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Harvest House Publishers, Inc. - Clark Mindy Starns

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192 pages

English

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Mindy Starns Clark's first two books in the Smart Chick Mystery seriesThe Trouble with Tulip and Blind Dates Can Be Murderare followed with more love and adventure in this final, suspense-filled book.When someone tries to push Jo Tulip in front of a New York train, her ex-fiance, Bradford, suffers an injury while saving herand the unintentional sleuth is thrown onto the tracks of a very personal mystery.Jo's boyfriend, Danny Watkins, is away in Paris, so she begins a solo investigation of her near-murder. What secret was Bradford about to share before he took the fall? And when Jo uncovers clues tied to Europe, can she and Danny work together in time to save her life?

Sujets

Romance

Thriller

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Publié par	Harvest House Publishers, Inc.
Date de parution	01 janvier 2007
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780736933025
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0462€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Cover by Terry Dugan Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Cover photo Christopher Wilhelm / Photodisc Red / Getty Images
ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATKINS
Copyright 2007 by Mindy Starns Clark Published by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon 97402 www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Clark, Mindy Starns.
Elementary, my dear Watkins / Mindy Starns Clark.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7369-1487-1
ISBN-10: 0-7369-1487-0
1. Tulip, Jo (Fictitious character)-Fiction. 2. Westchester County (N.Y.)-Fiction. I. Title.
PS3603.L366E44 2007
813. 54-dc22
2006028635
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 / BP-CF / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
About the Author
Discover the First Smart Chick Mystery: The Trouble with Tulip
Discover the Second Smart Chick Mystery: Blind Dates can be Murder
This book is dedicated to Kim Moore, Christlike example of love and service, editor extraordinaire, and dear friend. You are such a blessing in my life!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many, many thanks to:
John Clark, for everything.
Emily and Lauren Clark, my precious daughters, who really had to go the extra mile for this one.
Jackie Starns, my mom and friend and the best cheerleader going.
My trusted staff of medical advisors : Robert M. Starns, MD, J.K. Wolf, MD, and D.P. Lyle, MD.
Fran Severn, for Chewie. I hope he enjoyed the ride!
The lovely folks at Harvest House Publishers, who are always living examples of the One we serve.
My small groups at FVCN, both of which contain some mighty prayer warriors.
Those who bless me with their hospitality just when I need it most: Larry and Bebe Hebling, Ned and Marie Scannell, and the Teske-White Family.
Some great brainstormers and idea people, including Sharon Pontillas, DiAnn Mills, Josh Himes, and Sharon Wildwind.
Miriam Stein, Siri Mitchell, and Tim and Peggy Wright, for sharing their areas of expertise.
The brilliant minds of DorothyL, especially Colleen Barnett, Wendy Bartlett, Sarah Bewley, BA Bolton, Carl Brookins, Alafair Burke, Tony Burton, Lee Carper, Tammy Cravit, Carola Dunn, Ellen H. Ehrig, Sarah Fisher, Sara Hoskinson Frommer, Anne M Jones, Clyde Linsley, Kay Martinez, Shelley McKibbon, Meredith Phillips, Jeanna Schilling, Triss Stein, Cathy Strasser, Shannon Surly, and Cindy Williams.
Chi Libris, for being there in so many ways. Truly, I couldn t do this without you!
Introduction
1
J o Tulip sat across from the detective, trying not to be distracted by his tie. It was obviously silk, but it was flat and dull and very much in need of freshening. She wondered if it would seem intrusive if she advised him to turn his iron on the highest setting, wrap a damp cloth over the soleplate of the iron, and run it back and forth directly over the fabric, almost but not quite touching it. The steam would bring the tie back to life nicely, for sure.
That s as close as we gonna get to this person, unless we stake out the library, the detective was saying in a thick Bronx accent. And that s not gonna happen. So I guess it ends here, least til something further develops. But thanks for bringing the situation to our attention.
Jo took her gaze from the man s tie and met his eyes. He was in his mid-forties, chubby and red cheeked, with a collar too tight for his thick neck.
Until something further develops, she repeated. You mean like when somebody gets hurt? Or even killed?
He glanced at his watch.
I m sorry, but at this point, we can t justify the manpower for a stakeout if there s been no real crime.
But look at his second e-mail. It says something s going to happen in a day or two. He wrote that one on Monday-and it s already Wednesday!
So maybe whatever he was talking about is over and done with by now. Like I said, there s really nothing we can do about it anyway.
Jo sighed heavily, wishing Chief Cooper had come with her. His official cop presence might have carried more weight with this guy than she obviously did. Harvey Cooper, who was both a friend and the local police chief for her hometown, had helped trace the source of the strange e-mail Jo had received at her Tips from Tulip website, a trail which led to a library in Kreston, New York. The police there hadn t responded with much interest to the chief s report or Jo s subsequent phone calls, so she had decided to stop by the Kreston station today in person, since she had to come up to nearby Manhattan for an appointment with an orthopedic specialist anyway.
Now that Jo was there in person, however, she was still hitting a very frustrating dead end. The detective who had agreed to meet with her had contacted the library, but they said that since a library card was not required for using the computers, there was no way to check their records to learn the real identity of the person who had been online at the time the e-mails were sent.
Chances are, the person with that e-mail address will be back again, Jo said to the reticent detective. I believe you can put some sort of electronic alert system on the computers in the library. Then if this person logs on again, you ll be notified and can move in and apprehend them.
No can do.
At the very least, couldn t you stake out the library between seven and eight each night? He sent the first one at 7:43 last Thursday and the second one at 7:22 on Monday. Obviously, he has some sort of routine. Can t you at least try?
The detective shook his head.
Again, kind of hard to apprehend someone who ain t done nothing wrong. There s been no real crime here. He just says he knows someone whose life is in danger. That could mean a lot of things. Maybe his wife s brake cables are nearly shot or his brother keeps playing golf in a thunderstorm or his diabetic mother won t stop eating ice cream. We got no way of knowing.
But-
Or it could be a woman, he continued, clearly on a roll, maybe worried that her husband s been drinking too much or that her best friend joined a motorcycle gang. Whatever. There just isn t enough information here for us to act on.
Jo shook her head. Surely, that s not what this person-man or woman-meant.
He, or she, whatever, called what s going to happen a crime , she argued. They said they can t get involved because in the past they ve had their own mix-ups with the law. It sounds very serious to me.
The detective looked at her with what seemed to be a cross between scorn and pity, as if he were sorry she was quite so dumb.
Miss Tulip, he said, patting his tie and tucking it into his jacket, as a celebrity, surely you know there are nuts of all kinds out there, and some of them love nothin more than to play with the heads of good folks like you.
I m not exactly a celebrity. I just write a newspaper column.
Yeah, a nationwide newspaper column, which makes you a lot more well-known than the average person. I mean, we appreciate what you ve done to track this down and all, but I think you re gonna have to write this one off as a prank. You ve written back, urging this person to contact the authorities. I think that s the most you can do.
Jo watched as the man slipped the papers she had brought into a manila folder and then placed the folder on top of a filing cabinet behind him. She felt sure that the moment she walked out of the door that folder would somehow find its way into the trash. But what else could she do?
Actually, she knew exactly what she could do-and it didn t involve trying to convince this guy with logic or reason. It was time to pull some strings over his head.
Well, I appreciate your time, she said, standing. If you re not going to follow up, may I have my paperwork back, please?
Uh, sure, he said, handing her the file.
Thanks, Jo said, adding the words for nothing in her mind.
No prob, he replied, standing as well.
As Jo limped toward the door, trying to keep her weight off her injured foot, she started to turn around to tell him about the benefits of using steam on silk. But then she decided she wouldn t.
A man with that kind of attitude deserved to walk around with an unfreshened tie.

Danny skipped down the steps of the M tro , relieved to see a crowd waiting at the platform and his train just coming to a stop. He had cut it so close, he was afraid he might have missed it.
The doors opened with a whoosh and he climbed aboard with the others, taking a seat on the gray plastic bench along the wall. As he did, he glanced at his watch and calculated the time back home in the States. It was 6:28 in the evening, Paris time, which meant 12:28 in the afternoon in Pennsylvania. For some reason, the longer he and Jo were apart, the more frequently he felt the need to calculate the time difference and think about her and picture what she might be doing at that moment. Right now, she was