“Not like her to oversleep,” said Sue. “Especially on a Sunday.”
“Well, I suppose we’d better go in,” said Nancy. “It looks like they all might be sleeping.”
Sue had a strange feeling as she knocked on the kitchen door. Mr. Clutter and Kenyon were always up early on a Sunday, though Mrs. Clutter usually stayed in her bedroom.
Nobody answered. She knocked again.
“Maybe Mr. Clutter and Kenyon went into town early for some reason,” said Nancy.
“His truck is in the carport. Should we go in?”
The door was unlocked. Nancy saw the telephone was torn out from the wall, its wires trailing like broken legs. The kitchen clock ticked, the only sound in the house. An opened bottle of milk stood on the counter.
“Hello?” called Sue. “Anybody home? We’re going to be late for church.”
There was no answer.
Neither girl wanted to go upstairs.
On November 15, 1959, the Clutter family—Herb and Bonnie, their daughter Nancy, and son Kenyon—were brutally murdered in their Holcomb, Kansas, home. Convicted of the crime were Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene Hickock, who were sent to the Kansas State Penitentiary. Soon after, the killers became the subjects of Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood. Capote conducted a number of interviews with the inmates before they were executed by hanging on April 14, 1965.
Marvelous writing as usual, J Hardy.
Fascinating!
I just love an open-ender and this is a cracker! Thanks also for the historical footnote.
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Great take on a well known story, and good interpretation from the prompt!
Very subtle way to use the prompt. I like how you did it. Took me a couple of reads to find it :-)
I have always wondered about the death sentence. Killing someone to show that killing is wrong. But that is my own personal opinion.
I had a look at the book and there has been a lot of groundwork by Capote, but it definitely fed the desires of the killers to be infamous.
Very, very clever! Loved your take on the prompt, and the historical reference. Chilling and well done.
Wonderfully written. Very terrifying actually, especially when I read about what you’d based this off of. Wonderful write :)
Very well written. I am a sucker for such open enders. Leaves behind a heightened sense of anticipation for what is to come. Wonderful write
Spooky and unsettling. Well done.