right, but we won’t be sure until we have fingerprints and DNA,” he answered, running his hand through his hair, the sweat turning his gel to goo. “In the meantime, we can assume this is what’s left of Rachel Livingston, surviving twin, but she didn’t have that horseshoe when she disappeared. Is some pimp starting a new stable—pardon the pun—or have you seen that mark before?”

She shook her head. “What can you tell me about her?” The sergeant’s voice was low as if she were trying not to breathe too deeply. He didn’t blame her.

“Rachel worked part-time at The Burger Barn. She disappeared twenty-three months ago. Apparently, she left for a cruise vacation and never made it back.”

“If that happened twenty-three months ago, why was she in your latest report?”

Sergeant Reynolds moved farther away from the body to let the coroner’s assistants who’d just arrived get closer to it.

Al followed her, hoping the stench would ease, but the smell wasn’t any less repulsive here.

“Because last week, another case landed on my desk. Young girl working with a law firm failed to return after her cruise vacation. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to bring Rachel up again since I was at a dead end.”

That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.