The Mystery Megapack Read Free

been aware that Kate had practiced on the firing range with Charlie Kennedy for years. Nor had they known Marlene was a champion swimmer. Or that her big heart wouldn’t allow even slime like Clive Weber to drown without making an effort to save him.
    A few minutes passed in silence as the captain fought to keep the Shady Lady stable. An exhausted Marlene heaved herself over the railing. No Clive.
    With the gun to his head, and fighting the rough sea, Captain Mike steered the Shady Lady back to Palmetto Beach.
    “Look, dead ahead. There’s the lighthouse,” Marlene shouted. They entered the inlet, the rain stopped, the wind abated, and Kate reached the Coast Guard.
    * * * *
    “Even when you two aren’t playing Miss Marple, trouble just leaps into your laps, doesn’t it?” Palmetto Beach Homicide Detective Nick Carbone frowned.
    Carbone, less than a friend, yet more than a colleague in crime solving, and Kate had investigated (though he called her contribution “snooping”) a murder case a few months ago and formed a grudging respect for each other.
    Exactly twenty-four hours after Kate and Marlene had disembarked from the Shady Lady , they were sipping chocolate ice cream sods in Dinah’s, maybe the last coffee shop in America that allowed small, well-behaved pets to accompany their mistresses. Ballou sat happily at Detective Carbone’s feet. Humph. Nick must be sneaking the Westie whipped cream.
    “So, Detective, are you going to give us the scoop or what?” Marlene sipped her soda. “After all, we brought the bad guys in.”
    “Indeed you did.” Carbone looked over at Kate. “According to Mike Hastings—that’s the captain—the Shady Lady moonlighted several nights a month as a transport ship, smuggling Cubans into the United States. But Clive Weber got greedy, using the Lady to bring in drugs from Bimini. The captain, suspicious about the amount of fuel used when the boat supposedly was in port, spied on Clive. Then, together with his partners, Connie and Bob Dalton, the captain hired an actor, who did a little moonlighting himself as a hit man, to give the performance of his career.”
    “Killing Clive,” Kate said.
    “Was Clive dead in the water?’ Marlene asked. “Did you find his body?”
    “Yes. He washed up on Deerfield Beach an hour ago. A bullet in his brain.”
    Kate let out a sad, little gasp. Ballou nuzzled her ankle.
    “You two, as older women, were specifically chosen to be their audience, to bear witness to Clive’s murder by a crazed Cuban who, after having killed the Holiday USA host, would—as scripted—jump into the dingy and take off.”
    “Older women with gusto,” Marlene said.
    Nick Carbone smiled. “Right. And those characters never had a clue your improvisations would bring down their final curtain.”
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    As Nora Charles, Noreen Wald is the author of Berkley Prime Crime’s South Florida Senior Sleuth Series starring Kate Kennedy as a modern Ms. Marple.
    As Noreen Wald, she wrote the Ghostwriter Mystery Series with Jake O’Hara as a New York City ghost, whose assignments are murder.
    Noreen served as Executive Vice-President of Mystery Writers of America National Board and was the founding president of its Mid-Atlantic Chapter.
    Her nonfiction books are: Foxy Forever, How to be Foxy at Fifty, Sexy at Sixty and Fabulous Forever —St. Martin’s Press, and Contestant: The Success Secrets of a Game Show Veteran , Avon Books.

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, by Art Taylor
    Caroline leaned weakly on Edward’s arm as they were herded along endless cement walkways and down another flight of stairs. Edward, standing tall to offer better support, had twice glimpsed the sparkling blue and gold train, but he worried that it was taking so long to reach it. After the champagne kir and the delightful bottle of Chateau de Gaudou on the Pullman carriage and the mysterious blush which they had been given in the reception area in Folkestone, the SeaCat’s turbulent