title: Investigation of the Inner Self
author: Duncan, Eliza
description: Download for FREE with Kindle Unlimited This is a 20,000 words EROTIC stand-alone story with an HEA, so no cliff-hangers!
   When Julia is woken up in the middle of the night, she knows that there is a dead body. As a state CID officer, it’s in the job description. What she does not expect, is that the dead body will belong to a former lover of hers, from three years before. The dead woman is Anna Quinn Davis, a gay woman in rural West Virginia, who lived a difficult life from beginning to end. With her partner, Marcia, Julia feels a personal obligation to find the killer, and along the way, find out some unsettling truths about the world, but more importantly...about herself. ----------------------------------------------------------
  EXCERPT FROM BOOK
   Once they were in the police cruiser, factory buildings zipping by in the rearview, Officer Jones peaked back at her passenger. “You know, you ought to be more discreet. You got a home you can read magazines in don’t ya?” “I told you. She was lying. There was no magazine. He’s just a drunk asshole.” “Didn’t look too drunk to me,” Julia commented. “Greasy maybe, but not drunk.” “Fine then, just an asshole. Fact remains.” “Whatever you say Mrs. Anna Quinn Davis, but if you’re looking for advice: move. People like Georgette Irving ain’t never gonna change, not in our life times at least.” Officer Jones looked at her passenger in the rearview as she spoke, making eye contact. There was something in the way that the officer said our life times at least that stuck with Anna. Had that been a shout to her, a nod to say that it was okay to be honest? Still, Anna was hesitant, as she had heard of cops playing the fairy in order to lure people like her from the shadows, only to book them on some trumped-up charge. Anna Quinn Davis did not know Julia Jones. Julia was not trying to out Anna. Julia knew Anna's struggle. She was from Otun, Pennsylvania originally, a town not so different from Barrett, West Virginia in its cultural makeup. She had been forced to make a decision, just as Anna had, but Julia came up with a different solution. She became an authority figure. Julia did not use her position as any kind of bully pulpit to set right people like Georgette Irving, but rather wore the badge on her chest as a sort of protective armor, keeping the world’s snarky comments at bay, because she was an important woman. She was an officer of the law, and if they wanted to try and mess with her, they could go right ahead and try. This is not to say that Officer Jones was flamboyant or even open in her sexuality, far from it at this time, but she allowed herself to be protected by the career path she had chosen. But Anna Quinn Davis did not know any of tisr. She was scared and tired and on edge in the back seat of that cop car. “There’s no need for you to feel bad for me,” Anna said. “Because like I said. I ain’t done nothing wrong.”
  AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a 8,000 words stand-alone story with an HEA, so no cliff-hangers! Story contains mature themes and language, and is intended for 18+ readers only.