It's release day for 'The Elevator Murders'!

The Elevator Murders

http://www.jms-books.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=29_94&products_id=2033

 

When Tony Watkins discovers a dead man in the elevator of his apartment building, he has no idea there will be more murders. When the second body is found, he and his friends at the club he goes to put their heads together to try to figure out what's happening and who the killer might be.

Kirk Logan is a man with problems. At twenty-nine, he still isn't out to his parents. On top of that, Tony thinks he's easy -- which is true -- and will have nothing to do with him, even though he wants to help Tony solve the murders. That is until he finally opens up to Tony about why he's the way he is.

What Tony learns about Kirk, in addition to a third murder, changes everything. Can Tony deal with his feelings for Kirk while trying, if possible, not to become the next murder victim?

EXCERPT:

"So how was your day?" Dan asked as soon as Tony took a seat at the table in the club Monday evening.

"You do not want to know," Tony told him, flagging down a waiter to order a beer.

"Story not talking again?"

"It babbling, thank God." Tony nodded at Greg, who had just taken another chair at the table. "And I finished the article on upcoming events and attractions for the local tourist magazine, so that's out of my hair."

"Then what's wrong?" Dan asked.

"As soon as I get my drink I'll tell you." As if Tony had said the magic words, the waiter showed up seconds later to put the bottle on the table. Tony paid, then took a deep drink. "I needed that." He noticed his hand was shaking as he set the bottle back down.

Greg rested his elbows on the table, staring at Tony. "Problems?"

Tony nodded, lowering his voice as he said, "Someone was murdered in my apartment building and I found the body."

"The hell you say." Dan practically shouted, before clapping a hand over his mouth. "Tell all," he said, keeping his voice down.

"I thought I heard someone in need of help, so I went looking. I got as far as the third floor, walking up because the elevator was ... well, being the elevator."

"Meaning slower than molasses," Greg said, having ridden in it a time or two.

"Yeah. That's what I figured, anyway. I was going to knock on doors to see if anyone else had heard the same thing. Actually, I did knock on a couple of them but no one answered, so I decided everyone was probably at work because if they had heard what I did, they'd be out in the hall. Anyway, I tried the elevator again and while I was waiting a guy who lives on three appeared. Older man, maybe in his sixties. Not that that matters. So we talked until the elevator came. The door opened ..." He shuddered and took another drink.

"The body was in there?" Greg asked with macabre relish.

"Yeah. Damn. Thank God Alan, that's the old man, was there, too, or I'd probably have lost it. We called the cops. When they showed up I had to explain what I'd heard. I think they believed me."

"Or they think you killed the guy ... It was a guy, right?" When Tony nodded, Dan continued. "They don't, do they?"

"They didn't act like it, and I'm here, not in jail, so I sure hope not."

"Was there lots of blood?" Greg asked ghoulishly. "How was he killed?"

"I think ... stabbed. I sure didn't go in to check but that's what the wounds looked like," Tony replied, shooting him a look of disgust. "You're getting too much fun out of this."

"Blame it on my misspent youth, watching too many horror movies."

"Youth?" Dan eyed him. "You went to one just last week if I remember right."

Greg shrugged. "So I'm a fan of blood and gore. Shoot me."

Tony hissed in a breath, finishing his beer in one big gulp then holding the bottle up to let the waiter know he wanted another.

"Is your name going to be on the news as a witness?" Dan asked.

"I hope not. I'm not a witness. I just found the body. I snuck out the back door of the building to the parking lot, as soon as the detective said I was free to leave. When I say snuck, I mean it. I didn't want to be accosted if there were reporters hanging around. Got my car and beat it the hell away from there."

Dan smirked. "And came here to cry on our shoulders."

"No, I came to get a drink or ten so I can forget what I saw. It was horrible."

"What was horrible?" someone asked from behind Tony.

He turned to see who it was and wished he hadn't. The man who stood there was beyond handsome -- and a real prick, in Tony's estimation. "Nothing you need to know about, Kirk," he replied coldly.

"Sorry I asked," Kirk muttered, starting to walk away. Then he said, "You looked angry, or upset."

"So of course you had to find out why so you'd have a story to tell whoever you decided to take home tonight. Well, that's not happening."

"Fuck you, too," Kirk spat out as he turned on his heel, heading toward the bar.

"Also not happening," Tony said under his breath.

Dan eyed him, almost smiling. "Still got a thing for him?"

Tony snorted. "I've never had a thing for him, the conceited asshole. Thinks he can have any guy he wants just by snapping his fingers."

 

Three Lovers on the Grift - 14

"I have an appointment to see Mr Leigh," Page said softly when the man's receptionist finally took notice of her. The receptionist asked her name, checked the book, and then buzzed Mr Leigh to let him know his next visitor had arrived.

When Page entered the office the man looked up, took note of her condition and immediately stood, suggesting that she might be more comfortable on the sofa than at one of the visitor's chairs in front of the desk. Once she was seated he pulled up a chair and sat down opposite her, asking, "Just how can I help you?"

Page's face was woebegone as she said, "You don't remember me, do you, Jonathan?"

"Well, no. Should I?"

"I was hoping—" She opened her purse, taking out an envelope which she handed to him.

He frowned, turning it over in his hands for a moment before lifting the flap and taking out a series of photographs. "What the hell!" He looked at her, and then back at them, as if to make certain she was the woman in the pictures. "What's the meaning of this?"

Rubbing her belly, Page told him, "I'm pregnant, and the baby is yours. Or at least I'm ninety-nine percent certain it is. The timing is right, I'm afraid." Looking directly at him, a tear running down her cheek, she said, "I thought I could do this on my own but—" She lowered her gaze.

"Why should I believe that the kid is mine?" He sounded angry, but his hands were gripped together so tightly his knuckles were white and his face showed a trace of fear.

"Because I say it is, and I should know. We met at—" she named the convention that she knew he'd attended. "You seemed like a nice man and I was lonely so when you asked, I agreed to go back to your room with you." She sighed softly, wiping away another tear. "My husband and I were in the process of getting a divorce although I never told you that. I just needed—needed to know a man could find me attractive." She smiled then. "You did. And before you ask, you were the only man I slept with while I was separated from my husband."

"You just said you were divorcing him," Mr Leigh said, thinking he'd found a lie in her story that could save him from what he thought was coming.

"I was, but when I returned home from the conference we decided to take another stab at making things work."

"Then this baby could be his."

Page shook her head sadly. "I wish the baby was my husband's, but, well, I was honest with him about what had happened, especially since you didn't use protection, which was stupid on both our parts but in the fever of the moment... Anyway, he said we would have to wait until I was tested, you know, and so we did and—" She rattled that out as if afraid if she didn't she'd never get it said.

Three Lovers on the Grift - 13

"Okay, we've narrowed it down to two, so which one will be more likely to fall for it?"

Nigel and Page reread the two sheets of information Vaughn had put together with their help. "I'd say this one. He's definitely more of a player, and has more to lose if his wife finds out," Nigel said, tapping one of the pages. "Gotta love cheating husbands."

"Agreed." Page rubbed her swollen belly thoughtfully. "And as many times as he's stuck it in one female or another the chances of his remembering if I was one of them are slim to none, especially after six months give or take, which is what I'll claim. God only knows the twins are making me look that pregnant."

"Him, it is then. Now we have to set up the approach." Vaughn turned to Nigel. "Where are the pictures from the security camera?"

"There." Nigel pointed to one of several folders sitting at the end of the table. "You just have to insert Page's picture into them."

"Use the ones of me in the blonde wig," Page suggested, getting a nod from Vaughn as he picked the folder up and went to the computer. Half an hour later, while Page made lunch and Nigel did some quick vacuuming, he was finished. After Page set out lunch and they sat down, Vaughn passed the finished pictures around.

"Perfect," Nigel said, smiling. "These will make it much harder for him to deny that he's met her, to say the least of sleeping with her." He laid one hand on Page's stomach. "The evidence of his peccadillo is right here."

"Been reading 'Word of the Day', Nigel," Vaughn asked with a grin.

"Yep, and the one for today is 'wiseass', with your picture to illustrate it."

"I'll show you wiseass," Vaughn growled, pushing his chair back and coming around the table to pull Nigel to his feet. Nigel looked at him in surprise just before Vaughn's mouth descended on his in a searing kiss while his hands kneaded his ass. Then Vaughn stepped away and went back to his seat, a 'cat who ate the canary' grin on his face.

"Umm, damn." Nigel dropped down in his chair, grumbling that Vaughn had better be ready to do something about the 'problem' he'd created as soon as lunch was over.

With a laugh, Page ran her hand up the obvious erection bulging behind the zipper of Nigel's jeans. "We both will." She kissed him slowly, still stroking him before saying, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, which it wasn't, "When do we start setting our plan into motion?"

Three Lovers on the Grift - 12

"Twins?" Vaughn looked at Page in horror. Nigel on the other hand was grinning ear to ear. "How the hell—?"

Page snorted. "Well when the two of you put parts A into slot B on the same day and almost the same time, Vaughn—"

"I get that. Damn, woman." He continued pacing the living room, shaking his head. "What are we going to do with twins?"

"Be good parents to them," Nigel told him. "The best that we can be under the circumstances."

"Yeah, I know." Vaughn came back to sit down on the other side of Page on the sofa. "Look, don't get me wrong, I'm really all right with this whole baby thing now. But," he shook his head again.

"It's freaking scary, I know." She rested her head on his shoulder. "But exciting too."

Nigel nodded. "We're going to have to make some decisions though."

Vaughn looked at him over Page's head. "A lot of them; like are we going to settle in one place so they have a real home."

"And should we think about going legit. I mean how do we explain to them that their parents don't make their money the old fashioned way?"

Page chuckled softly. "I, for one, don't have a clue what a real job even looks like, and neither do either of you. Tossing burgers is not my idea of how to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. And before you all say a word, I am not going to stay at home while the two of you go off to do your thing. We share and share alike, as always."

"He gets diaper duty," Nigel said with a grin.

"And you get to wake up in the middle of the night when they start crying," Vaughn retorted.

With a chortle of amusement, Page told them, "This could make my life easy. I'll just hand over everything but the feeding to the two of you, lay back, and enjoy."

"Like hell. Share and share alike, remember." Nigel swatted her arm lightly. "We all trade off, well, except the feeding. Neither of us has the right equipment for that."

She smiled, leaning in to kiss him then turning to do the same to Vaughn. "The three Musketeers plus two. This should turn out to be very, very—interesting."

Three Lovers on the Grift - 11

For the next month and a half the trio ran several small cons, more to keep their hand in than out of necessity. A con was only as good as the practitioners and losing their edge because they were taking it easy was not an option in their eyes. Page, who was second only to Vaughn when it came to planning their games, came up with a variation of the Jamaican Switch that netted them a sizable chunk of change with virtually no risk.

Then the next hurdle hit.

Page had her second doctor's appointment since she'd found out she was pregnant. Surprisingly, at least to her, she was weathering the whole thing fairly well. So far it hadn't been nearly as bad as she's heard it could be. Well, other than the fact that she was already putting on weight, which had her bemoaning the fact that none of her favorite clothes fit anymore.

She arrived at the doctor's office with her two lovers in tow. Leaving them in the waiting room, she followed the nurse back to the examination room. The doctor greeted her and then took her through the usual checks and balances. When he'd finished he told her he wanted to do an ultrasound.

"Is there something wrong with the baby," she asked, feeling a moment of panic.

He smiled, shaking his head. "I just want to check something."

Chewing her lip, she lay back down as the nurse brought the machine into the room. After the doctor spread gel over her belly and pelvic area, he moved the probe over her.

"I thought so," he murmured. "See," he pointed to the picture on the screen.

Page looked, not sure what she was seeing.

"You're having twins." He pointed out the two fetuses, explaining that each one was in its own amniotic sac and had separate placenta. "They're fraternal."

"Oh my god," she whispered, staring in wonder at the picture. Then she had a thought, figured it was a crazy one, and shook her head.

"What, Page?" the doctor asked. "If you want to know something you have to ask. I don't read minds, unfortunately."

"Okay, very off the wall. Is it possible that they're from different fathers?"

He nodded. "Possible. We won't know for certain until after they're born. Can I presume that you've had relationships with more than one man?"

Page laughed. "Often, and they both know so you don't have to dance around it. The two men who came with me today are my lovers."

"Oh." He looked momentarily shocked and then chuckled. "I think you're the first patient of mine that's been in that situation, or at least who's admitted it to me. Are they—" he hesitated.

"They're bi, if that's what you were going to ask, so the three of us are lovers in all the ways possible. I wonder—It would be fantastic if they were each the father of one of the twins. Oh, can you tell if they're boys or girls?"

"Not yet. We'll do another ultrasound on your next visit and see if we can determine it then. Now let's get you cleaned up and then I'll lay down the law on what you have to do to keep the babies and yourself healthy."