Hide nor Hair (A Jersey Girl Cozy Mystery Book 2)
Page 19
Ken reached down and lifted my arm. “Your watch says eight-twenty.” He checked his Rolex. “You’re ten minutes fast!”
Thanks, Mom! I thought. Thanks so much for almost getting me killed. An expensive watch for Christmas—at the time, I had hoped my mother hadn’t taken out a second mortgage to purchase it. I should have known it was one of those really great deals that fell off a truck.
“I guess we should have synchronized our watches,” I said. “I’ll need a new one, not that it matters. What I really need now is a pen and some paper.”
“You can write up the story when we get to the office,” Ken told me.
“The office is closed.”
“I can open it up. I can do anything I want. I’m the executive editor, remember?”
I gave him my most enticing smile. I remembered.
23
I sat at Meredith’s desk inside her small cubicle, my fingers frantically dancing across the keyboard. I couldn’t type as fast as the thoughts were coming. Every now and then, I paused to make a note on a writing pad to remind me of a point that would come later in the story.
Meredith Mancini rushed in, all flustered and breathless. Her face looked haggard, like she hadn’t slept in a week.
“Are you okay?” she asked. She took Mark Doran’s chair from the next cubicle and rolled it into her own cubicle to join me. “Do you need help? Want me to take notes?”
I held up my hand to stop her. I was in the middle of a thought and needed to get it onto the screen before it flew out of my head.
“Are you done yet?” Ken called out from his office.
“Ten more minutes,” I shot back. I pulled the confiscated towels from Trina’s Tresses tighter around my shoulders to fight off the chill.
“Good. I’m starving. How does that Food For Thought place sound?”
I shook my head. “Not there,” I told him. “It’s too close to Trina’s.”
I had just finished the story and started to run the spell check when Meredith leaned in close. “There’s something I need to show you before we leave for the night.”
I glanced at her face. She looked even more weary than I had originally thought. “Are you sick, Meredith? You look worse than I feel.”
“I told you I was up half the night doing research on the internet.”
“You’re a doll for doing it,” I said. “I even mentioned your remarkable web prowess in the story.”
“Yeah, well, there’s something I didn’t get the chance to tell you. Here.” She pulled some folded papers from her pocket and slipped them onto my lap. “Don’t let the big guy see them.”
I rolled back my chair and unfolded the papers.
“Oh, dear God,” I whispered.
One was a clipping from the Trenton Times. The story was an account of the murder of publishing heiress Nadine Rhodes.
The main focus of the police investigation was Kenneth Rhodes.
The other clip was from the Philadelphia Inquirer with the banner: GRAND JURY FAILS TO INDICT.
Ken stuck his head out of his office. “For Christ’s sake, Colleen! Is that story done yet or what?”
I quickly folded the papers and shoved them inside Meredith’s top desk drawer. “Yes, it’s done. Give me a second, and I’ll send it to you.”
“Better let Meredith do that for you,” he said. “I know how you send files. I’d rather get it before my clothes go out of style!”
I got up and went into his office. “She’s sending it over right now. Read it fast, and let’s get out of here. I really could use a drink. Do you think The Press Box is still open?”
“Yeah, it’s still open,” Ken told me from behind his desk. “Ask Meredith if she wants to come along.”
“Will do. And by the way, I think I deserve a full-time position and a hefty raise after this. Not only did I work relentlessly on this story, I was the only one in town who knew Dizzie’s bracelet would figure prominently in her murder.”
“Ron Haver was curious about the bracelet too,” Ken told me. “That’s why he kept threatening to arrest you if you mentioned it in your column.”
“If I hadn’t told him about it in the first place, he wouldn’t have known that bracelet even existed.”
“You’re right,” he agreed. “He didn’t know. Nobody knew. Except for you, of course.”
I thought about a discussion I’d had with Bevin Thompson a few short weeks ago. “So, do I get the job, or do I have to switch sides and go over to the competition?”
“After I saved your life, you’re giving me an ultimatum?”
“Consider it both a threat and a promise,” I told him confidently. “Thanks for saving my life—but I’ll walk. I’m not kidding.”
Ken got up and came to me. He held my face in his hands, and our lips came together for a long, luxurious kiss. When we broke contact, I raised an eyebrow. “Well?” I asked.
“You’ve got the job.”
I grinned.
“You’d better get ready for some big changes in your life,” he said.
“How so?” I asked.
“Well, your kids are growing up. You’re going to be working full-time. And the new man in your life will be demanding a fair amount of your time and attention.”
“Is that so?”
“It is,” he told me firmly. “Are you up for the challenge?”
My new life sounded fantastic. Trade in gathering loose change in the bottom my purse for a steady paycheck and lonely nights for a hot guy who challenged me on every level? I didn’t have to think too hard about that. “I am,” I said.
I left Ken’s office and returned to the cubicle and Meredith Mancini. She had heard Ken issue the invitation to join us. “I’m heading straight home and going to bed,” she told me, “unless you think you’ll need a bodyguard.”
“What I really need is a headshrinker,” I said. “And so will you, pretty soon. And so will Ken Rhodes and maybe Ron Haver, too. I’m full-time now, and I’m giving myself my next assignment. It isn’t local, but it needs to be done.”
“Oh, really. And what assignment is that?”
“Nadine Rhodes. I’m going to find out who killed her.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa lives in Old Bridge, New Jersey and uses her experience as a freelance correspondent as the basis of her protagonist’s career. Several of the incidents within these pages are inspired by actual occurrences. They have been shamelessly embellished and are not a blow-by-blow account of a few really bad days on the job. Hide Nor Hair is Jo-Ann’s second novel.
You can connect with Jo-Ann through her website at
www.joannlamonreccoppa.com.
The first book of the Jersey Girl Cozy Mystery series!
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Unfortunately, 1 dead algebra teacher + 2 secret affairs + 4 suspicious suspects quickly adds up to 3 perilous "accidents" for Colleen.
Which means Colleen needs to come up with the solution to the murder … before the killer removes her from the equation.
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