I can't even tell you the week I've had. From personal to professional to physical every flipping thing has gone off the rails.
But I did it. I SURVIVED.
And the now LEGENDARY book is done. I haven't even had time to make teasers or--heck, I haven't had time to brush my hair. The little finger of my left hand hurts like a ((**^^%$##@! and the book may or may not be any good. I can't tell anymore. I don't even care anymore.
(Okay, yes, I do. I hope you enjoy it AND can now read DEATH AT THE DEEP DIVE.)
BLURB:
Fakes, folk music, and ghost fires
Better yet, Lara is scheduled to perform a recently discovered
piece of music attributed to “The Father of American Music,” Stephen Foster,
which will hopefully bring large crowds and a lot of business.
Several mysterious accidents later, Ellery is less delighted
as his suspicion grows that someone plans to silence the celebrity songbird
forever.
SNIPPET
Watson, apparently
under the impression the drawbridge closed at midnight, came racing through the
open door behind Ellery, and skidded across the polished wood floor.
Despite his
weariness and mounting depression, Ellery chuckled. “Did you almost miss your
bus?”
Watson, looking a
little sheepish, picked himself up, and wagged his tail.
“I think we could
both use a midnight snack.”
Unlike Ellery,
Watson had had all his meals that day, but he still thought that was a terrific
idea. He trotted into the kitchen after Ellery.
Ellery fixed Watson
a small portion of his food and then opened a can of soup for himself.
Campbell’s clam
chowder was probably enough to get him drummed off the island in disgrace, but
he was too tired to bother fixing himself anything more substantial.
He carried his bowl
of chowder into the dining room, listened to the wind picking up, the scratch
of branches against the windows. Forlorn sounds.
The knot in his
stomach felt the size of Buck Island.
He could not seem to
think past…
Well, he could not
seem to think.
His brain felt
cluttered with all the bits and pieces of information he had collected over the
past twenty-four hours, but the puzzle was not taking shape. He was exhausted.
That was a lot of it. He’d had one hell of a day.
And, of course, he
was distracted, worried about the situation with Jack. Twice he picked up his
cell to phone. Twice he laid his phone down. Disturbing Jack at work in order
to discuss problems in their relationship was not going to win points.
Tired as he was, Ellery knew if he tried to
go to bed, he’d spend the next few hours tossing and turning. Instead, he
turned to his tried-and-true method of calming his nerves and focusing
his thoughts: Solitaire Scrabble.
There
was something soothing, centering, about playing against himself.
It
wasn’t just about relaxation though. Solitaire Scrabble was a way to analyze
and work through his problems without consciously trying to do that very thing.
Time and time again, the words that popped up during this mental exercise were
illuminating, enlightening.
It
had been weeks since he’d resorted to Scrabble. Unlike those first months after
he’d moved to the island, Ellery no longer had endless time on his own. But as
he set up the board and tiles on the dining table, he found comfort in the
familiar ritual.
He
picked seven random tiles from the soft green bag and placed the first tile in
the middle square on the center of the board.
He
got THEN (seven points) but THEN, to his bewilderment, was stuck. And remained
stuck. He struggled for time, certain that he was after AUTHENTIC, and
eventually realized he was so out of practice—or perhaps so distracted—that he
was looking at the board the wrong way. In fact, he had the letters for
AUTHORITY (15).
It
was still a miserable showing and the board was a mess of half-hearted
attempts.
What
the heck?
Something
about that stern vertical line of tiles struck home. He recalled Nora’s and
Kingston’s efforts to get him to see the situation at Dylan’s from Jack’s point
of view. What they had not said, what only occurred to Ellery now, was
that he had directly, if inadvertently, challenged Jack’s authority that
morning. Not Jack’s authority as Ellery’s boyfriend. Jack’s authority as the
Chief of Police.
Ellery’s
stomach did an unhappy flop.
Just
as he had been hurt and offended that Jack would pull rank on him, Jack had no
doubt been equally offended that Ellery would, well, take liberties. Ellery too
had pulled a kind of rank by expecting Jack to do his job the way his boyfriend
wanted, rather than the way he thought best.
Ellery could not seem to tear his stricken gaze from that
single forbidding strip of letters.
Oh hey. And right next to it was IDIOT (six points).
You got this, genius!
Into these cheerless thoughts came the solemn chime of the
doorbell.
