Authors: Kristi Belcamino

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn (23 page)

D
ONOVAN AND
I
stand with our arms wrapped around each other, watching Grace race up and down the beach with her new dog, Dylan.

Dylan is a German shepherd K9 who retired after his leg was injured in Iraq. I've already taught Grace the commands to order him to attack if anyone ever bothers her.

Other than that, we have tried not to change our life too much.

Grace is back at kindergarten.

Today, we are at the beach gauging Grace's reaction to the place where she was abducted. She is having so much fun with Dylan that I relax. I can feel Donovan do the same. Her belly laugh rides on the wind, across the sandy beach, back to us, making Donovan squeeze my hand.

He lets go of my hand for a second and stands behind me, putting his arms around my waist and his chin on my shoulder as we watch the sun sink lower on the horizon.

“Grace, it's almost time,” Donovan calls, and she stops, standing still, her tiny body facing west. She keeps her hand on Dylan's fur, stroking him absentmindedly, staring at the sun.

Donovan presses something into my hand. I glance down. It's the black velvet box. He pops it open, and the ring inside sparkles with the last rays of the setting sun.

“Look, Mama and Papa!” Grace shouts.

As the sun dips into the water, we see it, the green flash.

At that moment, I know. I'm ready. I know my answer with every fiber of my being. With Donovan's arms wrapped around me and his breath in my ear, I whisper one word:

“Yes.”

Acknowledgments

A giant thank you to my readers. Every day, I'm grateful that Âpeople want to read my books.

Thanks to the members of my stellar writing group, Supergroup, for their keen feedback, constant inspiration, and steadfast friendship: Kate Schultz, Jana Otto, Sarah Hanley, Kaethe Schwehn, Sean Beggs, and Coralee Grebe.

I'm grateful to Sam Bohrman, who is on maternity leave from the Back Room Writers, and is one of my most trusted early readers. Thank you also to Sam's father, Brian Tschida, for his neurological expertise. Thanks to the rest of the Back Room writers for answering obscure questions I throw out, in particular my
paesana
, Cristina Pippa, and her father, Nino Pippa, for answering some questions about Italian traditions, and to Bruce Campbell for martial arts information. Also big thanks to Frida Tosi for helping me make sure my Italian was correct. If it's not, it's because I didn't ask her about that particular part.

Thank you to Pat and Gary at Once Upon a Crime for their support and encouragement. They will be greatly missed in this mystery community.

I'm so grateful for all the support, enthusiasm, and encouragement from my
paesanos
: Emily Goehner, Mimi Ryan, Taloo Carrillo, Liz and Doug Cronk, Kari Isaacson, Vickie Johnson, Rebecca Peterson, Terry Welch, John T. Bychowski, Mikki Ashe, David Chilimidos, Anissa Kennedy, and Dan Koopmans.

A special thanks to Beverly Belcamino for her donation to an organization dear to my heart, The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Thanks to Minneapolis Police Sergeant Bob Dale for police procedural questions.

Lots of love and thanks to so many members of this mystery tribe. I won't be able to name everyone, but some off the top of my head are Dan and Kate Malmon, Jon and Ruth Jordan, Erin Mitchell, Dru Ann Love, Kristopher Zgorski, BOLO books, Elise Cooper, Quinton Skinner, Jeremy Nelson, and Wilson Webb at Minnesota Monthly. Thanks to valuable early readers and reviewers, including Dick Barbuto and John Kurtze.

Thank you to the fine Âpeople at HarperÂCollins, including my editor, Emily Krump; publicists Maria Silva and Danielle Bartlett; the super savvy Dana Trombley; and Judy G., who copyedited this book so carefully.

Thank you to my agent, Stacey Glick.

And as always, a big thank you to my husband and two fierce daughters, who are my everything.

About the Author

KRISTI BELCAMINO
is a writer, photographer, and artist. In her former life as a newspaper crime reporter in California, she flew over Big Sur in an F/A-Â18 jet with the Blue Angels, raced a Dodge Viper at Laguna Seca, watched autopsies, and interviewed serial killers. She is now a journalist based in Minneapolis, and the Gabriella Giovanni mysteries are her first books. Friend Kristi at www.facebook.com/kristibelcaminowriter or follow her on Twitter @KristiBelcamino.

www.facebook.com/kristibelcaminowriter

www.witnessimpulse.com

@KristiBelcamino

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By Kristi Belcamino

B
LESSED ARE THE
D
EAD

B
LESSED ARE THE
M
EE
K

B
LESSED ARE
T
HOSE
W
HO
W
EEP

B
LESSED ARE
T
HOSE
W
HO
M
OURN

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN.
Copyright Â© 2015 by Kristi Belcamino. All rights reserved under International and Pan-ÂAmerican Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-Âbook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-Âengineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperÂCollins e-Âbooks.

EPub Edition SEPTEMBER 2015 ISBN: 9780062389428

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062389411

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