Ms America and the Offing on Oahu (Beauty Queen Mysteries No. 1)

by Dempsey, Diana

  Beside me Shanelle coughs. “Dang, I hope my asthma doesn’t act up.”

  “What’s going on with this smoke?” a man bellows from the east forty.

  Soon all I can see is the rear of the Rolls and Sally Anne’s hulking outline up top. I note that Shanelle is no longer the only person coughing. As we creep up the aisle, I hear hacking from every quarter. An older woman stumbles past me making for the exit, her hand over her mouth. It’s not my mom, though I can hardly imagine she’s sitting still through this. Then I hear a few popping sounds.

  “Now the damn Rolls is backfiring,” I manage to spit out. I’m close to wheezing. Poor Sally Anne. She may have a hard edge but I want her to be happy. I don’t think that’ll be the case if her wedding guests get asphyxiated. I clutch Shanelle’s arm. “Is it just me or are you feeling dizzy, too?”

  “I’m way past dizzy,” Shanelle gasps. “I can barely get air in my lungs. I can’t take much more of this.”

  “Then get out, Shanelle. If you can’t breathe, get out.”

  She needs no more encouragement to bolt. And she has lots of company. This chapel is emptying faster than a beach after a shark sighting.

  I’m trying to decide whether I, as an official personage in this event, should take action to prevent Sally Anne’s wedding guests from suffocating when the bride herself rears up from the Rolls.

  “Stop the music!” she yowls. “And stop the goddamn fog machine!”

  Good! —I think. Sally Anne’s taking charge. I’m surprised Frank isn’t.

  I toss aside my bouquet and help Sally Anne eject herself from the Rolls, no easy task given her heft, her bridal gown’s voluminous sateen, and the fact that neither one of us can see more than two inches in front of her face.

  But lack of visibility doesn’t prevent Sally Anne from stomping up the aisle once she’s cleared the vehicle. “Where the hell is my wedding consultant?” she hollers. “And what’s she using for brains? We could all choke to death in here!”

  I watch Frank emerge from the fog, waving his arms in front of him as if he’s cutting a swath through the stuff. He tries to calm Sally Anne by taking hold of her arms but she’ll have none of it.

  “I was promised perfection and this sure as shootin’ isn’t it!” Sally Anne pushes past Frank to go further up the aisle. I’m right behind her. I am her bridesmaid after all, and my duty is to serve.

  I would say that the main goal has been achieved. Someone did turn off the fog machine and the air is starting to clear. I can—sort of—see again.

  Sally Anne is about to accost the reverend when she trips over something on the carpet. I squint a few seconds and then realize that a man—in fact, the best man—is sprawled there, face down.

  “Just what I need!” Sally Anne yells down at him. “What did you do last night, Danny, go on a bender?”

  “Sally Anne!” I grab her arm to pull her back. “Maybe he fainted because he couldn’t breathe.”

  I kneel down and gently roll Danny over. It rapidly becomes clear that he may not be breathing but it’s not because he fainted. The bloodstain blooming on his chest is my first clue that it wasn’t pink smoke that did in Danny Richter.

  Want to find out what happens next? If you buy from Amazon.com:

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  Continue reading for an excerpt from Diana’s novel Chasing Venus, the story readers call “a perfect blend of romance and suspense” …

  CHASING VENUS

  Known for page-turning romantic novels that keep you reading late into the night, Diana Dempsey delivers a suspenseful tale about a man and a woman who must shed the past to embrace the future …

  Annette Rowell’s latest novel is leapfrogging up the bestseller lists, and with every surge in sales she’s becoming more of a household name. The literary success she’s struggled so hard for would be a dream come true were it not for the killer preying on bestselling authors.

  Reid Gardner hosts a syndicated crime show dedicated to capturing dangerous fugitives. The former LAPD cop knows only too well how violence can shatter lives. No victim arouses his ardor more than the pretty author who’s become the target of a psychopath. Yet falling in love with her could cost him not only the reputation he’s spent years building, but the one killer who’s eluded him for years …

  PROLOGUE

  Death was not on the guest list, but it appeared all the same.

  Maggie Boswell, reigning queen of mystery fiction, sat at the signing table as if she were royalty on a throne. Around her, in teetering piles, was her latest bestseller. Grabbing at the books were members of the literary elite—authors, editors, agents. It was a huge irony that Maggie had invited them into her home for this book party. Most of them she disliked. Now all of them she distrusted.

  For any one of them might try to kill her.

  Someone handed her a book. She scribbled the inscription, struggling to rise above her fear. In the shifting terror of her worst imaginings, even her beloved home unnerved her. Its enormity was no longer a joy, but a threat. It had too many corners, too many shadows. And outside its stucco walls the night was moonless, and the silver-gray Pacific beyond the terraced garden unnaturally still.

  A breeze from the open French doors behind her wafted over the back of her neck, chilling her skin like a spectral caress. She shivered, turned to look. Yet there was nothing there, nothing but the unrelieved blackness of her garden.

  “Ms. Boswell?”

  She spun at the woman’s voice, and pursed her lips. A pretender to her throne, in the form of a brunette wisp with—in Maggie’s opinion—dubious talent.

  The woman held a book toward her and smiled. "I’m Annette Rowell. I’m a huge admirer of your work."

  Maggie took the book but didn’t care to smile back. “Are you?”

  "I’ve really been looking forward to this one."

  Read it and weep. “Shall I sign the book to you?”

  “Please.”

  Maggie scrawled To Annette and then her signature in expansive script. She slapped the hardcover shut and held out the volume.

  "You may remember that I have a mystery series of my own," the woman said.

  Maggie was well aware of it. "Is that so?"

  Again the woman smiled. “Thank you so much for including me tonight."

  Maggie wondered how this upstart had made it onto the guest list. She averted her head in silent dismissal and the woman moved along.

  The books kept coming, endlessly. Greet, open, sign, hand back, smile, over and over again. At one point, Maggie jolted upright. She’d felt something, sudden and swift, in the nape of her neck. A piercing, like a bee sting, or a needle making an entry into flesh. Deeply and with purpose. Then, just as quickly, gone.

  She frowned, twisted to look behind her out the French doors. Again, nothing. Just the yards of flagstone terrace and the lawn sweeping to the sea. With some trepidation she touched the back of her neck, then stared aghast at the unmistakable crimson smear on her finger.

  My God. A thought came, a terrifying idea she immediately banished. It can't be.

  Someone held another book toward her. Mechanically she signed it, her mind whirling. As she returned the volume to its owner, she grimaced again.

  An unnatural tingling sensation had begun in her body. Maggie stilled, gave it her full attention. Yet the feeling didn’t disappear, but grew, strengthened.

  She shivered. Coldness writhed within her. The hideous thought returned, taunted her. Just like in my second book.

  No. She wouldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be so easy, that what she feared most would simply come to pass. Just like that. All the while the iciness intensified, knifing through her body. A harbinger of doom.

  This cannot be happening.

  Yet, she knew, it could.

  The people around her seemed to grow distant, as if a veil had drop
ped between her and the living world. She saw their faces, she heard their voices, but she was alone among them in a way she never had been before. She tried to move her mouth to speak but her lips failed to respond.

  So fast. It really is so fast.

  She was almost admiring of the poison's power. Just as she had written about it, so it was.

  "Darling?" Her husband bent over her. Voices echoed, concerned faces loomed. Someone held up something thin and shiny and silver. Maggie didn’t need to see it clearly to know what it was. A dart, tipped with poison.

  Terror gripped her then, spun in her mind like a grotesque dervish. Her imagination, always vivid, conjured an image of her last breath. Not so far off now, she knew. And, oh, how she would gasp, strain, seek air she could never more find ...

  Panic ballooned in the gorgeous living room, an acid cloud only she could see. People were jostling now, bumping into one another, seeking escape. A lone scream rent the air. She tried to turn her head to see who had made the shrill sound but wasn’t able. Already that was beyond her rapidly dwindling capabilities.

  So fast, so fast …

  Her body slumped to the table. She was powerless to keep her head from slamming onto the book she had been preparing to sign.

  My last book. It's over. I'm dead.

  Another scream, not her own, for she could no longer draw breath. She knew. She had tried. Nothing came.

  Death made its exit, leaving its grim calling card behind.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Annie Rowell snagged a deep breath of air, her heart pumping, her feet in their worn running shoes pounding the graveled shoulder of the two-lane road. It was dusk, and at this hour few cars passed through these low grassy hills outside the California coastal town of Bodega Bay. Here, a mile inland, she couldn't hear the surf, but still the chill air carried a tang of salt. Overhead a raven cawed, its shriek splitting the heavens.

  The route was her usual one and required no concentration. Her mind was free to wander, and it did, to her favorite daydream.

  New Yorkers shouldered past her as she stared into the windows of the glitzy bookstore. Snow drifted from the sky, dusting her brunette hair and melting on the long lashes rimming her green eyes, shiny with tears of joy. A businessman, walking fast, bumped into her, muttered under his breath.

  She remained motionless. Mesmerized. Nothing could tear her from this sight, one she'd dreamed of for years. Her novel—hers!—stacked in a giant pyramid in the window. In the middle where the bestsellers go.

  A shopper inside lifted a book from the pyramid and headed for the registers. More like that and Annie would rise even higher on the bestsellers list. She could just imagine Philip and that new wife of his frowning at each other over their New York Times, unable to fathom that Annette Rowell's name was printed there, and in such an illustrious position.

  Maybe I shouldn't have divorced her, Philip would think, eyeing wife number two with the disappointment he'd previously reserved for Annie. But who would have thought she'd ever amount to anything?

  The fantasy generated the usual smile but this time it didn’t last long. Annie was abruptly jarred back to reality.

  She picked up her pace—just a bit, not enough to be obvious, then raised her chin a notch and resisted the urge to glance over her shoulder.

  How long had that car been behind her?

  Why wasn’t it driving past?

  It was late April and the longer days allowed her to get sloppy about when she set off on her run. In January she had to get going by 3:30 or it’d be dark by the time the circuit led her back home. Darkness and jogging solo were a bad combo for any woman. Let alone one who might have a target on her back.

  But she’d gotten caught up revising chapter seventeen, and five o’clock slipped by, then six, six thirty … And there was no way she’d skip the run. She was all discipline these days—in her writing, her workouts, her meals, everything. But it meant that here she was, still out, with the shadows too long for comfort.

  The slow-moving car sped up. She could tell from the rev of its engine. Then it appeared alongside her and slowed again to roll at exactly her rate of speed. From inside the vehicle, through the open passenger window, she could feel the driver’s eyes on her. Just … watching.

  She kept her gaze straight ahead, her heart thumping an anxious rhythm that had little to do with exertion.

  What should she do? Be bold, she decided. Look at the driver.

  She swung her head to the left and got an eyeful of a beat-up maroon sedan. Behind the wheel … a man. Not an elderly man, either, which might have explained the molasses-in-January pace. Of indeterminate age, and dark-haired. Wearing sunglasses even though the sun had nearly set.

  But that was all she could make out, because a second later the car accelerated and shot ahead. At first Annie couldn’t understand why, until she realized that another vehicle was coming up from behind. She caught a snippet of animated conversation through open windows as an SUV sped past.

  The roar of both engines died away and silence again descended, broken only by the repetitive beat of Annie’s footfalls on the gravel.

  The SUV scared him off. That’s good, right?

  Sure, but who was he? And why did he have to get scared off in the first place?

  Don’t think. Just run. Get home.

  For several minutes she made good progress. But the peace was short-lived. Soon she heard a vehicle behind her.

  She glanced over her shoulder.

  Despite the gloaming, a car was approaching without its headlights on. Was it the maroon sedan? She couldn’t tell. Had the guy turned around and doubled back?

  Her breath caught in her throat. Should she confront him? No, that would only egg him on. Turn around? But it made no sense to close the distance between them. Speed up? At the bend just ahead she could cross the road and sprint over the smallish hill to the left. It would make for more difficult running but it would also be impossible for him to follow her.

  Unless he abandoned his vehicle.

  She didn’t care to consider that possibility. Nor did she have time to think. She was nearly at the bend now, the softly mounded hill tempting her as an escape route.

  Do it. Another few paces. Now.

  She made a sharp left turn and knifed across the road, then scrambled up the grassy incline as fast as her aching muscles and pounding heart would allow. It was no easy trick, winded as she was. Don’t let him follow me don’t let him follow me …

  Behind her she heard tires on gravel. Had he pulled off the road? She was only a little ways up the hill, which was steeper than it had appeared. Her breath was coming hard and fast into a dry open mouth that was sucking in as much oxygen as possible. Her lungs were on fire; her brain repeated the silent mantra. Don’t let him follow me …

  She wished for the fearlessness she’d enjoyed as a girl. In those days she was scared of nothing and no one. Since then, two decades of life had intervened. Philip had intervened, wreaking havoc with the confidence that used to fill her.

  Behind her a car door opened. She heard the beep-beep-beep of the ignition when the key is left in, then voices, and static, like radio on a bad frequency. A flashlight beam lit up the grass ahead of her.

  “Miss!” a man’s voice shouted. “Stop!”

  She paused—she was almost on all fours, she’d been scrambling so hard—and glanced behind her.

  It was a cop, late forties or so, with a thick build, a wide lined face, and a flashlight in his hand. He was standing in front of a black-and-white with both doors open. “Are you all right?”

  Now she understood the static sound: it was the police radio. She let herself drop onto the grassy bank, cool against her skin, and watched the cop make his laborious way up the incline. When he got closer, she could see that his badge read HELMS. “Are you all right?” he repeated.

  She nodded, for a second couldn’t find her voice. Then, “I’m fine.”

  He motioned at the hill. “Why’d y
ou come up here?”

  “I thought I was being followed.” She relayed the story. Behind Helms, down the hill, his fellow deputy exited the cruiser. He was white, too, roughly the same age, height, and build as his partner but with a gut that sagged over his belt.

  Helms offered her a hand and hoisted her to her feet. He motioned toward the road. “Let’s talk down there.”

  She followed without protest. Once at the base of the hill she could read Helms’s partner’s badge: PINCUS.

  Helms slid a notebook from his back pocket. “Did you see the license plate?”

  “No.” How embarrassing she hadn’t even thought to look. But the car had sped off so fast she might not have been able to read it even if she had.

  He eyed her. “You realize that was us behind you just now.”

  “Yes, but there was that guy alongside me. Did you see him?”

  “In a maroon sedan, you told me.”

  “Yes. At least the first guy was. I’m not sure about the second. I couldn’t see that well because it got so dark.” Helms didn’t say anything and she got the idea he didn’t believe her. “I’m not making this up,” she added.

  Helms regarded her a second longer then flipped his notebook open and jotted a few lines. Then he returned it to his pocket. “I have a piece of advice for you, Ms. Rowell.”

  “I know. I shouldn’t be out running at this … ” She paused. “You know my name?”

  “You’re that mystery writer from out of town who rents the old Marsden place.”

  Pincus spoke for the first time. “You live there alone.”

  He didn’t need to remind her. Nor did she care to remember how that came to be—how Philip left her once he finished the medical training she’d helped pay for, how he’d traded her in for a woman doctor “soul mate,” how she’d moved to this remote town to get the lower rent she could afford on her tiny advances.