In the Bag

By Laura Ware

When Ginny comes home from Major Mart, she doesn't expect to find a bag of cocaine with her groceries. Leery of the cops, she tries to discover who gave her the drugs. As things go from bad to worse, Ginny must choose whether or not to help the police. The decision may save her life - or end it.

Includes the bonus story "Getting Away with Murder" & an excerpt from the novel, "Dead Hypocrites"

Laura Ware's column “Laura’s Look” runs weekly in the Highlands County News Sun. Along with her numerous epublished works she has sold several short stories to various publications; one appeared in a Pocket Books anthology. Laura lives in Central Florida.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JJ Press
• Release date: Jul 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476082073

Laura Ware

Laura Ware writes in a variety of genres. Her novels are mostly inspirational fiction, although she is currently working on a fantasy series as well. Her short fiction ranges from mainstream to fantasy/science fiction and several things in between. Her stories have been published in a number of Fiction River anthologies, including Past Crime, Last Stand, Editor’s Choice and Feel the Fear. Laura also writes a weekly column for the Highlands News-Sun and her essay “Touched by an Angel” was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Random Acts of Kindness in 2017.

Book preview

IN THE BAG

Laura Ware

Includes bonus story, GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER

Also includes the first 17 chapters Laura Ware’s debut novel, DEAD HYPOCRITES

In the Bag

Copyright © 2012 by Laura Ware

Getting Away with Murder

Copyright © 2012 by Laura Ware

Published by JJ Press at Smashwords

Cover images © Eslivanova | Dreamstime.com, © Roman Samokhin | Dreamstime.com

Cover design by Laura Ware

Smashwords edtition.

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction, in whole or in part in any form. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

IN THE BAG

GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER

DEAD HYPOCRITES

COPYRIGHT INFO

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

START READING

Ginny heard her beagle Sparky baying as she pulled into the carport. It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s just me! she yelled as she got out of the car.

Sparky barely let her get the door open before he was out and racing to the back of the car. He knew that’s where any food would be.

Ginny opened the trunk and grabbed a double handful of plastic bags. Yes, there’s something for you, let me get the stuff in first.

Today had been a lousy day to be in Major Mart. It was Sunday and it felt like half the town had decided they needed to go shopping today. Kids had been running up and down the aisles – Ginny almost hit two of them as her cart turned a corner.

To top it all off, it wasn’t until the cashier was scanning her stuff and Ginny opened her wallet that she remembered her credit card was sitting on her desk by her computer.

So she had to write a check – and that had been a royal pain with the cashier firing all kinds of questions at her and asking for ID and whatnot. Ginny had never been so glad to leave Major Mart.

Now she hauled her stuff in, wanting nothing more than to mix herself some iced tea and put her feet up. Sparky happily sniffed at all the bags, looking for treats.

Greedy dog, she said, pausing to rub his head. He gave her the soulful look beagles were masters in, and went back to sniffing.

He paused at one bag that Ginny had placed on one of the captain’s chairs in her breakfast nook. The beagle took a couple of sniffs at the bag and then sneezed.

I get something you don’t like there buddy? she asked. Ginny picked up the bag, wondering if that was where the cashier had put her makeup. Sparky shook his head and sneezed again.

Shrugging, Ginny pulled things out of the bag. A new pair of slippers to replace the tattered pink pair Sparky had chewed into oblivion. Some pressed powder and blush. A brown paper bag with the top stapled shut.

Ginny frowned as she looked at the bag. She couldn’t remember seeing it in her cart. The bag appeared to contain something soft – at least it felt soft as she gently squeezed it. Something powdery, she decided. Finely ground coffee? But it didn’t smell like coffee.

Curiosity got the better of her and she eased the bag open, gently working the staples loose. There was a clear plastic baggie in the paper bag, filled with a fine white powder.

Ginny’s hands began to shake. The bag fell, landing with a soft plop on the floor. Sparky began to sniff at it.

No! No, Sparky, don’t, she said, grabbing up the plastic baggie. She shoved it back into the brown paper bag, trying desperately to think. She was almost certain she knew what it was. What she didn’t know was why someone had shoved a bag of cocaine into her groceries.

What am I going to do? she said out loud. Sparky cocked his head at the question, as if to say, You know what to do, dummy. Take it to the cops.

Yeah, right. Ginny sank down into a chair. All the cops would have to do was run her name through their database. Once they saw her record, they wouldn’t listen to her explanations – they’d simply slap handcuffs on her and accuse her of being a repeat offender. No, thank you, she didn’t need that.

But she couldn’t keep the stuff either, could she? Ginny had never done anything stronger than pot, though she’d heard from friends about some of the harder stuff. And an ex-boyfriend from college had died from a coke-induced heart attack, which made her even more wary.

Ginny took a deep breath. First, she’d finish unloading her groceries. Then, she’d drive back to Major Mart and have a chat with her cashier.

* * * * *

Ginny looked with dismay at the line of cashiers that stretched across Major Mart. It was still too warm in the store, and there were still too many people there, lines of people trying to get checked out and out of this busy, noisy place.

And Ginny couldn’t remember which cashier had been hers.

She could eliminate the young man at one end, his pimples shining under the fluorescent lighting as he checked out a woman who was jostling a baby while yelling at a toddler. Ditto the white haired man who was chatting pleasantly with an older couple as he passed their groceries thru his scanner. Her cashier had been female. And white, which cleared two more cashiers.

But after that Ginny was drawing a