Cold-Blooded, page 29
-Augustus Knox
P.S. If you can find my car, you can have it. Thanks for all the rides.
December 23, 2014
Jocelyn’s tiny row house had never smelled so good, been so clean, or so packed with people. She rarely had parties. Her house was too small to entertain more than two or three people at a time, but this year Olivia had asked for a tree-decorating party, and after closing the Sydney Adams case in such dramatic fashion, Jocelyn could think of nothing more enticing than having all the people she loved under her roof to celebrate the coming holiday. Caleb had helped her pick out a real tree this year instead of the pre-lit, artificial one she usually put up. They had put the lights on a few days earlier, under Olivia’s close supervision, of course. Jocelyn could do without vacuuming the needles every day, but the crisp pine smell was refreshing. Later, after everyone arrived, they’d decorate it together. Caleb had promised Olivia that she could put the star on the top.
Inez and Raquel had shown up bearing gifts and Santa hats for everyone. Anita had brought her children along with a bin of cookie-decorating items. The girls had a blast with the cookie dough—cutting shapes from it and dumping copious amounts of sprinkles atop them. Anita had a pretty efficient system in place, rotating trays from decorating table to the oven and back to the table with a short cooling period in between. Judging by the number of cookies they’d already baked, Jocelyn would be sending everyone home with a Tupperware container filled with them. She propped open her front door to get some cold air into the house. Baking cookies had seemed like a great idea until they had to turn on the oven.
On the porch, Anita’s fifteen-year-old son, Terrence, stood chatting with Caleb’s son Brian, who was nineteen and a sophomore at Temple University. They looked up when she opened the door and smiled at her. She had finally met Brian a few days earlier. He was tall and thin like his father, but he must have taken after his mother because, other than his dark, soulful brown eyes, he didn’t much resemble Caleb. He did, however, have Caleb’s easy charm and biting sense of humor. Olivia took to him instantly.
Jocelyn gave the boys a little wave and went back inside, taking a seat next to Olivia at the dining room table. Olivia turned to Jocelyn, cookie batter clumped in her brown locks, and red and green sprinkles cascading down the front of her shirt. She grinned, and Jocelyn leaned in to kiss her nose. “Where’s Uncle Kevin?” Olivia asked.
“On his way.”
“Is he bringing Kim?”
“Of course.”
“Where’s Aunt Camille?”
Jocelyn smiled. “She’ll be here in about an hour. Her flight was delayed. Are you almost done with cookies? I need to get dinner started.”
Caleb appeared behind her, sliding a warm palm across the nape of her neck. “You didn’t hear?” he asked. “We’re having cookies for dinner.”
Across the table, Pia and Raquel giggled convulsively at a joke that Jocelyn wasn’t privy to. “Yeah,” Pia said. “We’re having cookies with a side of cookies.”
“And cookies on top,” Raquel piped in.
Olivia tipped her head back and laughed loudly. Then she said, “Then we’ll have cookies for dessert.”
“With cookie crumbs on top,” Pia said.
Caleb sat down next to Jocelyn, a mischievous smile on his face. He leaned forward and lowered his voice to a near whisper, immediately gaining the girls’ undivided attention. Their little sprinkle-covered hands hung suspended in mid-air, their faces bright and rapt, smiles frozen in place as they listened. “Are you girls sure you want cookies for dinner?”
“Yes,” they cried in unison.
“With cookies on the side?”
“And on top!” Olivia shouted.
“Okay, okay,” Caleb said. “But the real question is: do you want cookies with that?”
“Yes!” the girls hollered before dissolving into laughter, their little bodies going loose with hysteria.
Jocelyn saw Anita standing in the kitchen doorway. Anita rolled her eyes but smiled nevertheless. “Cookies it is,” Anita said.
Caleb slid a hand across Jocelyn’s shoulders and pulled her in closer. She caught a dizzying whiff of his cologne and was glad to be sitting down. He still made her knees weak. “So,” he went on, addressing the girls. “What do you think of mashed cookies with cookie gravy?”
Before they could answer, Kevin’s voice boomed from the front door. “Cookies? Who’s making cookies?”
Olivia climbed down from her chair and ran over to him, leaping into his arms, recapping the entire cookie conversation, stuttering at times in her frantic effort to tell him as fast as she possibly could. Kim stood beside Kevin. Between them sat two huge garbage bags.
“You guys,” Jocelyn joked. “I said bring a dish, not your trash.”
Kim rolled her eyes, motioning toward the bags. “I told him what you said about not going crazy with gifts, but he cannot be stopped.”
“You brought presents?” Olivia said, head tilted toward the bags like a pointing dog.
“Of course I did,” Kevin said. “It’s Christmas! Now go get Raquel and Pia. Uncle Kevin Claus brought something for all you kids, even the sulky teenage boys outside.”
Cookies forgotten, the girls herded into the living room and gathered around Kim as she distributed the gifts. Brian and Terrence slipped quietly into the room and sat on the couch. The other adults made a loose semi-circle around the edge of the room, watching the girls open their gifts—every one of them extravagant. Kevin always spent ridiculous amounts of money on the kids for birthdays and holidays. He had no children of his own and loved being an honorary uncle.
Jocelyn sidled up to him. “No word on Knox’s car?”
Kevin shook his head. “Nope, nothing. I’m sure it’ll turn up. Why? You ready to get rid of that old, ugly Ford?”
“Not for anything Knox used to drive,” she said, thinking of the faint smell of vomit that still clung to her backseat from the day Knox had thrown up in it.
Kevin laughed. “Well, it’ll turn up eventually. Put it out of your mind for now, Rush. Enjoy the holidays.” He motioned around the room. “Enjoy this.”
Jocelyn linked her arm with his and rested her head on his shoulder, a feeling of contentment washing over her. “I will,” she said. “I absolutely will.”
First and foremost, I must thank my readers. You guys are awesome. Thank you for being so passionate, so supportive, and so encouraging. You make everything that’s hard about writing worth it. I can never thank you enough for reading my books, recommending them to others, leaving reviews, sending me emails, Facebook messages, tweets or sometimes even pulling me aside when you see me in person! I am continuously amazed and humbled by your enthusiasm. Please know that I deeply appreciate every message, every email, every tweet, every Facebook post and every kind word. As long as you keep reading, I’ll keep telling stories. While I was writing this book, there were so many times that I felt like throwing in the towel, but I knew that I couldn’t because you readers were there cheering me on the whole way. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Thank you, as always, to my wonderful husband Fred and my lovely daughter, Morgan, who sacrificed many hours of time spent with me for this book. Thank you to my CPs and first readers, Michael Infinito, Jr., Nancy Thompson, Dana Mason, Carrie Butler and Jeff O’Handley. You are all extraordinary writers and human beings and I am privileged to know you. I am constantly astounded by your generosity and humbled by your brilliance. Thank you as well to Carrie at Forward Authority Design Services for being my go-to person for just about anything that crosses my mind. You have an astonishing ability to take my ideas and make them reality. I am in awe of your talent, kindness, patience and good humor.
Thank you to Jennifer Thomson, researcher extraordinaire, for finding out all kinds of strange and obscure things for me!
Thank you to my beta readers whose valuable input helped work out all the kinks: Torese Hummel, M.K. Harkins, Joyce Regan, Renee Crabill, Trisha Turner, Laura Aiello, Marcie Riebe. Thank you to Lilly Billarrial for helping me make up fake business names.
Thank you, as always, to my parents and siblings for your constant and unwavering support and encouragement as well as for spreading the word: William & Joyce Regan, Donna House, Rusty House & Julie House, Sean & Cassie House, Andy Brock, Kevin & Christine Brock, Grace & Kirk House.
Thank you also to Jana Dean, Steve Boyd, Nancy Frederick, Elaine Boris, Jewell Cartwright, and Sue Herwig, Judy LaMay, and Tanya Anderson. You keep me going!
Thank you to my constant cheerleaders and sharers of all things book-related: Melissia McKittrick, Ava & Tom McKittrick, Kerry Graham, Jeanie Loiacono, Katie Henson, Elizabeth Kaminski, Helen Conlen and the entire Conlen family, Jean and Dennis Regan and the entire Regan family, the Funk family, my in-laws, the Tralies, the McDowells, the Dauphins, the Kays, the Bottingers, the Spinellis and the Bowmans. So many of my friends and family help spread the word about my books, it would be tough to name you all individually but please know that I am so grateful to you, and every day I feel blessed to have you all in my life and in my corner.
Thank you to James D. McGinnis for taking so much time to help me with my various questions about private investigators, police procedure and the interplay between the two. Thank you to my sisters at DAMN and also the Delaware Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime for all your unwavering support! Thank you to Forward Authority Design for the amazing cover, to T.S. Tate for the content edit and Tajare Taylor for the final copy-edit. Thank you to Melissa Maygrove for the final proofread and for your eagle-eye precision. Finally, thank you to Integrity Formatting for the interior design.
Lisa Regan is an Amazon bestselling crime/suspense novelist. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University. She is a member of Sisters In Crime, Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter. Her debut novel, Finding Claire Fletcher won Best Heroine and was runner up in Best Novel in the eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards for 2013. Her second novel, Aberration won Best Twist in the 2014 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent Book Awards. Her third novel, Hold Still was released by Thomas & Mercer in 2014 and has been translated into German. She is at work on her fifth novel.
Find her at www.lisaregan.com
About the Author
Lisa Regan is an Amazon bestselling crime/suspense novelist. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University. She is a member of Sisters In Crime, Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter. Her debut novel, Finding Claire Fletcher won Best Heroine and was runner up in Best Novel in the eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards for 2013. Her second novel, Aberration won Best Twist in the 2014 the eFestival of Words Best of the Independent Book Awards. Her third novel, Hold Still was released by Thomas & Mercer in 2014 and has been translated into German. She is at work on her fifth novel.
Find her at www.lisaregan.com
Read more at Lisa Regan’s site.
Lisa Regan, Cold-Blooded
