Mahjonged (An Alex Harris Mystery) (31 page)

“What the heck is wrong with your eyes?”

So much for trying to be seductive. I tried to turn away, but he grabbed hold of my hands and held them, a bit too tightly if you asked me. This certainly wasn’t the reunion I planned on.

“Alex? Talk to me? What have you been up to?”

“Why do you think I’ve been up to something?”

“You’re covered in crime scene tape,” he said with his voice raised much too high to suit me.

“Well, if you’re going to yell, John…” I began, trying my delaying tactic again.

“And I want you to start at the very beginning. Don’t leave anything out. I mean it.”

“At the very beginning?” I asked thinking he should really watch what he wished for.

“At the very beginning.”

“Okay. Well,” I said taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “It was a dark and stormy night.”

The End

Elaine Macko is a transplanted New Englander living in California. From a very young age, she possessed an over-active imagination finding intrigue and mayhem in everyday situations, often with hilarious results.

In the 1980s bored with life in general, it was time to change direction. Signing up for a six-day vacation to London and Brussels in the dead of winter, Elaine found time to meet and fall in love with a local Belgian man and extended her trip to last 12 years. While living abroad Elaine became a board member of a charitable organization and taught Mexican cooking classes to the expatriate community. With a love of writing always lingering on the back burner, Elaine decided to try her hand writing a mystery and after several months, completed a draft of her first book,
Armed
, and moved on to three other books in the series.

Elaine never forgot her New England roots and centers her books in the fictional town of Indian Cove, Connecticut. Each book includes a European connection bringing together her love of both places.

An active member of Sisters in Crime, Elaine takes comfort in knowing that there are many others like her out there spending all their free time trying to come up with inventive ways to kill people.

• Title page
  
• CHAPTER ONE
  
• CHAPTER TWO
  
• CHAPTER THREE
  
• CHAPTER FOUR
  
• CHAPTER FIVE
  
• CHAPTER SIX
  
• CHAPTER SEVEN
  
• CHAPTER EIGHT
  
• CHAPTER NINE
  
• CHAPTER TEN
  
• CHAPTER ELEVEN
  
• CHAPTER TWELVE
  
• CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  
• CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  
• CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  
• CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  
• CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  
• CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  
• CHAPTER NINETEEN
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  
• CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  
• CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  
• CHAPTER FORTY
  
• CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  
• CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  
• CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  
• CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  
• CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  
• CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  
• CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  
• CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  
• CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
  
• CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
  
• CHAPTER SIXTY
  
• CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
  
• CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
  
• CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
  
• CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
  
• CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
  
• CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
  
• CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
  
• CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
  
• BIO