Posted in Challenges, Flash Fiction

Too Close to Home – #unicornchallenge May 31, 2024

Photo Prompt Ayr/Gray

“Captain,” the detective said, “we know that women are not often grab and go thieves.”

“In the past, that was true, but in the present time, I’d believe anything. How do you explain what Mrs. Johnson saw? What about the shoe in the gutter?”

Across town, Gracie was making her way home on the side streets and alleyways. She had taken off the hat and wig she had worn and ditched them. It had been slow going. She was walking with just one shoe.

“There is another mystery,” the Captain commented. “I find it really coincidental that the thief grabbed Mrs. Johnson’s purse. No one could have believed she would have $10,000 U.S. dollars in cash in that handbag.”

“Hmm…why didn’t the thief pick a rich-looking woman?” asked the detective.

Gracie was finally home. There it was, all $10,000 of it. She thought back at the conversation she had overheard between her boss and a friend. The friend had a debt to pay, and she was musing on when and where she had to go to get the money.

Little Eddie ran into the room and Gracie bent to hug him.

“Mommy,” he said, “where’s your other shoe?”

“Don’t worry, Eddie. We can afford to buy shoes now.”

The Captain started looking at the pictures a bystander had taken of the robbery. The face of the thief was clear and familiar to him. Even though the hair was different, that was Gracie’s face. Gracie, his housekeeper.

Thank you to Ayr/Gray for hosting the #unicornchallenge!