I apologize for the shorter chapter, I've been wrapped up in other projects including a actual book I'm writing myself!

The next chapter is about 12 pages long. So bare with me!

Thank You to VMishapR, cureheart1023, Mysticchowz, Archangel610

GothBanshee : I've see you have followed me on quite a few stories, the email notifications that you favorited me melted my heart thank you! Thank you for the wonderful review! I love murder mysteries, I usually lurk in the YA section in a book store but I've been blazing through murder mystery series here lately called Maisie Dobbs and a couple of others.

Guest: Thank you!

Action!

"Listen!" she said.

We heard the sound of rain and the crackling of wood in the fireplace and foghorns on the river.

"We're in the midst of Magnolia and this is our private world," she said.

I liked it. I didn't want the rain to stop or the sun to rise. For once in my life I had quit being restless. And it was during a thunderstorm when I usually felt the most alive. It had to be the most eye opening and shocking thing I've ever gone through, other than Lucy turning out to be alive.

She said, "I wonder what people are going to say when they hear I'm not dead."

I thought of the people whose names were in her address book and the stuffed shirts of her old life. I thought of Vincent, but what I said was, "One thing I don't want to miss is Magnus when he finds out." I laughed.

She winced, I desperately wanted to know what she thought of then and there.

She said: "Poor darling Magnus! Did he take it hard?"

"What do you think?"

"He loves me," she said. "He always has."

I put another log on the fire.

"There's a stanza from a song, it's called Everything You Want."

I tensed.

"It goes, I am everything you want, I am everything you need...but I mean nothing to you and I don't know why, and I don't know why. Why. I don't know."

There was silence before she got the courage to speak.

"He doesn't mean to me the same way I mean to him. And I've never had answer to explain why."

I relaxed hearing her answer. My back was turned so that I could not see her face when she asked about Vincent. This was Thursday, the twenty-eighth of August; it was to have been their wedding day.

I answered without turning around. "Vincent has been okay. He's been frank and cooperative, and kind to your aunt."

"Vincent has great self-control. You liked him, didn't you?"

I kept poking at the fire until I almost succeeded in smothering it. There had been the phoney alibi and the bottle of Three Horses Bourbon, and the collection of unused shotguns. But now I had run into a new set of contradictions. Two and two no longer added up to four. The possibility of him using her keys to give him spare funds were out too.

It was hard for me to start asking her questions. She seemed tired. And Vincent was to have been today's bridegroom. I asked only one question:

"Did Vincent know this girl?"

She answered instantly. "Why, yes, of course. She modeled for several of the accounts in his office. All of us knew Diane." She yawned.

"You're tired, aren't you?"

"Would you mind very much if I tried to get some sleep? In the morning—later, I mean—I'll answer all the questions you want to ask."

I contacted my grandfather and explained to him everything and told them to send a man to watch her front door. For once in a long time we agreed on something. If it weren't for the fact he was sleeping naked I'm sure he would have come on over. He was sometimes lazy in putting on clothes.

"Is that necessary?" She said when I got back.

"Someone tried to murder you before. I'm not going to take any chances."

"How thoughtful of you! Detectives are all right, I suppose, when they're on your side."

"What about a S-Class wizard tasked to solve a murder? Not a true detective."

Lucy looked me dead in the eyes. "As long as it's you I don't mind."

For a moment my heart stopped. My brain ceased to function. "Look here, Miss Heartfilia, will you promise me something? Promises mean everything to you right?"

"You know me much too well to call me Miss Heartfilia, Laxus. We're guildmates, and you've read my diaries and letters. I think you can call me Lucy."

My heart beat like a drum in a Harlem dance band.

"Lucy," I said; she smiled at me. "You'll promise, Lucy, not to leave this house until I give you permission. Or answer the phone."

"Who'd ring if everybody thinks I'm dead?" She laughed.

"Promise me, just in case."

She sighed. "I can't promise you something I know I won't keep. If Natsu or my team came here. I couldn't-"

My heart sunk. "I'll try though. But Laxus people would be glad to know I'm alive. There are people I ought to tell right away. If you said my father is really torn up as you said he is-"

"Look here, you're the one living person who can help solve this crime. Lucy Heartfilia must find the person who tried to murder Lucy Heartfilia. Are you game?"

"Laxus like I said I'll try."

She offered her hand.

I the sucker took it and believed that she would try.