by Diane Kelly
While the group sang “For She’s a Jolly Good Agent,” Viola cut the cake and shoved a paper plate bearing a huge frosted piece into my hand.
When the celebration concluded, The Lobo waved for me to follow her. “Come see your new office.”
New office? I didn’t want a new office. I wanted my old office, the one across the hall from Nick. To my surprise, that’s exactly where she led me.
My office had a brand-new desk, new bookshelves, and a new rolling chair, the wobbly one I’d suffered with before now gone.
“What about William?” I asked.
“I never meant for him to stay in here permanently,” Lu said. “We had to get the other space painted and rewired before we could move him in. You know how long it takes to get anything like that done around here.”
“Thanks, Lu.” I grabbed her in a big hug.
When I finally released her, she said, “Enough dillydallying.” She pointed at a stack of files on my desk. “You’ve got several cases waiting. Get to work.”
When Lu left, Nick came in with the target from our time at the range last weekend. He tacked it up on my wall where the target from my special agent firearms test used to hang. The old target was now a legal exhibit, part of the official court record of my excessive force trial.
“Have you heard from the Japanese authorities?” I asked. Nick had phoned them immediately after Saturday’s bust at the truck yard, and they’d indicated they were prepared to move in on several people in Tokyo.
“They called this morning,” he said. “Eleven people were arrested. Nobody’s talking yet, but they’re pretty sure they’ve got the men who were at the top of the chain.”
“That’s good news.”
He lifted his chin to indicate my files. “Whatcha got there? Anything interesting?”
I plopped down in my new, much more comfy chair and pulled the stack toward me, eager to see what Lu had in store for me.
The first file was typical, a small, run-of-the-mill case against a dog groomer who’d not only trimmed dog’s toenails but trimmed a few thousand off her reported earnings as well.
The second file contained only a phone message slip with the name Katie, a local phone number, and a handwritten note in Viola’s handwriting. Whistle-blower. Natural gas company. Hm-m …
The name on the last file blew my mind. “Brazos Rivers?”
“The singer?” Nick stepped up beside me and looked over my shoulder as I opened the folder.
Inside were two front-row tickets for Brazos Rivers’ upcoming concert at the American Airlines Center. My first thought was that the tickets were a gift from Lu, but then I noticed the file also contained a transcript of Rivers’ earnings that had been reported to the IRS by third parties over the past few years. Royalties. Endorsements. Concert revenues. All in the millions of dollars. According to the information in the file, Brazos hadn’t ever bothered to file a tax return or ante up a single penny to Uncle Sam.
At the bottom of the file was an eight-by-ten color photograph of the man decked out in boots, shiny silver spurs, and leather chaps. His chest was bare and hairless. A tattoo of the Texas flag rippled across his toned biceps. A straw hat rested on his head, tilted at just the right angle to cast a shadow across his chiseled cheekbones.
I gulped. Brazos Rivers hadn’t been named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive for nothing.
“Give me that.” Nick snatched the photo out of my hands. “You’re drooling all over it.”
ST. MARTIN’S PAPERBACKS TITLES BY DIANE KELLY
Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure
Death, Taxes, and a Skinny No-Whip Latte
Death, Taxes, and Extra-Hold Hairspray
Death, Taxes, and a Sequined Clutch (an e-original novella)
Death, Taxes, and Peach Sangria
Death, Taxes, and Hot Pink Leg Warmers
Death, Taxes, and Green Tea Ice Cream
About the Author
DIANE KELLY is a former CPA and tax attorney, who had several brushes with white-collar criminals during her career. When she realized her experiences made excellent fodder for novels, her fingers hit the keyboard and thus began her Special Agent Tara Holloway romantic mystery series. A recipient of the 2009 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, she has received more than two dozen RWA chapter awards. Diane’s fiction, tax, and humor pieces have appeared in True Love Magazine, Writer’s Digest Yearbook, Romance Writers Report, Byline Magazine, and other publications.
For more information, visit her Web site at www.dianekelly.com. You can also find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dianekellybooks, or follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dianekellybooks.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DEATH, TAXES, AND GREEN TEA ICE CREAM
Copyright © 2013 by Diane Kelly.
All rights reserved.
For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
eISBN: 9781466814790
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / October 2013
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
