Yellow Mama E zine

A Box of Chocolates

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by Pamela Ebel

 

        “Happy Valentine’s Day, San Francisco. We begin with breaking news. Police are investigating the death of a man identified as Carson Miller, found in a motel near the airport this morning. He had a ticket to fly to Italy this afternoon. Preliminary coroner reports indicate some form of suffocation. Stay tuned for further developments.”

        Lilly turned the radio off and drove toward the Emerald Triangle on Highway 101, remembering the email from her aunt last Valentine’s Day. After eight months of stories about the wonderful man in her life, this was filled with embarrassment and anguish. She’d given him everything, was bankrupt, and he’d disappeared.

        “Sorry Lilabet. Please forgive me. Spread my ashes in the Pacific next to your mother’s. I love you.”

        After an inquest ruling it a suicide, Lilly had driven to Shelter Cove, in the heart of the triangle, and let the ashes fly upward. Then, using the resources of her law firm, she started a search for Carson Miller, AKA ten other names. A month ago, she followed a trail of four women left penniless to Miller’s motel.

        Lilly followed him to banks and jewelers as items became liquid assets. Valentine’s Eve Miller’s victims received anonymous information on how to regain their funds. Then, wearing a delivery service uniform, she entered Miller’s room, set a heart-shaped box with a note from his new mark on his bed, slipped into the closet, and waited.

       Miller opened his door, spied the box, tore the note up, then ate three marzipan chocolates. He died in minutes.

       Now, Lilly stood again on the cliff of Shelter Cove and smiled, tossing the cyanide-laced marzipan into the ocean.

       “You were right, Aunt. You never know what’s in a box of chocolates until you eat one.”

 

      Pamela’s short stories appear in Yellow Mama, Shotgun Honey, Kings River Life Magazine, and various anthologies. Her poetry is in the Delta Poetry Review and The Five—Two Poetry Crime weekly. Her novella, Four Pieces of Evidence, is a Judges’ Top Pick in the Supernatural Category at the 2025 Killer Nashville Conference. Pam teaches courses on how to write and market short fiction. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and their two cats, Jake and Elwood, The Blues Brothers.

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Cindy Rosmus originally hails from the Ironbound section of Newark, NJ, once voted the “unfriendliest city on the planet.” She talks like Anybodys from West Side Story and everybody from Saturday Night Fever. Her noir/horror/bizarro stories have been published in the coolest places, such as Shotgun Honey; Megazine; Dark Dossier; The Rye Whiskey Review, Under the Bleachers, and Rock and a Hard Place. She is the editor/art director of Yellow Mama. She’s published seven collections of short stories. Cindy is a Gemini, a Christian, and an animal rights advocate. She has recently branched out into photo illustration.