Murder So Convenient Now Available for Kindle!

My first published book Murder So Convenient is now available for purchase at Amazon.com in Kindle format.It was first released in 2003 as a paperback.  Next week, January 31, 2014 through February 4, 2014, as a promotional program, Murder So Convenient in Kindle format will be available for FREE! Please stop by Amazon.com and purchase your copy of Murder So Convenient now (or next week!)

About Murder So Convenient
A serial killer is loose in Chicago and the police seem helpless to stop him. Intertwined is the story of Catherine, a victim of spousal abuse, who makes friends with Shawna McGreggor after going to work at a convenience store. Catherine's husband is relentless in his pursuit of his estranged wife. To what lengths will he go to get her back?

Shawna is in the sights of the killer who is just waiting until he gets the opportunity to get to her too. As the the ladies get acquainted with the detectives on the case, one of them, Richard Collins, falls in love with Shawna, jeopardizing both her and his career. Will he be able to protect her from the killer? Or will she become his latest victim?

(The paperback version from the original publisher is also available in limited quantities.)

Reviews of Murder So Convenient can be found on the paperback version's customer review page.

Celia

The cellphone vibrated on Celia's desk. She stopped clacking away at her computer keyboard and picked it up. She tapped the text message icon to read the message. 'Got her itinerary. I'll take her down after work.'

Celia looked confused at the message. "What?" She turned the phone over and realized she had her husband's phone which was identical to hers except that he had engraved his initials into the back plate of his. She checked his past text messages and saw where he had sent messages to this number before, all equally as cryptic. She checked his email and saw where he had mailed out her itinerary. With shaking hands she texted back for a verification of the location where she would be 'taken down' and then deleted it from the sent folder and marked the original as unread.

Celia cried when the reply came within minutes. It was indeed the parking garage at her office. She replied 'k' as her husband Conner liked to do and then erased it from the received and sent file as well. She almost jumped when minutes later Conner tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hello, my dear. I think we got our phones mixed up this morning. I thought I'd come see if you had mine," he told her. He dropped a single red rose on her desk and a single Dove chocolate.

"Oh, how beautiful, and my favorite chocolate." She clasped her hands together. "Thank you, honey. I have the phone in my purse. I haven't had it out all day, so I didn't even realize it was the wrong one," she lied. She opened a desk drawer and pulled it out of her purse. "There you go." She handed it over to him.

"Thanks." He kissed her on the forehead. "See you later for dinner."

"Sure," she said hesitantly.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"Oh, I've just been really busy. I guess I'm a little distracted." She smiled and squeezed his hand. "I'll see you later." She watched as he got back on the elevator and the lights showed he was going down. It stopped on the fourth floor instead of going all the way down. Probably just someone getting on, she thought, but then it came back up and when the doors opened someone got off and he wasn't there.

On break Celia went down to the fourth floor to see what was there. She found their accounting department, staffed entirely by women. She shook her head and went back up to her office. A tear slid down her face.

After work, Celia asked a security guard to walk her to her car. Her eyes shifted back and forth, alert to anyone she didn't know walking up to her. She sighed with relief when she got to her car and the guard stood by as she opened the door. She turned to thank him and saw that he held a gun on her.

"Get in," he told her. "We're going to take a little drive."

Her heart sank. Of all people to walk her to her car it had to be the one she didn't want. She climbed in behind the wheel and he walked around to the other side with her keys in his hand so she couldn't lock him out. "Where are we going?"

"Do you remember where you met your husband?"

"It was at a disco on the lake, but it's closed now; has been for years."

"That is sort of the point. No one will find you there." He waived the gun at her. "Now!"

She cried softly as she started the car and made her way out of the parking structure.

They arrived at the old building and he told her to turn off the engine and get out.

Her foot still on the brake, engine running, she asked him why he was doing this. He told her Conner didn't want to go to the trouble of getting a divorce and having to split the assets. She sighed resignedly and then hit the gas as hard as she could. He already had taken off his seat belt, but hers was still intact.

"What the hell?" he yelled just as the car slammed into a concrete pylon. In her old car the airbag had to be manually turned on and the passenger side was off. He hit the windshield.

Celia took a second to shake off the impact with the airbag. She glanced over at her assailant whom she assumed was dead and then she ran from the car. Hearing a noise, she looked back just as he pulled his head back momentarily and then raised his arm and shot. The last thing she saw was him slump forward again before she felt the sting of the bullet in her back. Her world went black minutes later.

Conner was in the apartment sipping champagne with his girlfriend. Candles glowed on the table and soft clarinet music played over the stereo. Celia took in the scene with rage. The curtains rustled in spite of the windows being closed and Conner looked up. The candle flames went out one by one as she blew on them.

"What is going on?" the woman asked him.

"I don't know," Conner said. "There's bound to be a window opened somewhere."

She looked down at her watch. "I need to get going anyhow. I don't need your wife walking in on us. She almost caught us the last time."

"Trust me; that won't happen again," he assured her.

"I wouldn't be sure about that," Celia said.

"Celia?" Conner said looking around the room.

Realizing her could hear her, just not see her, Celia laughed an ironic laugh that she knew would send chills through them both. The woman got up and ran from the apartment.

"Celia?" Conner said again. "I can explain."

"Explain what, Conner?" she asked him. "That you had me killed so you wouldn't have to go through a divorce and split the assets. Or the bimbo from accounting? What exactly do you want to explain?"

Conner's eyes widened. "You know about that?"

"Yes, and the cops have your killer's phone. He's dead too, by the way. So, my unfaithful lover, it won't be long until they link you to him. I told my boss about the odd texts on your phone and he told me to get a security guard to escort me to my car. He had no way of knowing it would be the man you hired to kill me, of course, but he can put the nail in your coffin, so to speak."

Conner blanched at her message and a lump rose in his throat. He took a drink of champagne and swallowed hard as the door bell rang. He heard them call out 'Police' before he opened it.

Wrting Prompt Short Story-Selling Your House

I love writing prompts. I get one every week from a newsletter and they are a lot of fun. This week was I am supposed to be selling my house and on the first day an old lady shows up with a chilling tale of something that happened there when she lived there as a child. Wow, did I have fun with that! Oh, and it has to be 500 words or less. Here's what I came up with.

What Happened Here?

I was so excited. My fiancé and I would be married soon and he had a new job about a hundred miles away in Memphis. All I had to do was get rid of the house my parents left me. I lived here after they passed away and it is comfortable, but it is also very old and needs updated. It isn't going to bring me a fortune, but it might get enough for a down payment on that new house we've been looking at in Memphis. The sign is up and the realtor assures me I'll have a lot of interest. People are buying in this area and fixing up the older homes. That is just what I wanted to hear.

A knock at the door stopped me in my packing. I need to get things ready to go, so I might as well start, right? I opened the door and there stood the cutest little old lady I've ever seen. Her white hair was in a tight bun that gave her very pale face the effect of having had plastic surgery to get rid of wrinkles. It didn't quite work. Her eye lids were red rimmed and practically lash-less. She wore a baggy white dress with pink stripes, sagging stockings, and flat brown well worn loafers. Her large flowered purse was held tightly under one age-spotted arm.

"May I help you?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't mean to bother you," she said. "I saw you have the old place for sale and I just had to see it one more time."

"One more time?" I asked, my eyebrows raised.

"My father built this house eighty years ago young lady. I grew up here," she explained.

"Oh, well do come in then. I'm glad to meet you."

She stepped carefully across the threshold and her eyes gazed around the room in slow sections. "It has certainly changed since I was a girl."

"Well, my parents bought it and remodeled it about thirty years ago. I guess it had been through several people before that. They put up a swing in the back yard for me in an old oak tree."

"I'll bet I know just the one," she said with a smile.

"Would you like to see it?" I asked smiling. There were several oak trees out there, but there was one that looked especially old and flowers never would grow there.

"Why, yes I would. Thank you."

I helped her out to the tree and she said yes, it was the tree she was thinking of. She knelt slowly down and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "It's just been so long. You see I've kept a secret since I was twelve. This is where my father buried my mother after he caught her with the milkman. He swore me to secrecy and I was too afraid to tell."

I fainted on the spot.

Never Again Part IV

"I know. We'll figure something out. Now that you're functioning on all cylinders again I'm sure we'll work it out together and he'll never touch you again."

Ed sat on the grass in the yard across the street and watched the house. The new tenants weren't home so no one told him to leave. He had already noted the locks had been changed and he couldn't find a spare key to get inside. He had a brown bag with him with a bottle showing out of the top. He drank heavily from it. Probation violation number two, or is it three, he wondered, since he wasn't supposed to be near either of the women and he was certain Janelle was in that house. And what was Eva doing home anyway; she was supposed to be at work? Damn the bad luck!

"He's still there and he is drunk," Janelle said. "He is real mean when he's drunk."

"He's real mean when he's sober. He's dangerous when he's drunk. I have an idea though. Go unlock that back gate."

"What?"

"Just unlock the back gate," Eva said. "He's going to try to get in eventually and we'll be waiting."

The women turned off the lights and sat in the kitchen. On his third bottle now, Ed was staggering drunk and they knew from experience, about to pass out. The neighbors were actually on vacation so they had never come home to run him off the property and empty bottles were now scattered at his feet.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Janelle asked Eva, whispering.

"There are a lot of witnesses that he is drunk. Someone is selling it to him; so he's on a surveillance camera somewhere staggering around. Did you see him the last time he left for more booze? I'm surprised he hasn't passed out by now or that the other neighbors haven't called the cops. They all know he's not supposed to be in the neighborhood."

"Most of them don't want to get involved. If he does something again, they'll bear witness that he was here, but beyond that, they'll stay out of it," Eva said. "They all know how mean he is and they don't want to get hurt."

A noise in the yard brought them on high alert. Ed had indeed come in the back gate. Eva had placed a bottle of liquor out on the picnic table where he'd be sure and find it. She wanted him passed out drunk. He staggered around until he saw the bottle on the table. He muttered something about the gods presenting manna from heaven and opened the bottle. The women shook their heads and watched in amazement. He turned the bottle up and downed the contents without stopping.

"Are you sure he isn't trying to kill himself with alcohol poisoning?" Janelle asked Eva.

"At this point, I don't know," she answered, "But I'm not taking any chances. Are you?'

"No," Janelle replied. "He's too volatile. I might be dead the next time and I can't hole up here in the house forever and neither can you. I'm glad they gave you a few days off from work though. You must be about out."

"I am out. Someone else gave up some time off so I could get off a few days while we see what Ed is going to do."

"Good friend," Janelle commented.

"Very good friend," Eva agreed.

Ed tried to yank the door to the porch open and the women jumped. The lock held even though he tried several times. In his drunken state he no longer had enough strength to yank it loose from the wood. They eyed each other, watching as he staggered backward and fell over. He didn't move and they watched him closely for a good twenty minutes. He didn't so much as twitch a muscle.

"You think he's dead?" Janelle asked.

"I don't know, but we'd better check. I don't want a body in my back yard."

She eased out into the yard and checked for a pulse. Suddenly Ed snored and she jumped and tried not to scream. Back in the house she told Janelle he was out cold but not dead.

"You know, he almost got that lock pulled loose anyway!" Eva told her.

"Damn," Janelle said under her breath. "What now?"

"Load him up, just like we planned," Eva said.

They wrapped Ed in an old and cheap tarp Eva had used to cover her floor when she painted and together they struggled to lift him and put him in the back of her car. They drove out to his favorite place in a wooded area at a local lake within walking distance of their home, and after unwrapping him; they pushed him into the lake and held him under. He never woke up or put up a fight.

"May God forgive us!" Janelle said wracked with sobs.

"We definitely have some penance to do," Eva told her, patting her shoulder, "But he was like a rabid dog, Janelle. He had to be put down before he killed us."

"I know, but can we live with it?" She wiped her face on her shirt tail.

"We'll see," was all that Eva could say. She rolled the tarp back up and stuffed it into her car. On the way home she stopped at a dumpster and shoved it inside.

There was knock on the door the next morning. Ed's probation agent was standing there. "You ladies look like hell," he said when Eva answered the door and let him inside.

"We'll Ed was across the street drinking most of the day and half the night, so no, we didn't get much sleep for wondering when he was going to break in," Eva said.

"I saw all the bottles in the yard over there as I drove up. He do that?" the agent asked.

"Oh yeah," Eva said. "He was staggering around so much I'm surprised anyone sold to him."

"Well, tried to check on him last night to tell him to stay away from here, but he wasn't there. I guess I should have guessed he was still here after you called. Why didn't you call again?"

"It didn't seem to do any good the last time," Janelle stated. She had been trying to stay quiet, but she clamped her mouth shut tight afterwards.

"Yes, and he was over there; not here. He was five hundred away. If he'd come back to the yard, I would have called the police," Eva said.

"When did he leave?"

"I think about ten. We tried to keep track of him, but that's about when he disappeared. I figured he finally got drunk enough and went home, wherever that is these days."

"He has an apartment rented by probation. He didn't go there last night. He has a roommate and he didn't see him."

"Then I don't know what to tell you. If he comes back we'll give you a call."

"Okay. Meanwhile I'll check with the bus company. He can't get here walking. I made sure he was too far away for that. It's the only way he could have gotten here. From the looks of that pile of bottles, he didn't pay for a cab; he didn't have that much money."

Three days later Eva opened up the newspaper about the time the phone rang. She read the headline as she answered on the fourth ring. MISSING PAROLEE FOUND DEAD IN LOCAL LAKE.

It was the probation agent. "I wanted to talk to you before you got the paper. We found Ed."

Too late. "Really?" Eva said, as if she hadn't seen the news. "Where's he been?"

"Dead," was the reply.

"Really? What happened?" she said as if surprised.

"The coroner says his blood alcohol level was lethal but he drowned. You know that lake near your place?"

"Yes," she said. "He liked to fish there. Is that where he was?"

"We think he must have staggered there while drunk and passed out in the lake. He was so drunk he never woke up."

"Oh, dear," she said, as if she thought it a tragedy.  "I certainly wanted him to go away, but dead? Never thought that would happen."

"Yes ma'am. It's being ruled accidental," he added.

"I'll let Janelle know. She's not up yet."

"Thank you," he said, and they ended the call.

"Well? Did they find him?" Janelle asked from behind her.

"Yes they did, and we are in the clear," she answered. Both women smiled.

Never Again - Part III

Ed made a plea deal with the district attorney for a six-month term in the county jail and three years' probation.

Eva went over to the house while Ed was in court and used the spare key he had hidden under a dead plant to get inside and collect Janelle's clothes and her few belongings. Ed had broken or burned most of everything that had been Janelle's so there wasn't that much left to get. She just shook her head in disbelief.

Janelle was in a rehabilitation hospital learning to do simple things again like holding a pencil and writing. She walked slowly and had a slight drag to her left foot that she was told might go away as her brain healed, but she more than likely was going to walk that way for the rest of her life. She wasn't completely disabled, but it would take her some time to get back to being able to do things she used to. She often cried and feared the day Ed would be released.

Eva took Janelle home to her house. The one she had shared with Ed was up for rent since Ed was in jail and could no longer pay the rent. He had been fired after he made the deal to go to jail and would have nowhere to go once released. Janelle feared that most of all. She knew he would try to move in with her so she filed for divorce but Ed refused to sign the papers when her attorney took them to him in jail.

"We'll deal with that when he gets out. Don't worry so much," Eva told Janelle. "There will be a restraining order against him so if he shows up his probation will be revoked and he'll go back to jail; this time he'll have to finish out the sentence for three more years."

"He won't care," Janelle said slowly, trying to think of the words she wanted. "Just paper," she added.

Eva ruffed Janelle's hair. "We have six months to figure out how we're going to stop him then and by that time, you'll be well enough to fight back."

Janelle took her cousin's hand and held it to her heart. "I love you cousin."

Eva smiled. "Don't worry so much."

Ed was released from jail and as predicted, showed up on Eva's doorstep. "I want to talk to my wife," he said angrily.

Eva stood at the door with the chain in place. "Not going to happen Ed. And she isn't your wife anymore. The judge granted the divorce without your signature and he made you responsible for her hospital bills."

"I am well aware of that. I was notified. Ain't going to happen. She is my wife and I don't give a good goddamn what any judge says. You got that!" he said angrily.

"Go away Ed. There's an order against you. You aren't to come near either one of us."

"Where is my wife?" he said separating each word slowly as if she didn't understand him.

"Go to hell, Ed," Eva said and shut the door and locked the dead bolt she had installed. She called his probation agent about the violation and he said he'd talk to Ed. She hung up and shook her head. "Talk to him? What good will that do?"

Janelle came out of the bedroom where she had been hiding. "I'm sorry Eva. I told you he'd come back."

To be Continued...