It's Complicated, by Nick Guthrie

 "It's Complicated," by Nick Guthrie, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2026.

"There's a million and one ways to lose a body out here, if that's what you want to do," Reuben called after me, before laughing again. He spoke like a man who knew all the best places to hide a body on this fifteen hundred-acre  estate and hadn't quite used them all up yet.

 Reuben, gamekeeper on said estate is one of several people who might be a help our narrator, Suzie Lee. Or might be her worst enemy.  Because she can't trust anyone.

Suzie is a cop and she has been hiding in this rural area of England for four months with Kurt, her ex-lover.  He is another cop and  has been investigating corruption in the highest levels of the police, for which he was rewarded with a bullet.  

Now, after four months of seeming safety they have found a dead body in front of their cabin.  Is it possibly a coincidence?  Sure, but we all know it ain't.  Somebody has found them and somebody wants them dead.  

What does Suzie want, exactly? Well, read the title. 

 

Cahoots, by C.C. Guthrie

"Cahoots," by C.C. Guthrie, in Cozy Villages of Death, edited by Lyn Worthen, Camden Park Press, 2020.

Alan Peterson is a banker, and son of the wealthiest man in a small East Texas town.  The story opens with him running into Beulah's diner in a panic because his beautiful wife TeriLyn has disappeared.  

Scary stuff but things don't seem to add up.  She's only been gone a few hours.  And isn't Alan supposed to be out of town?  And why is he claiming she has been having mental problems?

Very suspicious.  Beulah tells us the details of the search that goes on for weeks, and the reaction of the town's residents.  My favorite are the two gossips known  as the mover and the shaker.

A well-structured story with a very satisfactory climax.