Wedding Cake Murder (46 page)

“Thank God!” Alan reached up to wipe his forehead. Sweat was streaming into his eyes, and he was almost weak with relief. If the truck had rear-ended him, they’d both be dead. But he’d made it through the curves. Now everything was just fine.

There was a sound like a gunshot, and Alan’s Porsche swerved sharply, almost wrenching the wheel from his hands. His right front tire had blown. He was heading straight for the ditch!

He fought the wheel with all his strength, struggling to control the skid. It worked, and he was just thanking his lucky stars, when the unexpected happened again. There was another explosion, and his left front tire blew out.

Alan wore an expression of shocked disbelief as his Porsche swerved in the opposite direction. Then he was crashing through the guardrail, hurtling out into space, rolling end over end to the bottom of the hill.

When the Porsche hit the rocks at the bottom of the ravine, it flipped over several times, coming to rest on its back, its racing tires spinning uselessly in the air. Alan was trapped in the expensive shell of his luxury car. He didn’t hear a passing motorist call out to him, didn’t smell the stench of gasoline or experience the salty, slightly metallic taste of his own blood. He didn’t see the paramedics flip open his wallet to discover his organ donor card, didn’t feel careful hands pull him from the wreck. The quick action of the well-trained emergency team kept his heart pumping blood and his lungs taking in oxygen, but the brain of the man who had been Alan Stanford showed when checked at the hospital a flat, unending line on the graph—death.

KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018

Copyright © 2016 by H.L. Swensen, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2015951110

ISBN: 978-1-6177-3216-4

First Kensington Hardcover Edition: March 2016

ISBN-13: 978-1-61773-217-1
ISBN-10: 1-61773-217-6
First Kensington Electronic Edition: March 2016