Sunday Snippet: Ill-Timed Case

Hello, September.Here's hoping you're not as maniacal as August. I'd love for the weather tomake up its mind and hold for a while. I don't imagine that will actuallyhappen.

Had a lovely dayoff to travel to the Hocking Hills area to meet up with my cousins on my mom'sside of the family. We're hoping to make it an annual event. I couldn't takethe whole weekend, but it was so much fun to spend time with them. Bonus pointsfor being close enough to my daughter's location for grad school that I couldtake some of the things she forgot.

Still insanely busywith work and I'm happy for the new projects coming my way. Also kind ofthrilled they're all a bit different so it's not the same thing for eachmanuscript.

Had an okay week ofviewing. I got to watch a few things when I needed a break from wall-to-wallwords. Sometimes it's nice to have a minivacation to reset my brain.

Caught an episodeof The Batman and enjoyed it. It's a two-parter so I'm hoping to watchthe second half this week.

Enjoyed an episodeof Classic Rugrats. I don't really remember this one, but the laterseasons of the show weren't watched quite as many times as the earlier ones.

Got an episode of MyLife Is Murder watched and loved it. Again, Madison really stole the show.And the wink-wink-nod to Xena at the end was fun and awesome.

Started an episodeof Signora Volpe and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when Sylvia'sundercover assignment is discovered.

That's pretty muchit for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Ill-Timed Case, anovella that brings a couple together for a bit of cat-and-mouse fun.

Here's the miniblurb:

Rex Van Adder, private investigator, has more cases than hecan handle. Enter Gracie Lee, along with a dead body, and Rex scrambles to keephis head above water, especially since he knows Gracie is involved but can'tfigure out how.

And a snippety peek…

The first gray streaks barely litthe sky before Rex ended up back in the alley where his mystery womandisappeared.After a careful look in the shadowynooks and crannies, he huffed out a breath. "Think I finally figured outhow she disappeared." She had to be using one of the old storefronts as anaccess to the underground system.He went back to check more footageto be certain his hunch panned out. "I'll be damned. That's a genius-levelmove." He got up to pour some coffee, mentally planning how to surveil thecity block she'd used as her access point.He'd narrowed her route to downfour stores and wanted to get back to see if she'd left a trail he could pickup.He started for his desk and got acall. This time from Avery.He didn't both with pleasantrieseither. "If you want to see the evidence, you can come down to theprecinct. Maybe you can make sense out of some of the things we found."Rex's lips quirked. "What'swrong, Marlow. The gray skies and rain making it hard for you toconcentrate?" A little needling never hurt, especially when Marlowdeserved it for dragging Rex out of bed in the wee hours.Marlow snorted. "More likezero sleep for over twenty-four hours and a dead body with your name onit." He huffed out a sigh. "Seriously, nothing about this murder fitsnormal parameters. And you always have your nose in weird shit nobody understands."Yeah. Thanks to his professor dad.Rex tsked. "Marlow, you're notwrong about that. But why the rush? You've barely had time to get the autopsyresults." Not that they'd probably learn anything new.Marlow grumbled something under hisbreath before responding. "Look, Rex. Someone got to this guy when prettymuch no one was supposed to know he was in the city. Either your information iswrong, or there's a clue we're missing in McGuinness's stuff. Whichever it is,the trail's going cold and not just from the fucking rain." He paused thenadded. "I'll be here for another hour then I'm being forced to takemandatory downtime for the next twenty-four hours, which means…"Shit. "Barkerson's taking overuntil you're back." While Marlow reluctantly worked with Rex and otherprivate detectives, Stu Barkerson absolutely refused to consider anyone outsidethe twelfth precinct as an ally and regarded all of them with suspicion.Marlow chuckled. "Yep."Rex grimaced. "Be there inten." He ended the call.Damn. He'd hoped to buy some timeto track down the mystery woman. Then again, if he didn't want to deal with hiscranky old man on an hourly basis, Rex needed to get a jump ahead on Dougray'scase. Except … his mystery woman and McGuinness's murder were connected. And hewould find out how.His gut never steered him wrong.

I'm having such aterrific time writing this one. Rex and Marlow are a hoot, and Rex is nudgingme to set Marlow up in a future story. Stay tuned!

 

That's it for thisweek.

Cheers!

Skye