Dear Reader,
This week’s guest author, John Keyse-Walker, has penned five novels and is a winner of the Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award. A retired attorney, John loves to write about murder and travel. He and his wife, Irene, divide their time between homes in Ohio and Florida.
John’s newest book, Bert and Mamie Take a Cruise, is a murder mystery set in 1939 on a cruise ship sailing around Africa.
Learn more about John at: johnkeyse-walker.com Authors love to hear from readers, and John is giving away five copies of Bert and Mamie Take a Cruise. To enter send an email to: [email protected] Be sure to include your preferred mailing address.
MISS OHIO'S DIAMOND
I am a writer now, but for three decades I practiced law in a small Ohio county. My cases were ordinary, without much entertainment value. Until the case of Miss Ohio's diamond.
This particular Miss Ohio, two years after her reign, was an entrepreneur. She would visit a city, tour entertainment hotspots while being filmed, and produce videos for hotels to run on their room televisions. This sounds quaint in the age of Instagram and Tik-Tok; in the '80s it was cutting edge.
Her first city was Miami. Since there were no smartphones then, she needed a videographer. Enter my client, a guy with a big box camera, who spent a week filming her visiting Miami's dance clubs and restaurants. He recommended another client of mine for the editing.
In the end, the two produced a slick professional tape which Miss Ohio sold to several major Miami hotels for a pretty penny. And she stiffed my two clients.
I sued her on behalf of the videographer and, later, the editor. I tried the videographer's case and obtained a judgment against her. During the trial, I noticed she wore a large diamond engagement ring.
Post-trial, her attorney informed me she couldn't pay the judgment. He also said she couldn't pay the editor whose case was still pending.
I couldn't shake the image of that flashy diamond. If I could get my hands on it, it was certainly worth the amount owed to my clients.
I scheduled Miss Ohio's deposition at the courthouse and arranged to seize the diamond during the deposition.
It went like clockwork. Miss Ohio appeared dressed to the nines, the stone brilliant on her finger. Minutes into the deposition, a deputy entered and said he had a writ to seize her ring. She refused to hand it over, dodged around the deputy and dashed out the door. Two female deputies pursued, caught her on the town square and brought her back inside.
Miss Ohio still refused to hand over the ring. The deputy brought her before the judge, who gave her a choice--surrender the diamond immediately, or the county jail matrons would take it when they fitted her for her orange jumpsuit. The judge also said if she paid what was owed by the next day, the ring would be returned.
Miss Ohio reluctantly pulled off the rock and gave it to the deputy. The next morning, a messenger brought payment to me, in cash, for the full amount owed to my clients. My brush with the semi-famous was over.
-- John Keyse-Walker
To enter John's drawing for one of five copies of Bert and Mamie Take a Cruise, send an email to: [email protected] Be sure to include your preferred mailing address.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
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THE SCRAMBLE (Fiction) by Kristen Proby
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