Crime and Violins #8: Gratuitous Cliffhanger
Posted by Arachne Jericho on Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Part of Crime and Violins/The Well-Tempered Clavier
previously: Crime and Violins #7: Fiddle Me This
“I’m surprised the old man didn’t try harder to frame me for murder,” said Zene. They had managed to stop by a McDonald’s after all, and he was working his way through a quarter-pounder as the hybrid sat mired in traffic on the bridge.
“He would never do that,” said Arcady. “It’s the law of transitivity in politics; your arrest would taint my reputation at best, put me in jail at worst, and then it all ends up at Father’s door anyways. And his campaign would never survive that. Not that it’s doing well right now, what with the open murder investigation hanging all over the election like that.”
“I bet it isn’t. So instead, the brilliant son is going to dig his nose into the problem, find the guilty party, and the name of Dustin Arcady will be clear. And he’ll have his son back. Very happy families. People’ll eat it up, because it’s not like they pay attention to the platforms or anything such fucking thing.”
Arcady finished slowly munching a fry, and said, “I think I’m in the mood for a little Beethoven.”
That was worrying. Aware that his grace period with Mrs. Fisher would run out the next day, Zene said, “That is what’s going to happen.”
Arcady sighed. “No. The brilliant prodigal son is going to find the murderer, pass on the information to Detective Kincaide in some manner she can interpret without giving himself away, and not lose his monthly allowance… even get a little more besides.”
Zene contemplated this. “My check. It’s still going to clear, right?”
Arcady grimaced as though he’d played a sour note in Fritz Reiner’s orchestra pit. “My accounts are temporarily frozen. Father thinks I might be unwilling to help him for some reason.”
Zene groaned. “And I thought I went through a rough time with my dad.”
“With Father, it’s been more of a rough lifetime.”
The Arcady family estate was not in Medina, which surprised Zene. He didn’t expect the rich to settle out in the middle of Issaquah, where scenic mountains didn’t at all make up for the lack of city and waterfront.
The hybrid stopped in front of enormous old-fashioned gates, flanked by iron fencing that disappeared into the distance on either side. The gravel path continued through the locked gate, all the way up the hill on which sat the main house—something like a cross between Frank Lloyd Wright and a squat pagoda. Only green grass covered the hill, and Zene wondered how much money it had cost to clear out the trees that Issaquah was famously thick with.
The old-fashioned iron gate was locked, and Dustin Arcady was nowhere in sight, though Arcady had made sure to call ahead. No one appeared to be manning the speaker up at the house, either. They waited another hour as Arcady called his father repeatedly, only getting voice mail.
After the fifth attempt, Zene spotted someone running down the hill. And it wasn’t Dustin Arcady.
Part of Crime and Violins/The Well-Tempered Clavier previously: Crime and Violins #7: Fiddle Me This
Stormyon 22 Feb 2008 at 3:08 am 1Oooh…interesting. Consider my interest piqued. Again.
This story is good for the interest piquing.
like a cross between Frank Lloyd Wright and a squat pagoda
This is an awesome description.
Arachne Jerichoon 22 Feb 2008 at 5:39 pm 2Thanks, Stormy! I do my best with the interest piquing.
The 500-words-exactly-every-time is teaching me quite a bit about narrative technique.
Stormyon 23 Feb 2008 at 7:01 pm 3You do exactly 500 every time? Wow…I didn’t know you stuck to it so exactly. I let it fluctuate, and go where it needs to (a lot of times, my eps end up being around 550-ish), lately though, they’ve drifted longer, up to 750-850.
Arachne Jerichoon 23 Feb 2008 at 7:20 pm 4I used to go over by 5-10 words in the earlier episodes. Starting around the time of the Crown Royal whiskey discussion, it’s been 500 like clockwork.
The thing about 500 words as a hard limit is that you tend to lose excess verbiage, if you want to fit in as much punch per episode as possible. It also is a fun way to play with learning how to pace; how do you compress or stretch time within 500 words?
Dealing with scenes that don’t line up with the 500-word divisions is also interesting.
But yeah. I be crazy.
Unfocused Meon 23 Feb 2008 at 7:27 pm 5The 500-word exactly thing would make me nuts — I barely have enough patience to cut my flash down to the required word limit — doing it EVERY WEEK would make my brain explode.
Had to read it twice to understand the Lorax reference, but I just had a cupcake, so I’ve got a sugar thing going.
Keep ‘em coming, AJ. Keep ‘em coming.
Arachne Jerichoon 23 Feb 2008 at 7:35 pm 6Thanks, Unfocused!
Hmm. Now I need a cupcake.
The 500-word limit isn’t as stressful as it is on flash fiction, because none of these are complete stories in and of themselves, whereas flash fiction more or less needs to be.
These days I work alright under a word limit. 15-and-4 was exactly 750 words.
If I ever do publish a book, it will amuse me greatly if the pages ended in an absurdly round number.