by Lisa Jackson
Cissy shuddered when she remembered the horror of meeting her half-sister. If it hadn’t been for Jack, she would have been pushed over the railing and surely dead. As it was, he’d caught her on the third step, just as the police arrived. The police had swarmed through the building, but she remembered little of it, only pieces of the ambulance ride to the hospital as she was in and out of consciousness, all the while wondering about her baby, her husband. Later, in the hospital, she’d learned that Jack would survive, no serious complications from a clean wound that had just nicked his spleen.
Anthony Paterno had found the baby locked in the basement, terrified but unharmed. Time would tell if there would be emotional scarring for Beej as well as the rest of them, but apart from a little extra neediness, he seemed pretty resilient. Cissy refused to worry about that now. What good would it do? She just wanted to hold tight to her husband and her baby boy. Nor would she allow herself to dwell on Jack’s father’s part in the horrible scheme to kill them all. Or how, when it came time to pull the plug on Diedre, the only family she had, Diedre’s adoptive, widowed aunt had agreed to take her off life support.
For now, she would push all those dark thoughts aside. It was over. She, Jack, Beej, and even Coco were happy. Gran’s miserable little dog had won them all over and burrowed into their hearts.
Cissy peeked into the master bedroom where Jack was playing peek-a-boo with Beej, much to the boy’s delight. Each time Jack ducked his head under the blankets, Beej squealed with delight and said, “No, Dad-dee! Don’t hide!”
“Good morning,” he said, smiling up at her from the rumpled bed. “Is it my imagination, or were you a wild woman last night?”
Cissy smiled. “You mean apart from the ‘Ouch, my back’ fifty times?”
“Love talk.”
She laughed. “I have a surprise for you. Happy Valentine’s Day,” she said, throwing open the blinds and letting the spring sunshine stream into the room.
“What? Am I in a time warp? Isn’t it May?”
“But we didn’t get to celebrate, so I bought you a very special and sexy gift.”
“And you’re giving it to me in front of our son.”
She walked to the closet and pulled out a paper shredder. On its top she’d pasted a red bow with a purple heart tied to it.
Jack frowned. “Okay, I give. Have you gone out of your mind? I hear it runs in the family.”
“Not funny, Jack,” she said, but smiled as she plugged in the machine, turned it on, and first shredded the heart, then the ribbon.
He looked totally confused.
Then she pulled the unsigned divorce papers from the nightstand and slowly, page by page, shredded the entire document.
“Like I said before, Happy Valentine’s Day!” Laughing, she grabbed the basket of diamond-cut paper and tossed the shreds into the air like confetti.
Jack took her hand. “How about I give you a Valentine’s present too?” One of his eyebrows arched devilishly, and she shook her head.
“I have a feeling your present might not be appropriate in front of our child.”
He grinned and glanced at his watch. “Point taken. Just when is nap time for the little guy?”
And they both laughed.
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed Almost Dead. I really had a lot of fun working with the “San Francisco” characters again after introducing the Cahills and Amhursts in If She Only Knew.
Now, I’m back in New Orleans dealing with two of my favorite detectives, Montoya and Bentz. You first met Rick Bentz and his cocky younger partner Reuben Montoya in Hot Blooded, which was followed by Cold Blooded. The characters became so popular with my fans that I brought them back in Shiver, where Reuben Montoya finally met a woman who could stand up to him in Abby Chastain. Unfortunately, Abby had a lot of emotional baggage, much of which was tied to the crumbling, abandoned mental asylum, Our Lady of Virtues. Montoya, too, though he doesn’t know it, has links to the old, decrepit hospital where unspeakable acts were once performed on the patients, one of whom was Abby’s mother, Faith Chastain. Twenty years after Faith Chastain’s tragic death, a killer is on the loose, stalking the streets of New Orleans, killing in pairs, leaving his victims in macabre death scenes and inching ever closer to Abby and Montoya. Shiver is available in paperback in your local bookstore.
My next book, Absolute Fear, the sequel to Shiver, is still available in hardcover. Absolute Fear is the story of Eve Renner, a woman whose memory has been shattered in a violent attack which left her friend Royal Kajak dead. In her mind’s eye, she saw the man who tried to kill her and it was none other than Cole Dennis, the man she was involved with. But her memory is in pieces and as she heals, she knows she has to return to New Orleans and face Cole. However, as she does, she receives nerve-wracking notes from a killer who seems intent on sending her over the edge by not only killing his victims, but marking them with strange tattoos and messages left in blood. Is Cole her lover? Or a killer, intent on taking her life? Once again Detectives Montoya and Bentz are on the case, but time is running out for Eve as she matches wits with an evil and determined killer.
I’m working on my next book in the series, Lost Souls. It’s set in Louisiana—one of my favorite locales, though this time at All Saints College, post–Hurricane Katrina. Kristi Bentz, Detective Rick Bentz’s daughter, is at a crossroads in her life. In an attempt to start over and get away from her overprotective father, she’s moved to Baton Rouge and is taking post-graduate classes at her old alma mater. Thinking she’ll become a true-crime novelist, she finds herself drawn to a weird vampire-like cult on campus and soon becomes embroiled in their strange rituals where young coeds end up dead. Kristi’s ex-boyfriend, Jay McKnight, is teaching a class in forensics at the university and he’s the last person she wants to see again. Jay feels the same, until he realizes that Kristi might be the next victim in a series of chilling murders on the campus. Lost Souls will be available in April 2008 in hardcover.
I think you’ll like all the books in the New Orleans series, so check them out. And if you’re into fun detective novels, pick up a copy of Ultraviolet by Nancy Bush. Ultraviolet will be available in October 2007 and is the next book in the popular Jane Kelly series, which started with Candy Apple Red, followed by Electric Blue. In Ultraviolet, Jane and her lovable pug dog, The Binkster, are up to their eyeballs in trouble. Just turn the page to read an excerpt from the book.
To read an excerpt from Lost Souls, or to learn more about any of my books, just log onto lisajackson.com. There’s lots to do on the site—surveys, contests, book trailers, and even a virtual tour of Our Lady of Virtues Mental Hospital. Come on in and browse.
Keep reading,
Lisa Jackson
Please turn the page for an
exciting sneak peek of
Nancy Bush’s
ULTRAVIOLET
coming in October 2007!
Chapter 1
I had mere seconds to get out of the bedroom. There was no escaping through the door, the way I’d entered. I stood frozen, my hands useless appendages in front of me, my frantic heartbeats a roaring surf in my ears.
Three strong strides and I was at the sliding glass door that led to the bedroom balcony. The door opened soundlessly to an itsy-bitsy, terra-cotta-tiled area wrapped by a wrought-iron rail. I looked down two floors. For a dizzying moment I considered jumping, but the patio below was cold, unforgiving stone.
I whirled back to stare across the room. Twelve feet of carpet led toward the bedroom door, the only other exit. My pursuer was not far behind. From my peripheral vision I caught sight of the maple tree. I glanced over. Too far from the balcony, but just outside the bathroom window.
I could hear his approaching footsteps from the exterior hall. Quickly, I scurried into the bathroom and threw open the window. One branch was close enough to reach. For an instant I considered climbing down as I was: gowned, bejeweled, wearing the most expensive sandals I ever planned to purchase.
Kicking off the shoes, I threw them out the window. I ripped the zipper of the dress downward, yanked the slinky lavender silk dress over my head, sent it flying after the sandals. As I pulled myself through the window, cursing the space that was scarcely large enough for me to wriggle my shoulders through, I heard the door open. A mewling sound entered my throat but I held it back. I reached for the branch, missed, reached again, arms shaking, fingers splayed.
I heard his breathing.
My fingers connected and I hauled myself out with adrenaline-laced strength. I swung my legs upward to catch the limb with my ankles and hung like a lemur. Then I shimmied toward the tree trunk and carefully eased myself down the bole. I lost swatches of skin. My pulse hammered in my ears. My face was wet with tears.
When my toe hit the ground I drew a breath and glanced upward. He was on the balcony looking down at me. In that strange, heightened moment between quarry and prey, I was very, very glad I stood where I was.
“Ms. Kellogg?”
The voice came from somewhere to my right, near the front of the house. I stooped to pick up the gown Violet Purcell had given me, shivering, glad Violet had talked me into the padded, lacy bra, equally glad I’d held out for bikini underwear rather than a thong.
The newcomer was my other admirer, Martin.
I smiled at him as he approached, hoping my lips didn’t quiver. I could feel the gaze from the man on the balcony boring into the back of my head. I shook out the gown. Stepping into it, I said with forced nonchalance, “Would you mind helping me zip up?”
I thanked the fates Martin liked me enough to obey without question.
Earlier
There’s a weirdo in every neighborhood.
The old lady with forty-nine cats. The man who’s formed art pieces out of painted car parts and littered them across his front yard. The couple who’ve carved mysterious symbols in the bark of a tree and hung a plaque on the limbs declaring themselves lovers of evergreens, while fir needles blanket their dilapidated roof and hang in a shroud of spiderwebs from the sagging eaves.
I fear that Dwayne Durbin is becoming the latest neighborhood weirdo.
Ever since the accident that broke his leg and temporarily incapacitated him, he’s taken to spying on the properties across Lakewood Bay, his leg wrapped in a cast from ankle to thigh, his eyes glued to a pair of binoculars. A strange chortling sound issues from his throat. He can tell you more about the Pilarmos’ dog and the Wilsons’ new alarm system than you should ever want to know.
I’ve sort of avoided him these last few weeks. He’s drawn me into watching the sexcapades of a nameless couple whose energetic and inventive forms of copulation both impress and shock me, which is saying a lot. Dwayne has named all the houses/families he spies on; these two he calls Tab A and Slot B. Their stamina and vitality, while inserting said Tab A into Slot B, makes me wonder about my own tepid sex life. Lately, a few random kisses are all I can measure in the plus column.
Which is the main reason I’ve been avoiding Dwayne: my newly refined awareness of him. Yes, he’s an attractive member of the male gender, but so what? Dwayne is still my boss/business partner and that is it. Thinking about him in any romantic context is just plain trouble.
I reminded myself of this as I parked my Volvo wagon next to his truck, which sat on the concrete pad outside his cabana. I’d told him I would bring lunch and so I had. The white bag containing a stack of plastic containers lay on the passenger seat.
Before I climbed out of the car I took a deep breath. I’d been using the excuse that, as temporary lead investigator for Dwayne Durbin Investigations (of which only Dwayne and I count as company employees), I was too busy digging into the death of one Roland Hatchmere, the third and most beloved ex-husband of our client, Violet Purcell, to hang around much. I’d gone so far as to call from my cell phone near heavy freeway interchanges and scream over the roar of the traffic that I would report in when I was closer to Lake Chinook, the town in which we both reside. It’s a testament to Dwayne’s interest in his friends across the bay that he hasn’t been calling me on my bullshit. He knows me too well to seriously believe me. Honestly, I don’t think he notices that I’m having such a hard time with the current form of our relationship, which should piss me off but worries me more than anything else.
When Dwayne asked me to bring him a burger from Standish’s I finally broke down and agreed. What can I say? I want to see him. Still, I couldn’t make myself be Little Miss Fetch-all so, in a moment of pure orneriness, I drove to a nearby deli neither of us had tried before and bought an array of items in little white boxes that looked great but might be more healthy than either of us can stand. Why did I do this? I don’t want to even speculate.
As I let myself inside his cabana I put my feelings for Dwayne aside as best I could and instead scolded myself for not being further along on the Violet Purcell matter. The problem for me is Violet herself. Before Dwayne’s accident, she’d made a strong play for him and they looked to be heading into that “you woman, me man” thing with the speed of a locomotive.
I hadn’t liked it one bit. And so I was having trouble treating Violet as a paying client who needed rescuing. To be fair, Violet is currently so distracted by her own problems that she appears to have no interest in Dwayne whatsoever. I’m not going to be fooled, however, because these things have a habit of resurfacing just when you’re sure it’s safe to go back in the water.
Not that Dwayne’s for me. I’m just saying…
I was juggling my laptop in its smart gray wool case, a cup of black coffee from the Coffee Nook, the white bag containing our lunch, and a copy of the Lake Chinook Review, and I dropped everything in a heap on Dwayne’s kitchen counter. Dwayne, as ever, was on his back dock. He heard me arrive and from where he was stretched out on his chaise longue, he half turned his head in greeting. I could see his profile in front of the green waters of Lakewood Bay. It arrested me for a moment, as the sky had darkened in that eerie way that foretells of a thunderstorm, something that rarely happens in Oregon. I looked through the window at that gray-green backdrop just as a shot of lightning sizzled across it, leaving a bright afterimage against my retina. Dwayne picked up his binoculars and scanned the heavens. It was nearly November and unseasonably warm. As I off-loaded my items, thunder rumbled and then a horrendous blast of rain poured down. Loud rain. I looked up sharply. Hail, actually.
I squeezed through the twelve-inch opening that leads to Dwayne’s dock—which is all the sliding glass door allows as Dwayne’s desk is shoved up against it—and rushed outside. Dwayne was struggling up from his chair. I grabbed his arm and together we managed to knock over his small side table as we bumbled around, then squeezed back through the door to safety. In those few seconds we both got soaked to the skin. After that we stood just inside and stared at the blackening sky and silvery, bouncing hail.
I felt the warmth of Dwayne’s skin through the damp. I could smell him. Something faintly citrusy today that spoke of last summer. I’ve never been one of those women who wants to “drink in a man” but I felt that desire now so strongly, I could scarcely think. It took serious willpower to move away from him.
Abruptly the hail stopped.
“Cool,” Dwayne said thoughtfully, brushing at his shoulders. Bright drops of water melted into the light blue denim before my eyes.
I said, “Lunch is on the counter.”
“Standish’s?”
“This is from that new gourmet catering shop on B Street.”
Hope died in his face. “Tell me there’s nothing with raisins.”
“There’s nothing with raisins.”
Beets, though. I knew better than to mention them as I opened the white bags and pulled out clear plastic containers of dishes that had made my mouth water as I stood in front of the counter. Dwayne eyed the Szechuan noodles suspiciously and actually sniffed the container of chicken, arugula, corn and rice. The purple red beets swimming in their own juice he studiously
avoided. I didn’t blame him. I’d thrown them in mainly for the shock value. I don’t mind a beet, but their tendency to dye clothing with one ill-placed drop kind of puts me off.
“I suffered a moment of worry about my health.”
Dwayne grunted as he swept some plates and silverware from his drawers. He moved with surprising grace on his crutches, dishing up heaping helpings onto two plates. He stuck a serving spoon in the beets but didn’t partake. I felt duty-bound to have some and left a spray of magenta juice in a semicircle on Dwayne’s counter. I found a paper towel and swiped it up. I didn’t tell him about the drops that landed on his dish towel. I was pretty sure no amount of washing was going to get those suckers out. He gestured at me to ask if I wanted something to drink, but I lifted my Coffee Nook cup in response.
I sank onto his couch, which doubles as my workstation, and Dwayne perched on one of his kitchen stools. He’s transformed his jeans to accommodate his cast, in effect making one pant leg only about twelve inches long. His cast takes over from there and it has various writings on it. I wondered about the sweet little red heart with initials.
“Anything new?” he asked, scooping up the Szechuan noodles and eyeing me.
“Roland Hatchmere’s family doesn’t think much of Violet. They’d like to see her go down for this.”
“She didn’t kill him.”
“So you say. And so says Violet. But somebody hit him with the tray she gave as a wedding gift.” I forked in some rice and pea mixture that had a hint of saffron.
Dwayne swept an arm toward my laptop case. “You got a report for me?”
“There’s nothing to report.”
“Give me a list of the players. Hatchmere’s family members, the wedding guests, people from work. There’s a reason somebody killed him.”
I fought back a natural obstinance, finished my salads, then switched on my laptop. Dwayne loves hard copy. He’s always yammering about how I should spend more time logging data and generating pages and pages of information to impress the client, and he likes to look at information on paper himself. It helps him think. Unfortunately I wasn’t kidding: I had nothing to report. Since Violet had announced to me and Dwayne that she was suspected in Roland Hatchmere’s death, I’d barely learned anything of note. Certainly nothing worth writing up and printing off.
