Murder at Rendsburg Resort

By C.L. Wells

When a small band of vacationers arrives at the exclusive “unplugged and remote” mountaintop estate, no one expects what will happen next. But soon a guest is murdered, and the only means of communicating with the outside world is destroyed. Trapped in a remote resort with a killer is not what mystery writer Jill Pemberton had in mind when she booked her vacation. With the body count piling up and no one else to save them, can she help find the killer before they claim their next victim? A murder mystery that Agatha Christie fans will love, Murder at Rendsburg Resort is the first book in a new murder-mystery series by veteran author C.L. Wells.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.L. Wells
• Release date: Dec 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463376942

C.L. Wells

C.L. Wells is a multi-genre indie author who writes YA, Paranormal, Murder-Mystery, Crime, and Thriller novels. He also writes non-fiction books under the name of Christopher Wells and lives with his family in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. His hobbies include kayaking, paddle-board surfing, and bicycling.

Book preview

Murder at Rendsburg Resort

C. L. Wells

Copyright Creative Writing With a Mission, LLC. (2019) – all rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

The God Who Rescues

Sample chapter: The Testament Stone

Thank you

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Visit this link for your FREE book:

http://fictionwithamission.com/go/free-book

Copyright Christopher L. Wells (2017) - All rights reserved

This book is a work of fiction. Any reference to real persons, places, or events is made in a fictional context and should not be construed to be factually accurate.

Author’s blog: www.fictionwithamission.com

Other works by the author:

Dylan & Faedra: The Super-Not Chronicles

Domestic Bliss (A Short Story)

The Testament Stone: A Megyn Keith Paranormal Mystery

The Tucson Prophecy: Prequel to the Paranormal Gift Series

The Seer: Book #1 in the Paranormal Gift series

Utopian Day

For a current list of titles by this author, visit http://fictionwithamission.com/books-by-c-l-wells/

Author’s email address:

[e-mail]

Chapter 1

Surely there was no better solution. Every angle had been examined, and this was the most logical conclusion. It simply had to be done. Still, every precaution had to be taken to ensure success. The plan was reviewed again for the hundredth time; all of the details were accounted for. Certainly, some unforeseen circumstances would arise, but with careful planning and a willingness to act decisively, the scheme would be a success. After all, fortune favored the bold, and murder was bold, indeed.

The ride to the airport was a quiet one. It was the calm that comes with resolve. There was no turning back. It would have been more convenient if murder had not become necessary, but now that it had, there was no use shying away from the task. Problems like this had to be dealt with head-on.

As the wheels lifted off the runway and the airplane glided upwards, it was as if a huge weight was lifting. Once this was done, things would be better. The possibilities were endless…

* * * * *

Jill Pemberton stared down at the list as it lay beside her suitcase. Every item had been checked off, save one. She looked at her watch. Ten minutes until the driver would arrive to take her to the airport. Where had she put her bifocals?

At 45, she had officially crossed the threshold from needing single-vision glasses to needing bifocals. However, as a full-time author who worked most days staring at a computer screen, wearing bifocal lenses caused her to constantly need to tilt her head back to see the screen clearly. She preferred to have one pair of glasses for reading and working, and a pair of bifocals for doing everything else.

She went to the credenza by the front door and looked in the little grass basket where she often kept them, but they weren’t there. Next, it was onto the back porch where a similar basket was positioned on a small table by the screen door — still nothing.

Now, where did I go and put them this time? she asked herself as she wandered from room to room.

She had been looking forward to this trip ever since Stacey, her editor, had recommended it a few months back. After all, she hadn’t been on a real vacation since before publishing her first book four years ago. Back then, she was still working as an English teacher at the local junior college.

While her transition to full-time author had been a welcome one, it had not come without sacrifices. When her first two books had sold well, Jill’s editor had suggested that she consider working as a full-time author. She reasoned that Jill could likely develop a good living within a few years if she hit the author circuit hard while continuing to publish one book a year in the Clarie DeLuc Mystery series. After some serious soul-searching, and even more serious coin-counting, Jill had quit her job at the college to focus on her writing career full-time.

The first few years were filled with conferences, interviews, trips to trade shows, and, of course, writing novels – with very little time or extra funds for anything else. Books three and four had also sold well, and now all the hard work was beginning to pay off. Now she was finally at the place where she had both the time and the money to take a real vacation again.

Jill looked at her watch. Five minutes until her ride arrived and still no bifocals. She wondered aloud if maybe she should get that eye surgery that everyone was always raving about and be done with the glasses altogether. Pushing the thought out of her mind so she could focus on the here and now, she suddenly remembered where they were – the car. She headed straight to the garage.

After retrieving her wayward glasses from the center console of her red 2010 Mini Cooper Convertible, she checked the final box off her checklist and let out a sigh of relief. As she went to double-check that she had properly adjusted the thermostat, she came to a stop in front of the full-length mirror at the end of the hallway.

Jill had never been considered a beauty queen. Her inattention to fashion, less than flattering attire, and generally reserved nature tended to make her all but invisible to the opposite sex. This, along with conservatively cut, brown hair, her less than fashionable choice of eyewear, and the ubiquitous tote bag that she carried. As she observed herself in the mirror, she wondered if perhaps it was time for a change in her appearance. She did eventually want a relationship, after all. Just then the doorbell rang. Smiling, she carried her luggage to the waiting car, and the driver loaded her suitcase into the trunk.

* * * * *

The view looking out from Eagle’s Overlook was breathtaking. This was Sam’s favorite part of the day. Sipping his coffee as he enjoyed the view, he spotted an eagle soaring above the valley below. He smiled to himself in silent recognition of the beautiful creature for which this site had been named. Was it a Bald Eagle? It was too far off to tell without his binoculars.

After finishing his coffee, Sam Jenkins bowed his head in prayer.

As a kid, his mother had always prayed with him before he went to sleep. He continued the practice off and on when he was in high school, but had stopped for the most part when he went away to college – except for right before exams, of course. When he went to war in Iraq, he began praying again almost daily for protection, peace, and for God to bring him and his friends safely home. And the prayers seemed to work. The number of near misses and seemingly coincidental occurrences that had spared him and his team from death or serious bodily injury was hard to recall. There was the time he had just put his helmet back on when a mortar round hit, sending a rock hurtling towards him, smashing the helmet instead of his skull and saving his life. On another occasion, he had stepped on an I.E.D., and it turned out to be a dud.

But then there was Jerry… Why hadn’t God spared Jerry’s life?

Pushing the unanswered question back into the recesses of his mind, he finished his prayers and walked the short distance to the golf cart that he used to navigate around the ten-acre resort. As he drove back to the main house, he thought about the previous week’s guests, and then about the new arrivals flying in this afternoon. After catering to guests all week, he always enjoyed the change of pace required to prepare for the new arrivals, especially the chance to work without having to talk to anyone besides the three other employees of the Rendsburg Resort.

As he drove along the forest path back to the house, as was his habit, he mentally ran through the usual preparations, making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything of importance. He trusted that the rest of the staff, competent as they were, would have their assigned preparations completed