“The Hammock”

This Take Ten to Write story was submitted by E. L. Stew. Happy reading!

She was lying face down in the hammock.

She was wearing a white tropical one-piece with a palm tree design and a large, ornate, green sun-hat was lopsided on her head. A bright yellow flip-flop was floating upside-down in the swimming-pool nearby and the other was under her right foot.

The book under her was turned to page 96 & 97. Page 97 had been dog-eared and two words had been circled in red-ink: inherited & father. The rest of the page was obscured by blood. The blood was a slow waterfall, leaking its last drops into the creek of blood that ran from the hammock to the pool… or was it the pool to the hammock?

The detective frowned. He wasn’t going to be getting off work early today, like he had hoped.