Tall Pines Mysteries: A Mystery/Suspense Boxed Set Read online

  Tall Pines Mysteries

  Boxed Set

  1) For the Birds

  2) Essentially Yours

  3) Sanctuary

  4) Betrayal

  Aaron Paul Lazar

  Thank you for picking up the Tall Pines Boxed Set. Please join my mailing list to find out about the latest new releases, book sales, and special subscriber-only offers.

  Fictional series by Aaron Paul Lazar:

  Lazarbooks.com

  LEGARDE MYSTERIES

  GREEN MARBLE MYSTERIES

  TALL PINES MYSTERIES

  PAINES CREEK BEACH (love stories)

  BITTERSWEET HOLLOW (romantic suspense)

  Tall Pines Mysteries, boxed set, including For the Birds, Essentially Yours, Sanctuary, and Betrayal.

  This collection of novels is a work of fiction. All concepts, characters and events portrayed in this book are used fictitiously and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2011-2016 by Aaron Paul Lazar. For the Birds and Essentially Yours were previously published by Twilight Times Books, Tennessee, October 2011 and March 2012.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except brief extracts for the purpose of review, without the permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

  Revised Edition, March 2016

  Cover art by Kellie Dennis, Bookcoverbydesign.uk.co.

  Published in the United States of America.

  For the Birds: a Tall Pines Mystery, #1

  For the Birds

  A Tall Pines Mystery

  Aaron Paul Lazar

  Dedication

  To my dear friend Dave Kipp, who long ago introduced me to the Adirondacks, sharing his passion through tales and photos of his adventures. Thanks for the inspiration, Dave. May you have many more blue-sky days to enjoy canoeing, hiking, and camping in the majestic wilderness of northern New York.

  Chapter 1

  The remote Adirondack dirt road twisted and turned into the wilderness, drawing us farther into the boonies. Blue mountains crested the distant horizon, and tall pines hugged the road on both sides. We’d seen no houses, no gas stations, and no people. Our hotel was nowhere in sight, and we’d been on the hilly dirt road for over an hour.

  I turned to my husband. “Check the map again, will you, hon?”

  The road dipped into a dangerously steep gully. Quinn grabbed his armrest, and I maneuvered the van through the trench at the bottom, hoping no one was coming in the other direction. No way could two cars make it through this stretch.

  He unfolded the coffee-stained map. “It’s supposed to be right ahead.”

  When we’d started our journey, my beautiful husband had reminded me of an Indian brave on the cusp of a great adventure. This was mostly thanks to his Seneca mother, who bequeathed her dark skin and strong Native American features to her only son. He’d worn the hand-sewn turquoise bolo tie I’d given him for Christmas over an unbuttoned crisp white linen shirt, his favorite old jeans, and comfortable moccasins. His clear turquoise eyes had darted with purpose, excited about our adventure. It was those same spectacular eyes that matched the stone in the bolo—and they were the only part of his appearance that came courtesy of his long dead English playwright father.

  But now he sat rumpled and sweaty, and I was sure he was ready to kill me for not agreeing to buy that GPS yesterday. I’d pushed for the free Road-Mapper directions.

  Instead, he neatly refolded the map to its original condition. I’d never figured out how he could do that. My map folding skills always resulted in a fat bunched up wad of crinkled paper.

  I wondered if I would actually escape the reminder that I’d been a penny-pinching idiot.

  No dice. He said it under his breath, but I heard it. “Maybe we should’ve bought that GPS.” He blotted his forehead with his sleeve and cranked up the air conditioning.

  I didn’t dare tell him it wouldn’t do any good. The guys at Monroe Muffler told me the system needed to be recharged. I’d decided against that outlay of cash, too, trying to save a few pennies.

  I swung the van around the next crater and was about to congratulate myself for my expert driving skills when a series of washboard ruts nearly popped the fillings out of my teeth.

  Quinn braced himself on the dash. “Want me to take over?”

  We reached level ground again and I glanced at his strained expression. “You hate it when I drive.”

  His mouth tightened. He knew it was true. He nagged me about my speed, about traveling in the passing lane, and about my tailgating.

  “No. Really. I’m just thinking about you, babe. Aren’t you tired?”

  Another giant pothole threw me against the side window, cracking my head against the glass. A slew of nasty words almost came out, but I held them in, gripping the wheel with my sweaty hands. If I swore in front of my mother, I’d never hear the end of it.

  I glanced in the rearview mirror to check on her. In spite of the jolts, she was still asleep in the captain’s chair. For a panicky second, I wondered if she’d died in her sleep. She quickly dispelled the notion by trumpeting several ungodly snorts.

  I lost focus when I looked back at my mother and reacted too late to avoid the next pothole. The shocks ricocheted and bounced me out of my seat. My seatbelt snapped and I held my breath, half-expecting the airbags to inflate.

  “Whoa! Watch it, babe. Don’t blow a tire.”

  I jerked the car around a big depression and drove onto the bumpy grass on the side of the road, hoping we wouldn’t sink in and get stuck in the middle of no man’s land.

  The partially functioning air conditioner was getting worse. I squirmed on the sticky vinyl seat and repositioned my death grip on the wheel. My dress was riding up, my underarms were soaked, and my head throbbed. I badly wanted a cool swim and a cold Mojito, but especially didn’t want to admit to Quinn that we’d probably never see civilization again.

  Our hotel should have been just around the bend—a half hour ago—but the absence of traffic confirmed my fears. We’d never get off this God-forsaken road.

  The van chugged along the shoulder like a tortoise mired in molasses. An occasional pristine lake glimmered behind the trees, and I was half-tempted to stop the car, abandon my husband and mother in the van, strip naked, and plunge into the water. I’d swim away from it all. From the dusty road. From my grumpy mood. And from the pain I still felt after the death of my stepfather three months earlier.

  Instead, I fumed in my seat and kept driving. After ten minutes of avoiding pits and crevices, I spied a Grand Canyon-sized pothole up ahead where the road had washed out.

  Quinn’s eyes widened when he saw it. He pulled back a long strand of his glossy black hair and tucked it behind his ear, trying to look unruffled. “Babe? How about it? Wanna switch?”

  I really should have let him take over an hour ago, but if you haven’t noticed already, I’m stubborn. And I always need to prove I can DO it, even if I can’t do it.

  I stuck out my tongue and pulled over. “You know you’re a control freak.”

  Quinn gave me a good-natured smile. “That’s me.”

  Damn him. Always so sweet.

  A gray cloud followed us. We’d been kicking up the dust for the past half hour, and I pitied the poor slobs who’d been traveling in our wake. I glanced in the side mirror to check again for the annoying white truck that had been following us off and on since Utica. They disappeared a few minutes ago, but my mother, who insisted
I call her Thelma since I was three years old, had been obsessing over the evil intentions of the truck before she finally took a Xanax and fell asleep.

  I slid the lever into park and shut off the engine. Grumbling, I unbuckled my seatbelt and caught my reflection in the mirror. I looked like a snarling gargoyle. In a flash, a realization hit me.

  Quinn’s not the control freak.

  I am.

  Chapter 2

  I switched seats with Quinn in silence. He restarted the engine and tried once again to turn up the air conditioning. “What’s with this AC, anyway?”

  I summoned a weak smile. “Don’t know, hon,” I lied. “Hey. Maybe we should check on Ruby. She’s been pretty quiet.”

  Quinn’s pet parakeet had been riding in her cage for four hours since we left our house on Honeoye Lake in western New York, and we hadn’t heard a peep out of her in a half hour.

  “Good idea.” Quinn brushed his long hair away from his forehead. “Damn, it’s hot.” He depressed the parking brake and unbuckled his seatbelt. “Okay, let’s see how our little one’s doing.”

  The voice from the backseat pierced my brain like a stiletto.

  “Sure, Marcella. Check on the bird, not your mother.”

  A laugh snorted through my nose. “Sorry, Thelma. I thought you were still asleep.”

  “I’m awake now.” My mother swept back her thick white bangs. I eyed her in the rearview mirror. One of her cheeks was patterned red like the bright purple sweater she’d bunched up for a pillow. She released a long-suffering sigh. I braced myself.

  “How could anyone sleep through that racket? Were you trying to wake me up?”

  “Don’t be silly. It’s just the road,” I said. “We can’t help the potholes.”

  She ran her fingers through her hair, took out her lipstick and compact, flipped open the mirror, and started to apply a thick smear of orange on her lips. She frowned, squinted, and frowned again. “I can’t see a doggone thing. Where are my peepers?”

  Quinn twisted around and pointed to her glasses. “Right there, on the seat next to you.”

  I started to tell her she needed to get another chain for them, but was silenced when a sudden hiss came from the engine. Hot steam billowed from the grill and a sick sweet smell invaded the van.

  Quinn switched off the engine, stared at the white vapor, and laid his forehead on the steering wheel. Very softly, and with each word enunciated carefully, he said, “We’re going to lose our reservation.”

  He had a point. We were already late for check-in. We should have arrived an hour ago at the hotel to prepare for tomorrow’s bird show, where Quinn hoped Ruby would win the coveted “Best New Breed Color” award. If we didn’t get there soon, they might give our room away. We’d been warned. Call if you’re going to be late. If we don’t hear from you, you may lose your reservation.

  I touched his arm. “Honey? We’ll be fine. I’ll call them right now.”

  He didn’t answer, but yanked the hood release, stalked around front, and flung it open.

  Quinn is normally slow to anger. His serene manner was the first thing that attracted me to him ten years ago when I watched him working at the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City. Well, that and his amazing turquoise eyes. But when Quinn blew, he blew big. I had a feeling this was going to be a whopper.

  His usually mild cursing grew salty as seawater. Steam belched from the radiator and boiled in the air like Old Faithful. He skidded back to avoid getting scorched.

  My mother tapped my shoulder. “I don’t like that language, Marcella. You should really talk to Quinn about it. It’s unseemly.”

  What was unseemly was my mother telling me how to handle my husband. I watched twin pink spots appear on my cheeks in the mirror, then worked hard to squash my simmering irritation. “Sure thing.”

  I rolled down my window to catch the nonexistent breeze. I’d been trying to keep my mother from picking on Quinn all week, particularly where Ruby was concerned. She tried to take over feeding, grooming, even putting the bird to bed. Quinn managed most of the time to keep his cool, but it was clear her overbearing personality was starting to wear on him.

  Hot steamy air wafted in my window, making the van even more unbearable. I pushed open the door to get more air, then fidgeted in my seat and flipped down the visor to look in the mirror again. I had to pee really bad, my hair hung in a horrible bunchy ponytail that made my neck sweaty, and my mascara had clumped and smudged beneath my eyes. One thing was certain; this was the last time I’d buy bargain basement makeup. I spit on a tissue, dabbed at the smudges beneath my eyes, and joined Quinn in front of the van.

  “Great Spirit.” He raised both arms to the heavens. “What have we done to anger you?”

  Although he was a practicing Methodist, sometimes he couldn’t help himself, and reverted to the traditions he’d learned as a child growing up on a reservation in western New York. I glanced up at the cloudless sky. “Honey? I don’t think He’s going to answer you.”

  Quinn is a great planner. He likes things on plan and on time. And even. He likes things evenly spaced and evenly stacked. No crooked edges allowed on piles of books. No fork and knife that are skewed. They have to be perfectly aligned and parallel. It’s not so bad, because although he occasionally borders on being an obsessive compulsive, he never really crosses the line. And our house stays really clean, which is fine by me.

  He turned back to the van. “There’s no radiator fluid left. Look at the hose.” He pointed to the split in the rubber.

  I didn’t know much about radiators, but figured we needed it intact to get where we were going. Standing on my tiptoes, I peered down the dirt road in what I hoped was the direction of the hotel. A little flutter of nerves swam in my stomach. Were we even on the right road? The sun beat down on my back. The temps had to be pushing ninety.

  Quinn started to pace and was arrested by my mother’s raspy voice.

  She slid open her door and stuck her head out. “What the hell are you doing out there? By golly, Quinn, I told you, you need a new van. And what about that navigation system I saw on TV? If you’d bought that when I said to, we’d be there by now.”

  If Thelma’s voice cut through me like a toddler’s screech, I could only imagine how it affected my dear husband.

  I put one finger to my lips, encouraging him to hold his tongue. He clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and answered through gritted teeth. “The hotel has to be close, Thelma. We’ll call for a tow.”

  I flipped my ponytail over my shoulder and stared at the horizon as if I could will a tow truck into view. After a few seconds, I dug my cell phone out of my purse and brandished it about, trying to get a signal. “Damn.” I reached high over my head and danced in circles. Nothing. I tried another vantage point: a giant boulder. I waved the phone around with no luck.

  In spite of the frustrating situation we found ourselves in, I caught my husband staring at me. His eyes locked onto my pink sundress and his hands lingered on my backside just a little too long when he helped me down.

  Squeezing me close to him, he whispered so Thelma wouldn’t hear. “I love you in that dress.”

  I gave him a playful shove, but couldn’t contain my smile. Even though his attentions were completely inappropriate, it was nice to know he still noticed. And I liked to think maybe the distraction of my curves calmed him down a bit.

  At forty-one, I had to work hard to keep my waistline trim. I stood at five feet nine inches and was lucky I had a bit more height to distribute the calories than my mother, who was a portly five feet. I’d taken after my father, who died when I was three. My diet also helped. The mostly fish, lean meat, fruit, and vegetables regime I lived on worked fairly well to keep me slim. Except when I got a really bad craving for éclairs. Then it was all over.

  Still, I tried to stay healthy. I ran three miles a day, but it seemed the total calories I could afford shrunk every year. For the first thirty years, I ate like a horse and looked like a
greyhound. Now I ate like Ruby to keep the bulges in control.

  I turned to peer down the road again. Quinn circled my waist from behind and leaned his head on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll go for help. You girls can wait here with Ruby.”

  I spun around to face him. “Hey, how ‘bout I go? I didn’t get my run this morning.”

  He put his hands on my shoulders and stared me down. “No way. It’s too dangerous.”

  I wanted to say that I could run away from any bad guys, and maybe even faster than he could, but I held it in.

  Although Quinn was in excellent shape—he kept slim by swimming in Honeoye Lake every day at dawn—he didn’t have the endurance I did for the heat. I figured it was the English in him, and the Spanish in me. My father’s parents had come over from Barcelona, and my mother was Irish and German. He already wore a thin sheen of perspiration, and the back of his shirt was soaked. He stripped it off and hung it on the van’s side mirror. In spite of our predicament, I found it hard not to enjoy the sight. His abs were phenomenal, and his dark skin set off the turquoise bolo tie that hung on his smooth chest. I decided to give him a hug.

  “We’ll make it, hon.” I laid my head against his skin. “Don’t worry.”

  Thelma yelled out the window again. “Ruby looks hot.” She turned in her seat and peered into the back of the van. “Gadzooks, Quinn. Can’t you crank up the air conditioning?”

  Quinn looked like he wanted to choke her, but I saw him silently count to five before answering. He stalked around the van and slid open the opposite side door to let the breeze blow through. “No, Thelma. I can’t even start her up. The radiator hose is split. You’d better get out and find some shade. I’ll get the bird.” He pointed toward the trees on the edge of the road next to a grassy clearing. “Check over there, that looks promising.”