“She gave my book to Dennis. And she tried to blackmail me.” She frowned. “She shouldn’t have threatened me. I liked her. She understood plants. I made it as easy for her as I could.”
Hanging was easy?
“I slipped a roofie into her coffee. She had the rope in her desk drawer.”
Only Mari Beth would have her own rope, just waiting for someone to hang her.
“I stood on her chair and looped it over the beam. Aren’t old buildings wonderful?”
“Amazing.”
“I’m sorry about Mari Beth. And you.” Her pale gaze was intense, focused. “I’m not sorry about Dennis. He was a hateful man.”
“I don’t want to die, Rose.”
She frowned, as if that hadn’t occurred to her.
“But you know I did it.”
“That is a problem, but not necessarily fatal.” Capri’s thoughts were frantic. Panic helped her focus. “Look, if everyone knew, you’d be famous. Everyone would want to publish your story, big publishers. People would hear about your love of plants. You’d be on TV.”
She looked surprised, then thoughtful. Even better, her shears’ hand lowered to half ready.
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
“The guy who tried to shoot Dennis didn’t even get that long in prison. The jury hated Dennis. We’d all testify about how awful he was.”
“Prison, though. I might be separated from my plants.” The shears hand came up a bit.
“The Birdman of Alcatraz got to keep his birds.” Well, for some of the time, but this was not a moment for strict truth. “People in prison always sell well. It’s too bad you don’t have any hope of getting the death penalty. Those guys always get tons of press.”
She looked affronted. “Why wouldn’t I get the death penalty? I killed two people. And this is Texas.”
“Well, there is that.”
“If I killed three people, I’ll bet I’d be a shoe in for the death penalty.”
Okay, that was not a move in the right direction.
“Yes, but they might kill you. I think you’d find a lesser sentence has all the benefits and less of the downside.”
To her relief the shears went down again. Capri considered the odds and went for it. Her dive took Rose down hard. Her head slammed into the baseboards. Bless old buildings and hard wood. Before Rose could regroup, Capri slugged her.
Dang that hurt. She studied Rose, her head lolling crookedly against the baseboard. When she didn’t move, Capri stood up and turned around. Tony and BT were standing there with goofy looks on their faces. “How long have you been standing there?”
Tony jumped a little. “I heard most of it. Though I had guessed she did it. She took away all the plants in Mari Beth’s office and replaced them with silk flowers.”
“And you didn’t think to, I don’t know, help me?”
BT grinned. “And miss a girl fight?”
Tony gave him a shove. “Cuff her, Dano.”
He walked up to Capri, close enough to back her against the wall. Capri kept her chin up, hoping she was reading the light in his eyes correctly. He put one hand on one side and leaned in.
“I was wondering…” he smiled, “…if you’d have dinner with me?”
“You mean, now that I’m not a suspect?”
“Yeah, now that you’re not a suspect.”
“Wow, you sweet talker you.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Yeah, that’s a yes.” Hey, she deserved a date after knocking death on its ass and then punching it.
“Hey, I was going to ask her out,” BT protested, as he hustled Rose to her feet.
Capri stared straight at Tony. “If it doesn’t go well, there’s always tomorrow night, BT.”
Tony ran a finger down the side of her face sending some really lovely shivers cascading through her just-escaped-death body.
“It’s going to go well,” he said.
Capri had a feeling he was going to be right.
Thank you for reading Do Wah Diddy Delete. I hope you enjoyed them and that you’ll consider checking out my other books.
To find out about my releases, be sure to sign up for my New Release eZine and get a free eBook!
Or hop over to my website and check out my series:
Project EnterpriseThe Big UneasyLonesome Lawmen
An Uneasy Future
Browse my complete backlist by visiting my website. :-) I have some stand alone novels, too.
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If you enjoyed this book, I hope you’ll consider leaving a review. It’s not just because I’m needy (even though I try not to be!). Reviews help other readers decide which books to buy. :-)
More Books by Pauline Baird Jones
Available in print, digital and audio.
Romantic Suspense
The Big Uneasy Series:
Relatively Risky (1)
Family Treed (1.5)
Dead Spaces (2015)
Lonesome Lawmen Series:
The Last Enemy
Byte Me
Missing You
Lonesome Mama (Bonus short story)
(The Lonesome Lawmen is also available as a digital bundle)
Do Wah Diddy Die
The Spy Who Kissed Me
A Dangerous Dance
Science Fiction Romance/Paranormal
Uneasy Future Series
Core Punch
Sucker Punch (2015)
Out of Time
Project Universe Series:
The Key
Girl Gone Nova
Tangled in Time
Steamrolled
Kicking Ashe
Short Story Collections
Project Enterprise: The Short Stories
The Mystery Collection
Let’s Fall in Love
Take a Chance on Me
About the Author
Pauline Baird Jones had a tough time with reality from the get-go. After “schooling” from four, yes FOUR brothers, she knew that some people needed love and others needed shooting. Pauline figured she could do both. Romantic suspense was the logical starting point, but there were more worlds to explore, more rules to break and minds to bend. She grabbed her pocket watch and time travel device and dove through the wormhole into the world of science fiction and even some Steampunk.
Now she wanders among the genres, trying a little of this and a lot of that, rampaging through her characters' lives like Godzilla because she does love her peril (when it's not happening to her). Never fear, she gives her characters happy endings. Well, the good characters. The bad ones get justice.
For more information about Pauline and her books, visit her website at www.paulinebjones.com
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