BooksBarbecue
Back Murder Past Due
Chapters (36)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Acknowledgements
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE

Patty grinned, and I knew the minute I left she’d be on the phone with Melba, reporting my comment.

“So Godfrey came to the store to sign books, I guess.” If I didn’t steer the subject back to Godfrey, no telling what Patty, trying to get a response from me, would say about Melba next.

“Not as often as he should have.” Patty frowned. “You’d think Mr. High-and-Mighty Bestselling Author would have the decency to help out his hometown bookstore. But not him. He was too good for us.”

“You mean he wouldn’t sign here?” That was rather ugly of Godfrey, if it was true.

“Well, he did sign a couple of times,” Patty said. “But the last time he was going to come, he canceled at the last minute and went over to that big chain bookstore out on the highway instead. The jerk.”

“What are you talking about?” Jordan and Diesel walked up to us, and I could tell that Jordan wasn’t happy as she gave Diesel’s leash back to me. Diesel stared back and forth between us, sensing the sudden tension in the room.

“About Godfrey Priest,” Patty said, not the least fazed by Jordan’s forbidding expression. “And about the dirty trick he played on us the last time he was supposed to sign here.”

“We all have better things to do with our time than talk about that jackass,” Jordan said. “You need to finish checking those backlist orders.” She turned and stalked off.

Patty waited until Jordan was safely out of earshot before moving a step closer to me and Diesel. “She used to be in love with him, you know.”

“Really?” I felt awkward. This was the kind of thing I had come for, but it suddenly seemed a bit embarrassing.

Patty was not embarrassed. “Oh yeah, she would go off to those mystery conventions, when he was still showing up at them, and I think they had a big ol’ fling. But then he must’ve dumped her.”

“That’s too bad. He did have a terrible reputation with women, though.” I kept an eye on the back room. Jordan might reappear at any moment, and I didn’t want her to catch us.

“And that was when he stopped coming to the store.” Patty sounded triumphant, as if she’d just solved a puzzle.

That was interesting. Hell hath no fury, etc. Not to mention a bookstore owner whose business could be hurt by the defection of a big-selling writer.

Jordan stuck her head out of the back room. “Patty, have you started on that backlist order yet?”