Affair Gone Sour

By Joy Chen

Lynn had just returned to the United States from China after losing her husband, when Mrs. Nguyen offered the grieving widow an evening cashier's position at her grocery store. But her husband Harry had other plans with the pretty brunette. Their love affair takes place in Sugar Land, Texas in the USA with tragic consequences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joy Chen
• Release date: Aug 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465778130

Joy Chen

Joy Chen lives in the United States and has published several books including: Affair Gone Sour; All My Wives; Crazy Professor; He Luvs Them All; Jeff’s Girls; Joey's Playhouse; Lovers Perish; My Lover; and Virginator. The latest book the author is working on is tentatively titled, "Sex with My Ex!"

Book preview

Chapter One

Hello, this is nine-one-one; what’s your emergency?

There was a big explosion…, and then…, there is this big fire!

Where exactly is the fire, Madam?

I think I got the address…; yes…, it’s the 3500 block of Highway 6, in Sugar Land.

It was eight in the morning on a Saturday, and the fire was burning for a few minutes before the fire trucks arrived at the address in Sugar Land, Texas, in the United States. The roof of the strip center was almost burned out. It was too hot for the fire fighters to enter the building. Once the fire hoses cooled the structure down, the crew that first arrived on the scene entered the building. As they continued searching inside, they found two bodies, burned beyond recognition due to the explosion and the heat of the fierce fire that scorched the building.

As the investigation continued, it was clear that the gas stove in the adjoining kitchen was left turned-on, sometime early morning or late in the preceding night. The gas caught fire around 7:50 a.m., triggering the fiery explosion and the resulting fire. Since it was too early in the morning, there were no customers in any of the shops in the strip mall. Detective Tim Murphy from the Sugar Land Police Department was assigned to investigate the case. He was quick to summon his partner to his office for a quick brainstorming session.

What do you think, Sharon? Arson or homicide? Sharon was Tim’s partner in solving crime, assigned to assist with the investigation. Although she looked more like a ballerina, she was quick on her feet and was very sharp. Detective Murphy liked that about her and was looking forward to working with her.

Looks like the knobs on the gas stove were left turned on; a deliberate attempt at causing the fatal explosion. Whoever had done this, wanted this to happen!

Don’t you think that the cook might have accidentally left it on, when he left for the night?

Not, likely, Tim. The cooks always double-check, before they leave!

Indeed, it could be a premeditated attempt at either destruction of property or manslaughter; what we need is a motive. Who would benefit, if the shop goes out of business? Tim continued. That was one angle he was working on. A competitor trying to put a business out of action for monetary gains or a wife getting rid of her husband to collect the insurance money.

Tim, I have another angle. What if it was a murder-suicide?

Definitely possible, provided either they were lovers or somehow romantically involved now or in the past. You know, ‘Ex’s’ make the worst enemies. Any ID’s yet?

I think we will have to wait for the forensic department to identify the bodies. Once that is taken care of, we will start our investigation.

THE FOLLOWING DAY, both detectives were back at work, still pouring over the case. Tim, you found the autopsy report from the ‘Hwy 6’ fire?

Yes, Sharon, it’s weird. The ID’s are positive. The dead man actually owned the grocery store that operated out of the unit where the explosion took place.

What about the second body? Sharon asked.

The second body belonged to a young girl who worked as a cashier there. She covered the evening shift! There is something more.

Yes, something important?

The girl was pregnant and they are working to identify the paternity of the fetus. The baby could be sired by anyone, as she was single at the time of death. The man is married and has two kids. According to his wife, they had a good marriage and they had no fights!

I think we should go talk to the kids, maybe they will know something that their mother is not volunteering! They proceeded on Hwy 6 East, until they hit the Oilfield Road across from the Lake Olympia Parkway. The house where the late Mr. Nguyen lived was on Paradise Drive, off the oilfield Road. As the two parked their squad car a block away from the house and rang the door bell, Mrs. Nguyen opened the door for them. She recognized Tim from the previous meeting she had with him, when he had gone to inform her of the tragic death of her late husband.

How are you doing Mrs. Nguyen? She just looked at him with sad eyes and he knew that the question was out of place. He continued, I’m sorry to have bothered you again, but I wanted to ask the kids a few questions, it’s just routine departmental procedure. We are just trying to find out if your husband had any enemies, or if the kids have seen or heard anything suspicious!

No, problem, Mr. Murphy; they are playing in the backyard.

Do you mind if we go talk to them? Sharon asked Mrs. Nguyen with a smile. The detectives wanted to talk to the kids alone and the lady of the house didn’t object. She had nothing to hide and she too wanted to get to the bottom of this disaster that struck their peaceful existence.

No problem, I’ll show you the way. The two detectives went out to the back and chatted with the kids and they had nothing to report about any weird incidences or behaviors by their dad, except that they pointed out his late arrivals at home after the new girl was hired to tend the cash register in the evenings! Mr. Nguyen left the home a few minutes before closing time — around nine — to collect the cash and lockup the shop.

What do you think, Sharon? Tim asked about the time difference.

Since the shop closed at nine p.m., the drive from the 3500 block of ‘Highway 6’ shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes, at the most. But he arrived around ten p.m. His wife is from China too, so the Asian wives normally don’t ask too many questions to the man of the house.

You know, what I think, Tim? Maybe something was going on. The girl being young, maybe he was helping her out, a late night appetizer before the dinner?

Well, it probably is; how else would she get pregnant? Unless, of course, she has a jealous boyfriend; somebody we don’t know yet, who may have setup the fiery incident — just to get even! The two detectives finally concluded that either an affair was going on between the two or a boyfriend is somehow involved. The owner and the employee met from nine p.m. to ten p.m., when the store was supposedly closed! The man had practically no enemies to think of. The only other person who could be benefitted from his death is his wife.

So, it’s either greed or revenge, right?

Looks more like it. We will know for sure once we identify the baby’s father.

Since the explosion happened in the morning, and the girl happened to be there at the same time, it would mean that she came to meet him in the morning — after leaving the gas turned on following the previous night’s shift. The other possibility is that she stayed behind and spent the whole night in the store, waiting for him to open the store in the morning and cause the fire by turning on the lights.

The spark produced by the electric switch is all that is needed to ignite the gas; unless of course, the kitchen had appliances with pilot lights. In the latter case, the fire would start as soon as the gas reaches the pilot lights, so this was an unlikely scenario and there were no appliances in the unit that had a pilot light.

The question is, is it really a murder-suicide?

We need to find out if they were fighting? The best way to do that would be to talk to her friends or anyone she was acquainted with to see if she mentioned a lover, pregnancy, or wedding; anything that would help us solve this curious case of Harry and Lynn!

*****

Chapter Two

Who do you think left the gas stove turned-on? Sharon asked.

Whoever wanted them dead — the suspect number one would be his wife. If it’s not her, then it could be the boyfriend, if there is one. It must have been an inside job since no one else had access to the store. There were no signs of forced entry. It takes at least a couple of hours for the gas to reach critical mass for the explosion to take place.

Well, that rules out the husband, unless he left the gas stove on and left, when he closed down the place for the night. Sharon added.

But what if it was an accident? The cook probably left the stove on and left in a hurry? It’s a possibility.

I think we should talk to the diseased girl’s roommate. We might learn something from her. Also we need to search her bedroom for clues, photos, or letters. If there is a computer, we should search the hard-drive for e-mails, chats or anything of that nature. The detectives proceeded to search her apartment and got their best break of all — a diary.

Man, if somebody is going to die, then definitely, a diary is a must. Otherwise, we detectives would be at a complete loss!

Certainly, Tim; you are quite right, this diary is like a textbook with details; all we need to do now is read it, and complete our report. We are home scot free! The two detectives decided to go back to their departmental meeting room to sit and digest the contents of the diary, including all the juicy details. They were about to have a ball!

Tim was excited; for once he was going to have fun investigating this case. Most cases were boring and he looked forward to completing the investigation and closing the case. But this one was juicy and he looked forward to coming to work and solving the mystery surrounding the double murder or better still — murder-suicide.

SHARON, HERE, LOOK, Lynn starts talking about ‘Harry’, they had met at the Buddhist temple on Air-Port Blvd, in Stafford — about seven miles from where Mr. Nguyen lived. The family was nice to her and consoled her in her grief and Mrs. Nguyen offered her a job to help the grieving widow out.

We can go back and find the reason for her grief; here she talks about her late husband. He was in school working on his graduate degree when the two got married in mainland, China. She returned to Houston after a month, and he was going to join her in the United States, after completing his studies in the mainland.

So the husband could be the baby’s father!

Yes, of course, she stayed with him for a month, that gives him two windows at impregnating her, added Tim.

What else? Here let me see... Sharon took the dairy from Tim and continued reading.

He had a bike that he used to ride to school and back. The poor man got killed when a tractor trailer hit him from behind. She had gone for the funeral and upon her return; they had a service in the Buddhist temple in memory of her husband.

So that’s when Harry offered her the job as the evening cashier. This way, Harry could spend more time with his family and Lynn could use the extra cash to finance her education. Lynn was a pharmacy major at the University of Houston, hoping to complete her studies in another year.

She had no reason to get involved with Harry, right? Considering that she was about to finish school and start earning some big dough?

Yes, that’s correct, unless of course, she fell, head-over-heels in love with the man! continued Tim. The two engrossed themselves in learning more about Lynn in the diary.

*****

Chapter Three

The first time Harry met Lynn at the Buddhist temple; there was something about her that made him want her. He was thinking about different ways to get inside her pants when his wife suggested — out of the blue — that we help the poor woman by giving her a job in their full-service grocery store. Lynn had accepted the offer right away and Harry was thrilled beyond belief. What he wanted had fallen into his lap, just like that, without even exerting himself!

Now, why didn’t I think of that? That’s all Harry could think, when his wife offered her the coveted post — much desired by Harry for the sake of pretty Lynn. It’s always good to surround one with pretty girls, one never knows, how things might turn out!

Harry actually insisted upon his wife to personally offer the job to Lynn, when she had initially suggested it, so he would be off the hook. He knew how to manipulate her in that respect. Just say, It’s just to make you happy, and that’d be the end of it. The man was a genius, when it came to getting away with stuff men only dream of doing!