by Diana Orgain
I nodded.
She handed Laurie to me. “Why don’t you nurse her now and see if she calms down a bit. All her vital signs are very good. Do you still want a pediatrician to look at her?”
“Yes, of course!” I answered.
The nurse nodded in understanding and left the room, promising to send the pediatrician on call.
I squeezed Laurie and fresh tears ran down my cheeks.
“Littlest! Please be okay. Please don’t be hurt,” I sobbed.
Laurie’s hand entangled itself in my hair and she yanked at it, letting out a howl.
I laughed and let her tug at my hair. “If you’re mad at missing a meal, then you’re probably okay, huh?”
I bundled her in a blanket, nursed her, and waited for the doctor while replaying the accident in my mind. Was there anything I could have done differently? Why did he take off? I know he was just a kid, probably only recently got his license. But how could he abandon us like that?
The door to the room opened and my husband, Jim, appeared. I leapt out of the chair, still holding Laurie, and fell into him. His strong arms engulfed us and made me feel safe for the first time since the accident.
In a rush of words I told him about the hit-and-run. He listened to me while he watched Laurie.
There was a soft rap at the door, followed by the creak of it opening. The pediatrician, a tall man with smooth olive skin and dark hair, stepped in. He had me place Laurie on the exam table, which caused me to go into full sob mode again.
He peppered Jim with questions regarding Laurie’s health, as he examined her. After a bit, he subjected me to the same battery of questions.
He finally said, “I think she’s fine. Of course, we’ll have to monitor her for signs of distress for the next forty-eight hours or so. But newborns are mostly cartilage; it’s probably you, Mom, who’s going to be hurting.”
He handed me a checklist of symptoms to watch for, including: vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy, and then left the room.
I rebundled Laurie. “What did the police tell you?” I asked Jim.
“Not much. He said the guy in the car in front of you followed the assailant. He ended up losing him, but was pretty sure it was a vehicle from the French consulate’s fleet.”
A vehicle from the French consulate?
What did that mean? Why did he speed off? Why not stop?
“Was the car stolen?” I asked.
Jim shrugged. “I don’t know, the cop barely gave me the time of day. Told me to file an insurance claim and gave me an incident number.” Jim stared at me with a dumbfounded expression—one I’m sure matched my own.
After a moment, he said, “Of course, I didn’t press him much. I only wanted to find out about you and Laurie and how you guys were doing.”
I nodded.
“Why’d you ask if the car was stolen?” Jim asked.
“It was a teenager driving it.”
Jim exhaled. “So it’s some diplomat’s kid.”
“Maybe,” I agreed.
He squinted at me. “Let’s go there.”
“What?”
“Let’s track down the snot nose that hit you and Laurie.”
“Shouldn’t we let the police do that?”
Jim clenched a fist. “They already know it’s a car from the consulate. You think they’re itching to get involved with some diplomat’s pinhead son? If they were, they’d already be over there, right?”
I pulled Laurie close to me and pressed my nose into her soft cheek. She was asleep but my squeeze caused her little hand to reach out. I placed my finger in her palm and felt her small hand wrap around it.
“You know the police aren’t going to do a darn thing,” Jim continued. “They want us to open an insurance claim. Let us take the hit.”
Anger surged inside of me. “We already took the hit.
Literally! Laurie and I.”
Oh God, please let my baby be all right.
The doctor had said to watch for signs of distress.
Didn’t I always?
I would be even more vigilant now.
“What about Laurie? I want to get her home. Make sure she’s okay. I want her to be warm and fed and content . . .”
My voice caught as a sob bubbled in my throat. “I want her to be okay.”
Jim pulled Laurie and me into an embrace. “She’s okay, honey. She’s gonna be fine,” he said, his voice full of emotion “You heard the doctor: She’s all cartilage.”
“She not all cartilage. She’s a person! A tiny defenseless little person, with a heart and soul and . . .” Tears rolled down my face.
He tightened his grasp around me. Laurie squirmed between us.
“It happened so fast, Jim. One minute you’re there, stopped at a light, and then the next . . . What if . . .”
“I love you guys so much. I can’t stand the thought. All I can do is fight, Kate. I want to find the guy who ran into you. Accidents happen, I know. But you can’t just leave a mother and child in the middle of the road after smashing their car to smithereens.”
I nodded, swallowing back my fears. I picked up Laurie’s discarded dress and handed it to Jim. “Let’s go.”
…Excerpt Formula for Murder by Diana Orgain © 2011
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About the Author
Diana Orgain is the USA Today Bestselling author of the MATERNAL INSTINCTS MYSTERY SERIES: Bundle of Trouble, Motherhood is Murder, Formula for Murder, and Nursing a Grudge. She is the co-author of NY Times Bestselling Scrapbooking Mystery Series with Laura Childs. Diana’s new FOR LOVE OR MONEY SERIES is now available and as is her ROUNDUP CREW MYSTERY SERIES: Yappy Hour and Trigger Yappy. For a complete listing of books, as well as excerpts and contests, and to connect with Diana:
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Other Titles by Diana Orgain
In the Maternal Instincts Mystery Series
Bundle of Trouble
Motherhood is Murder
Formula for Murder
Nursing a Grudge
Pampered to Death
In the iWitch Mystery Series
A Witch Called Wanda
I Wanda put a spell on you
In the Love or Money Mystery Series
A First Date with Death
A Second Chance at Murder
Third Time’s a Crime
In the Roundup Crew Mystery Series
Yappy Hour
Trigger Yappy
For a full and update list of Diana’s books visit her website at www.dianaorgain.com
ALSO BY DIANA ORGAIN
Have you read them all?
In the Maternal Instincts
Mystery Series
Bundle of Trouble
A body has been dredged from the San Francisco Bay. Kate Connelly, pregnant and ready to pop, has reason to fear it may be her long lost brother-in-law. Battling sleep deprivation, diaper blowouts and breastfeeding mishaps she muddles through her own investigation, Mommy style:
To do:
Find Killer
Figure out hideous breast pump.
Avoid cranky cop.
Send out Make birth announcements – need pink paper.
FIND KILLER
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Motherhood is Murder
Nights out are hard to come by for new parents. So when Kate’s new- mommy club, Roo & You, holds a dinner cruise, she and her husband leave baby Laurie with Kate’s mom and join the grown-ups for some fine dining on the San Francisco Bay.
But when one of the cofounders of Roo & You takes a fatal spill down a staircase, the police department crashes the party. Suddenly every mom and her man has a motive. Kate’s on deck to solve the mystery- but a killer’s determined to make her rue the day she joined the first-time-mom’s club…
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Formula for Murder
Sleuth and first-time mom Kate Connolly and her baby are the victims of a hit-and-run, but escape unharmed. A witness identifies the car’s French diplomatic license plates, yet when Kate and her hubby try to get some answers, they get le cold shoulder.
But there’s something going on at the French consulate that’s dirtier-and far deadlier-than any diaper.
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Nursing a Grudge
Bringing up baby
Sleep deprivation, diaper blowouts, and breastfeeding mishaps are status quo for new mom Kate Connolly. But when she decides to turn private investigator in order to work from home, her To-Do List expands exponentially (1. Buy diapers. 2. Get back in shape. 3. Order lock pick set…)
Bringing down a killer
Her friend Jill’s boyfriend falls to his death under questionable circumstances. Juggling mommy duties and unorthodox investigation techniques, Kate must determine whether the scathing review Jill wrote about a local restaurant is connected to his untimely death…and whether the killer might strike again.
Investigation, Mommy-style
Kate races to solve the case before Vicente Domingo, the new, sexy PI in town swoops in and saves the day. He’s drop-dead gorgeous, but she’d like to tell him to drop dead for poaching her last client. As bodies pile up faster than dirty diapers, can Kate uncover the truth about what happened to Jill’s boyfriend between nap times, diaper changes, and playdates? Or will Become A Bonafide P.I be the last entry she makes on her To-Do List?
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In the Love or Money Mystery Series
A First Date with Death
When brokenhearted Georgia Thornton goes looking for romance on reality TV, she has nothing to lose—apart from a good man, a cash prize, and maybe her life…
What was she thinking? Sure, some cad ditched her at the altar, but can she really find love on TV? Her best friend—and producer of the reality show Love or Money—thinks so. Ten men. Ten adventure-filled dates. What can go wrong? For starters, a faulty bungee cord that hurls Georgia’s first date into a tragic spiral off the Golden Gate Bridge.
He’s replaced by Paul Sanders, Georgia’s former fiancé. But the cop isn’t looking for a TV gig. Suspecting that the lover’s leap was no accident, Paul’s going undercover. When another bachelor gets a fatal kiss-off, the reality is that someone has killer new plans for the show—and for Georgia herself. Now, under the threat of permanent cancellation, Georgia fears that the only man on the set she can trust is the one man she just can’t count on…
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A Second Chance at Murder
After Love or Money made them reality TV stars, former cop Georgia Thornton and her new boyfriend Scott were supposed to live happily ever after. Unfortunately as their fifteen minutes of fame came to an end, actual reality kicked in and their prize money quickly evaporated.
So Georgia and Scott agree to appear in a new program, pitting them against other teams in an athletic journey across the countryside of Spain for a chance to win $250,000. But the fierce competition turns frightening when Scott disappears during an overnight camping trip in the Pyrenees Mountains, leaving only his bloody wristwatch behind—and a woman’s dead body.
With the Spanish authorities ready to convict Scott, Georgia must find him and prove his innocence in an amazing race against crime…
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Third Time’s a Crime
After two hit reality TV shows brought ex-detective Georgia Thornton into America’s living rooms, audiences can’t get enough of her quest for love and justice. Now producers have come up with an all-new show set in a haunted castle in Golden, California. Georgia and nine other contestants will need to solve the mystery of a young woman who disappeared at the castle in 1960.
Except there’s one rather substantial problem waiting for everyone when they arrive: a groundskeeper is found drowned at the bottom of the castle’s empty pool. Now Georgia and the other contestants will need to work together, because there’s a different sort of game afoot—and it’s not one they can afford to lose...
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In the Roundup Crew Mystery Series
Yappy Hour
Every Friday night in the idyllic seaside town of Pacific Cove, CA, the Roundup Crew, a group of dog-loving friends, meet at a neighborhood wine bar for Yappy Hour. When Rachel, the owner, mysteriously leaves town and asks her sister, Maggie (who is neither pet friendly nor business savvy), to run the bar in her absence, things get complicated fast. Maggie arrives to open up and finds a body sprawled on the floor, and even worse, an incriminating letter with Rachel's name on it nearby. On impulse, she hides the letter from the hunky detective, Officer Brad Brooks, who's dispatched to the scene.
When Rachel is declared the top suspect by the police, Maggie decides to investigate on her own. She reopens the bar and gets to know the members of the Roundup Crew, including chief organizer Yolanda, who never goes anywhere without her signature strappy stilettos or her Chihuahua Beepo. Maggie juggles searching for clues, trying to locate Rachel, and serving up Doggie Daiquiris, Muttguaritas and homemade Arf D'Oeuvres--until another body turns up. The Roundup Crew must step in and save the bar, and it seems the only way to do that will be to solve the mystery and turn Maggie into a dog-lover.
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Trigger Yappy
Although still not quite a dog lover, Maggie Patterson meets with her new group of dog-loving friends for “Yappy Hour” every Friday night in the sleepy seaside town of Pacific Cove, CA. Both she and her sister Rachel have put the past murderous summer behind them, with Rachel even securing a headline feature for the Wine & Bark in the famous Doggie Day magazine. But when her sister comes down with a case of salmonella poisoning, Maggie is left to run the business in her absence. Even worse, Maggie overhears an argument between her friend Yolanda and Bonnie, who runs the Chic Chickie shop. Then poor Bonnie turns up dead.
With evidence pilling up against Yolanda, the Roundup Crew is desperate to find the real killer and convince Maggie to investigate. With the help of charming detective Officer Brad Brooks, Maggie finds that everyone has a motive, even some of her beloved Roundup Crew friends. Maggie must put her new job as a purser on hold while she tracks down a murderer. Will Maggie’s investigation kill her budding romance with Officer Brooks? Sometimes getting to the truth is not for the faint of bark…er…heart. Between running the bar, managing her love life, and solving a murder in time for the editorial spread, things are about to get a little hairy in this laugh-out-loud cozy mystery.
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The Vicente Domingo Intrigue Series
Destruction
Catching a cheating husband in the
act should have been a routine case for Private Investigator Vicente Domingo. But not when the subject of his investigation is Howard Thrasher, a man with the money and power to destroy him. For Vicente's client, Anjie Thrasher, what should have been the perfect night—rain, a hot new Spanish lover, news that she is finally free of her prenup—ends in disaster. Now, Vicente must risk losing everything... before he loses his life.
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Copyright © by Diana Orgain
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