Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.

I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. All stories are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes.

This is Season 7, Games People Play. Games are about competition conducted according to rules with participants working toward a goal. Games are a part of every culture and are one of the oldest forms of social interaction and engagement. Games can be fun, challenging and exhilarating. They can also be intense, cutthroat, and lethal. This season, our authors have fashioned deadly games and unscrupulous villains to test your detection skills.

This is Episode 6b, checkers is the featured game. This is A Checkered Past by Frank Zafiro

We are in part two of A Checkered Past. Investigator Stef Kopriva is on a case. The guy he occasionally played checkers with in the park across from his house is dead. Retiree Mick Darabont supposedly died from injuries incurred when he fell in the bathroom and hit his head. The police say accident, the daughter, Lula Tieton, isn’t buying it. At the funeral reception, Stef interviewed Lula’s brothers, Donald and Erin, and Mick’s apprentice Mars Claver. We pick up the story as Stef returns home after the funeral.

DELIBERATION

Stef Kopriva isn’t just working a case, he’s working for truth for his checker playing friend, Mick Darabont. He needs your help to shift through the truth, lies, and distortions. Here are the people Stef’s met, in the order he met them:

• Lula Tieton, nee Darabont, the daughter who held a grudge

• Donald Darabont, the oldest who always needed daddy’s approval

• Erin Darabont, the youngest who was blamed for his mother’s death

• Mars Claver, the apprentice who was treatment more like an indentured servant

• Sally Grayson, the nice lady from next door who was Mick’s kinda girlfiend

• Heidi Skellige, the cougar from next other door who was Mick’s other kinda girlfriend

The Mick Darabont that Stef knew was different from the man he discovered. Here is what he now knows:

• Mick Darabont died in his bathroom. The official disposition is that he fell, hit his head, and died. Mick left no will.

• Mick Darabont was reputed to be a tyrant at work and at home. Though reportedly having money, he lived in a simple apartment and had the only key.

• State law will divide the estate equally among the children unless extenuating circumstances change the rules.

• Daughter Lula Tieton is raising doubts. She has no proof other than her father is dead and people hated him.

• Donald, the eldest, owns a business that Lula says is struggling. His house was on the better side of nice.

• Erin, the youngest, is the free spirit who is totally happy with his barista lifestyle.

• Lula, the middle child, is either revered or despised by others. The latter see her as conniving, sneaky.

• Mars Claver was the faithful employee who worked himself tireless for the ungrateful Mick. He had no respect for Lula.

• Sally and Mick were good friends with benefits. For years, she cooked dinner and they watched movies several times a week. She did not appreciate Heidi nosing in.

• Heidi and Mick were the real deal, according to Heidi. She saw Sally as ‘the other woman’.

• Sally shared that all three of Mick’s children were selfish and ungrateful. She didn’t think his sons would kill him and thought Lula would get someone else to do it.

• Sally shared that Mars Claver was very intimidated by Mick. She said no way he would try to kill Mick.

• Apartment...