A Murder at Morlock: A St. Clair Mystery

by L.C. Warman

Synopsis

The gloomy Morlock estate is on the cusp of a sale--but the house inspection goes far from smoothly. As more and more visitors, planned and unplanned, arrive, it becomes increasingly clear: everyone is hiding something. And one of those secrets is deadly.

***

Widower Daniel Bauer has a secret--one that he won't need to keep much longer, if only he can get through the house inspection that day.

Real estate agent Suzy Chung is desperate to manage her unruly client Daniel. He refuses to leave the house for the inspection, for reasons she can't identify. Daniel is her first client--if the listing falls through, her fresh start in the well-to-do town of St. Clair will be compromised...and Suzy cannot afford to let that happen.

Antonia and George Butters are an irascible middle-aged married couple set on buying Daniel's house. But the arrival of a second family, the Haynes, claiming they set up a showing that day through Suzy, sets them on edge. It doesn't help that the Butters' real estate agent, Jack Randall, has been acting fishy ever since he arrived, or that the young house inspector named Teddy grows jumpier the more people show up. Not to mention the sudden arrival of two contractors, claiming they're supposed to give Antonia Butters a quote, even though a quote seems like the last thing on their minds.

A tornado warning sends the group fleeing to the basement. When the lights go off, tensions grow high and trees tumble down, trapping the group inside. 

And when the lights come on, someone among them has been murdered.

A MURDER AT MORLOCK is a standalone St. Clair mystery novel. Other St. Clair mysteries include: 

• A DEATH AT EASTWICK
• A SCANDAL AT EASTWICK
• A BETRAYAL AT EASTWICK
• A DISCOVERY AT VONVILLE 

Praise for A MURDER AT MORLOCK:

A Barnes & Noble Press Presents Selection
A Chirp Audiobook Selection

Praise for L.C. Warman's works:

"Captivating" -Kirkus Reviews

"An intriguing blend of realism and reflection, unsettling discoveries and natural consequences" -Foreword Reviews

About
L.C. Warman is the author of the St. Clair mystery series. She grew up in New England, in a town where real estate contracts stipulated that you couldn't back out if you discovered your new place was haunted. She currently lives in a Michigan lakeside town with her husband and two dogs.

Release date: September 15, 2020

Publisher: Greenleaf & Plympton

Print pages: 213

Sample

Daniel Bauer climbed down his house’s narrow staircase for what he supposed would be the very last time.

 

His knees creaked and his left hip ached, even though he had been careful not to overexert himself leading up to this morning. His right leg shook whenever he put weight on it. Daniel winced and shuffled down—what a pity it would be if, after all this planning, a simple tumble took him out!

 

He had packed nothing so far. He supposed if he wanted to be kind, he could start, but he didn’t feel inclined to go out of his way for a woman who had gotten fifteen thousand off the asking price and would probably try to claw another ten off after the inspection. Let her sort through the mess after signing. Daniel would be long gone by then.

 

Antonia Butters. Horrible name. He wondered if she put up a fight about it when she married her husband, or if they were old enough that it was never a question. Not like the young couples today, who kept their own last names and hyphenated their children’s and sometimes took on a new one entirely, as if thousands of years of history had gone out of fashion and they, newly enlightened, had discovered a better way.

 

Not that it had upset him, of course, when his youngest daughter had kept Bauer. 

 

But soon Antonia Butters and her equally unfortunately named husband, George Butters, would arrive for the inspection. Daniel’s real estate agent, Suzy Chung, had tried desperately to convince him not to be there.

 

“But it’s…not done!” she had said, nervously biting her bottom lip, eyes shining, as if through pure force of emotion she could make Daniel behave properly. “We don’t want to scare the buyers—”

 

“Why would I scare them? I’m an old man. It’s hard for me to get out. I’ll stay out of their way.”

 

Suzy had tugged on her sports jacket, worn over a fuchsia dress. She looked rather like a plump raspberry. “I’ll pick you up. Take you for a drive!”

 

“No, thank you.”

 

“Some family, then, who might come and get you?”

 

“They’re all out of state.”

 

Suzy’s eyes had taken on a desperate sheen. “I just,” she said. “You know…” And she had sorted through her papers, as if she would find some protocol in her briefcase (newly bought, cheaply made) on how to deal with irascible older gentlemen who WON’T FOLLOW THE RULES.

 

Poor Suzy. It was her first listing, and Daniel sometimes felt a little badly that it would all go so very wrong. She’d still get her commission, of course, but—well. Some things could not be helped. He had picked Suzy because she was young (early thirties was young in his book), new on the job, and folded easily to pressure. This time, he needed it.

 

Now Daniel reached the bottom of the staircase and let out a long breath. He surveyed his kitchen—the kitchen that the buyers’ agent had called “tired” in a phone call he had made Suzy put on speaker. It had no island, laminate countertops, and a stove with only two working burners. Well, thought Daniel, the inspector would have fun with that.

 

He made himself breakfast, toast and a hard-boiled egg, and sat down at his kitchen table, feeling suddenly sad that this was the end. Decades of history, to be neatly packed up and shipped off. The house to be scrubbed clean of dust and memories. He felt a strange sympathy and sadness for his sagging shelves, his worn rug, his scratched pots and pans, which all had as much a claim on the place as he did. 

 

Would his daughters be sad? Well, perhaps, but what could he do about that? Daniel couldn’t let his thoughts wander too far down that path. They would be fine. They were all adults now, strong girls with families of their own. He was much too old to run his plans by them, even though they often pestered him around birthdays and holidays to do just that, treating him as if he had suddenly become another one of their children.

 

He finished his toast and wiped crumbs on his thin khakis. The sun was shining, the air was crisp with thawing spring, and in less than an hour, the house inspection would begin.

 

It was as good a day as any to put his plan into place.