Rip Tide (A Ripple Effect Cozy Mystery, Book 2)

Rip Tide

A Ripple Effect Cozy Mystery

Book Two

by

Jeanne Glidewell

Published by
ePublishing Works!

www.epublishingworks.com

ISBN: 978-1-61417-820-0

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Please Note

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Copyright © 2015 by Jeanne Glidewell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

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Dedication

This story takes place in Rockport, Rip and Rapella Ripple's hometown on the Coastal Bend (Gulf Coast) in south Texas. My husband Bob, Dolly, the best traveling cat we've ever owned, and I, spend much of our time there, too, in our waterfront condo on Key Allegro Island. Heaven to me is relaxing on our back deck with a cup of coffee, after a successful day of wade-fishing, and enjoying a beautiful sunset from our hard-to-beat viewpoint on Little Bay. I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate this book to a few of my most beloved Rockport friends: Cheri Sheets, Barb Harrison, Cindy Colmer, and Sue Hale. These ladies not only support me in my writing career, but they're also a lot of fun to hang out with, go fishing with, and just spend time with doing all sorts of amusing and entertaining things. They play no small part in why Rockport, Texas, is my favorite place in the entire world. Thanks for all the great times we've had, ladies! And here's to many, many more in the future!

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my editors, Alice Duncan of Roswell, New Mexico, and Judy Beatty of Madison, Alabama, who take very good care of my manuscripts. I'd also like to thank Nina and Brian Paules, of eBook Prep and ePublishing Works, who take very good care of my books after Alice and Judy are through with them. All four are very special people and incredible to work with.

I'd also like to thank two women I met through messages they sent me via my website,
www.jeanneglidewell.com
, whom I now consider friends. They are Yvonne Pineiro, of Centereach, New York, and Shirley Worley of Shawnee, Kansas. My thanks to Yvonne, an incredibly talented artist, for her random acts of kindness and for providing me with inspiration. Using a photo she took off my Facebook page of baby elephants I'd photographed while on a Kenya Safari, Yvonne sent me a beautiful framed print she'd drawn of it. Her breathtaking drawing now hangs proudly in the entryway of our Kansas home. You can see and/or purchase some of Yvonne's amazing work via her online store −
www.amazon.com/handmade/studioyp

I also greatly appreciate Shirley, an author in her own right, for her proofreading skills. Having completed her debut novel,
Easy Money
, she is currently writing a sequel. It's nice to have Shirley's sharp eye to catch obscure and occasionally bizarre errors
before
the books are released. The ones she doesn't catch—that's all on me!

Character List

Rapella Ripple
—A spunky senior citizen and full-time RVer who's determined to track down the killer of her son-in-law's best friend and business partner when Milo lands on the top of the suspect list. Despite being miffed when her daughter, Regina, refers to her parents as "rednecks," nothing says "Get 'er done" quite like Rapella.

Clyde "Rip" Ripple
—When a murder is committed in the county where he once served as Sheriff, the other half of this sixty-eight-year old couple is miffed when he's banned from the police station by the man he'd groomed to replace him. Sheriff Joe Peabody considers Rip's involvement a "conflict of interest."

Regina Ripple
—The Ripple's fifty-year-old daughter is miffed when her husband won't consent to buying her a new high-dollar vehicle. Perhaps she's unaware of the true reason Milo is denying her this luxury she feels she so greatly deserves. Much to Rapella's chagrin, Reggie and her mother are polar opposites when it comes to money.

Milo Ripple
—A nasty bar brawl ensues after Milo becomes miffed at his best friend when Cooper Claypool's poor judgment threatens the future of their co-owned business. Having no verifiable alibi and a perceived motive to kill, Milo is considered a good candidate for the title of "killer." His boneheaded and tight-fisted tendencies frustrate Rip, who is trying to clear his son-in-law's name. Are all of Milo's in-laws' efforts in vain?

Cooper Claypool
—This victim of a gruesome death is found floating, spear-side up in the Gulf of Mexico. Miffed at being blindsided by his best friend's ire the previous day, he had opted to go spear-fishing alone. Perhaps he needed to give his mind and heart a chance to cool off. But being shot dead with one's own spear-gun is just plain cold-hearted.

Big Bob
—Big Bob is miffed when he feels as though he's being stalked by a determined senior citizen. Could this large gap-toothed man be someone other than who Rapella thinks he is?

Dr. Patrick O'Keefe
—Newly divorced, this general practitioner is miffed that his ex-wife, Avery Curry, is fighting him for custody of Liz, while she's shacking up with the murder victim. And Rapella's habit of cooling him off doesn't unmiff him any, either. Could his most recent "operation" have been an ominous plan carried out to eliminate the competition?

Avery Curry
—The victim's current live-in girlfriend is more panicked than miffed when she's asked to cook up something she doesn't have a clue how to prepare. Her miffedness subsides when an unexpected Master Chef steps in and tries to help pull her backside out of the fire. But was her professed love for Cooper Claypool sincere?

The Schillings
—Both Mack and Trey are miffed when MC Hammerhead Construction Company fails to hold up their end of the deal. How far will the father-and-son team go to get even?

Julio Sarcova
—A local barber and former customer of Milo and Cooper's who becomes miffed when his young son's health is compromised by MC Hammerhead's less than professional standards. Did Julio find time between protests to exact justice on his son's behalf?

"Captain Hook"
—An unidentified menace who's determined to recoup the funds owed his boss. This dude stays miffed. But without a lofty level of miffedness he couldn't intimidate debtors over the phone as effectively. The Ripples suspect Captain Hook is a moniker for the real killer and could possibly be someone they're already investigating as a potential perpetrator. Is this dude miffed enough to actually eliminate debtors who don't cave into the pressure?

Philip Bean, a.k.a. "Pinto"
—A local fisherman who's miffed that the over-harvesting of oysters was forcing him to stretch every dollar to the max just to eke out a living. After all, he has to pay the crew even when the day's booty ain't worth a hill of
bean
s. It's said killers often return to the scene of the crime. Is this adage true in this crime?