Murder
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Have you heard it said that a friend is somebody who will help you move house, but a best friend is somebody who will help you move a body? That is the kind of friend my brother Dan was to Byron Marker. And I was as close to Dan as a sister could be, which was how I got to be included in their plan.

Not that Byron asked Dan to move the body – he just asked Dan to find him a place to hide because of the body, and Dan called me. Byron said that he had nothing to do with the death of the prostitute, as she turned out to be. He didn’t even know what she was doing in his place. He said that he came home and went straight to the kitchen to make some grilled cheese and he had the knife in his hand before he saw the blood. Then he followed a trail of blood spots to his bedroom and found her body. She had been stabbed multiple times.

“I didn’t do it, but who will believe me,” is what he told Dan. “She was killed in my apartment and my fingerprints are on the weapon. I can’t go into custody. I won’t make it in there.”

Dan believed him. He told me that they were close enough that if Byron had done it, he would have admitted it to him. Besides, it was not in Byron’s nature. Even I knew that – the guy was meek and mild.

And he looked quite girlish, I suppose. I had once mentioned to Dan something about Byron’s cheekbones being more suited to a runway model than a guy. Dan told me that after I had said that he could never look at his best friend without noticing that feature. Anyway, it put a thought in his head and that made him call me.

“We need to hide Byron for a bit, and you know what they say – the best hiding place is in plain sight but just not looking like him,” he said. “Here is a chance for you to confirm your line about the cheekbones and to prove your chops as a beautician.”

You might suggest that I was a fool to get involved, but blood can be tighter even than the kind of friendship they had, and Dan relied on that. To be honest, the challenge intrigued me also.

Dan smuggled him into the back of my salon before Byron called the police from a nearby payphone. He told them that they should go his apartment to find the victim but that he was not involved. He told them the time he came home to find the body already dead for some time in his opinion, and then he hung up. Dan suggested that he do this – declare his innocence, reveal the crime and then hide while things played out. It seemed like the best idea was to hope that time of death (when that became known) might clear him. Until then he was not going to risk any kind of incarceration.

They both heard the sirens as they made off, but they knew that once the police discovered the body, the second place they would be likely to search would be Byron’s best Pal, my brother Dan. That was why my salon was the best place to move him so that Dan could get home. They might get to me eventually, but not my workplace. In any event, what I had planned could be done quite quickly.

My salon and health spa was a converted house, so Byron could be accommodated upstairs, but he would not be able to hide forever. That was why Dan saw my professional skills as being important.

“Just do what you do on him Sis,” Dan said. “Make it so nobody would guess it is him. Make it so nobody would guess he even is a him!”

The truth is that I would do anything for my brother, so I agreed, despite a few misgivings.

If it was not him, then who killed the prostitute? I mean, he was nothing to look at, and seemed too scrawny to be a killer, but who knows what any guy is capable of. I just needed to make sure that he was not be a risk to anyone, including me. I decided that I could do that with just the right cocktail of drugs, and at the same time improve his disguise. Something to block his male hormones which can cause aggression, and something to promote his feminine side, with some sedative added.

I was dating a pharmacist at the time, and I started talking about the effect of hormone treatment on sex criminals. I was not suggesting that Byron was a crazed prostitute killer, but he was a man, and he was to be in the upstairs apartment, and I had an obligation to keep my staff safe.

“There are drugs tailored to do the job,” my then squeeze said. “I am not asking why you want them but sure, I can get some, and some super strong female hormones as well.”

It was nothing that could not be undone if my concerns about Byron were proved wrong. It was nothing that my brother as his friend could seriously criticize me for. It was a good idea to use a bit of chemistry to make him appear more feminine. I didn’t have to tell Dan about my fears for myself and for my all-female team at the salon. I just told Byron to take the drugs.

As for the external transformation, that turned out to be easy. He had enough hair to anchor good extensions, and he had a face with big eyes and a nothing chin and those wonderful cheekbones. A good waxing, some electrolysis where it counted, and the right hair and makeup allowed for him to come up beautifully – even beautiful. I was very pleased with my work.

He just needed some coaching in how to walk in heels and how to carry his jacket and his handbag in the crook of his arm, and how to check for the need and apply lipstick and mascara. He needed to develop the right voice and call people “Honey” rather than “Dude” in a properly modulated tone. All of this needed to be done before “Bella” was allowed to step outside.

I needed to make sure that Bella drank my “special smoothie” daily which meant giving her a job at the salon as a trainee nail technician. It would not be taxing but it would require concentration on a very limited task. Any residual confusion from the drugs would not be a problem. She was a nail girl. She was living upstairs and working days in the salon, and building up the ability to present outside as a female.

After a while of this situation Bella was keen to get out. She was keen to get out and see Dan, if only to thank him for getting him (the best friend that he was) out of a bind. The problem was that it seemed that the police might have Dan under surveillance with the likelihood that he might make contact with his friend. It probably meant that there was no accounting for Byron’s whereabouts at the time of the murder. The disguise would have to be maintained until there was something to hope for.

“Maybe I could arrange a date between my brother and my new nail girl?” I suggested. “You just need to make sure that your femininity will not slip, and your voice will not drop back into the sound of a man. When we are sure, I will have him pick you up and take you out somewhere public. He wouldn’t take a new woman to his place on a first date.”

“You can count on me,” said Bella. “I am sure I am ready.” She certainly seemed to be trying. Not only could she do a great job with her nails, but she had become very adept with makeup and had learned all sorts of skills in styling her hair. The fact is that when she wasn’t working and with no TV to watch she was stuck in the salon and spa with nothing but hair and beauty magazines and mirrors everywhere to practice being female.

When she stepped out to go on that date with my brother she was positively beaming with excitement, and when she came home that night she was gushing like a schoolgirl.

“Your brother Dan is a prince,” she fizzed. “I mean, I have known him for years, but I never really appreciated how good looking he was. And he is attentive too. He treated me like a lady all night, and I have discovered that I quite like being treated like a lady.”

Dan seemed very pleased with that date too, and another that followed it. It had me wondering about the fact that it was his idea that Byron be disguised as a woman and stay in town “in plain sight” instead of just running away somewhere. Had he seen something in his friend that he felt needed to be drawn out for his (or her) own good? Or was he the one with the perverted fantasy?

Whatever had brought it about it became something else entirely on the third date when Bella did not come home to her room at the salon but came in the front door just as the working day started.

“I’m sorry I am late, but I have just had the most wonderful experience of my life!” Bella was still swooning. “Dan made love to me last night. We are officially boyfriend and girlfriend!”

Dan confirmed it later in the day. He said – “It’s true Sis, she is the girl for me. We just have to fix things so that she can have sex as a woman. She knows that will take time, but she is committed … for me.”

It was not quite the future I had hoped for my brother, but so long as he is happy, I am happy too.

But there are still questions. We still don’t know who killed that prostitute. There seem to be no clues, other than those pointing to the man Byron, who no longer exists. If it was him, then I no longer have any concerns as Bella is the total opposite of a murderer. As for other suspects, if the police spent any time at all looking for the stranger who is supposed to have killed her, then he has never been found.

The only remaining suspect who had access to Byron’s place would be my brother, but surely there is no motive there?

The whole thing is a mystery, but one with a happy ending, I suppose.

The End
1820

© Maryanne Peters 2025