Watch what you research!

by Mary L. Hamilton

My husband, Wayne, doesn’t quite know what to make of my turn to the dark side as I write mystery/suspense stories. But when I was trying to figure out a good place to hide a body in our area, he arranged a meeting with a man he knows who has worked as a police officer in our area off and on for thirty years. For thirty minutes, this friend and I discussed ways and locations for disposing of dead bodies, while Wayne listened and wondered what had happened to his sweet, innocent wife. Finally, after I’d learned fifteen different ways to dispose of a body, my interviewee looked at Wayne and said, “If something happens to you, we’ll know who to look for.”

Not long after that, Wayne received a text message from his friend early one morning asking him to call ASAP. Upon answering, his friend sounded relieved.

“Oh good. You’re still alive,” he said. He’d found an obituary in the newspaper for a man approximately the same age and the same name as my husband. But what made it even stranger was the deceased’s parents’ names–Wayne and Mary Hamilton!

 Watch what you research! 😉