Elaine Viets & Victoria Laurie, Nancy Martin, Denise Swanson - Drop-Dead Blonde (v5.0) (pdf) by Unknown (best classic books .TXT) 📗

told her husband, my twit of a son-in-law was afraid Ruby's rather vivid past would leak out and ruin his chances to become governor of Nevada.'' Archie's blue eyes twinkled and he winked at Ruby. ``What he really should be afraid of is that my past might get out.''

Ruby swatted him playfully and giggled. ``Oh, Archie.''

Skye ignored the interruption, intent on getting this whole thing settled once and for all. ``So he hired this goon to get back the ring and the letters,'' she guessed.

``Exactly. They're the only physical evidence that we plan to marry. Once he had them, his next step was to have someone get rid of Ruby. He fooled my daughter into giv- ing him the phone number here, ferreted out Ruby's loca- tion, and sicced this cretin on her.''

Skye turned to Ruby. ``How did you get away from the factory? Didn't he have you tied up?''

``I could have gotten free from the ropes anytime--re- member I was married to both a contortionist and a magi- cian--but I had to wait until he left me alone.'' Ruby shook her head. ``Luckily, I was already free and walking down the road when the next thug showed up or I'd be dead right now. I hid behind a tree and watched. The new guy was a professional, and had his gun drawn as he went into the building. He was ready to shoot me.'' DEAD BLONDES TELL NO TALES 243

Archie hugged her as everyone else made sounds of distress.

Finally, Skye said, ``There's only one thing I still don't understand.''

``What?'' Ruby and Archie asked together.

``How Lance just happen to have all the costumes handy to disguise himself all week.''

Everyone's eyes turned to the guy tied to the chair. He shrugged. ``There part of my act. I'm not really a crook, but I owed Mr. Masterson's son-in-law a favor, and Mr. Carretti called it in. In my real life, I do a show at the Majestic Casino impersonating dead movie stars.''

Charlie grunted, unimpressed. ``What are we going to do with this guy?''

``Turn him over to Wally,'' Skye said firmly.

Lance cringed. ``Mr. Carretti's going to kill me.''

``Don't worry.'' Bunny patted his shoulder. ``Maybe Wally can put you into the witless protection program."

Skye snorted, not sure if the redhead knew what she had just said. Either way, Skye was glad that school would be starting up again on Monday and that this was her last day working at the bowling alley. Dealing with hormonal teenagers had to be easier than this past week with crazy Bunny and her even crazier friend. Read on for an excerpt from

Denise Swanson's next

Scumble River mystery

Murder of a Smart Cookie

Coming from Signet in July 2005 Chapter 1

To Tell the Truth Cookie Caldwell died the third Sunday in August, and the Scumble River First Annual Route 66 Yard Sale almost died with her. She had lived in town only a few years, and no one seemed to really know her. This isolation would suggest that no one would have a reason to murder her, but obviously that supposition would be incorrect.

Cookie's death raised a lot of question. Two of the most puzzling ones were: What had she been doing at the Deni- son/Leofanti booth in the middle of the night, and how had a piece of jewelry managed to kill her?

For the next week, until the crime was solved, these ques- tions were asked over and over again on the TV news, while a picture of Cookie stuffed into Grandma Denison's old Art Deco liquor cabinet, one hand thrust out as if she had tried to claw her way to freedom, flickered on the screen.

The Heart land TV channel had been on location taping a program about the Route 66 Yard Sale, and thus man- aged to get exclusive footage of the postdiscovery activities. While the other news stations managed to get a shot of Cookie's body, Heartland's film clip included a group of locals who were ignoring the dead woman and arguing amongst themselves. It was not an attractive depiction of the citizens of Scumble River, Illinois. It was an especially unflattering portrayal of its mayor, Dante Leofanti.

Leofanti's niece, Skye Denison, didn't look much better. Playing tug-of-war with her uncle over Cookie's purse was not the image she wanted to project as the town's school psychologist.

Even though her profession had nothing to do with her

247 248 Excerpt from Murder of a Smart Cookie involvement in the mess being broadcasted via HTV into homes across the Midwest, the reporters tended to play up her occupation in their stories. That, and the fact that she had solved several of Scumble River's previous murder cases.

If the journalists had dug a little deeper, they would have discovered that it wasn't her full-time job, but how Skye spent her summer vacation, that had gotten her into the purse-wrestling predicament. However the media tended to focus on the here and now, even though the real story started nearly eight weeks ago, after Skye had already lost two summer jobs and was forced into accepting a third.

The first loss of employment was due to geese with loose bowels and poor toilet habits, and the second was because of her inability to keep her mouth shut. It was too bad that the only job she had been able to keep came with a dead body attached to it. BLIND SIGHTED

A PSYCHIC EYE MYSTERY

VICTORIA LAURIE Chapter 1

As I joined the cattle call to baggage claim, and pushed against the throng of people trudging their way through Tampa International Airport, all I could think was, if Abel was even half the pain in the butt my sister was, he defi- nitely had it coming.

Now, that isn't to say that I don't think Cain should have at least counted to ten, like I was trying