Berkley Prime Crime titles by Lorna Barrett
MURDER IS BINDING
BOOKMARKED FOR DEATH
BOOKPLATE SPECIAL
CHAPTER & HEARSE
SENTENCED TO DEATH
MURDER ON THE HALF SHELF
NOT THE KILLING TYPE
BOOK CLUBBED
A FATAL CHAPTER
Anthologies
MURDER IN THREE VOLUMES
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
This book is an original publication of the Berkley Publishing Group.
Copyright © 2015 by Penguin Random House LLC.
The Edgar® name is a registered service mark of the Mystery Writers of America, Inc.
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
BERKLEY® PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME design are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
For more information, visit penguin.com.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-63729-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barrett, Lorna.
A fatal chapter / Lorna Barrett.—First edition.
pages ; cm
ISBN 978-0-425-25266-6
I. Title.
PS3602.A83955F38 2015
813'.6—dc23
2014049829
FIRST EDITION: June 2015
Cover illustration by Teresa Fasolino.
Cover design by Diana Kolsky.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
Version_1
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writers live in isolation. That’s how we work. But sometimes we need the companionship of others to help us write our books, and these days that most often comes via the Internet.
I’m so lucky to be a member of the Cozy Chicks blog. We’re a group of eight cozy mystery authors who talk about our lives, our writing, and everything in between, and share it with you, our readers. We are: Ellery Adams, Duffy Brown, Kate Collins, Mary Kennedy, Mary Jane Maffini, Maggie Sefton, and Leann Sweeney. Check us out at cozychicksblog.com.
As always, I’m grateful to have a wonderful editor in Tom Colgan, and my agent, Jessica Faust, is always there with help on the business side of things. They, too, are just an e-mail away.
Did you know I have an author page on Facebook? You can find me there, as well as on Goodreads, Pinterest, and Twitter. Don’t forget to sign up for my periodic e-mail newsletter on the contact page of my website: LornaBarrett.com.
Happy reading!
C
ONTENTS
Berkley Prime Crime titles by Lorna Barrett
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Angelica’s Family Recipes
ONE
Pete kept his gaze on Tricia and not the camera, waggling his eyebrows, smiling, and winking at her. After interacting with him for the past few months, she knew not to take him too seriously. Although he had a glib tongue, she knew he was all talk and no action. Still, his charm won out and she couldn’t help but like him.
The camera clicked as Russ took another shot. Angelica posed à la Vanna White, showcasing a gilded plaque that proclaimed the year the building had been constructed, 1842, and that it had been presented by the Stoneham Historical Society, which Pete, its current president, represented. Eventually all the historic structures in the village would sport such plaques—but as the oldest structure along Main Street, the Baxter Building had the honor of being first.
What seemed odd about this gathering was that the building’s owner, Bob Kelly, who had never missed an opportunity to toot his own horn, was not present. As far as Tricia knew, he’d been invited, but perhaps because his former lover Angelica, who now also possessed his former position as head of the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce, was present, he’d chosen not to attend. It was just as well. Lately Bob had become an even bigger pain in the butt than usual.
Since the fire at Tricia’s mystery bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, almost seven months before, Bob had been pressuring Tricia to buy the building, something she’d be quite happy to do—if the price was right. Bob was asking for much more than Tricia wanted to pay. Of course, for months she’d been paying rent on a building she could neither use nor live in while she waited for the insurance company to decide what they’d pay toward her losses. Angelica had rented out the top floor of the Chamber’s new home to Tricia for a modest fee, since Tricia, who had nothing better to occupy her time, found herself working for the Chamber as an unpaid volunteer.
“Let’s get Mary in the shot,” Russ called, his eyes suddenly visible above the viewfinder and flash on his Nikon.
Tricia moved aside to let Mary slide into position.
“Say cheese,” Russ called again.
“Enough with the cheese,” Angelica chided, and then cheerfully called out, “Whiskey!”
Tricia smiled, but then her gaze shifted as she caught sight of Selectman Earl Winkler, a cranky older gentleman with his hair styled in a brush cut and a mouth that never seemed to sport a smile. His perpetually sour disposition gave one reason to suppose that perhaps his diet lacked the necessary fiber for a happy life. His profession was vermin extermination, which somehow seemed to suit his negative outlook on life. How he had ever gotten elected was a mystery to Tricia, since Earl was a bundle of negativity. Of course, there was a whole contingent of local residents who weren’t happy with all the changes that had come to Stoneham since Bob had brought a shot of prosperity back to the once-dying village. They cursed the increased traffic, the tour busses, and the rise in property taxes that good fortune had brought. They were also peeved by the acts of serious crime that had increased within the village’s boundaries and had cost Stoneham its former title of Safest Village in New Hampshire—and they blamed Tricia for that. It was her misfortune to have either been present at the time of the crimes or nearby. That bad luck had also earned her the despised title of Village Jinx.