Chapter One, Two Codes for Murder
 |
Two Codes For Murder
$14.95
shipping
320 pages
7 pages of crime photos
©2001
trade paperback
5½" x 8½"
 |
| |
Getting to Know You
"Charlene, I never dreamed that I would meet a girl like you through Heart-to-Heart," continued the voice of this man who called himself Floyd.
Charlene tried desperately to put a face to the sound. He said he was tall and muscular and had black slightly curly hair. He liked to keep in shape. He said he was a businessman. He was a bicycle enthusiast and worked out at the gym regularly. He was not a smoker or drinker. He drank orange juice and Gatorade. This pleased Charlene who could not breathe around cigarette smoke and who did not ever want to date a "drinking man."
"But how do you know what I'm like, just talking to me on the phone for the past half hour? The fact we attended Brittany Junior High at the same time doesn't tell you that much. That was a few years ago."
"I can tell. I can always size up a person. You're just not like other girls. You are genuine, honest, truthful," Floyd asserted. "I wish I had known you back then."
Charlene agreed to go out on Saturday. Until she knew him better, she would not let him know where she lived. They would meet at her parents' house in University City, a place they both knew well.
"It'll be all right, Mom, you'll see," Charlene implored. "I know how you feel about dating services, but Susie* met Will* that way."
"If you ask me, she took an awful chance," continued this over-protective mother. "A man who has to get dates through a dating service must have a problem or two. I don't care how much he impresses you, the fact is he must have something wrong with him or he wouldn't go through Heart-to-Heart, he'd have other ways to get women to go out with."
Her mother's words stuck in her mind only briefly. She would not let them spoil her dream.
"We made a date for Saturday, Suze," Charlene reported. "I think I am going to like this guy."
"Didn't I tell you? You needed a little extra zing in your life. You've got to get back into the swing of things. Being the great Mom you are to Jericha* and Tracie* should only be a part of your life; not your whole life."
"I know that," Charlene acknowledged, watching her two eager "cooks," their arms wrapped in oven mitts taking a cookie sheet of burnt sugar cookies out of the oven. "I am a better mother and make them happy when I am happy myself.'
"Here, Mom, try one," said Jericha extending a warm black-edged cookie to Charlene. "They're a little too baked," she admitted.
"Thanks, sweetheart," Charlene said, munching on the offered morsel. Returning to her phone conversation, she continued, "Suze, don't think I'm ungrateful. Thanks for making me take the dare. It was just a little hard to accept that I had to resort to a dating service. I used to think that was only for losers."
"You sound just like my mother," Susie remarked. "And mine, too," Charlene laughed.
Come Saturday, Charlene packed up the girls' things for an overnight stay with her parents in University City, an affluent suburb of St. Louis, in a ranch-style brick home more than thirty miles from where she lived in St. Charles.
She was sure Floyd would be impressed by her old home. There were years of charm and elegance there that her own place lacked, the difference between a thirty year residence on the one hand and a twelve and a half year marriage to Bart. Once inside the old homestead people were always taken by the décor with a flare for the international. Evidence was everywhere of the travels to faraway places in which the family had been involved. The parents, Charlene's brother Steve and Charlene had all participated in travels abroad and meeting people very different from themselves. This family liked to keep the world at their fingertips with mementos from everywhere, oftentimes gifts from esteemed foreign friends.
Susie and Will were seated on the long armless blue velvet couch under the huge wall-mounted ceramic Santa María and Spanish Coat of Arms. The children were playing in the family room deeper into the interior of the house. Floyd arrived promptly at 8:00 and introduced himself when Charlene opened the door. She could see he had left out a few details in his self-description. He was only mildly muscular, had a medium build but had a forceful carriage reminiscent of a bigger man. He had a "little boy" element that seemed to seep through his personality. His hair was unkempt and frizzy and was thinning on top. But he had a captivating smile and deep blue eyes that became bolder as he spoke. After Floyd had been presented to the crowd, he took Charlene's arm and guided her to the door. They stepped out the door into the chill of the November evening. Charlene felt his touch but thought it was nothing special, nothing warm.
Sample Chapters from Two Codes for Murder
Chapter One, Getting To Know You
More about Two Codes for Murder
|
