Swan Song
Authors: Judith K. Ivie
Swan Song
by
Judith K. Ivie
Mainly Murder Press, LLC
Wethersfield, CT 06109
Mainly Murder Press
Copy Editor: Paula Knudson
Cover Designer: Karen A. Phillips
All rights reserved
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Copyright © 2016 by Judith K. Ivie
Paperback ISBN 978-0-9861780-8-5
Ebook ISBN 978-0-9861780-9-2
Published in the United States of America by
Mainly Murder Press, LLC
Wethersfield, CT 06109
www.MainlyMurderPress.com
~
Dedicated to “The Karens” …
… talented cover designer, Karen A. Phillips,
and wizard webmaster, Karen McCullough.
Your creativity and professionalism have done
much to maintain my faith in human nature
for lo these many years. Thank you.
~
The Kate Lawrence Mysteries
(in order of publication)
Waiting for Armando
Murder on Old Main Street
A Skeleton in the Closet
Drowning in Christmas
Dying Wishes
Auld Lang Syne
Dirty Tricks
Swan Song
~
Available in trade paperback at:
Heart of the Country, Wethersfield, CT
Barnes & Noble, Glastonbury and Farmington, CT
Amazon.com
Available in a variety of e-book formats at:
Amazon.com
Available in downloadable audio formats at:
Amazon.com
Audible.com
A special note to my bird-loving readers
It’s so kind of you to want to help out our feathered friends, especially during the hard winter months, but I need to tell you something I myself didn’t know until a few years ago: The digestive tracts of waterfowl and other birds are not equipped to digest bread, crackers, popcorn and other starchy stuff made from processed flour. In fact, these things can make them very sick and contribute to the spread of avian botulism.
Birdseed is widely available in packages that state the types of birds for which it is intended—and ducks, geese and swans, as long as they can find open water, can mostly feed themselves.
Birds that can’t fly to open water because of injuries usually spend the winter in marshes fed by springs and moving streams. Helping them out is a good thing during tough winter months, but not with bread or junk food. Bring them some [b]
cracked corn
[b], which you can purchase from feed stores, nurseries, pet supply stores and even the grocery store these days very affordably. Please pass this information along—and thanks so much for caring.
--Judith K. Ivie
“I can’t believe you talked me into this, Auntie May,” Margo groused as we rode the escalator up from the lobby of the Hartford Hilton. She tucked a stray wisp of hair back into her blonde chignon. “Two and a half days of mostly bad writers swannin’ around playing author and tryin’ to sell their books to each other in the middle of February. You’d think they would have booked a place in Florida. Is the bar on this level, Kate?” She craned her elegant neck as we neared the end of our ascent and followed May into a crowded meet-and-mingle space on the mezzanine level. I trailed behind.
“If either one of you finds it, let me know. After the day we had, my soul requires Jim Beam,” her aunt replied with some tartness.
I peered hopefully into the crowd, which seemed to be clustered at the rear of the large, open room. I pointed. “Bet it’s back there. Too bad there are about three hundred members of Mysteries USA standing between it and us.” I couldn’t help the whiny tone. I was tired, and I’m sure I looked it. Also, my feet were killing me. The fact that my partner Margo had had an equally exhausting day but looked fresh as a daisy didn’t improve my mood, nor did knowing that her Aunt May, a decade older than we were, looked entirely ready to party. It must run in the Farnsworth gene pool.
The senior citizen in question just smiled serenely and waggled her fingers at yet another cluster of women who were ogling the crowd, clearly star struck. “Oh, Christ on a crutch,” she murmured under her breath, the pleasant expression never faltering as her eyes slid casually from the women back to Margo and me. “They’ve identified me as somebody they should try to cozy up to, but they can’t quite come up with my name. Don’t make eye contact.” She grasped my arm and gave me a little shove in the direction of the hoped-for bar. We oozed and excused ourselves through the crowd with May sandwiched between me on point and Margo bringing up the rear.
Drinks safely in hand, we reassembled our formation and followed May’s directions to the nearest exit, a door marked Stairs. The staircase on the other side led down to the lobby and was blessedly empty. May flopped onto the top step, and we arranged ourselves on the steps below her. “Aren’t you worried about being trapped here by one of your adoring fans?” I cautioned.
“Not a bit, Katie girl. When you’ve been to as many of these things as I have, you know the point of these receptions is to see and be seen, mostly coming and going. They’ll use the escalator, not the fire stairs.” She swigged her bourbon and sighed with pure pleasure. “I’ve done my duty simply by moving through the crowd once and wavin’ at a few folks. I could probably leave right now, show up for the award presentation Saturday night and be home free. I’ve got a copy of the complete program in my purse, which I’ll memorize. All I have to do when somebody asks if I was at such-and-such at a certain time is tell ‘em I was somewhere else. Which I will be. It just won’t be anywhere near the Hartford Hilton.” She and Margo giggled conspiratorially, experts in the art of making required appearances.
Without warning, the fire door behind us swung open, and an obviously tipsy woman of mature years lurched toward us, grinning broadly. “May Farnsworth, you old harridan! Someone told me you actually showed up. I couldn’t believe it, but I knew where to look for you, just in case it was true. Even if you win the award this year, I’d have expected you to be a no-show, knowing how you feel about these pretentious little gatherings. Who are your pals?” She swayed on her stilettos and fell, more than sat, onto the top step next to May. Fortunately, the plastic highball glass in her hand held little more than melting ice cubes.
May’s expression was resigned, but she greeted the newcomer civilly enough. “Well, hey there, Lizzie, fancy meeting you here. I thought the one thing you and I agreed on was the general uselessness of writers’ conventions. What brings you here? By the way, meet my niece, Margo Harkness, and her business partner, Kate Lawrence. Ladies, meet Lizabeth Mulgrew, a longtime colleague in the publishing business. She publishes my books, as well as the work of Jessica Price, my main competition for the best mystery of the year award Saturday night.”
Lizabeth extended a damp hand to each of us in turn. No one but me would have noticed the slight distaste on Margo’s beautiful face, and I made an effort to be discreet while wiping my hand on my skirt. Nobody could say we weren’t well-behaved in public. Most of the time. Well, some of the time.
Lizabeth’s attention had already reverted to May. “Guess you haven’t had time to peruse the program booklet,” she surmised, “or you’d know that besides publishing the best two mysteries in this year’s competition, I’m the keynote speaker at the luncheon tomorrow. Whatever you do, don’t miss it, because lord almighty, do I have some things to say to these Hopeless Hannahs.” She rattled her ice cubes and chuckled.
May looked interested for the first time that evening. “Sounds fun, Lizzie. What’s your topic, how to succeed in getting a publisher to love your work despite the fact that you wrote a lousy book?” She laughed as she said it, clearly making a little joke, and Margo and I chimed in.
Lizabeth didn’t laugh. “You’re not all that far off, gal pal. I was invited to offer inside tips to the wannabes on how to draw favorable attention from publishers. That’s what it says in the program book. Attendance should be high.” She giggled again. “That’s not what I’m going to tell the dewy-eyed darlings, though. I’m going to tell them something they go to extraordinary lengths not to tell each other.”
“And that is?” Margo wanted to know.
“I’m going to tell them the truth, and hoo boy, they are not going to like it, not one bit.”
May’s eyes narrowed as Margo and I exchanged puzzled glances. “You’ve been softening the truth to aspiring writers for a lot of years now,” she reminded Lizabeth. “So have I, although I am increasingly not proud of it. What’s changed?”
Lizabeth sobered abruptly, and the smile left her face. “I’ve changed, that’s what. I’ve spent eight long years telling people who can’t write that they can and transforming their so-called manuscripts into something approaching publishable, then put up with their histrionics over the edits I made. I’ve fronted the considerable production expenses and done all the editing and formatting work, only to be accused of short-changing them on their pitiful royalties. I’ve seen the few really good writers fail because they refuse to do the necessary marketing work, while the schlocks flourish on CreateSpace, and I’ve finally figured out why—because 98% of the readers out there can’t tell the difference between good writing and bad. They spend their evenings watching reality TV shows about surburban floozies and morbidly obese people competing to lose weight for money. That’s the real market these days, and I, for one, think most writers should go for it.” She upended her plastic glass and crunched morosely on the few remaining ice chips.