The motion-detector light on the corner of the house had activated when I pulled into the driveway. The parking pad was now brightly illuminated.
I touched the jagged safety glass of Mama’s shattered headlight cover. A suffocating sensation tightened my throat at the large indentation in her not-so-shiny bumper. The hood of her car mounded in the middle, pushed back from the leading edge. This car had hit something.
Or someone.
Dread charged through my veins, taking my breath away. Fear clawed at my heart, dragging me down to a place where I didn’t want to go. Dazed and bewildered, I staggered over to my Volvo for support. The hood warmed my cold fingers.
This was very, very bad.
Unthinkable.
The pieces of the puzzle resolved in my head. With each connected piece, the picture became clearer. Mama and Erica. Rivals and combatants. Mama alive. Erica dead. Mama’s car damaged. Erica dead.
Even to a rank amateur like me, the evidence pointed to a devastating conclusion. I shook my head in disbelief. This was Mama I was talking about. She was stubborn, opinionated, and bossy, and those were her finer qualities.
Stars twinkled in the night sky overhead. Crickets chirped in the darkness. A light went on in my next-door neighbor’s kitchen. A diesel pickup truck rumbled past on Main Street. And I stood beside my mother’s damaged car in my driveway.
Ordinary things. Trivial things
But my life wasn’t ordinary or trivial any longer.
A cold-blooded killer lived under my roof.
About the Author
Maggie Toussaint is a scientist by training, a romanticist at heart. She’s fascinated by how things work, whether it’s complex machinery, a Sudoku puzzle, or the subtext of a conversation. She’s married to a PGA Certified Golf Instructor, has two daughters, and lives in coastal Georgia. She writes features for The Darien News.
She received an MA in Environmental Science from Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and Romance Writers of America. Whether she’s writing cozy mystery or romantic suspense, you can count on a page-turner of a story and vivid characters.
Her other mysteries include On the Nickel, Death, Island Style, and Murder in the Buff. Her romantic suspense titles include House of Lies, No Second Chance, and Muddy Waters. Her next mystery, Dime If I Know is under contract for release in 2013. Her debut release, House of Lies, won the 2007 National Readers’ Choice Award for Best Romantic Suspense. For more information, visit her at www.maggietoussaint.com.
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