All About Mary a Mick Hart Mystery

By Lawrence Christopher

For Mature Audience

 All About Mary, a Mick Hart Mystery is a Lawrence Christopher bestseller.

"Three killers! Three motives! One target! Mary Jane must die!

All About Mary a Mick Hart Mystery is Lawrence Christopher's bestseller, debut novella. A romance mystery of the misguided life of Mary Jane Jenkins, who was described as "a cheeseburger away from two hundred pounds." She was the pretty, curvy, single mother of two who was abused, misused, and much loved. Oh, for Mary, don't you weep. She's dead. Her fiancé Perry Rogers is arrested for killing her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MF Unlimited
• Release date: Feb 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224772988

Lawrence Christopher

TBD

Book preview

Acknowledgment

Jehovah Jirah

To all the teachers, I thank you with much love and appreciation.

Thank you to everyone who logged online to TimBooktu.com, followed the Kickin’ It with Mary a Mick Hart Mystery series, and wanted more. Thanks to Memphis Vaughn, Editor of TimBooktu.com, for your support by publishing me on your award-winning site and for recognizing me as a Featured Writer of the Month.

Thanks to authors Sonya Snell Wash, Pashonia S. Robinson, Thomas Green, Tony Lindsay, and William July II for your direction, encouragement, and guiding words.

Praise for Kickin’ It Mary (short story) by Lawrence Christopher

4.5 Stars on Amazon

The murder mystery is woven through alternate points of view: Perry, the accused, is rambling towards a confession that doesn't seem to make sense. Mick, the detective, is searching for the truth. Mary, the deceased, looms larger than life in the background - a woman whose reality transcends her death, and even the pages of the book. – therosen

What starts with Perry casually kickin' it with Mary, eventually grows into a loving, passionate, yet turbulent relationship. – C.A. Lindsay

This book tells a woman's story from a man's point of view. – N. Blackmon

His everyman detective, Mick Hart, doggedly pursues his case with an easy style that leaves the suspects unaware of his skillful method and uncanny eye for the simplest detail. Christopher brings his characters to life and makes you feel like they're someone you already know. A well-written and smoothly paced whodunit, it will keep you guessing right up until the end. – Blkman4U

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment

Praise for Kickin’ It Mary (short story) by Lawrence Christopher

Table of Contents

I Bloody Mary (Mick Hart)

II KICKIN’ IT WITH MARY (Perry)

III OH, MARY DON’T YOU WEEP (Mick Hart)

IV. KICKIN’ IT WITH MARY, AGAIN (Perry)

V. Oh Mary Mack (Mick Hart)

VI. Kickin’ It and Screamin’ with Mary (Perry)

VII. Mary Go Round (Mick Hart)

VIII. Kickin’ It with and Caring for Mary (Perry)

IX. Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary (Mick Hart)

X. Kickin’ It and Killin’ Mary (Perry)

XI. Mary Jane (Mick Hart)

Epilogue. Mary hand a little lamb (Mick Hart)

About the author

I Bloody Mary (Mick Hart)

It is an open -and-shut case as far as the Odelot homicide detectives are concerned. Perry Rogers, age thirty-two, was arrested and charged with the murder of Mary Jane Jenkins, a twenty-five-year-old single mother of two. The murder victim was also Perry Rogers’ live-in fiancée. It was Perry who called 911 to report the murder. When the police arrived at the house, they found Perry and Mary’s body with multiple stab wounds and the suspected murder weapon, a kitchen knife containing Perry’s prints. Mary’s two children, Sapphire and Gerald, ages seven and six, were in the house when police questioned Perry and took him into custody. The police report noted an undisclosed family member as having temporary custody of the children. That was all I could get over the phone from my long-time friend, homicide detective McIntosh.

Perry Rogers’ mother phoned the office of Mick Hart Investigations, asking me to look into the arrest of her son. I told her I didn’t see anything I could do to aid in her son’s case. The devoted mother was insistent, so I agreed to meet her for an initial consultation.

My son did not kill that girl, Mister Hart, she testified.

I’m afraid evidence would prove otherwise, Misses Rogers. The police have a pretty tight case against your son. His fingerprints are on the knife used to stab his fiancée ... Mary Jane Jenkins, I reminded the mother.

That doesn’t mean a thing. Police always have tight cases against innocent black men, till somebody proves them wrong.

Misses Rogers, your son isn’t helping himself by not talking to the police. If he didn’t do it and knows who did, then it would make sense that he would tell the police.

Sometimes it’s best if you keep quiet and let the Lord do all the talking for you.

I’m not much of a religious man, Misses Rogers. But if you believed that, you wouldn’t be talking to me right now. The truth is, God might be the only one who can save your son.

OKAY, MAYBE THIS IS one of those cases of God working in mysterious ways. How many times has a murder mystery begun with an innocent person wrongly accused of the crime? How many times has some bumbling detective or clever sleuth saved the innocent from being wrongly convicted, then caught the real murderer? The answer is way too many times. Call it God working in mysterious ways or whatever you like. It happens. I only pray that it happens in this case because I tell her I will look into it.

I promised Mrs. Rogers seventy-two hours at no charge. My usual caseload—tracking down deadbeat child supporters and missing persons—is kind of light. Face-to-face conversations with Detective McIntosh of the Odelot Police Department and Perry Rogers will probably be all that’s necessary for me to bring this case to a close.

Benjamin McIntosh and I are former high school buddies on the football team. I was the quarterback and Mac was the center. After four years of trying, we brought home the Ohio State AAA championship trophy in our senior year. Those four years of barking signal plays for the Bulldogs are a distant memory, but the camaraderie it spawned remains. Mac is more in charge now, being OPD’s lead homicide detective. He gives the orders and doesn’t like it when our cases overlap.

I’m a private investigator, not by choice but because I need the income. I was fired from my job as a debt collector when I traced down the father of the child of a teenage single mother. The mom was being sought for a delinquent gas bill and had little means of paying. When she told me her situation, I asked about who could help her, namely, the absent father of her child, but she didn’t know where he was. My job as a bill collector was to find skips. Inappropriately, mind you, I found the father who was married with a well-paying job. With a few phone calls, I got the man to make financial restitution. A few months later, I was called into a meeting because one of the collection agency’s largest clients had allegedly received complaints about our collection tactics. As lead collector at the time, I was rightly blamed. On the recommendation of a former coworker—now a partner in the Hart Investigation agency—I began working for Odelot Children’s Services, looking for deadbeat parents and missing persons. In Perry Rodgers’ case, if there is such a missing person to be found, it will be the latter. There are two kinds of missing persons; those who are lost and those who don’t want to be found. If, as his mother believes, Perry did not kill Mary Jane, then there is a killer to be found.

My investigation starts at Mac’s office. His reception of me will be determined by his caseload and by how many of his open cases are solvable. One thing on my side in this case is, as far as the OPD is concerned, this case is a slam dunk. If Mac feels that I’m going to cause trouble by meddling in a closed case, he may be unresponsive. Here goes nothing.

Big Mac, what’s shaking? I walk into his office where the big man is sitting behind a cluttered desk. Luck is on my side. He’s smiling.

Mick! Here man, read this. Someone sent this to me in an email. He hands me a sheet of paper. There was a joke about an atheist, a bear in the woods, and a conversation with God.

The funniest thing about this is that I had heard it told from the pulpit a few Sundays past by my pastor, the Reverend Doctor I. M. Lowdown. I laugh at the joke as if it is new to me. Mac’s eyes are still teary from his jovial reaction to the story. It’s a good time to hit him up for