Outstanding Praise for Nancy Bush and Candy Apple Red
“A fun, frantic, sexy murder mystery…I was hooked from the first page. Candy Apple Red is an intriguing mystery that kept me guessing all night!”
—Lisa Jackson, New York Times bestselling author
“Readers will eagerly await the next book.”
—Statesman Journal
“A winner…A fantastic read.” Westside Town Crier (Lancaster, California)
“Jane Kelly is a new and worthy addition to the private investigator scene. Unique and extremely likable, she has a quick wit.”
—Romantic Times
“Come visit beautiful Lake Chinook. The town is lovely, the people are friendly—but watch your back, because murder resides here, too!”
—Kasey Michaels
“As long as Bush sticks to writing compelling mysteries, she’ll have a franchise that could soon rise to the level of Sara Paretsky’s great V.I. Warshawski books.”
—The Chicago Sun Times
“Move over, Stephanie Plum. You’ve got competition from Nancy Bush’s funny, feisty, immensely likable new heroine, Jane Kelly. I loved hanging out with her in her action-packed debut, Candy Apple Red, and I eagerly await her further adventures.”
—Laura Levine
“Lots of humor with a feisty heroine.”
—Mystery Lovers Bookshop News
“Once readers bite into Nancy Bush’s Candy Apple Red, they’ll be seduced by sleuth Jane Kelly—who gets her man, one way or another!”
—Leslie Meier
“Reading Candy Apple Red is like having a great conversation with your best friend. I was sorry to see it end and I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next installment.”
—Laurien Berenson
Books by Nancy Bush
CANDY APPLE RED
ELECTRIC BLUE
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
CANDY APPLE RED
NANCY BUSH
KENSINGTON BOOKS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
Contents
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
Epilogue
Chapter One
If I’d known they were about to find a body at the bottom of Lake Chinook, I never would have gotten myself into the whole mess. The lake’s deep in places and the Lake Corporation only drains it every couple of years to check the sewer lines running along its muddy bottom. The thought of the little fishy things trolling the waters, chewing off teensy nibbles of human flesh, would have been enough for me to say, “Hasta la vista, baby” and I would have exerted great haste in making tracks.
But I didn’t know. And I also didn’t know my whole life was about to change. The day I spoke with uber-bitch/lawyer Marta Cornell I was blissfully ignorant of the events in store for me which was just as well. Don’t ever tell yourself you’re happy with the way things are because that’s when everything changes in seconds flat. And not necessarily for the better.
That particular morning—let’s call it The Day Jane Kelly’s Life Changed, Not Necessarily For The Better—I walked through the front door of the Coffee Nook, breathing hard from the two-and-a-half mile run from my bungalow. I had nothing more in mind than a cup of coffee and maybe a little conversation with friends. I slid onto my usual stool and Billy Leonard sat down next to me.
He said, “How ya doin’?”
I nodded. “Good.”
“Me, too.”
“Good.”
We both ordered basic black coffee. Billy, an ex-I.R.S. man and current C.P.A. whom I turn to for advice about my modest finances, seemed a bit preoccupied. I assumed it was over his kids. Billy has this theory about why there seems to be less ambition and direction among young people in general, and his boys in particular.
As I blew across the top of my cup, Billy said, “I’m a fisherman, y’know? I mean, I fish.” He pretended to cast out a line with an imaginary fishing pole.
Maybe I was wrong as Billy appeared to be heading onto a new topic. I carefully tested my drink. Steaming coffee. Sometimes the damn stuff is so hot it burns off the taste buds and a few layers of tongue underneath.
“When you’ve got a wild salmon, a Coho, on your line, it’s like zziinnnggg!” He cast again, this time with more body English.
I watched his invisible line grab an equally invisible Coho. Billy rocked and twisted and generally acted as if Moby Dick himself had swallowed the bait.
My eye traveled past him to a newcomer to the Nook, a woman I didn’t recognize. She was thin and small and her hair was completely wrapped in a virulent pink scarf. Wide, round sunglasses covered much of her face which was perched upon a long, white neck. She was a passable Audrey Hepburn. She stood to one side and pretended interest in the glass case of pastries, but I could tell her mind was on something else. I could swear she was playacting, pretending
