Murder Among Friends - Softcover

Collett, Janet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1450234089 ISBN 13: 9781450234085

Verlag: iUniverse, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

How far would you go to protect your dearest friends and family? Murder Among Friends tells the story of the deep love and friendship of three women and the lengths to which each will go to protect the others. Holly, Carol, and Dorothy have known each other for years, and are true, solid friends. Holly lives with one of her three grown sons and her beautiful blond, four-legged boyfriend. When Holly begins working as a police officer in the homicide division, the women's working lives become entwined along with their personal lives. There is an explosion near Holly's home, a small girl is rescued, and the threat of terrorist activity invades her life. As Holly and her friends investigate further, she discovers risks to them all-including a personal risk to Dorothy, who is hit out of the blue by sniper fire. As all hell breaks loose, Holly and her friends band together to protect Dorothy. Holly and her partner Johnnie race to find the killer before he strikes again, but their investigation turns up shocking results. Holly may have to kill someone she loves in order to protect the others. Can she accept the consequences? Holly thinks she is happy with her life, and doesn't need another male in it until Jay Mallard of the FBI arrives. Will she be able to trust him? Her head says no, but the sparks fly between them.

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MURDER Among FRIENDS

By Janet Collett

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Janet Collett Stebbins
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-3408-5

Chapter One

The gun warm in her hand, her arm still tingling from the kick, Holly looked down at the beloved friend she had just killed. She stood there, immobile. She was a mother, a nurse, a cop and now a murderer ... Two weeks earlier, she had killed a paid assassin, and for that, she was remorseless. This, however, shattered her heart and hurt so much more. Tears ran down her face, mirrored by the blood running down her shoulder. Life had inescapably changed.

One Year Earlier:

Thursday evening, in the garden, with her hands in the soil and a breeze blowing the scent of spring to her, Holly was happier than she would be anywhere else on Earth. You can have the French Riviera, she thought. Give me my garden any day of the week. Holly listened as her friend Carol crunched up the driveway in her new red VW Bug decorated with Nebraska Huskers memorabilia. It was one of their very few differences. Holly didn't follow sports at all, but enjoyed Carol's undying love for the Huskers.

"Hey, Winter, I'm starving. Get your butt in gear and let's go," Carol Turner yelled around the corner. Her short dark hair blew around her face. Smiling, Holly got up and headed her way, dropping a big branch next to the driveway. Normally, she would be ready to go, but Carol, alas, was just a little erratic in her timing. Holly had learned over the years that Carol would be there when she got there and not a moment sooner.

Holly called out, "I need to wash my hands, and I'll be ready in two shakes of a lamb's tail." She ran into the house and washed up, changing into a pair of slacks and stepping into her favorite and much-worn pair of loafers. She took the pins out of her hair, briefly brushed and rapidly braided it. No muss, no fuss. As she saw her reflection, she thought, Well, I am not exactly a glamour girl. Holly figured clean clothes and person were good enough. Her friend Dorothy despaired of her lack of style at times. She grabbed her bulky leather bag that carried everything from wallet to her ever-present Rolaids, went out the door and ran down the porch steps.

Later, she and Carol sat with Dorothy over the best soul food in town, Miss Glory's, their favorite place to eat and congregate. The place sat on old Route 66, alongside pawnshops and junk stores. It had mismatched tables and chairs. The floors were scuffed linoleum waxed to a high shine; nothing adorned the walls, and the tables were decorated with serviceable salt, pepper, and sugar containers. The aroma of comfort food and the tantalizing smell of fresh-baked bread filled the air. Nothing fancy, but the best eating in town. They sat and talked with a cacophony of silverware accompanying them in the background.

"So," Carol said to Holly and Dorothy as they passed around the cornbread and butter, "a doctor is making rounds and takes a rectal thermometer from his pocket. He looks at it in surprise and says, great, some asshole has my pen." They all laughed at this old chestnut, at least, it was old in medical circles.

Holly paused and looked around the table at her two dearest friends; her heart stopped for a moment, filled with love. They had been there for her through thick and thin, and as Forest Gump would say, "Even I know that wasn't something you could find on every corner." Yes, here we are, the Glory Girls.

Carol turned her piercing green eyes towards Holly. "Hey Winter, ya know what I miss most since you left the hospital?"

"Let me guess, my cheerful disposition?"

Carol rolled her eyes. "Gimme a break!"

"Oh, I know. My gourmet instant coffee?"

"Bleech! Nah, I miss your suspicious nature. Do you realize it's been three years since we've had a good murder at the hospital?"

Holly grinned when she thought back to the year she first met Carol. Holly was working in critical care and the emergency department, and Carol was the hard-working assistant pathologist at the VA hospital. Since both critical care and the ER had a high mortality rate, Holly was forever sending tissue samples, not to mention corpses, to pathology.

She and Carol had become acquainted. She remembered how Carol's gruff demeanor turned to concern when Holly first suggested that a death in the ICU had actually been murder. Holly had expected that Carol would verbally slap her down, tell her to mind her own business and say that a mere nurse had no business alleging murder in the ICU. Instead, Carol had followed up on Holly's concerns, and eventually, they both became involved in the investigation.

It had turned out that one of the thoracic surgeons was having a fling on the side. He had become obsessed with one woman, and as a result, he'd surreptitiously administered a fatal dose of staph aureus bacteria to her husband. The doctor was the picture of geniality and according to all his documentation, was giving the man antibiotics. Unfortunately, they turned out to be placebos laced with more staph.

The investigation had led to Holly going to work for the PD as a police officer and medical consultant in the homicide department. She was one of those people who loved putting together puzzles. She found police work to be exactly like that. Another side benefit was the enforced physical training. She loved her food and wasn't much on exercising in general. So it was good for her in a lot of ways, not the least of which was a newfound purpose in life.

As Holly got ready for bed that night, she thought about how God brings you what you need, and that most certainly included friends. She realized that, in many ways, her friends had become her family. Holly's sister and father were both dead, and her mother lived six-hundred miles away. She had four children who were grown and mostly gone. So, yes, her friends were her family. She only hoped that she lived up in some degree to returning what was given in her relationships with them. That was her last thought of the night as she drifted off to sleep.

Two days later, Saturday, Holly slept late as she always did whenever possible. After all, what was more decadent than having coffee at 10 am on the porch still in her jammies? She saw a red VW with a Nebraska Huskers pennant waving from the antenna turn into her driveway. She went in to pour her friend a cup of coffee, knowing that, like herself, Carol's brain did not fully engage until after two cups. Holly brought the coffee out to the porch table with an assortment of flavored creamers.

Carol bounced up the steps, fluffed her spiky black hair and sat down, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Her hair had gotten progressively shorter over the years. She called the current do her "scary hair."

Carol Turner was definitely the strong character of the group. She did not suffer fools gladly. She was someone you wanted on your side. Carol teased Holly relentlessly about her name, Holly Noel. But in fairness to her parents, what else do you name a baby girl who arrives on a snowy Christmas morning?

"All right, what are you grinning about?" Holly asked as she put the coffee cups down.

"Word on the street is that you had a date last night," Carol said, raising her eyebrows.

Years after her divorce, Holly had finally answered a couple of personal ads. Getting into dating again was a whole new trip, to say the least. Carol, more recently divorced, had also answered a couple, and it was an endless source of amusement for all of them.

...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: iUniverse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1450234089
• ISBN 13: 9781450234085
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 184
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: KreGa Onlinehandel GmbH; 4950000000000; info@krega-onlinehandel.de; ; Birkenweg 31; Brakel; 33034; Deutschland