"A Murder In Milburn", Book 1: Death At A Diner by Nancy McGovern Page A

bell next to the gates and waited. A speaker crackled to life next to her.
    “Who enters here, best do so with clean heart,” a nervous young voice said.
    “My name is Nora Newberry, I’m just here to speak to Raquel’s father… um… Davis Madden.”  
    There was static on the speaker, but she heard a buzz, and the large gates slowly rolled to the side.  
    The ranch was a slightly dilapidated place, the white fence patchy with pieces of damp, rotten wood, and the roof itself looking shaggy and unkempt as unbrushed hair. Still, it had been a grand ranch in its time, and looked it, spread out in a straight wooden line with windows at regular intervals.
    Nora had left her car parked outside, and walked to the main door, taking her time to observe the grounds. Broken marble statues lay littered all around, looking eerily beautiful with flowery vines creeping on and around them.
    A giant statue of an outstretched hand stood outside the main door, with bits of marble broken off from it. Nora paused to read the inscription at its bottom:
    Life is a question. The Supreme Truth is the answer.
    The main door opened, and an old man and woman stepped out. The man was dressed in black pants and a yellowing white shirt while the woman wore a pastel 1960s style dress that hung loose and went down to her ankles. Nora jolted, recognizing Raquel’s father and stepmother.  
    She’d remembered them both as the people she’d left behind ten years ago, a heavy woman with permed red hair and a skinny man with bad teeth and Raquel’s bright blue eyes.
    The blue eyes were all she recognized. Raquel’s father had aged so much. His hair had been replaced with a cleanly shaven head, and wrinkles warped his once sharp features. As for Jolene, she was no longer heavy. She was as frail as a bird, with a faraway dreamy look in her eyes.
    Looking at them, Nora felt pity for them both and regretted telling Sean the things she had about Raquel disliking them.
    “How can we help you?” Jolene asked, taking Nora’s hand and leading her towards a large sofa on the porch. Davis limped behind her. Nora realized that the woman barely recognized her.
    “I’ve come to give my condolences about Raquel,” Nora said. “Aalso to let you know that I’m here if you need any help at all.” She said the last part instinctively, and meant it. If either of them needed help, Nora would do her best to give it.
    “Kindness,” Davis said, coughing a little. “You have a kind heart.”
    “Raquel’s death was a sad event.” Jolene shook her head. “But the pain of the eternal sword will fall on all of us who walk the earth. There is no mourning the inevitable.”
    Nora began to feel a strange nervousness creeping up her spine. Jolene spoke almost in a monotone, like a stereo system playing the tape inserted in it. Davis nodded along automatically.
    “I wanted to ask you if…” Nora knew they’d have no answer but asked anyway. “I wanted to ask if you knew anyone that wanted to harm Raquel.”
    “Raquel wanted to harm Raquel,” Jolene said. “We tried so to explain to her the way of supreme truth, to help her see that her ways would lead only to the eternal sword and the abyss beyond.”
    It was a bright sunny day, Nora told herself. There was no cause for her to shiver, no need for her to feel as if a grey fog were choking her. Had ten years of indoctrination driven them so insane that they could not even comprehend or regret the death of their daughter?
    “Raquel could not be saved. But you have come here,” Davis said. “You have come for help, and so we will give you help.”
    “Yes, thanks.” Nora got up. “I should get going.”
    Two men came out of the main door, dressed identically to Davis. Nora recognized one of them as Raquel’s ex-boyfriend, Jonah Ashburton. Behind him was a man in a black suit and a pastel tie.  
    Nora began to edge away slowly.  
    “You have entered our sanctuary,” the man in the suit said. “My name is