Stake & Eggs (36 page)

What on earth?

Flustered, nervous now that they might have a runaway groom on their hands, Theodosia
fumbled with the curtains and ripped them open. Lightning flashed outside, a sharp
blade cutting through a wall of purple-black clouds.

Still, this is better. A little more light.

Just as Theodosia turned, something caught her eye. A fleeting image that she couldn’t
quite process but that unnerved her anyway. She slowly retraced her footsteps. Back
to the sitting-room area that had been in total darkness, as thunder boomed like kettledrums
in some unholy symphony.

That’s when she saw him.

Dougan Granville was sprawled on a brocade fainting couch. His eyes were squeezed
shut, his head had fallen forward until his chin rested heavily on his chest. On the
small glass table in front of him was an empty glassine envelope and a scatter of
white powder.

Theodosia tiptoed closer, her heart hammering in her chest, her brain shouting screams
of protest. An unwanted shot of adrenaline sparked by surprise and fear had sent her
blood pressure zooming. Still, she was mesmerized, hypnotized, by what she was seeing.

Was Granville just stoned? Or…something worse?

Theodosia moved closer and stretched out a tentative hand. The very tips of her fingers
brushed the pulse point of his neck. Granville felt ice-cold and lifeless. There was
no pulse, no respiration.

Revulsion and fear rose up inside her like sulfurous magma from a roiling volcano.
Theodosia understood, logically and viscerally, that Granville hadn’t just fainted
on this fainting couch like genteel ladies of old.

This man was seriously, catastrophically, dead.

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Berkley Prime Crime titles by Laura Childs

Tea Shop Mysteries

DEATH BY DARJEELING

GUNPOWDER GREEN

SHADES OF EARL GREY

THE ENGLISH BREAKFAST MURDER

THE JASMINE MOON MURDER

CHAMOMILE MOURNING

BLOOD ORANGE BREWING

DRAGONWELL DEAD

THE SILVER NEEDLE MURDER

OOLONG DEAD

THE TEABERRY STRANGLER

SCONES & BONES

AGONY OF THE LEAVES

Scrapbooking Mysteries

KEEPSAKE CRIMES

PHOTO FINISHED

BOUND FOR MURDER

MOTIF FOR MURDER

FRILL KILL

DEATH SWATCH

TRAGIC MAGIC

FIBER & BRIMSTONE

SKELETON LETTERS

POSTCARDS FROM THE DEAD

Cackleberry Club Mysteries

EGGS IN PURGATORY

EGGS BENEDICT ARNOLD

BEDEVILED EGGS

STAKE & EGGS

Anthology

DEATH BY DESIGN

Watch for the next Cackleberry Club Mystery

Eggs in a Casket

When Suzanne and Toni deliver flowers to a local cemetery, they discover an open grave
that contains the crumpled body of one of Kindred’s most prominent citizens. There
wasn’t a funeral, there aren’t any mourners—so it has to be murder!

Find out more about Laura Childs and her Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbook Mysteries,
and Cackleberry Club Mysteries at
www.laurachilds.com.