Devil at Dusk - Installment number two

Brooksie van Pelt 1950's Private Investigator
Photo by Dave Haworth: http://davesphotoexploration.wordpress.com/

Hello again everybody thank you for joining me for installment number two of:

Devil at Dusk

A film noir tale of mystery and intrigue: By Brooksie van Pelt

In case you missed the first installment follow this link: http://artdecogirls.blogspot.com/2013/05/van-pelt-1950s-private-investigator.html

Brooksie woke up at five o’ clock in the morning; she got ready for the day, after that she ate some food out of her picnic basket and had some tea.  She had another very full day ahead of her which included lots of driving. At six o’ clock sharp she hit the road; she had roughly about 10 hours of driving (this does not include pit stops or breaks) until she makes it to her final destination of Laurel Mississippi. She drove on and on, she just kept driving. About 5 hours later she finally made it to the border of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi where she took a 30 min lunch break at a small diner. She enjoyed the diner very much, the food was good and the service was great. Brooksie also enjoyed people watching (which were mostly locals from the three bordering states with their different accents, mannerisms and attitudes).

Then she got back on the road again and she was now in the state of Mississippi. She soon noticed after about an hour of driving there were dark clouds in the sky, so far her trip had been clear, brisk and cold. There was however quite a bit of wind in Chicago but it tapered off to only a little bit here and there, going through the rest of Illinois. Of course the wind had stopped while she was driving through the state of  Missouri. As she kept heading south she then noticed a light sprinkling of rain drops and some wind. She just kept driving and the closer she got to Laurel the worse the weather got. Soon it was a complete down pour with severe gusts of winds. Around 3pm she was about halfway to Laurel, the winds had slowed her down a bit. She stopped off at a gas station to get some gas, she asked the attendant about the wild weather. He told her it was a storm blowing up from the south, that it had started yesterday. Brooksie told him she was heading south, he told her you will most certainly hit the eye of the storm soon especially since you are heading south!

Brooksie pulled out of the gas station and got back on the road however she drove a couple blocks through the small town and down a side street where she parked the car to dig out her picnic basket to have a bite to eat and to sip some tea. She wanted to relax for a few moments before getting back out onto the highway again and into the much dreaded storm. She drove for about another hour when she finally made it into the eye of the storm, there were lots of big booming claps of thunder followed by tons of lightening. The entire sky was black by now even though it was only about 4:15 in the afternoon and the sun was not due to set till about 6:45 pm. The rain was coming down in buckets and the wind gusts blew her car all over the road.

Brooksie kept driving and driving. Soon the sky had become not so dark and the rain had slowed down to just a steady down pour and the wind had stopped all together. She thought about the storm she had just went through, she  then realized that the storm was the reason why the phone line went dead yesterday while she was talking to JT. Finally at a little bit after 6pm she made it to the small town of Laurel. Brooksie was no stranger to the town of Laurel, when she was growing up she spent most of her summers in Laurel. It had just been a while since she had been back, a few years at least. She noticed when she pulled into town the storm had completely stopped. She found a small motor court to stay at for the night. As soon as she was done checking in she went to the room and put her belongings down then she headed straight for the hospital to check in on JT.

Brooksie made it to the hospital she went to the desk and asked about JT. The nurse at the desk told her that JT had slipped into a coma some time after he got off the phone with her! Oh no! How horrible, Brooksie was stricken with grief, she wanted to cry but she had to pull herself together. She also knew that JT would not have wanted her to cry but to remain strong so she could catch the horrible monster that was out on the loose in this tiny town.  The nurse allowed Brooksie into JT’s room to see him. She came over to his bed and spoke to him…she said hey uncle JT (she always called him uncle JT) I finally made it and boy there was quite the ugly storm I had to ride through. She took him by the hand and said you can pull out of this uncle JT – I know you can – you need to help me find this monster!

She went to grab a chair, to pull up by his bedside.  She noticed a piece of paper folded in half with her name on it, on the nightstand. She took it and opened it; she immediately recognized JT’s hand writing. It was a letter, it said: Dear Brooksie, You have now seen me at my very worst. I need you to connect with Bet as soon as you can; she has the keys to my office so you can take over my practice. (Bet is Brooksie's dearest friend in the world; she is JT’s niece, she was always more like a daughter to him).

JT proceeds to tell Brooksie in the letter that Bet will be moving out of the cottage on the property of his estate and will be moving in to his house. He says that Brooksie is to move in to the cottage. He also says that if he passes away that he has changed the will so that Brooksie will inherit his investigation firm and the cottage. Bet will inherit the estate with the house, the 6 acres and the horse stables. The letter says that all of the files regarding the serial killer are on his desk. Please review those as soon as possible, he had been working closely with the sheriff's office on this case and to check in with them right after reviewing the files. Then the letter says that he believes he was poisoned and does not know how much longer he has to live. Also…

And that was where the letter ended with the word also…! That must have been at the exact time he went into the coma! Brooksie could not stop thinking about the letter and what else JT was going to tell her…

Well folks this concludes part two of Devil at Dusk. Stay tuned next time, for installment number three!