by Jude Hardin
Fifteen and a half years ago, I crawled from the wreckage of a chartered jet seconds before everyone who mattered to me went up in a ball of flames. My wife Susan, our baby daughter Harmony, my band Colt .45, everyone. I was the sole survivor, and there was nothing I could do to save them.
Susan was the love of my life, my soul mate. There would never be another, I'd thought at the time. But was it possible for a guy like me to have gotten lucky twice? And did I even have what it took to fully commit to a woman again?
It's the kind of thing you think about when you wake up too early and stare at the ceiling for a couple of hours.
I reached over to the bedside table and shut my cell phone's alarm off. Edgar, my girlfriend's big furry gray cat, had been lying there on the table blinking at me lazily, nonchalantly, but the abrupt trill startled him. He jumped down and darted out the bedroom door.
"Scaredy cat," I said, talking to myself as much as to the animal.
"Five more minutes," Laurie said.
"I thought you wanted to get up at nine."
"Five more minutes."
I grabbed the phone, climbed out of bed, started toward the kitchen to make a pot of coffee and open a can of 9 Lives.
And that's when the call came.
"This is Colt," I said.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
Female. Older. Smoker. Possibly hard of hearing.
"I'm here," I said.
"Is this Nicholas Colt, the private investigator?"
"Allegedly."
She started coughing into my ear, finally got it under control and said, "My name's Doris Green. I tried the number you have listed in the phone book all day yesterday, but I kept getting an answering machine. I was just lucky to have—"
"Sorry," I said. "I've been away from the office for a few days."
The office was a 1964 Airstream Safari travel trailer parked on lot twenty-seven at Joe's Fish Camp in Hallows Cove, Florida. Laurie lived in Jacksonville, thirty miles northeast of there, and I'd been staying at her apartment more and more over the past few months. We were living together, technically, although the camper on Lake Barkley was still a nice place to have.
"I have a very serious problem," Doris Green said. "I was wondering if you might be able to help me."
"I might be able to. What's your problem?"
Emphysema? Chronic bronchitis? Lung cancer?
"I'd rather not discuss it over the phone," she said. "Would it be possible for us to meet somewhere in person?"
"Sure. But could you just give me a general idea of what you're talking about?"
"I'm talking about murder," she said.
This concludes the sample chapters. If you would like to finish the entire novel, LADY 52 is now available for purchase.
Thanks again, and happy reading!
Jude
Copyright © 2015 by Jude Hardin
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.
August 2015
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Excerpt: Lady 52
