To Stop A Killing Bird

Chapter 1

"M'lady," The woman cried, "What's wrong?"

Missy looked at the woman, fear running through her. "My father is dead."

++++

TS: Mentions of Blood and Gore

++++

Jay Young, one of the most well-known murder mystery authors for a while, very casually strolled into a book store. She had no goal in particular, just looking for a book mark and a bit of inspiration.

It was one of her favorite bookstores, because there was only one person there most of the time and that person knew how to keep quiet, especially when there were cops around. It served Jay well, especially on days like this when she needed ideas.

Whenever there was one person, Jay would tell that one person about her lack of inspiration and that one person would put up a 'free sale' sign and almost as soon as the first person was there, they'd take it down.

Over the years, the bookstore had gotten the reputation of being 'haunted' and several police investigators had come to try and solve the mystery, but so far nobody knew why so many people mysteriously disappeared, never to come out.

Of course, this was because Jay was a master of disguise. It was a win-win for...almost everyone. The bookstore lady got some extra income, Jay got her inspiration and weekly dose of adrenaline, and the victim got a clean, fast death.

Over the years, Jay had learned to be careful. After some time of close calls and moving cities after being good-as discovered, and a few times changing her identities, Jay had relaxed in the city she was in. Relaxed enough to reveal her real name, pretending to change it.

Jay Young was an author, and Jay Young was a murderer.

++++

"Missy, calm down."  The kind lady said, "We'll find out who it is, I promise."

"Who was nearby?" The local law enforcer, Tom, asked. He'd only come a few minutes prior after the kind lady told him about what Missy had said. "At the time of his death?"

"I'm not quite sure." Missy shuffled her feet. "We were talking and then one of the windows shattered and he dropped dead."

"Can you show me the body?" Tom asked and Missy nodded shakily.

++++

Jay stood in the darkest corner of the library while her librarian friend, who was suspicious enough not to give her a name but generous enough to give her a code name, phoned a friend. Jay wasn't exactly sure what she'd do yet but she debated dropping a ceiling tile on them.

Jay slipped a knife out of her pocket and studied the glittering silver edge, biting her bottom lip. Then she heard the door open and slipped into the gap between one of the shelves and the wall, and listened to the conversation in the main area.

"Hey, you called?"  The woman walking in asked.

"Oh, yeah." Hunni nodded and pointed to the rack in the corner that Jay was standing in, "A new book in the series you like got sent. I put it on hold just for you."

"Aww, thanks." The woman smiled and walked over to the shelf. Jay tightened her grip on her knife; forget dropping a ceiling tile, stabbing would work. The woman walked over to the shelf and Jay quietly crept out behind her, then pressed her knife to the woman's throat. Her eyes widened but Jay pressed the knife in deeper, her words quiet. "Don't scream, it'll only make things more difficult for the both of us."

++++

The body laid across the floor, a dark bloody hole in Missy's father's chest. His eyes were glued shut and he was pale, paler than any living being should be. Tom bent down to press his fingers to feel the man's pulse, but Missy's father was dead. He looked over at the window, which seeme untouched, other than a small hole with tiny cracks spiraling through it. There was no glass anywhere.

"Looks like he' been shot." Tom said in his heavy accent, "You said it was from the window? What time?"

"Four-Forty." Missy said under her breath, "What do you want me to do?"

"Stand here, for now." Tom said.

It was almost ten minutes later when the police came, but Missy was gone.

++++

The woman put up a fun struggle but Jay won out in the end, slitting her throat and throwing her into a ditch before making sure that all evidence was destroyed.

Jay had a few friends, friends who would help her cover up the phone call, friends who could hack into even the safest of security systems. If she paid them enough.

Luckily, Jay could afford paying both of her accomplices thanks to her brilliant idea; after all, there weren't enough ways to make income from killing anybody unless you were killing for someone else. So instead, Jay wrote books.

Jay wrote books about murder. Jay wrote books about mysteries and quite little escapes and thrills that kept you on the edge of the seat, stories that seemed strangely real.

She was surprised that nobody had questioned her yet.

++++

It took almost a year for them to catch Missy.

She traveled from town to town working with people to cover up her tracks and then killing them when it was time for her to move on, time for her to pay up. But eventually, she fell for a trick with an undercover cop. The officer had been killed but not before Missy was caught and reprimanded.

Tom had known that she was the one to do the murder, because the glass was outside. That only meant that she must've killed her father and shot the window herself from the inside.

Disappointingly, he didn't live long enough to find out why.