Author: Victoria Hamilton
Series: Vintage Kitchen Mysteries
Title: Bowled Over
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Pub. Date: March 2013
Excerpt from Bowled Over:
Jaymie Leighton, the protagonist
of the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, is in her local mom and pop store picking up
a few things when her lifelong nemesis, her one-time friend turned enemy from
high school, Kathy Cooper, enters.
This is the moment when
everything begins to go bad…
~::~
Jaymie stiffened and riveted her
gaze on her basket reservation book. Kathy Cooper, once Kathy Hofstadter,
Jaymie’s only enemy, had just entered the store. The bad blood between
them—mysterious to Jaymie, because she had never found out what caused it—was
so deeply ingrained that Jaymie normally slunk out of the store when Kathy came
in. She was a coward, she admitted it freely, but Kathy could be extremely
unpleasant when she wanted, and it had caused rifts over the years, forcing
mutual friends to choose sides in the mysterious conflict.
This time Jaymie straightened her
back and took a deep breath. Turning, as Kathy made her way down the aisle, she
spotted the little tow-headed boy hand-in-hand with her. This must be Connor,
Kathy’s nephew. Jaymie had heard about the little boy, though she’d never seen
him. Determined to mend their broken friendship from school days, she moved
into the aisle in front of her once-upon-a-time friend and said, a forced smile
on her lips, “Hi, Kathy.”
Kathy turned away, as if she had
not heard Jaymie, and said, “Mr. Klausner, (the
store owner) did you ever get that Dinkle’s Herbal Products catalogue I
ordered?”
Mr. Klausner looked up, his
rheumy eye made huge by the magnifying glass, and held up a magazine. Kathy,
her little nephew trotting behind her, advanced to the cashier’s desk and took
it, then walked toward the back of the store.
It was as if Jaymie wasn’t there.
Anger flared in her, but she calmed herself with a few deep breaths. She would
not be defeated. She followed. “Kathy,” she said, gentling her voice so as not
to frighten the little guy, who watched her with cautious attentiveness.
“Kathy, I just wanted to say, I really hope someday we can be friends again. I
don’t know what I ever did to make you mad, but it was so long ago, can’t you
forgive and forget?” She’d said it all before, but some day the magic words
might work.
Kathy turned, slowly, from
looking at a display of herbal remedies along the pharmacy wall, and fixed her
brown-eyed gaze on Jaymie. Ella Douglas (a
wheelchair bound pharmacy customer) and Valetta (Jaymie’s friend and a pharmacist) were talking, their voices low,
their attention taken by whatever it was they were saying. “The fact that you
can stand there and claim not to know what you did just astounds me.”
“But I don’t know, Kathy, I’ve never known.”
Kathy turned away from her and
moved on, apparently intent on the herbal remedies before her…
Jaymie turned away, pretending to
look at the hair care products while she debated with herself what to do about
Kathy.
Ella used the joystick on her
wheelchair to turn and she examined the line of herbal remedies near Kathy, who
had turned her shoulder and had her cell phone out.
“Crap!” Kathy said. “What the
hell is this?” She tapped away at the tiny keyboard while Connor pivoted idly
on his heel.
Jaymie considered trying to
approach Kathy again, but decided against it. Her one-time friend was staring
at her cell phone with an angry frown, while her nephew tugged at the hem of
her t-shirt.
“Connor, let go!” Kathy said,
swatting at his hand. “Can’t you see I’m busy right now?” The boy began running
his hands along the vitamin bottles on the closest shelf, humming tunelessly as
he did.
Giving it up as useless to try to
sort things out with Kathy while her nephew was there, Jaymie turned away and was
about to call out to Valetta that she’d see her later, when the little boy
screeched and wailed. Ella Douglas cried out and moved her wheelchair rapidly,
and the little boy hopped up and down, his face becoming red as tears trickled
down his cheeks.
“Connor, Connor!” Kathy cried,
whirling around. She knelt at his side, as he moaned and muttered. “What did
you do to him?” Kathy said, looking up at first Jaymie, then at Ella.
“M-my footie!” the boy wailed,
pointing to Ella’s wheelchair. “She wan o-o-over me!” he howled, his voice
catching between sobs.
“Oh, no! I must not have seen
him,” Ella cried, a look of distress on her wan face, sickly in the fluorescent
lighting of the Emporium that glared off of her glasses. “Is he okay?”
Valetta came tearing out from the
pharmacy just as old Mr. Klausner tapped down the wood aisle with his cane, his
gait a thump-thump-tap counterpoint to Connor’s crying, Kathy’s shouted
accusations, Ella’s thin, reedy denials and Valetta’s demands to know what
happened.
“She ran over Connor!” Kathy
yelled, jabbing a finger in Ella’s direction.
“Not on purpose,” Jaymie said.
“So you know what she’s
thinking?” Kathy said, straightening.
“Wan grampa! Wan grampa!” Connor
shrilled.
“Connor, no!” Kathy said. “Your grandpa doesn’t want you!”
“How could you say that to him?”
Jaymie cried, appalled.
“What do you know about
anything?” Kathy said, thrusting her face in Jaymie’s.
“Ladies, cut it out!” Valetta
said.
“I didn’t mean it, I didn’t…
honest!” Ella shrilled, a sob in her voice. She covered her face with her pale,
thin hands.
Connor was silent now, his tears
drying as his gaze slewed between the adults, watching the brewing storm with
interest on his thin, intelligent face.
“Ella wouldn’t have run over
Connor’s toes on purpose!” Jaymie said, glancing at the wheelchair bound woman,
who was sobbing into her hands. Valetta knelt by her side and tried to calm
her.
“Are you calling my nephew a
liar?”
“When did I call him a liar?” Jaymie asked.
“I didn’t see him, really!” Ella
cried, her voice thick with tears. She put out her hands in an imploring
gesture. “Please, is he all right?” She reached out to Connor, trying to grab
his shoulder. “Are you all right, little boy?”
Kathy pulled him away and he
clutched a hold of his aunt’s leg. “Professional victim, aren’t you, Eleanor? Why’d you change your name?
Hoping people wouldn’t remember what a nasty piece of work you were?” She
grabbed Connor’s hand and tugged him down the aisle. Connor didn’t appear to be
limping as he trotted after his aunt.
After Kathy was gone, Valetta and
Jaymie looked at each other over Ella’s head. “What was that all about?”
Valetta asked, as Ella sniffled and blew her nose.
“I have no idea.”
Giveaway: For all the details click here
~::~
Meet the author:
Victoria Hamilton writes the
bestselling Vintage Kitchen Mystery series (Book 1 – A Deadly Grind – May 2012)
and the upcoming Merry Muffin Mysteries, also from Berkley (Book 1 – Bran New
Death – September 3rd, 2013)
Victoria loves cooking and collecting vintage kitchen utensils, as well
as reading and writing mysteries. Check out her webpage for all the latest: http://www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.com
and find her on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaHamilton
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