Conventional Murders

By D. T. Majors

The annual convention of a public speaking club is thrown into turmoil when the winner of the speech contest is found murdered. Attending her first convention, Laura finds herself drawn into the mystery and is determined to find the murderer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D. T. Majors
• Release date: Apr 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310453557

D. T. Majors

D. T. Majors is a public-speaking enthusiast who currently lives in Melbourne, Australia.

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Conventional Murders

D. T. Majors

Copyright 2016 D. T. Majors

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All was still. The villa park was a peaceful place in the hour before dawn, as all the revellers from the night before had finally made it back home, either theirs or someone else’s. All except Peter, whose dead body lay face down in the parking lot. A blood-soaked trophy that he had won the previous day rested serenely beside him, and its profile neatly matched the indentation in his skull. Eventually, a young woman dressed in her pyjamas emerged from one of the villas, looking to experience the serenity of an autumn Tasmanian morning before everyone else began to stir. She looked around, inhaled the cool, clean air, and heard a chorus of birds chirping merrily among themselves. Then she turned and saw the body, screamed, and within seconds hastily-dressed people came running from the other villas. They all stopped short, reluctant to approach too closely, and formed a circle around the body. None of them would have imagined a scene like this only a few days earlier...

* * * * *

Good god… who are these heathens? And what are they all blathering about? And why can’t they just sit down and shut up like normal people?

Laura couldn’t believe her bad luck. It was as if she walked into a parallel dimension when she stepped onto the plane. Everyone around her was carrying on… loudly. Very loudly. And they all seemed to know each other. One word kept coming up in their chatter: Talkies.

What the hell is that, anyway? Some kind of support group for compulsive talkers?

She did her best to maintain an even composure, despite the escalating din going on around her.

Thank god I remembered my noise-reducing headphones.

With the headphones in her ears and favourite Death Metal cranked up to maximum, she started to be able to hear herself think again. Laura was on her way to Tasmania for a weekend of camping and hiking with some of her old friends from her university days. Why she agreed to this trip she didn’t know, because she liked neither camping nor hiking, and these people had never been close friends anyway. Three days together spent climbing up hills just for the privilege of climbing back down again and sleeping on the cold, hard ground in tents wasn’t her idea of a good time. But she had become bored with life these days, so she said yes. And here she was.

Looks like this trip is starting off badly…. let’s hope it doesn’t go downhill too quickly from here.

Someone a few rows ahead of her stood up and started proclaiming something, in what looked like a bad impression of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. And she could hear it over her music. Deciding enough was enough, she took her headphones out and listened for a while.

After what seemed like many more minutes than it actually was, everyone started clapping and cheering like lunatics.

Oh for heaven’s sake!

She couldn’t stop herself any longer. When the person sitting beside her stopped applauding and sat back down, she turned to him and asked, What’s ‘Talkies?’

There are blank stares, and there are incredulous blank stares. And then are mouth-gaping I can’t believe you just said that-type incredulous blank stares. That’s the kind of stare the man gave Laura.

Recollecting himself, he said, I’m so sorry… hi, my name’s Dave. Pleased to meet you…? He put out his hand, and Laura shook it.

Nice firm handshake! Hmm...

Laura.

Pleased to meet you, Laura. I’ll try to answer that as briefly as I can, and I’ll try not to convert you, promise. ‘Talkies’ is a public speaking club. We’re all going to the annual convention in Tasmania this weekend.

And with that, he stopped talking and sat back.

Convert me? What did he mean by that?

Laura took the bait.Public speaking?

Yes, we’re all members of clubs where we practice our public speaking skills.

Laura didn’t know what to say in