Dead on the Bayou. June Shaw
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Cover Copy
It may be easier to patch up an old home than a broken heart. But along the Louisiana bayou, where beauty and danger mingle all too seamlessly, thoughts of romance may have to simmer on the back burner . . .
Twin sisters and fellow divorcees Sunny Taylor and Eve Vaughn have established their home repair and remodeling business with an eye toward quality and personal attention. So when they’re approached by hunky Dave Price to fix up his bayou fishing camp, they’re more than happy to take the job—especially since they both secretly think he may prove to be more than just another satisfied customer . . .
The ramshackle campsite could certainly use a woman’s touch. What it does not need is a dead body—but that’s what the trio stumble across. Clearly, the poor soul was murdered—and once the town tongue-waggers get going, Sunny, Eve, and Dave come under suspicion of the police, not to mention potential clients . . .
Now, with their futures on the line, their brewing love triangle will have to wait. Helped—and harried—by the twins’ mother and her retirement home’s cadre of amateur sleuths, the trio starts snooping on their own. But when another dead body turns up, they’ll have to get their hands dirtier than a swamp-bottom snake if they hope to clear their names . . .
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Books by June Shaw
Twin Sisters Mysteries
A Fatal Romance
Dead On the Bayou
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
Dead On the Bayou
A Twin Sisters Mystery
June Shaw
LYRICAL PRESS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
www.kensingtonbooks.com
Copyright
Lyrical Press books are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2017 by June Shaw
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First Electronic Edition: August 2017
eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0093-4
eISBN-10: 1-5161-0093-X
First Print Edition: August 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0096-5
ISBN-10: 1-5161-0096-4
Printed in the United States of America
Dedication
For Bob and all my family—You are my reason for being
Acknowledgements
My family and friends, I don’t know what I would do without you. Thank you for all of your encouragement and love.
For years I saw through SOLA, my RWA writers group in New Orleans, that becoming an author of books people wanted to read was possible and increasingly probable. What a tremendous group of friends.
I learned so much about writing mysteries from countless people in Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Guppies. It’s amazing how much other writers want to share with you and want you to succeed. Thank you.
Thank you, God, for all of the blessings in my life, especially the people.
Thanks to all the folks from South Louisiana. Y’all rock like no others, bless your hearts.
Working with Lyrical Press has been truly amazing. Marci Clark does an excellent job editing my work. Managing Director Renee Rocco is wonderful and has people continue to work on books until they shine, so I guarantee you any errors that might still occur are all mine.
To you, my readers, my words on the page would sit alone without you. I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to share my imagination with you. I really love to have you contact me and write reviews. Reviews truly help authors survive.
Chapter 1
I had never seen my identical twin Eve so content and so miserable. While cicadas screamed and the sun began its slow descent, a small group of family and friends stood in her windy front yard, one emotion of hers twisting into the other when the corners of her clear blue eyes lifted and an instant later drooped. Their sparkle dulled and her face saddened as she looked at the baby in her arms that she would soon need to give away.
The wind blew her flame-red waves across her face while she snuggled her weeks-old grandchild Noah, pressing the pink-faced bundle against her tall slender body as though she needed him there for her to continue to breathe.
Her daughter Nicole stepped closer to them and pulled the white medical mask off her own face and stretched out her arms. With a soft sigh, Eve pressed a lingering kiss on the baby’s forehead and handed him over.
“Oh, my God, how wonderful it feels to get to take him home.” The young woman who looked like a small replica of her mother planted kisses all around the boy’s tiny face. “Mom, thank you so much for keeping him.” She squeezed my sister’s hand.
“The pleasure was mine.” Eve’s shoulders remained stiff, as though she were forcing herself to stay back, although she probably wanted to keep both of them inside her arms.
I knew the feeling, but surely not with as much intensity as she experienced. I reached the index finger of my right hand out, slid it beneath Noah’s fingers, and for the last time felt the snug grip of his small hand. Yes, I also wanted to keep the only child in our family around. I also longed to rock him again on Eve’s comfy rocker bought only for him, and smell his new baby-powdery smells, and snuggle with him. I lived on the next street, so I had been around him often. Now they were taking him to another state.
“Aunt Sunny, thank you for helping Miss Eve take care of him.” Nicole’s husband Randy, a nice fellow of average height and build, gave Eve and me quick hugs. “Y’all need to come out and see us in Houston sometime.”
Both of us nodded, neither saying a word while they buckled the babe into his sturdy infant seat in the backseat of the car, but others who’d had dessert with us didn’t remain quiet.