Mystery on Maple Hill

By Debra L Butterfield

A gruesome reality confronts seventeen-year-old Willie Saunders when he returns home to Missouri from a summer spent in Montana. His family's cabin has burned to the ground, his mother is dead amidst the ashes, and his father has been shot. Why has this happened and at whose hand?

Willie is sure of only one thing: he must find his father's killer.

Instead, he discovers a truth he never expected, and through the love of God and friends, he finds the hope to forge ahead.

Historical fiction, short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debra L Butterfield
• Release date: Dec 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310235450

Debra L Butterfield

Debra is a freelance writer, editor, and writing coach who is passionate about helping other writers in their journey to publication. She blogs writing and marketing advice at www.DebraLButterfield.com. To learn more about Debra, visit the About Me page on her blog.

Book preview

Mystery on Maple Hill

By Debra L. Butterfield

Copyright 2010, 2013 by Debra L. Butterfield

Smashwords Edition

Cover Design by Tamera Clymer

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This book is a work of historical fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally.

Mystery on Maple Hill first appeared in Currents of a River City: Fibs, Foibles and Fabrications of Old St. Joe, 2010.

For more information on Debra L. Butterfield, please visit — www.DebraLButterfield.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Ma’s Dead

The Search for Pa

Funeral on Maple Hill

The Stranger

Guilty or Not Guilty?

Discovery

About the Author

Connect with Debra

Ma’s Dead

As Willie flung the last shovelful of black earth onto his mother’s remains, puffs of dust rose from the dry soil and mingled with his salty tears and sweat. He dropped the shovel and picked up his makeshift cross and shoved it into the soil. The simple epitaph read Maddie Saunders 1867. Willie dropped to his knees beside the grave. Only the jerking of his body gave voice to his sobs.

Ma, I buried ya here in your favorite spot.

His mother dubbed the little bluff Maple Hill because of the silver maples that grew there. It’s where I go to talk with God, she always told him. Now the grove was quiet as though the birds too mourned the loss of their mistress.

He looked toward the horizon, west across the muddy Missouri river that bordered their homestead. Spread out before him the blaze of sunset began to ebb. Twenty yards behind him charcoal gray smoke drifted up from the smoldering timbers of his family’s two-room cabin.

"Little Anna is over yonder to your left. I reckon the two of ya can watch the river together now. You can rest in