The King of Hearts

By Gwen Beaudean Thoma EdD

In 1963, Angelina Harper was fifteen and a half years old. She was just entering her sophomore year of high school and was looking forward to driving and beginning to date. Her high school years take a dramatic turn when the king of hearts playing card begin to appear wherever Angelina goes. She slowly begins to realize she is being stalked. Horror fills her life as she discovers that each boy that she goes out with is savagely murdered, and king of hearts playing cards are left at each murder scene. The day after each murder, she receives a sympathy card with a king of hearts playing card in the mail. The police are baffled by these crimes. Clues are few and nonyielding as police try to catch this criminal.

The saga of the king of hearts continues throughout Angelina’s high school days. She lives in fear and realizes that whoever she goes out with will be murdered. Finally, this saga takes a dramatic turn as the killer finally makes a mistake that helps police solve the case and frees Angelina from this serial killer in 1966. I hope that each reader of this exciting thriller enjoys the mystery as it unfolds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669837640

Gwen Beaudean Thoma EdD

Gwen Beaudean Thoma, EdD was born and raised in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, a small college town along the Mississippi River. She attended the local college and graduated in 1969 with her basic nursing degree. Gwen was a registered professional nurse for 42 years at Southeast Missouri Hospital. During that time she continued her education receiving her bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in administration at Southeast Missouri State University. In 1999 Gwen graduated from the University of Memphis with her Doctorate in Education. Dr. Thoma loves to write and published her first book in 2016 entitled “No More Biting”. It is a children’s book written for parents, grandparents and teachers who have children who bite. It was written originally for her grandson in 2001. He had trouble with biting his friends at school. After retiring in 2011, Dr. Thoma decided to have it published. Events in Dr. Thoma’s life entangled her in 5 murders in Cape Girardeau. These murders changed her life forever and followed her for 30 years. Thus in 2015, Gwen wrote this book entitled “Living with Murder for Thirty Years”. Her love for writing is like a second career and even though the differences between children’s books and murder mysteries is huge, Dr. Thoma believes one should never limit possibilities in writing and authorship. Dr. Thoma’s third book entitled “The Cat Named Bud” is another children’s book meant for lower elementary age children who are beginning readers. Children love their pets and can relate to the story of this pet. Dr. Thoma’s forth book, “Whatever Happened to Sara” is a work of fiction about a 23 year old elementary teacher who is murdered on a deserted road in 1953. Writing fiction is particularly challenging because it requires more creativity to come up with a plot and the characters. The only thing real in this book is the location of the crime in Farrar, Missouri. Dr. Thoma believes this story is intriguing and suspenseful from the very first chapter until the very end. This book, “The King of Hearts” is a fictional murder mystery about a teenage girl in high school who has her world turned upside down by a serial killer who stalks her over a three and a half year period. Each boyfriend that Angelina Harper goes out with is murdered. The King of Hearts leaves king of hearts playing cards where ever Angelina goes and sends her sympathy cards after each murder. It appears he knows her every move and wants her for his very own. This thrilling murder mystery will catch hold of the reader and draw them in to the story from beginning to the dramatic end.

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 by Gwen Beaudean Thoma, EdD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/12/2022

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The Appearance

Chapter 2 Angelina’s Summer

Chapter 3 All about Angelina

Chapter 4 The King of Hearts Appears Again

Chapter 5 School Starts

Chapter 6 Angelina’s First Date

Chapter 7 What Happened to Steve?

Chapter 8 Tragedy

Chapter 9 The Holidays Are Coming

Chapter 10 Christmas

Chapter 11 1964

Chapter 12 Normal vs. Abnormal

Chapter 13 Angelina’s Junior Year

Chapter 14 The Summer of 1965

Chapter 15 Angelina’s Senior Year

Chapter 16 The End of 1965

Chapter 17 The Last Semester

Chapter 18 Graduation

Chapter 19 Angelina’s Last Free Summer

Chapter 20 The Unveiling

Chapter 21 The Coming of Age

Chapter 22 College Starts

Chapter 23 The Clues

Chapter 24 Moving toward Resolution

Other Books by This Same Authors

About the Author

To the Central High School class of 1966.

CHAPTER 1

The Appearance

Angelina Harper was sitting on her front-porch steps as she often did in the evening after having supper with her parents. A cool evening breeze was blowing through the trees. It was the early fall of 1963. Angelina was fifteen and a half years old and about to enter her sophomore year of high school. She was thinking back over her freshman year and was curious about what this new school year might bring her way. Her freshman year was traumatizing because she was new to the class, having come from a parochial school with only thirty-five other students. She entered the freshman class of 350-plus students, which was the largest class ever at Central High School. Needless to say, Angelina was lost in the crowd. It took her the entire year to get to know a few people. It didn’t help that she was an only child and was shy. Angelina said to herself, This year is going to be better.

As she watched the cars traveling up and down her street, she noticed a playing card dangling by a red string on the wrought-iron railing on her porch. The red string was woven through a hole punched at the top of the card. The card gently twisted and turned whenever the breeze picked up. Angelina was puzzled and called for her mom.

Mom, look at this. Why do you think this is here? Who could have put it here?

Angelina’s mom went down the porch steps, untied the bow, and brought the card up to Angelina so they could look at it together. It was a king of hearts.

How strange, said Angelina’s mom.

What do you think it means? asked Angelina.

Oh, I just think it’s a prank.

Angelina’s mom handed her the card and the red string as Angelina as she went back into the house. Angelina looked at it and thought about the possibilities. Was it just a prank? Who could have put it there and why? Why was her house chosen? Angelina was intrigued. She always did like a good mystery. Would more king-of-heart cards appear in the future? Or was this just a onetime event? Could it be a secret admirer? That would be a thrill because Angelina was hoping for a boyfriend this year.

Angelina’s imagination sent her thoughts in many directions. Whoever placed this card on her porch had to know where she lived and that she would discover it because she always sat on the porch steps in the evenings. Was this person watching her? As dusk neared, Angelina went into her house, taking the card and red string with her. She brought it to her room and placed it on her mirror so that she could gaze at it from time to time. Angelina needed a little excitement and intrigue in her life.

As Angelina lay in her bed that night, she tried to figure out who this stranger might be. She had lived in this neighborhood all her life. She knew everyone within a two-block radius. There were two boys who lived next door, but they were just friends. There was a boy one block down who was in her high school class. He was a little weird, and he never even spoke to her. There was another boy in her class at high school who lived the next block over. He was strange also. Angelina started to become a little frightened thinking about these guys. The person who put the king of hearts on her porch could be a weirdo stalking her. She didn’t like the idea of someone always watching her, especially a weirdo. Angelina finally relaxed enough to put all these thoughts out of her mind, and she drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER 2

Angelina’s Summer

The next morning, Angelina was awakened by her mom, who said it was time to get ready for her driver’s-education class at the high school. Angelina always looked forward to this class because it was preparing her to get her driver’s permit. She could get her driver’s permit by the end of August. That would allow her to continue to practice her driving skills with her mom and dad over the next six months. She would be eligible to take her driving test by the end of February at the age of sixteen. She was looking forward to being able to drive as most teenagers did.

As Angelina arose, she noticed the king-of-hearts playing card on her mirror. She didn’t have a lot of time to consider it though since she had to dress and eat some breakfast before going to the high school. She did decide not to tell any of her friends about the card because she was certain they would think it was strange and might make fun of her. However, she did decide to become more observant of her surroundings and of who might be watching her. Surely, the prankster would give himself away eventually. Then again, this could have been a onetime event, and she might not hear another word from this person.

Angelina’s mom dropped her off at the high school at 8:00 a.m. and, as usual, told her to have