Mayhem Takes a Dare: The Second Marisa Adair Mystery Adventure (Marisa Adair Mysteries Book 2) (34 page)

Althea reached into her dirty dress. She pulled out the cylinder. When she pressed the top, Moira’s voice emitted from it. “I killed Mrs. Craft. And now, your boyfriend will go to prison for it.” The sound of applause filled the hospital room. “Very good, Mrs. Flaxton. You’re absolutely correct. You’ve solved your little puzzle. I stabbed Mrs. Craft and I framed Clay for the murder. Unfortunately, no one will believe you.”

Clara drew a startled breath. “That nurse! She has a bite mark on her ankle!”

All eyes in the room turned to the nurse’s slim ankles. An angry ring of teeth marks showed very clearly through her hose.

The nurse pulled a gun out of her red basket. “Very observant of you, Clara!” With her other hand, she plucked the cylinder out of Althea’s hand and slipped it into her pocket. “Nobody move, and I’ll leave quietly. Try to stop me, and I’ll kill Mrs. Flaxton.”

“Mrs. Peters! Why did you risk so much to come back for the recording device? All you had to do was fade away, and assume your next identity. What did it matter if we had your confession?” Althea’s hands were clenched.

Clay growled. “She came back for it because she had to, Thea. Since the fire thirty years ago, there’s been nothing on file to confirm her identity. No fingerprints, no DNA, nothing. That cylinder has her confessions and voiceprints. If she's captured in the future, no matter what identity she is using, that voice print could help convict her of her crimes.”

Moira bowed slightly in Clay’s direction. “I always thought you were exceedingly intelligent, Clay. Also, in my profession, I can’t afford to leave any loose ends dangling. My employers expect me to be completely anonymous.” Her voice was a whip crack. “Be happy I’m not eliminating each and every one of you!” Moira laughed, the trilling sound filling the small room. “I must be running along now.”

Clay brought his fist up sharply, driving Moira’s arm with the gun toward the ceiling. It discharged with a soft plop. At the same time, Dreamus rammed his bedside table into Moira’s back.

Marisa and Alex rose.

Fred threw The Library across the room. The large rectangular suitcase crashed into Moira’s feet, knocking her to the floor.

William leaped up from his chair and fell upon Moira. He wrenched the gun from her hand, and stood over her. He pointed the gun at her heart.

Dreamus said calmly from his bed, “I used my cell phone as soon as Clara figured out who she was. I sent a text message for help. My people are on their way to take her to jail, where she belongs.”

Moira staggered to her feet, with her hands in the air. She turned to Clay, and threw her head back. “You know no jail on earth can hold me. I’ll soon escape.” The arrogant note faded from her voice. “Clay. You’re still very much the man I fell in love with thirty years ago. You’ll soon tire of this weak, mewling little school marm. When you do, I’ll be there for you, my love. It will be just as it was thirty years ago—”

Althea rose from her chair. Taking careful aim, Althea punched Moira in the face. Moira stumbled backwards, crashed into the bedside table, and hit the floor on her behind.

Althea bent over, slid her hand in Moira’s pocket, and removed the cylinder.

The door burst open. Several police officers jammed into the small room.

From his hospital bed, Dreamus took control of the situation.

Marisa looked around at Alex, Fred, and Tara. “I think we’re getting underfoot. Let’s go out into the hall.”

At the door, a man hurtled into the room. He crashed into Marisa, causing her to stagger backward into Alex, Tara, and Fred.

His frantic hands reached out to steady her. “Marisa! I was in the lobby when the policemen came charging up here! I thought something terrible had happened to you!” In spite of the fading bruise around his eye, Parvis Stidham was so handsome he was beautiful. His short dark hair gleamed under the lights. In his perfectly tanned face, his eyes were pale glittering blue jewels. He pulled her to him, his dangling messenger bag banging against her hip. “Marisa.”

“Parvis. What are you doing here? Oh, wait, you’re on the trail of a hot story.” Marisa pushed past him into the hall.

* * * * *

Marisa heard Parvis’ slapping steps in the hallway behind her. He grabbed her arm.

Alex lunged forward.

Althea, who had quietly followed the group out of the room, laid a gentle arm across Alex’s tense shoulders to stop him in his tracks. She hugged him against her.

“Parvis, let go of my arm.” Marisa faced him quietly.

“Marisa. I’m sorry. I should not have said what I said to you. I was wrong. You fill my thoughts and my dreams. Let’s pretend your past never happened. We’ll start afresh, from this moment. Please give me another chance.” He smiled at her, his mouth quirking up on one end.

Parvis’ smile was extremely self-assured, and his eyes glittered with his sure knowledge of her submission.

Marisa felt the fury rise up in her chest. “You arrogant, complacent bastard. You think all you have to do is say forget the past, smile at me, and I’ll fall into your arms.” Marisa stood on her tiptoes so she could bring her face close to his. “I am who I am, past and present. I am an alcoholic, albeit in recovery. I’ve done things of which you’ll never approve. You think you can just wave the magic wand of your mesmerizing personality, and wipe all of that away, as if it never existed.”

Marisa poked him in the chest with a hard finger. “I can’t change it. It’s part of who I am. You want me to deny the past. I can’t and I won’t.” Marisa smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m done, Parvis. It’s over.”

“Brava, my child,” Althea said softly. “Brava.”

Parvis turned on the older woman. “Ah, yes, Miss High and Mighty Althea Flaxton. You look at me in contempt, yet you’ve been lying to Marisa for years! You never told her you are the bestselling novelist, Seretha Ranier. And I’ve read your books. You obviously stole Marisa’s childhood angst and passed it off as your own work!” Parvis opened the messenger bag on his shoulder, and withdrew a sheaf of papers.

Holding the wall for support, Clay put his arm around Althea.

She met his eyes, tears glittering in hers.

“Thea, my dear, I’ve known since I met you at the trauma hospital.”

Althea turned to Marisa. “My darling child...”

Parvis shoved the handful of papers between the two women. “Marisa, here is the latest work, available just today in electronic form. I printed it out for you.” He shoved papers into her numb hands, then turned away to dart back into the hospital room. Moving quickly among beds and chairs, he distributed sheets to everyone in the room, even the uniformed officers. He loped back to Marisa’s side and pulled the papers from her unresisting hands. Flipping quickly through them, he held one up to Marisa’s face. “Look! Her main character’s father thinks the children have been fathered by various other men! Doesn’t that sound awfully familiar to you?”

Marisa shook her head, the print on the page blurring as her eyes filled with tears. “I bought one of those books. The unhappy childhood made me feel a sickening sense of déjà vu. I couldn’t bring myself to finish it.” A terrible wrenching filled Marisa’s chest, and the papers fluttered to the floor. She turned to the woman whom she loved more than anyone in the world. “Althea?”

Althea reached for Marisa. “My dear...”

Marisa backed away, her head swinging from side to side.

Alex pulled Marisa into his arms and pressed her head to his chest. “Parvis Stidham. You planned this ambush, you son of a bitch! If Marisa had accepted you, you would have kept quiet about Althea and her other identity. But if Marisa rejected you, you would destroy her relationship with Mrs. Flaxton, who has been a mother to her.” He started toward Parvis, but Marisa had her trembling arms wrapped around him too tightly for him to move.

Tara threw the papers at Althea’s feet. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Stidham, but high and mighty is exactly right. I am Marisa’s best friend. I love her. Yet, Mrs. Flaxton, you always treat me as if I am dirt under your feet. You betrayed Marisa. I would never hurt her. I guess that makes you dirt under my feet.” Tara whirled away to put her arms around Marisa and Alex.

Stidham stuffed the papers into his messenger bag. “And let’s not forget your precious Alex. He deceived you as well. He didn’t tell you he’s your new boss, did he?”

Alex patted Marisa’s back. “I hadn’t had the chance to tell you, Marisa. I just received the email from the corporate office earlier today, notifying me of my appointment as interim chief executive officer of the trauma hospital. It’s not an unusual move for a chief financial officer.” His dark blue eyes narrowed. “How did you know, Stidham? I haven’t told a soul. You must have hacked my email account. There’s no other way you could know.”

The double doors banged open. Her pale green scrubs were splattered, as if she were a painter and a can of scarlet paint had unexpectedly exploded, the woman wearily looked around. “The family of Mosely Adair?”

As if it weighed a ton, Marisa slowly raised her head from Alex’s chest and turned her tear-stained face to the newest threat.

The physician’s tired face was gray with exhaustion and her full mouth was drawn into solemn lines. “I am so sorry. I did everything I could. It just wasn’t enough to save him.”

Sandwiched between Alex and Tara, Marisa clutched them as her legs buckled.

Moira, her wrists in handcuffs, paused in the doorway. Her beautiful green eyes on Parvis’ malevolent, fiercely satisfied face, she smiled quietly to herself.

THANK YOU FROM JADA

Thank you so much for reading this book! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I liked writing it.

If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment to visit Amazon.com to describe your experience with
Mayhem Takes a Dare,
the second Marisa Adair mystery adventure.

Click Here to Review Mayhem Takes a Dare

If you would like to try a different type of book,
Dog Days of Karma
is a mystery adventure with romance and a soupçon of the paranormal. It’s the first book in the Karma series, chronicling the adventures of Celeste Carr and Ericka Maah, of the Carr – Maah Consulting Agency.

Best Wishes!

Jada

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jada Ryker spent the first twenty-odd years of her life in rural Kentucky. Now, she lives in central Kentucky with her husband and their cat, rescued from the animal shelter. In her day job, Jada works in higher education. To learn more about Jada, connect with her through her website www.JadaRyker.com.

Jada loves feedback from readers. To share comments about her work, you can visit her website or email her at
Jada's Website
.

Her published titles are listed on the following pages, and are available on Amazon in electronic and paperback formats.

Takes a Dare Series

Book One: Murder Takes a Dare

“I’ve gotten myself in too deep—” Jonah’s last words are an epitaph to a life spent on the wrong side of the law.

Marisa Adair is shocked when her former friend Jonah surfaces from her chaotic past of drinking and partying, only to be murdered. She must solve the crime before the killer destroys her new life.

To find the murderer, Marisa partners with unusual collaborators. One is inordinately interested in her colorful past. Another is a chief financial officer—and chief pain in her neck. Yet another is the daughter of a former agent in the FBI’s controversial “Dickless Tracy” program for women, who learned to disable an opponent in hand-to-hand combat around the same time she learned to spell and throw the quintessential tea party.

Marisa must revisit her dark past of childhood deprivation and adult struggles with addiction. The clues point to the shadowy underbelly of a notorious club, the setting for the glittering jewel of her old double life. As Marisa and her friends track the killer, can they solve the mystery before the murderer strikes again?

Click Here to Purchase Murder Takes a Dare

Book Two: Mayhem Takes a Dare

Fantasy and reality clash when the members of the online group Came-A-Lot meet in person. Behind the glitter of the royal profiles, true identities are entwined with deadly secrets.

“You can’t tell him.” Sarah’s pretty face hardens, the dimples fading like a whimsical daydream. Her fingers claw Marisa Adair’s arm.

Marisa is furious. “I won’t let you get away with it. You’re trying to trick my friend into a relationship.” Marisa’s gaze rakes the bulky sweatshirt and boxy jeans camouflaging the lush figure. “You’re a stripper with a volatile boyfriend. You’re not a high school teacher looking for love.”

Later, Sarah is stabbed to death during her exotic routine. Marisa and her devastated friend are among the suspects.

To solve the murder, Marisa joins forces with unlikely allies. One is an attractive online investigative reporter. He’ll do anything for a story to shock his followers. Another is a handsome accountant. More accustomed to saving money and cutting expenses, he’s focused on saving lives and cutting off a desperate murderer. Yet another is a retired lunch lady. Fearless to the point of foolhardiness, she uses her own version of “slay-dar” to hunt the murderer.

In the past, Marisa lived a reckless double life. She was a conservative administrator by day. After hours, she partied the nights away in a notorious club. Now, she finds herself back in shadowy, forbidden places as she and her friends track down a killer. The twisted trail to the murderer leads to explosive, decades-old secrets, including a vigilante-style killing.

As Marisa and her friends follow the clues, can she keep her sobriety, her sanity—and most importantly, her life?

Click Here to Purchase Mayhem Takes a Dare

Book Three: Arson Takes a Dare

An obscenely rich lottery winner tricks Marisa Adair into joining forces with a famous Florida private detective to investigate her daughter’s twenty-year-old murder. During a serial arsonist’s reign of terror, Mayla died in a fiery inferno. The newly wealthy mother wants to dedicate her considerable resources to finding her daughter’s killer and bringing him to justice.

Marisa is busy with problems of her own. After her troubled brother’s death, Marisa discovers he was stalked online. The stalker is the vicious bully who had made their childhood a living hell. She decides to track down the bully, confront her, and hold her accountable for her crimes.

Alisa was a beautiful girl. She was also the ringleader of a group of bullies. Now, as an adult, she seeks out the weakest of the herd to torment through the anonymity of her computer. Alisa also holds the key to dark secrets, with the chilling tendrils reaching from her childhood to the present.

After Alisa’s brutal murder, Marisa is the number one suspect. When Marisa is arrested, her friends rush to help her. Alex, sure he will be driven mad by Marisa, is determined to clear her. Marisa’s friend and former teacher Althea is combat ready after decades of teaching elementary schoolchildren. Marisa’s support group, as ruthless as they are supportive, will go to great lengths to help their fellow member. Tara, Marisa’s best friend and in need of her own twelve-step program for her shoe addiction, will demand hard choices of her boyfriend, the lawman who put Marisa behind bars.

Marisa lived a chaotic life of drinking and partying. Hitting bottom left her existence in shambles. Like a phoenix, Marisa rose from the ashes. Now she’s a savvy and respected human resources director. In jail for a murder she didn’t commit, Marisa faces losing her hard-won new identity...and possibly her life.

Click Here to Purchase Arson Takes a Dare

The Shaken, Not Stirred, Mystery/Horror Series

A Pink Zombie, with a Mist

Anthropologist Olivia West is determined to find her missing best friend. As children, she and Emma Martin wandered into Heaven’s Bottom, an isolated Kentucky community cut off by the Ohio River and mountainous terrain. The two women share strange memories of the traumatic experience. Emma is convinced they witnessed a blood sacrifice and moon magic, surrounded by zombies. As a scientist, Olivia believes there’s a logical explanation.

Detective Steven Lewis pursues his own investigation of the mysterious town. A social worker, his wife fought her way into The Bottom to investigate suspected child abuse. She didn’t make it out alive. Haunted by grief and regret, Steven is obsessed with finding her killer. He’s convinced the murderer is hiding in the wild forest, camouflaged by the swirling mist.

Olivia and Steven enter into an uneasy partnership to find Emma and solve his wife’s brutal murder. They contact Sheriff Noah McCracken, who holds the local law enforcement role that’s been passed down through his family for centuries. Like his ancestors, the sheriff ignores the chilling events in Heaven’s Bottom.

Can Olivia and Steven convince Noah to “release the McCracken” in time to save their lives?

SPECIAL BONUS
: As a reader appreciation gift,
The Hand of Karma
mystery/horror short story is included
FREE
at the end of the book.

Click Here to Purchase A Pink Zombie, with a Mist

Gimlet and Other Stories

Jada Ryker’s collected short stories run the gamut from mystery to horror to science fiction. The stories include
As the Crow Flies, Cross to Bear, An Alien Act of Honor, Winner Takes All, The Hand of Karma,
Driving Miss Daisy’s Cattle
, and
Gimlet.

In
As the Crow Flies
, Fresna is a middle-aged nursing assistant toiling in a nursing home. She likes Mr. Corvis, an eccentric resident. When odd things happen to Fresna, Mr. Corvis is in the vicinity.

Tina returns to her rural Kentucky home to attend her hard-living and hard-drinking brother’s funeral in
A Cross to Bear.
She reconnects with Chris, her childhood friend’s handsome brother. Tina has to contend with her troubled relationship with her father, her feelings for Chris… and a malevolent watcher.

Mae Rue is on verge of being arrested for her husband’s brutal murder. An extraterrestrial family invades her grief, seeking to right an old wrong. Mae Rue learns there are many facets to honor, including
An Alien Act of Honor
.

In
Winner Takes All
, Marisa’s father Billy Ray awakes from a coma with an extraordinary story. She explores her challenging relationship with her distant father. Alex, Marisa’s friend from childhood and possibly more today, provides his unconventional support. Marisa and her father learn how a second chance impacts them both.

In
The Hand of Karma
, Jessamine, mourning her mother's sudden death, is trapped in a funeral home's cellar when she recognizes a monster from her past. The story appeared in
Celebrating Mothers: Fond Memories and Fictional Muses
and as a reader appreciation gift at the end of
A Pink Zombie, with a Mist
, a Shaken, Not Stirred, mystery/horror book.

In
Driving Miss Daisy’s Cattle
, Lieutenant Camden finds that viral recordings of a dead bull rider, with a rodeo clown bent over him, don’t tell the whole story. With a brand-new officer dogging his footsteps, Cam has to solve the mystery.

Juneau Fate made her debut in
A Pink Zombie, with a Mist
, a Shaken, Not Stirred, horror/mystery book, in which brains are taxed. Not eaten. Juneau grew up in a strict religious community, with a megalomaniac at its head.
Gimlet
first appeared in the anthology
May the Fourth
, a play on “May the Force Be with You”.
In Gimlet,
Juneau and Coldwell pose as patients in a mental hospital to solve a paranormal mystery. Fellow patient Iris, notorious for both her séances and her police record, claims she’s in touch with the spirits who have the answers to the puzzle. Will her supernatural connections help Juneau and Coldwell solve the mystery, or lead to a one-way trip to the morgue?

Click Here to Purchase Gimlet and Other Stories

Karma Consulting Agency Series

Book One: Dog Days of Karma

Desperate to locate a missing person, Constance Twist decides to call a detective agency. Waiting for directory assistance and muttering to herself about karma, Constance jots down the address for the Carr—Maah Consulting Agency. On the way to the agency, Constance is shoved into traffic and nearly killed.

Celeste Carr is shocked when Constance storms into the office, demanding help. Celeste tries to explain that Carr—Maah is a human resources consulting company, not a detective agency. Celeste grits her teeth when her mysterious business partner Ericka Maah overrules Celeste and forces her to take Constance’s case.

The killer rectifies the earlier error. Constance is brutally murdered as she leaves the agency.

Several hundred miles away, Jose is a restaurant manager and former agency employee. He helped Sonora escape her abusive husband by giving her a job and an apartment. After Sonora unexpectedly flees, Jose finds a hefty online reward for a lost dog. The posting shows Sonora’s image photoshopped with the picture of a dog. Jose follows Sonora’s trail back to his hometown and the Carr—Maah Consulting Agency.

Celeste, Ericka, and Jose, assisted by Hobart, the mysterious homeless man forced by Ericka to become the agency’s office manager, discover the Lost Dog website is a cover to help abusers locate their victims. As they follow clues to solve Constance’s murder and find the sociopathic mastermind behind the website, they discover a surfeit of viable suspects. His voice heated by the South African sun, Christoph Metre is the charismatic head of the rival consulting agency. Obsessed with the exotic Ericka, Christoph appears with his entourage in unexpected places, including the murder scene. Lovesick Mrs. Grant, in a one-sided relationship with Mr. Crispie, hated it when Constance Twist offered the spry widower lemonade with a Twist. Dr. Britta Spartan, head of the domestic violence shelter, writhes around Hobart like a predatory boa constrictor around a juicy mouse.

If Celeste and her friends can’t solve the mystery in time, they’ll be the next victims.

Click Here to Purchase Dog Days of Karma

Book Two: Equi Knocks of Karma

In the second standalone adventure in the Carr—Maah Consulting Agency Paranormal Mystery series, Celeste Carr and Ericka Maah, business partners and friends, face a powerful and ruthless adversary.

Celeste and Ericka are held hostage by Toni Rae Yelton, a self-centered party girl. Toni Rae is desperate. She orders the mysterious Ericka to use her alleged supernatural powers to call off the police and the reporters, who are all convinced Toni Rae is the sinister force behind her little girl’s disappearance.

Adding to Celeste’s angst, Hobart has vanished. The mysterious homeless man was forced off the streets some months ago. Ericka used a combination of her unusual talents and blackmail to coerce Hobart into working for her firm. He reluctantly agreed. More enthusiastically, at least until his disappearance, he was also Celeste’s boyfriend. Now, Celeste believes he’s back on the streets.