Did you notice my daughter’s picture? Yep, she is here.
Hi, I am the daughter of the author. What am I doing here? I have a place here. In fact two places. What are they? This is a mystery series. You either have to figure it out or wait until it is reveled.
L C felt extremely self conscious wearing a “wire.” It consisted of a simple thing thin as a pen, half as long as a cigarette, attached by a tiny alligator clip to the spacer between her bra cups. Her aunt Sapphire, who prided herself on her ability as a seamstress would have recognized the “spacer” as a part called the center gore. L C like most women who wore bras but did not sew them, never thought about the part. It was just there. Concealing the tiny bump between her thirty-six “C” cups presented no problem.
She remembered feeling picked on about her breast size because some told her she was too big while others teased her she was too small. Until she learned in fact the current average bra size in the United States today was the size she wore. Somehow that made her feel patriotic.
So far everything had worked out smoothly. She had a credit card for emergencies, and this was an emergency, so she was able to rent a car.
She and Lonnie, known to her as Wilbur, had picked through Cody’s cache of electronic stuff until they came up with a couple of small devices that would record a remote conversation on a flash drive. They also found several flash drives. Together they believed they were set.
The only problem was confronting the killer, and L C was positive she knew where the killer would be and when they would be there. It was also a layout L C was familiar with. Where she would have the upper hand.
Lonnie parked where he could keep a close watch on everything that happened in the huge parking lot. It meant parking further away than most people would want to walk, but exercise came easily to L C She enjoyed stretching her lithe body.
They scanned the incoming cars with binoculars. L C had to admit, Cody was prepared for anything. A real CIA agent would have no doubt been proud of him.
“I still find this one hard to believe,” Lonnie, aka Wilbur, said. “Of all the people, who would have thought.”
“Works out pretty simple,” L C said getting out of the car.
“Where are you going?”
“Be sharp, Wilbur. The guest of honor has arrived.”
L C strode quickly and purposefully across the across the campus parking lot. For a quick second she wondered why the killer had parked in the remotest, most secluded parking spot possible. She dismissed the thought without examining it further. After all the location suited her own purposes perfectly. It was unlikely anyone would interrupt them here.
She was by the car’s rear bumper before the occupant was fully out. Her voice was pleasant. “Fancy meeting you here.” The woman getting out of the car turned to face L C, who smiled, “Peaches Pardot, I believe.”
Back in the rented car Lonnie began to feel himself sweating already. He wished he had stopped off to get a fix before doing this. He shook the device and held it up to his ear to make sure it was working. Yep, he could hear everything.
“I wondered if you would find me. And if you did, where it would be.” Peaches Pardot’s voice was calm. Here deep blue eyes were amused. She wore a skirt, tight at the waist. Her bust was smaller than L C’s but her blouse created the effect of pure sexual enticement while her light jacket somehow made her look almost like a business woman. As though she were auditioning to be a model for a magazine aimed at successful sexy women.
“Wonder no more. Today is the first day to sign up for college. Your future means everything to you, so I knew where you would be. See I found you.”
“How astute of you. I’m sure you will understand if I get on about my business and don’t waste time on my father’s mistress. If you are looking for daddy dearest you will find him at home. In bed. With his wife.”
L C held the briefcase out in front of her. “Your father’s, I believe. You should recognize it.”
“You don’t say. Are you here to tell me you are going to give me a little brother or sister? Why don’t you take it to my father? I’m sure he has more use for it than I do.”
“Because of what is in it.”
“I won’t bother to ask you what that is. I bet you are going to tell me whether I want to hear or not.”
“You want to hear.”
“Then by all means don’t keep me in suspense. Tell me all the juicy details.” Peaches took a package of cigarettes out of her purse. Tapped the pack against her left palm. “I’m ready.”
“It is all the blackmail evidence. It shows that your father has been playing the cheating game for years. Before he met me and said he was Nathaniel Norman he was Michael Madrone. I’m not sure who he was before that.”
“Daddy was never very original. He started out with Adam Abernathy. You are pretty far down his list.”
“Yeah. I figured that one out already. Daddy might have been able to weather being an adulterer, but there is proof in here that mommy was not Miss Innocent either. She has been bilking the company she works for for years. What’s in here can put her in jail for a long time.”
“What can I say. The women in my family like nice things. My shoes cost more than your entire wardrobe. Too bad.”
Lonnie set the recorder down on the dash. Picked up the binoculars and looked through them. His hands began to sweat. He hated it when his hands sweated. Especially around women. Made him feel like a stupid little kid. Didn’t matter where else you sweated, you could always pretend it wasn’t happening. But your hands. How did you hide your hands?
“You don’t seem concerned your mother and father’s lives can be ruined by what is in here.”
“They lived their lives. Now it is time for me to live mine.”
“Not so sure about that.”
“Oh? And why not?”
“What’s in this briefcase shows that Peter Johnson was blackmailing your family. Seems your mommy and daddy were going to give him your college fund. Five Hundred thousand dollars. Do I have that right?”
“And all of that is in the briefcase right here?”
“That it is.”
“Doesn’t matter now does it. Mr. Johnson is dead. You know when I was a little girl I used to think of him as an uncle? Him and my dad were best friends. It never dawned on me one day the two of them would get together and try to destroy my life.”
Lonnie began to tap his feet. “God, what are they doing down there? The afternoon news? Talk. Talk. Talk. Just get to the point. Have her admit she committed murder, get back in the car and get out of here.”
“It is a wonder you didn’t kill your dad too.”
“Thought about it. So what?”
L C tapped the briefcase meaningfully. “The proof is in here. You only thought about killing your dad, but you did kill Peter Johnson. You weren’t going to let him stop you from going to college, from living the good life. So you killed him in cold blood.”
Lonnie was slapping the steering wheel with his hands and rocking back and forth now. “You’re lying. That isn’t in there. I can hear it in your voice. That Peaches slut is going to hear it too and she is going to know you are lying. She will never admit anything and this is all going to be a big waste because you don’t know how to lie. You should have had me do it. I know how to lie. Your voice is all wrong and you are going to screw it up.”
Peaches laughed. She had a charming laugh. “And all your proof is in there?” she pointed to the briefcase.”
“It is all here.” L C smiled back, just as charming, for all the world as though they were two high school girls discussing what to wear to the prom.
“Well,”said Peaches. “You are wrong.”
Lonnie groaned and banged his head against the steering wheel. “I knew it. I knew it. You blew it. You blew it. I knew it you blew it. We should have done like they do on TV. Put a bug in your ear so I could talk to you while you were talking to her so I could talk to you and talk you threw it and if you listened to me then everything would have worked out okay but you never listened to me and now everything is all screwed up.”
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The Homewrecker Series (tm) 
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