This story was written with the following prompts: violin, criminal, and lawyer.
LINDA: Leona didn’t know why she was sitting in the interrogation room at her local police station.
RAE: Leonard burst through the door exclaiming, “I just got the call at the Public Defender’s Office and rushed right over.”
LINDA: “They said you stole a violin.”
RAE: Leona stared at the floor.
LINDA: Leonard offered Leona a chocolate sprinkled donut and asked, “Did you do it?”
RAE: “I repossessed my own property. That was my violin!” Leona exclaimed, then shoved the entire donut in her mouth.
LINDA: The violin did indeed belong to Leona, but it also belonged to her ex-husband who bought the 1565 violin from auction twenty years ago.
RAE: “Bertram doesn’t even know how to play the violin. Why should he get to keep it?”
LINDA: “You play that thing?!” Leonard said in amazement, “Aren’t you supposed to keep it under lock and key? It’s a historical artifact!”
RAE: Leona slammed her hands down on the table, “That’s what he said! He wouldn’t let me play it so I had to take it.”
LINDA: Leonard threw his hands up and said, “You just finalized your divorce. I don’t recommend you start another war over a violin. Return it to him.”
RAE: Leona screwed up her mouth and thought about how the violin was worth more than her car, her condo, the contents of the wine cellar, all of her retirement accounts, and the Faberge Egg she’d insisted she keep as part of the settlement.
LINDA: She didn’t care about Bertram anymore nor did she want revenge. She just wanted the violin.
RAE: “If I give him the condo and the wine cellar and live in a van can I keep the violin?” Leona asked.
LINDA: Her lawyer explained to her that it was too late for that. Bertram was never going to back down.
RAE: “In court you can challenge him to play the violin and then I can play the violin and then the judge and jury will see that I deserve the violin,” Leona heard the words out loud and realized her plan was unrealistic.
LINDA: Leonard gave Leona another donut, this time a maple jelly-filled one. Leona ate the donut and cried.
RAE: Leonard wondered if Bertram would drop the charges if Leona told him where she had hidden the violin.
LINDA: She admitted that it was in her trunk and gave Bertram the key to her car.
RAE: Bertram took the violin and as a condition of dropping the charges made Leona relinquish control of the wine cellar as well.
LINDA: What Bertram didn’t know was that Leona carved her name on the back of the violin.
RAE: Thus, it would never be sold at auction for twenty-two million again and he’d be lucky to pawn it for fifty bucks.
Photo Credit: Pexels, “Music Violin,” 2016