THE PLACHETTE

   A few years back I had detailed out a story that was my attempt at a Thriller.  I love stories that have a twist and several turns you never see coming. THE PLANCHETTE was designed from the outset to be such a tale.  From the sole viewpoint of a woman who discovers that her husband had been a serial killer, before taking his own life.  But the story is more layered than that as she also sees the "ghost" of his victims.  One was such victim is a little boy.   who he killed backing up his car while still in his apartment's parking lot, and then hurriedly buries in a nearby wooded area; where all the other bodies are concealed as well.  The boy's family discovers a missing game piece, (the planchette from an Ouija board), which they use, only to learn the horrid truth of his and the location of the other murder victims.  But, alas there is yet a final plot twist that unravels everything!

UPDATE: I found the story hiding under another title.

   

   A week had gone by before the Coroner finally released her husband’s body to the local Funeral Home; a single gunshot to the head confirmed what she had seen for herself -- a suicide.  Jillian would never forget how she found George slumped over on the blood soaked couch with brain matter splattered against the wall.  Nor would she be able to erase having to clean it up by herself.

   Jillian gave a long audible sigh as she sat there across from the couch.  Those images were forever etched into her mind.  She was looking forward to her sister’s visit.  How she desperately needed Olivia’s comfort.  Jillian was barely holding on and each day that ticked by seemed like a struggle for things to come together.  In front of her, on the coffee table lay the evidence of her complicated life.   There, next to a pile of bills and collection notices still lay George’s final note in the ashtray; which simply read: “I’m sorry it all got out of hand, I can’t stop. I didn’t mean for the last one to happen.”

   George’s gambling debts had drained their joint bank accounts, and now Jillian was left holding several unpaid Payday loans.  She lost her land line, cable, and now her utilities were being threatened with getting shut off as well.  She was beyond stressed as she had to wait for his Insurance policy to arrive just to pay for his cremation.  He was still in the funeral home, lying beneath bags of ice until a check hit her bank.  Their eight months of marriage had not seen them do anything more than verbally plan for their future old-aged deaths.  Hence, the wait for her dead husband’s agent to return from his vacation continued.

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