29th Six Sentence Sunday, how badly does she want her stolen property back?

Kris Marlowe ventures further into the creepy old house in The Falstaff Vampire Files.

"The corridor on the left leads to the back door," Hal had told me on my first visit. "I keep my coffin in a shed out there--did I tell you I was a vampire?"

Strange how I forgot those words until I stood on the red stone floor again and started up the chilly staircase, also red stone.

A scrabbling sound nearby made me freeze in my tracks. I stopped to listen. The house seemed to shudder like a ship in the wind.

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28th Six Sentence Sunday, a dangerous seach

Further into forbidden territory in The Falstaff Vampire Files

I knew I could be arrested and lose my license if the old lady called Hal or the cops. But I needed to get my property back and I was still enraged that Hal had taken it. I walked into the darkened foyer. It was paved in dark red stone. It was late afternoon but very little daylight filtered in and the lights mounted on the wall glowed already in their twisted copper fittings. The veins in the alabaster seemed to pulse like reptilian eggs.

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27th Week of Six Sentence Sunday ushers in The Falstaff Vampire Files

The Falstaff Vampire Files arrived earlier than its scheduled September publication date. I'm celebrating by selecting six sentences to share from Chapter 1:

My name is Kristin Marlow and I'm supposed to be sane for a living, but my ex-lover stole the one irreplaceable item I own, and god help me I broke into his creepy old house by the ocean to get it back. As a psychologist I know a dozen techniques to calm down and think rationally, but I was too angry to use any of them.

Technically I didn't break in. I had Hal's key, but before I could use it, the front door flew open and the old woman caretaker came bustling out like a wool-clad force of nature. I caught the door and edged past her, mumbling something about getting my stuff.

She stopped right in front of me and warned me in a hostile tone, "Don't go in the shed."

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26th Six Sentence Sunday - Josephine's new job delays a visit to her old friend

Six sentences from Larger Than Death. Jo accepts a job investigating charity groups for multibillionaire philanthropist Alica Madrone, unfortunately she will be reporting directly to Ambrose, Mrs. Madrone's very exacting assistant, which makes her hesitate to take time off to visit Nina, a troubled friend.

The idea of telling Ambrose I would be late with the report made a chill run down my spine. Mrs. Madrone's special assistant never warmed to me and I was not about to do less than my best under his critical eye. The day of the actual report came and Mrs. Madrone seemed pleased with it, so finally I could go see my best friend.

As I drove the rental car into Seattle I realized that although we spoke by phone every few weeks, I hadn't laid eyes on Nina in the nearly two years since my marriage broke up. I wanted to get an infusion of her splendid vitality.

I never expected to find the police on her doorstep.

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25th Week of Six Sunday Sentences - help from an unexpected source

In Larger Than Death, Josephine manages to impress Mrs. Madrone with her confidence, and Jo's ex-husband turns out to be a good reference.

"If you could work and travel with Griffin Fuller and sleep with him as well for five years, I suspect you must be organized, capable of great self-restraint--a formidable diplomat. The fact that you had to break away argues that common sense must be working like yeast somewhere in your character. You may have the job—if you think you can do the work."

"You haven't said what the work is yet."

She laughed delightedly. "See?" she said to no one in particular, "A diplomat; she doesn't come close to committing herself."

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24th Week of Six Sentence Sunday - the ex-husband factor

From Larger Than Death, Josephine's job interview with a multibillionaire takes an unexpected turn:

When I stood in front of her, Alicia Madrone motioned me into a straight-backed Mission chair a few feet away. The sharp brown eyes she turned on me seemed to come from a distracted world of pain where the healthy could not and would not want to follow.

"I've met your ex-husband when he took a portrait of me," she said in a voice that was light and very sweet, almost girlish.

Uh oh. "I didn't know Griff did portraits." When I realized my ex-husband's love affairs were a cunningly practiced obsession rather than an occasional temptation, I began to dread meeting women who introduced themselves by announcing they had known him as the next word was like as not to be "biblically."

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23rd six sentence Sunday, Meeting the Multibillionaire

From Larger Than Death, Josephine is led up a spectacular staircase by Mrs. Madrone's openly unimpressed personal assistant to meet with a woman whose name adorns a museum, a hospital, and half a dozen other edifices around the state:

My guide was gone without a word and I stepped toward the woman who sat in a wheelchair next to a heavy mahogany desk that probably had belonged to some Spanish grandee.

Alicia Madrone was in her sixties and narrow as a whippet, with pewter hair pulled into a chignon. Despite the flood of sunshine from the windows that looked out over the Bay, she wore a heavy sweater and wool skirt. The lilac point Siamese on her lap raised his head and stared at me for a moment before settling back down into the blue blanket that matched the color of his eyes.

I reached into my pocket to peel a tissue off the pack I'd brought. I was starting to sweat.


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