Morning all. I hope you had a fabulous Veteran’s day. I am personally ready to jump back into a regular weekday and so lets get that started with a morning writing prompt. It will wake up the brains and get everyone going for a new day. Timers set for fifteen minutes and off we go.
I kind of like this set up for a murder mystery. I suspect there will be a person that all of the family have issues with or multiple murders. And then our investigator who knows all the details may become a target. Could be fun to write.
Thursday, November 12th: My job was done.
My job was done. I was paid to watch, monitor and report. I did exactly that. Mr. Henderson now knew everything that his children, stepchildren and second wife were doing. ‘Not that it would do him any good,’ I thought.
He suspected someone in his aegis might be doing something he found deplorable. I doubted he was prepared for everyone doing something he would take as a betrayal of his values.
I tried not to snort a laugh at the term as I deposited my final fee and headed out of town. I charged as I was taught by my instructors. Part before, part during the midway process and part at the end when the job was complete. It was to protect me and make certain I wasn’t shorted. However this time I have to admit only the thought of collecting the final check made me stay.
The moral and upright patriarch who wanted to investigate his family was, when studied closely, anything but. I looked into him as a matter of course. I didn’t put those findings in my report as I doubted he would appreciate being added to my investigation.
But I knew the details. I needed the check more than I needed my offense at his behavior. And as hypocritical as it was, it was also unimaginative. His sorted of ‘moral wrong doing’ as he was fond of terming it, I had seen a thousand times and likely would see a thousand more.
What always annoyed me was the phrases he used. “The fish rots from the head down.” And “The patriarch must hold firm to his values or the family will collapse.”
Neither sentiment was one I had a problem with, in fact my own grandfather used them both at one time or another. The difference was, my grandfather held to his moral code.
‘Which means I suppose he made the phrases true in the opposite direction,’ I reminded myself. As patriarch, Mr. Henderson may have publicly held to his values, but in private there were few publicly held ones he wouldn’t violate. It turns out the rest of the family was much the same.
All of them had a veneer of moral integrity but it was slapped over a thick layer of rot.
“So that fish head was plenty stinky,” I decided. As I drove, I tried to determine if there was a single vice that I hadn’t uncovered.
There was gambling and cheating on the part of the second misses. There was a long string of call girls visited by both the son and step son. There were drugs, theft, and as the youngest son was sleeping with a married woman as well as his paid companions there was also adultery on his part.
Henderson had most been worried about embezzlement from the company and it turned out in one form or another they were all taking money not owed them by the company. Mrs. Henderson was blackmailing a VP who was taking the blackmail money from the funds he embezzled from the company but the boys were both misappropriating funds from the departments they ran.
“Murder,” I decided. Thus far none of the Henderson clan actually committed murder. It was almost a relief to know there was one thing they hadn’t stooped to. “Yet,” I added for my own benefit. Somehow I suspected that was around the corner. It was why I made certain my own files were so detailed. I suspected at some point there would be an official inquiry when one of them finally stepped over that last line and committed murder. Truth was, I wasn’t exactly certain who would cross that line first, just that someone would.
I was certain of it.
