The Zombie's Inheritance

By Alex Fairfax

Not everyone you meet in the dark is human ...

Private investigator Devlin has a very furry secret – she’s a werewolf.

When a wealthy businessman calls Devlin in to find his missing daughter Laura, Devlin discovers the girl has been turned into a zombie. And she’s not going to lie down and play dead. She wants her revenge on the boyfriend who turned her and is prepared to go to dangerous lengths to get it.

Dangerous for Devlin, that is ...

Oh, and the girl wants her father’s money too – but she’s not the only one with her eye on the inheritance.

Devlin has to untangle not one murder plot but two, and cope with the distraction of a very sexy neighbour ... (Well, there’s no reason she can’t have a little fun at work, is there?) Besides, she's used to playing in the dark, and she has very sharp fangs ...

A paranormal mystery with a wise-cracking heroine and a distinct whiff of Philip Marlowe amongst the paranormals.

15,000 word novella.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alex Fairfax
• Release date: Mar 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301699773

Alex Fairfax

Alex Fairfax has been the friend of werewolves, vampires and other paranormal beings for most of her life. She lives in the north-east of England and is going to be in big trouble for letting the cat out of the bag and letting everyone know that werewolves, zombies and vampires really do exist. Devlin is going to be mad ....

Book preview

THE ZOMBIE’S INHERITANCE

Alex Fairfax

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Alex Fairfax

Cover design by HCT Creative

15,000 word novella

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without written permission, except for review purposes.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

About the Author

Chapter 1

He called me Miss Devlin which set my fangs on edge right from the start. Then he made it worse, much worse, by saying dubiously, ‘You look very young.’

I sat down behind the desk, shifted the laptop and put my feet up on the shining wood. It’s never wise to show your hand (or, in my case, paw) but something told me that Mr Armaguten knew exactly what I was, which intrigued me – I don’t exactly advertise my dual nature in the Yellow Pages. So I said, ‘I’m twenty-seven years old, Mr Armaguten, and yes, your informant was correct. I am a werewolf.’

I showed him the fangs he’d just set on edge. Some people you just can’t resist taunting. Mainly people with vast amounts of money, who make pronouncements in the paper about the fecklessness of everyone who doesn’t have vast amounts of money. Which latter group includes yours truly.

To do him credit, Mr A swallowed hard on his fear and said, with just the slightest waver in his voice, ‘You’re available for hire?’

‘I’m a private investigator,’ I said. ‘I’m always available for hire. But I don’t always take every case I’m offered. For a start, I don’t hack phones.’

He looked blank which either meant he didn’t keep up to date with the news or that hacking phones was the last thing on his mind. A plump man, in his middle fifties, with plenty of fat to cushion the hard chair I kept for my would-be clients, but he looked comfortable in his own skin. Which put him one up on me. When I’m human, I itch to be wolf, to smell the stink of the city, to follow the darkness, and worry rats and mangy cats to the death. When I’m wolf, I always have an unhappy feeling that someone might be pointing a camera at me and I’ll regret all this sniffing and scent marking later.

Doesn’t stop me doing it though, and so far we paranormals have kept ourselves off the front pages. Which is just as well, as history shows that humans who find out about werewolves, vampires and/or zombies have a habit of using us for target practice. Twenty-first century scepticism, thank goodness, confines us to the silver screen and calls us creatures of fiction. Which is the way we’d like to keep it, thank you.

‘My informant was my daughter,’ Mr A said. ‘She insisted I hire you, and only you.’

I was beginning to like this case less and less. I didn’t know Mr Armaguten’s daughter and I didn’t like the fact she apparently knew me.

‘I need a negotiator,’ Mr A said. ‘My daughter’s stolen something of great value from me and is demanding a ransom.’ He was sweating heavily and yet looked pale at the same time. There was a hint of green about the skin at the corners of his eyes. ‘I want my property back,’ he said. ‘With no fuss, and no publicity. And I don’t want the police involved. She’s my only child, my heir, and I don’t want to see her in prison. I need total discretion.’

Sherlock Holmes was a great one for upholding justice, rather than the law, and I always bear his principles in mind; the fact remains, however, that most of the criminals I deal with end up behind bars. But I naturally tend to avoid the police – they have a habit of asking difficult questions. Like: why