The Story

The sole purpose of this post is the growing short story being written through http://todaysmeet.com/murder_paradise

Find out about the project in my earlier post.

This post, The Story, will be updated as contributions are made. However this is a manual process so may take an hour or two..

The opening lines were written by Ned Kelly winner Michael Robotham.

The story so far..

You can't rush a man who's committed murder. Condemned men always shuffle. And you need to know a man's history before you storm his house.

But Victor, who was well aware of this advice, ignored it entirely, and barged up the cracked driveway, fuming. This was rich! Such a nerve!

Danny watched Victor through the window. He figured soon or later he would turn up. Danny had things in place. Victor was going to be in for a real shock in more ways than one. Danny was sick of being bullied by Victor. He just wanted to be left alone, but Victor was too full of himself to understand.

It took Victor just two kicks to find out that front door was unlocked. Danny waited until he was inside before taking off the handbrake.

Suddenly, a shot rang out. And a second, and a third. Victor and Danny both paused - neither of them had a gun.

Danny came to his senses first, hit the ground hard, dragging Victor down with him. Danny looked up at his pet turtle. Marshall Thomas Amos Bountiful Ramirez was hiding in his shell. He was safer right than Danny and Victor.

Two more shots rang out - the turtle with the embarrassingly long name retreated further into his shell. But Victor pulled himself free."We can lie here hating each other or we can do something about this." He reached out and grabbed the turtle.

Another shot grazed the wall behind them. It was clear that this could only be the work of one man. A man who was the most despised man in the county. And possibly the craziest as well.

That man was... Masked. And running full tilt away from them both guns blazing.
Danny meanwhile was trying desperately to wrench the turtle from Victor so neither was really paying any attention to the gunman. Masked gunmen generally hate being ignored, even when they are lousy shots. Also ignored since Danny had pursued Victor indoors to claim Marlowe McGuffin III was Danny's car, which started to roll down the drive just at a gentle pace at first, backwards, into the path of the No. 9 bus to Paradise. Out of the corner of his eye Danny saw it moving, but Victor suddenly let go of the turtle, completely unbalancing Danny.

The masked gunman paused at the end of drive and carefully took aim at the prostrate Danny - or was the turtle the target?

The driver of the No. 9 saw Danny's car rolling towards him on the wrong side of the road, panicked and swerved, crushing the turtle under it's wheel. This was all it took to detonate the explosive device deviously hidden under the turtle's shell. What no one knew was that this wasn't any ordinary exploding turtle: this turtle was from the Galapagos Islands. For millions of years it had endured Komodo dragons and David Attenborough film crews: it wasn't ready to turn "turtle" just yet.

Not even Danny had known about the explosive device attached by his agency to the turtle's shell. All he knew was that he had been told, "when you are in trouble, just throw Marshall Thomas Amos Bountiful Ramirez ( the turtle's ridiculously long name) at your opponents. He will do the rest."
Danny had assumed the turtle would take a bite and latch on, or something similar.

Leaving the carnage on the road for the moment Danny turned his attention back to what was going on in the house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Victor was still cowering on the lounge room floor just inside the front door and Marlowe McGuffin III was trying to get out of the back door which he had found dead latched.

The Story... Updated