Between Moonlight and Murder
The Girl in Blind Lane
by
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Kate DeWitt watched as her husband, Patrick loaded the last of the five-gallon milk cans into the wagon. He was not a happy man. The wagon had broken a wheel spoke first thing that morning and it had taken him more than an hour to repair it. On top of it all he had struck his thumb with the mallet he was using to loosen the wheel nut and the thumb was throbbing with each beat of his heart. By the time he had milked the twelve cows and gotten the horse harnessed it was after eight and he was far behind in his morning chores. She had finished her kitchen work, had fed the chickens, and slopped the two hogs. After she helped Patrick with the harnessing she was now ready to take the milk to the Frorer dairy in
“Now you hurry along as fast as ya kin,” the man grumbled.
Without answering she climbed aboard the wagon and turned the horse toward the lane leading to town some three miles to the south. Typical of October in
When the weather’s hot and sultry,
It’s no time for adultery.
But when the frost is on the punkin
That’s the time for dicky dunkin’.
She blushed at the wickedness of her unbidden thoughts, but the tune persisted. She had driven about a hundred yards or so when she noticed a large bundle of old rags lying along the lane near the entryway to the town road. She mentally groaned at the sight. Why couldn’t those good-for-nothing town folks find some other place to dump their trash? They seemed to think it was within the order of nature for the farmer to clean up their messes. The last time they had the chore thrust upon them it was a wagonload of rotted animal offal from some butcher shop. She hoped it wasn’t some of the same smelly garbage.
The horse began to shy and snort as it approached the clump of blue cloth and the woman had some difficulty keeping the animal under control. Looking closer at the litter, her eyes widened with fright as her hands flew to her mouth. All thoughts of outrageous tunes, roguish farm boys and irresponsible townsmen disappeared from her mind. There on the ground a clenched hand smeared dark red, and two legs clad in silk hose protruded from beneath the bundle of dark blue silk.
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About the Book
Between Moonlight and Murder is a story of the violence and passions that play out in rural
The story opens with farm wife Kate Dewitt’s discovery of a body along the side of the
As the account proceeds, the focus shifts to the family of Orrin Carpenter, a married man of wealth and prestige and the father of two teenage daughters. An illicit relationship develops between Zura and Orrin while Zura is employed as a domestic servant in the Carpenter home. Zura’s subsequent pregnancy threatens Orrin’s social position and business, and soon after his failure to provide for an abortion for her, Zura is found murdered in lonely
Orrin becomes the chief suspect in Zura’s murder and is hounded by the state prosecutor in order to forward his own political career. Detectives for the state set to work to gather evidence against Orrin. These detectives include an honest, but tough ex-policeman; a confidence man from
All of this takes place in a town that is too self-righteous and judgmental to forgive and whose Victorian morality is evidenced by its treatment of Orrin Carpenter during and after his subsequent trial for the murder of Missouri Burns.
About the Author
Chief William A. Krueger served in law enforcement for 35 years. He retired from The Lincoln, Illinois Police Department in 1980. He was then appointed Chief of Police in
“Between Moonlight and Murder” is Chief Krueger’s second book. The story is about a true crime case that occurred in
Chief Krueger holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Southern Illinois University,
He presently resides in