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A mystery novel

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Emma Downs

Emma Downs began work as a journalist in 1998 and has been a features writer at The Journal Gazette since 2005. She was born in Fort Wayne, and graduated from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne with a degree in English literature. "Death in the Fort" is her first published work of fiction.

Working with her brother, Gabe Downs, Emma has recorded each chapter of the series, which is available as a downloadable MP3 file with each chapter or you can subscribe to the podcast with an RSS reader by clicking on the RSS link below.

Jan Hoffman

After a lifetime of drawing, reading, drawing some more, graphic design, and teaching all ages, it's no mystery: Jan Hoffman loves to be at the drawing board or easel as much as she loves being in the classroom teaching elementary art in Southwest Allen County Schools. She lives in Fort Wayne with her artist and photographer husband and her artistic, dancing daughter.

Notice the 4T at the bottom of the first illustration? What does it mean? Says Hoffman: Each Sunday in the New York Times, we looked for the next illustration by Al Hirschfeld. In each pen drawing, Hirschfeld would include the name of his daughter, Nina, disguised in the hair, background and other parts of his art. The number by his signature gave a clue of how many Ninas to find. And in his memory, I have placed the name of my daughter Tori in each illustration.

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Martha and Jessica are roommates, best friends and life-long residents of Fort Wayne's Lakeside neighborhood. Their neighbor is Darleen Fitz. Only no one seems to know much about her.

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Roommates Martha and Jessica are concerned when their neighbor, Darleen, moves out of her apartment with no notice and no forwarding address. She does leave behind a mysterious box.

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After returning home from The Shady Nook, Martha and Jessica find their garage ransacked. Was "the garage vandal" looking for Darleen's box?

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In the hopes of catching the mysterious "garage vandal," Jessica and Martha decide to spy on Darleen's apartment, bugging the place with an old baby monitor.

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From the alley next to their house, Martha and Jessica watch a man stalk through the empty rooms of Darleen's apartment, brandishing a gun and hollering for an unknown person named "Nikki."

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Neighbor Jamie Navarro suggests Martha and Jessica open Darleen's box and find out what's inside. Shortly afterward, the two women discover a puddle of blood outside of their house.

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Martha and Jessica open Darleen's box and are disappointed by its contents, seemingly a collection of random junk. They decide to return the box, only they don't know where to begin looking for Darleen.

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Shay Johnson, a reference librarian at the Allen County Public Library, agrees to help Martha and Jessica track down information about their missing neighbor, Darleen Fitz. As a starting point, Shay finds old newspaper articles that mention Darleen.

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Martha and Jessica discover Darleen is from Auburn, not Fort Wayne. Also, that she had a cousin, Nikki Statler, who committed suicide. A road trip is planned.

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Outside The Auburn House Restaurant in downtown Auburn, Martha and Jessica meet Cyrus Withers, Darleen's former landlord. He offers to tell the two women more about Darleen.

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Darleen's former landlord, Cyrus Withers, tells Martha and Jessica that the real Darleen Fitz, the one from Auburn, was hit by a moving truck and left for Cleveland - with thousands of dollars in settlement money - to live with her cousin, Nikki.

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Martha and Jessica return from Auburn to find the woman they know as "Darleen" and her boyfriend Travis rifling through their home, looking for the box.

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Martha, Jessica and neighbor Jamie examine the contents of Darleen's box and realize some of the things they previously considered "junk" might just be valuable.

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Librarian Shay Johnson identifies some treasure inside Darleens' box. Martha, Jessica and Jamie return home from the library to discover a cryptic note from Travis.

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Martha and Jessica are tricked by Nikki and Travis into meeting the pair at Freimann Square and handing over the box (and its valuable items). But Nikki isn't willing to share and turns the gun on our roommates.

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Jessica's party is so much better than anyone but Jessica expected – undoubtedly helped by our roommates desire to celebrate the resolution of the mystery next door. What does the future hold and what does the purple rabbit's foot have to do with it?

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