Death of a Bachelorette Read online

  Books by Laura Levine

  THIS PEN FOR HIRE

  LAST WRITES

  KILLER BLONDE

  SHOES TO DIE FOR

  THE PMS MURDER

  DEATH BY PANTYHOSE

  CANDY CANE MURDER

  KILLING BRIDEZILLA

  KILLER CRUISE

  DEATH OF A TROPHY WIFE

  GINGERBREAD COOKIE MURDER

  PAMPERED TO DEATH

  DEATH OF A NEIGHBORHOOD WITCH

  KILLING CUPID

  DEATH BY TIARA

  MURDER HAS NINE LIVES

  DEATH OF A BACHELORETTE

  Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

  A Jaine Austen Mystery

  DEATH OF A BACHELORETTE

  LAURA LEVINE

  KENSINGTON BOOKS

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Books by Laura Levine

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Epilogue

  KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2017 by Laura Levine

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2017933184

  Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-1-4967-0846-5

  First Kensington Hardcover Edition: July 2017

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4967-0848-9

  eISBN-10: 1-4967-0848-2

  Kensington Electronic Edition: July 2017

  For Frank Mula

  The funniest (and kindest) man I know

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As always, a big thank you to my editor extraordinaire, John Scognamiglio, for his unwavering faith in Jaine—and for his never-ending supply of terrific story ideas. (Honestly, the man is a walking plot machine.)

  And kudos to my rock of an agent, Evan Marshall, for always being there for me with his heartfelt guidance and support.

  Thanks to Hiro Kimura, who so brilliantly brings Prozac to life on my book covers each year. To Lou Malcangi for another outstanding dust jacket design. And to the rest of the gang at Kensington who keep Jaine and Prozac coming back for murder and minced mackerel guts.

  Special thanks to Frank Mula, man of a thousand jokes. To Mara and Lisa Lideks, authors of the very funny Forrest Sisters mysteries. And to Jan Wallis and Nick Roulakis for graciously allowing me to use their names. (Blessings, Jan!)

  Hugs to Joanne Fluke, author of the bestselling Hannah Swensen mysteries, for her many kindnesses—not to mention a cover blurb to die for.

  Thanks to John Fluke at Placed for Success. To Mark Baker, who’s been there from the beginning. And to Drucilla and the friendly folks at Skydive Santa Barbara (www.skydivesantabarbara.com) for cluing me in on a murder that was simply too good to pass up.

  XOXO to my family and friends—both old and new—for your much-appreciated love and encouragement.

  And finally, a heartfelt thank you to all my readers and Facebook friends. I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again: I wouldn’t be here without you.

  Prologue

  I swear, it was a miracle. Okay, maybe not as big as the parting of the Red Sea. Or Daniel surviving that lion’s den. Or how M&M’s melt in your mouth, not in your hand.

  But a miracle nonetheless.

  I watched in disbelief as my cat, Prozac, lay snoozing on my bed in her spiffy new cat carrier. Yes, Prozac, the cat whose longest record for staying silent in her carrier was about thirteen and a half seconds, had been napping for a whole twenty minutes without a peep.

  And I owed it all to my good buddies at WikiHow, who’d given me some much-needed tips on how to prepare my kitty for an overseas airplane flight.

  I’d been feeding her in her carrier for the last several days, getting her used to her plush new accommodations, throwing in one of my old cashmere sweaters for good measure. Now the place was like a second home to her, a kitty pied-à-terre.

  And Prozac’s exemplary behavior was only one of the many miracles that seemed to be floating my way.

  Just last week, after answering an ad in Variety, I’d been hired as a writer on a TV show shooting on a Pacific island off the coast of Tahiti.

  The show in question, called Some Day My Prince Will Come, was a Bachelor type rip-off, where a gaggle of gorgeous young bachelorettes gathered together to vie for the hand of a handsome European nobleman.

  Wait. Did you actually think people on reality shows just say what comes out of their mouths without any help? That enemy housewives just happen to be seated across from to each other at parties in the Hamptons? That drunken catfights erupt out of sheer chance? I hate to be the one to disillusion you, but the shows’ producers are the ones plotting all these lively stories, and, at least on Some Day My Prince Will Come, there was a writer on hand churning out bon mots for the characters to say other than, “Eat dirt, you bitch/skank/ho!”

  And I, Jaine Austen—ordinarily a writer of ads and brochures for small businesses like Toiletmasters Plumbers (In a Rush to Flush? Call Toiletmasters!)—had been hired to write said bon mots.

  Can you believe it? I was getting paid real money to jet off to be a TV writer in a tropical paradise!

  And not only was the show’s producer letting me bring Prozac; but for once in her feisty life, my feline significant other was cooperating with me, hanging out in her new cat carrier without the slightest yip of protest.

  How lucky could one gal get?

  Of course, there’s always a fly in the ointment, and the fly at that particular moment was my neighbor Lance Venable.

  That day, Lance was sitting on my bed, helping me pack. And by helping me, I mean driving me crazy.

  With each item I tossed into my suitcase, he wailed stuff like:

  My God! Elastic-waist pants? Are you insane?

  Who was the last person to wear that bathing suit? Ma Kettle?

  Yuck!! Where’d you get that dowdy top? Forever 71?

  Lance, who fondles the feet of the rich and famous at Neiman Marcus’s shoe department, fancies himself a fashion guru and is forever bombarding me with unwanted advice.

  “How do you expect to meet the handsome show biz exec of your dreams if you show up in these ghastly outfits? Don’t you have anything more sexy? A flirty little sundress?”

  Somehow I resisted the urge to strangle him with my Ma Kettle bathing suit.

  “The closest I’ve got to flirty is this,” I said, holding up my prized I’M OUT OF ESTROGEN AND I’VE GOT
A GUN T-shirt.

  “Whatever you do,” he said, blathering on, “promise me you won’t wear any of your pathetic elastic-waist capris.”

  “Yeah, right,” I said, shoving in another pair when he wasn’t looking.

  “I’m so sorry I can’t keep Prozac while you’re gone,” he said, making a tsking noise at Pro’s carrier. “But you know how it is when she and Mamie get together. Like Thelma and Louise on steroids.”

  Only too true. Prozac has been known to lead Lance’s adorable pooch Mamie on all sorts of daring escapades, including but not limited to chewing on electrical wiring, gnawing at baseboards, and a little game they’ve invented called Bowling with Houseplants.

  “Not a problem,” I assured him. “The show’s producer has pulled some strings with the locals in Tahiti so Prozac won’t have to be quarantined.”

  “Isn’t bribery wonderful?” Lance gushed. “If you ask me, it’s the bulwark of a civilized society.”

  “And besides,” I said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for Prozac and me to be apart. Too much separation anxiety. All that yowling and screaming and crying.”

  “True,” Lance nodded. “And Prozac gets sort of upset, too.”

  At which point, my pampered princess awoke from her slumber and sauntered out onto the bedspread, yawning a yawn the size of a sinkhole.

  My, that nap was refreshing!

  And with that, she promptly curled up into a ball and began another one.

  “This is so darn exciting!” Lance said, scratching Pro behind her ears as she dozed. “Just think what this job could mean!”

  “I know. Maybe I can make the transition from small-time ad copywriter to big time TV writer! Maybe I’ll never have to write another ad for Toiletmasters ever again.”

  “There’s that, of course, and your chance to meet that European nobleman. The prince of Some Day My Prince Will Come. Promise me you’ll find out if he has a cute available brother. I’ve always wanted to date nobility.”

  “Got it, Lance. My top priority will be finding you a noble boyfriend. I’ll get to work on it as soon as my plane lands.”

  “Aren’t you an angel,” he said, my sarcasm whizzing past him undetected.

  “I hope you haven’t forgotten,” I said. “When I’m gone, I need you to take in my mail and mist my Boston fern.”

  “No problemo, honey. It’s as good as done. Which one’s the Boston fern?”

  “The green thing with leaves.”

  I led him into the living room and pointed out a delicate fern I’d recently bought and had been nursing tenderly.

  “Got it,” he said. “Mist Boston fern.”

  “Every day.”

  “Every day. Just call me Mr. Greenthumbs.”

  “Thanks so much, Lance. I really appreciate it.”

  “Don’t be silly, hon. That’s what friends are for. Well, must run and feed Mamie. I’ll pick you up bright and early tomorrow to take you to the airport. Just remember—”

  “I know. I know. No elastic-waist pants.”

  And off he zoomed to his apartment.

  I ordered Chinese food for dinner that night and ate it in bed, Prozac chowing down on bits of shrimp from my shrimp with lobster sauce, a cool breeze wafting in from my bedroom window. I didn’t know it then, but I was to think of that breeze longingly in the days to come.

  Hours later, I settled down to go to sleep, thrilled about my exciting new job, certain I was jetting off to paradise.

  Little did I realize I was heading straight for the jaws of hell.

  Chapter 1

  It took about nine hours to fly from L.A. to Tahiti—nine of the most harrowing hours of my life.

  All that training I’d done with Prozac, getting her used to her carrier, keeping her calm and relaxed, worked like a dream—until we actually boarded the plane.

  After which she began yowling at the top of her lungs, a cry so piercing, so decibel-shattering in the narrow confines of our crowded coach cabin, even the cranky toddler across the aisle was giving me the stink eye—pissed, no doubt, that Prozac had robbed him of his title as the Most Aggravating Passenger on board.

  The whole plane was buzzing with annoyance as Prozac’s shrieks ricocheted around the cabin.

  I even heard one of the flight attendants mumble to her partner as they rolled the drink cart down the aisle, “It’s days like this I wish I’d kept my job at KFC. Those paper hats weren’t so bad after all.”

  Prozac’s nonstop wails were silenced only by a steady succession of kitty treats and, as it turned out, a good portion of my in-flight meal. Finally, when my eardrums could stand it no longer, I fell back on the pet owner’s last resort in times of crisis: a healthy dose of valium.

  And I’m happy to report it put me down for two hours.

  When I woke, I discovered Prozac and her cat carrier were gone.

  Oh, heavens. Had some furious passenger spirited her off to the lav and done away with her?

  No, it turned out that the coach passengers had taken up a collection to move Prozac to first class, where I found her sprawled out on a plush leather seat, nibbling at a plate of caviar.

  Desperate to shut her up, the flight attendants had taken her out of her carrier and given her what she’d wanted all along: a nice comfy chair all to herself, away from the plebes in coach.

  At which point, she’d apparently switched to full-tilt Adorable Mode, cocking her head at a rakish angle, purring happily, and batting her baby greens.

  At least that’s how I found her when I came bursting through the curtain to first class.

  “Prozac!” I cried. “I was worried sick. I thought someone had kidnapped you.”

  She looked up at me lazily.

  Oh, hello there. Don’t you belong in coach?

  “I hope she hasn’t been any trouble,” I said to the aristocratic lady sitting next to her.

  “No, no trouble at all,” the grand dame replied, cheekbones sharp as Ginsu knives. “Bad behavior is never the fault of the cat. It’s always the owner.”

  From her lap of luxury, Prozac gave an appreciative meow.

  How true. How true.

  Eventually, we began our descent to Tahiti, and Prozac was returned to coach and placed in her carrier, howling every minute of the way.

  When we finally taxied up to the gate at around noon Tahiti time, Prozac and I were the first to leave the plane, escorted by the captain with a cordial warning to never again step foot in his aircraft.

  After bidding him a hasty toodle-oo, I hurried off to the gate, where I was greeted by a burly islander with gold front teeth and muscles the size of rump roasts.

  And, as promised by the producer of Some Day My Prince Will Come, I was whisked past customs and their animal quarantine department straight out to the tarmac and into a golf cart that zipped us over to a small airplane hangar.

  At first, I thought we were at some sort of aeronautical graveyard where ancient aircraft came to die.

  The plane standing before us in front of the hangar was old. Really old. Amelia Earhart and goggles old.

  “Here you go, missy,” my gold-toothed guide said, pointing to a rusty set of steps leading up to the decrepit plane.

  Seeing the fear in my eyes, my rump-roast guide assured me, “Plane very safe, missy. Made by Boeing Corporation.”

  No doubt in their Popsicle stick division.

  Taking a deep breath, I climbed on board to meet the pilot, a doddering fellow with a matchstick dangling from his lips and a disconcertingly rheumy look in his eyes.

  It was a half-hour trip to our destination, Paratito Island, and once again there was nonstop howling. This time from me.

  Never had I experienced a more bumpy flight.

  Honestly, I felt like I was in the spin cycle of my washer.

  But at last we landed, and I climbed down the rickety steps, thrilled to have survived the flight.

  The first thing that greeted me when I stepped on terra firma was a blast of furnace-ho
t humid air. I’d gone from the spin cycle straight to the dryer.

  Already I could feel my hair frizzing like an overfertil-ized Chia Pet.

  Looking around, all I could see was a small shack, a few dusty palms, and floating clouds of gnats. Then suddenly a lanky, twentysomething guy came charging out of the shack, whooshing past me onto the steps of the plane, a feverish look in his eyes.

  He stopped halfway up and turned to me.

  “So you’re the patsy they roped into the job,” he said, staring at me with unabashed pity.

  “Patsy?”

  “You’re the new writer, right?”

  “Guilty as charged,” I nodded.

  “They hired you to take my place. The show’s already chewed up three writers. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get back on this plane and get the heck out of here.”

  Of course, if I knew then what I know now, I would’ve hustled up those steps ipso pronto.

  But at the time I thought he was just a Negative Nelly. Surely the job couldn’t be that bad. He was probably one of those writers with a giant ego, who got all hot and bothered if a single syllable of his lines was rewritten.

  No way was I about to pass up a TV writer’s salary.

  And besides, I simply couldn’t face another nine-hour plane trip with Prozac.

  “Thanks, but I think I’ll stay.”

  “Then take this,” he said, tossing me a can of bug spray. “You’re going to need it.”

  With that, he hustled off into the plane.

  Minutes later, the plane took off with a sputtering roar, leaving me alone on the tarmac with my suitcase and Prozac, who, exhausted from her in-flight wailathon, was at last asleep in her carrier.

  My gold-toothed guide in Tahiti had told me someone would be picking me up at the airport, but so far, my only greeters had been these damn gnats. I was beginning to feel a bit like Cary Grant stranded in the cornfields in North by Northwest, when suddenly a Jeep came roaring onto the tarmac.