COUCH MATINEES

Then about a year later we got offered a job with a huge salary... never would we have to worry about money again...$11,000.00! 

Barbara and Mary Stewart wanted for nothing growing up. Their father Gerald had followed his father’s footsteps and had a successful career in finance, eventually rising to Executive VP for Prudential Professional Money Management. His father Winston had made millions during his years at Prudential running their Strategic Partners Mutual Funds Group.


The Stewarts came to the Haverhill area of Massachusetts sometime in the late 1700’s. Alexander Stewart had been born in England and came across the Atlantic on his own as a 16 year old with one suitcase and £ 50 in his pocket. He began working at a local sawmill, saving his pay as best he could.

The DJ hit the play button and the sounds of the Kool and The Gang song “CELEBRATION” filled the banquet hall. This was timed to coincide with the end of the main course. He was practiced enough to know when the guests were done and beginning to get restless, wanting to get back out and party.


The guests at the wedding of Phil and Sally Michaels streamed to the dance floor. The DJ, Steve Dixon encouraged the guests over his wireless microphone…”It’s time to party now that dinner is over…let’s get our bride and groom onto the dance floor!”

The DJ hit the play button and the sounds of the Kool and The Gang song “CELEBRATION” filled the banquet hall. This was timed to coincide with the end of the main course. He was practiced enough to know when the guests were done and beginning to get restless, wanting to get back out and party.


The guests at the wedding of Phil and Sally Michaels streamed to the dance floor. The DJ, Steve Dixon encouraged the guests over his wireless microphone…”It’s time to party now that dinner is over…let’s get our bride and groom onto the dance floor!”

Though she had apologized, Elizabeth Stevens was feeling particularly chipper on Tuesday morning as she got ready for school. To make things better, the local station was playing her new favorite song...

Though the “Bay Babes” were seen as a tight-knit group by outsiders, and even by its own members, in truth Elizabeth Stevens had always hated Mary Alice Silber.

Elizabeth hated Mary Alice for the warm family she had had their entire friendship. She hated her because her house was one of the nicest in Rogers Bay and she especially hated her because Mary Alice always had the most fashionable clothes available in the small town.

They sat on the beach chairs they had positioned at the waters edge, watching the sun slowly rise in the east.

Side by side, his left hand holding her right across the space between the chairs. The waves gently lapped at their feet and ankles. Their toes buried in the warm wet sand.

The giant orange orb appeared slowly. The sky above changing shades from a dark black filled with millions upon millions of twinkling stars sliding to a deep blue, the light from the stars fading as the depth of color behind them lightened.

The branches of the trees swayed in the wind as Lee wondered how he had gotten himself into this situation.

He lived a quiet life. Working as a toll-taker along the interstate was a solitary life. The passing motorists hardly acknowledged his existence as he stood in his little box accepting their ticket and fare day after day.

He would smile, and occasionally one of them might utter a meaningless “Good morning”, but nothing more. Most people interact with others at their job. Lee had one of those careers (ha, a career as a toll-taker, what an oxymoron that was), that had no road to success. The best he could do was secure the coveted 8:00 am – 4:00 pm shift. It was the busiest shift of the day and on it, the time flew by and the day ended quickly.

As Lee took a step, the snap of the branch underfoot caused a covey of quail to scatter from their resting place in a nearby meadow. The sound of their taking off caused Lee to stop in his tracks.

He knew that any stray sound could be his undoing and reminded himself to watch where he stepped.

As his eyes opened, it took Lee a few second to remember where he was. Looking around the room he noticed things that had escaped him the evening before. The paintings on the wall, the figurines on the dresser. This room was bigger then his parents entire house.

Lee rode Sheik hard for about a mile but did not think he was taxing the horse, so was surprised when, all of a sudden the horse stopped and began shaking violently. Lee climbed down and almost immediately the horse collapsed. Getting down on one knee, it did not take long to tell that Sheik was dead. Foam forming at it’s mouth.

Looking at his watch, Lee was still unaware that this was more than a game of “hide and seek.” He grabbed the rope, ax and small folding shovel he found in the saddlebag and began walking further into the woods. His mind was focused on the money and car he knew he could win by just avoiding an old man and his servant.

Detective Steve Cooper thought his eyes were doing tricks on him. Sure he had seen the character Regan do it in “The Exorcist”, but to see a body live; the chest against the floor and the shoulder blades facing upward…with the head turned 180 degrees, the dead eyes staring up at him, pleading for justice, was almost too much for the 30 year veteran of the Homicide Squad to take.

He turned away from the sight to see through the window, the C.S.I. team climbing from their van. “Let them figure our how someone could snap a neck and turn it around so perfectly.”