The Fifteen Minute Novel is a novel written fifteen minutes at a time with each week day’s section starting with the sentence from the previous day. At least it is attempting to be a novel. For now I am just aiming at one continuous story, worked on for fifteen minutes each day. Started Friday January 1st, 2021 (in case you want to search for the beginning. I can’t wait to see where it ends up. It could be good, or it could be a mess. We’ll have to see. For now, here is today’s fifteen minutes.
Day 252: “You know where the lovely Cassie would fly when she left,” Tucker said. “But you told me that you knew nothing.”
“You know where the lovely Cassie would fly when she left,” Tucker said. “But you told me that you knew nothing.”
“I don’t know where she’d go if she wanted to completely drop out of sight,” James said. “She’s never been one for dropping completely out of sight before.” James looked to Morris who remained silent behind the desk. He looked back to Tucker. “Why do you think I know?”
“Your family and hers have been friends for generations,” Tucker said.
“And the age difference meant that occasionally I went with my dad to the gold club when he had lunch with her father and that she was friends with my younger step brothers. I wasn’t in her inner most circle. I wasn’t even in her general circle.”
“Wherever she’s gone is too well hidden to be just a casual thing,” Tucker said. “There has to be some sort of long held family place she would have gone to. You should know that.”
James frowned and shook his head. Since they didn’t know anything about James Monroe, James let that information stay buried as he switched his thoughts to Cassie’s family. Or what he knew of them. “They liked resorts and hotels,” James said. “They being waited on and generally had memberships rather than their own houses in the area.” James paused and thought through the event he attended over the years.
“There was a yacht,” he recalled. Tucker sat a little straighter and leaned forward.
“Yacht?” He asked. “Yu never mentioned that before. He flashed Morris a smile.
James shook his head. “She sold it,” James said. “As soon as her parents died. She claimed because it was out of date and she didn’t want the hassle of renovating and that if she wanted a new one she could just buy another one later.”
“So she bought another one later,” Tucker said.
“No,” James replied shaking his head. “It was just an excuse. She had terrible seasickness and hated anything to do with the water.” James thought some more, but he was forced to concede he couldn’t think of anything else. “That was the closest thing to a vacation house they had. If they wanted a home for a set time they’d rent one, but they really were the sort to like hotels rather than guest homes.”
Tucker frowned at him. “You’re lying.”
“I’m really not,” James said. “If you asked me a year ago where would Cassie go if she wanted to drop out of sight I would have laughed and said there was never a time when Cassie wanted to be out of sight. She always wants to be watched. If no one can see you, they can’t envy you. I can not think of a single place where she would go. Someone closer to her might know, but I don’t.”
“You have to know. There is no one else,” Tucker said. He stood and took a menacing step towards James.
“Agent Tucker,” Morris said. Tucker spun to look at him. James expected the warm smile to return as he looked at his boss, but it didn’t.”
“He has to know,” Tucker said.
“James has no involvement in the case you are working,” Morris said.
Tucker laughed.
Ten til Midnight 