The Perfect Crime: Running Lines 1

By Lily Green

MURDER IS THE FIRST ACT
WHO KILLED THE PLAYER?

Littleton. It’s a small town of small people where nothing ever happens. Not until this one fateful night.

Walter “Kit” Kitchell has always been small town cop on a lonely beat. He’s never had a case that needed pursuing for more than a minute. But when a gutted body is found clutching the words Westside Players in its cold hand, Kit is reluctantly drawn to the last place he knows anything about – the local community theater.

Theresa “Terri” Esposito is a Westside Player who’s never had her big break (even if she’s finally grabbed a supporting role). When she meets Kit, she’s initially unimpressed. His partner seems the more attractive of the pair. But a pic of the mutilated body set her previously unknown detective skills into full gear and Terri invites Kit into the world where a has-been director and a cold leading lady seems to hold power.

But they’re not the only ones that Terri thinks could have wielded the murder weapon. And will the murderer truly be satisfied with just one body?

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READER ADVISORY: This series contains content that readers may find objectionable, including explicit language, sex, abuse, violence, and erotic themes.
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EXCERPT
“Just shut up for a second. This is serious.”
“Serious,” Marcus repeated with a shake of his head.

“Sam is dead, Marcus.”

There was complete, shocked silence for a second, and then the room erupted again. The place filled with cries of grief and anguished sobs.

Kit looked around to see everyone pour on the stage, from the wings, from the seats. They were asking how and why. Everyone started to cling to the nearest body and wail. He had never seen the family or friend of any vic show this much sorrow at the news that their loved one was never coming home, but maybe this was how it was in theaters.

He removed his glasses and wiped away sweat off his face. Winters took the stage and pulled him aside. His face was registering everything that Kit was thinking.

“Crazy, right?”

“Yeah, man,” Kit said.

Marcus fell to the floor. Kit waited for another howl, but heard only a sniffle as the man buried his face in his hands. Okay, sometimes grief was a very private thing. Kit could respect that.

The only person not losing all sense of security was Terri Esposito. She looked around the stage with an amused stare. Kit had never seen anything more heartless. Even if she didn’t particularly care for Sam, how could she not be caught up in the pain of the others? He was. And he saw this kind of thing every day.

Well, maybe not exactly this kind of thing. But a body was a body. And she had gasped at the pic. So what gives?

Kit grabbed her by the arm and turned her towards him. Her face was serene. She looked over his shoulder at Winters and gave him a playful wink.

He had to wonder. Had he found his monster?

Other Titles in this Series:

2 - THE COVERT ACT

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Sandra Ross
• Release date: Sep 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311952462

Lily Green

Lily Green is 41, divorced, and lives in Pacific Heights, San Francisco. She has two sons—Michael, 22 and Todd, 18. Lily has a dark past—she was adopted as a child by a well-meaning, homey schoolteacher and her husband, a bartender. Her adopted father abused her as a child, and in her late teens, she decided she had had enough and reported the incident both to her mom, and the local police. Her mother, instead of coming to her aid, decided to evict her. Lily, therefore, had to move into the city and fend for herself, working odd jobs to put herself through college. She married Howard, a fellow student, and father to both her sons. They parted ways when Todd was 3. Michael is in medical school—an intern—with a pre-med degree in Psychiatry. Michael resides in L.A. Todd is a student at San Francisco University, taking up Dance as his major. Both Michael and Todd are single. Her former husband is Howard, head of an architecture firm. Though he and Lily are estranged, he helps put the kids through college. Lily herself was a dance choreographer—and now teaches Development of Dance Techniques and Dance Theory—part time. She is known to date men several years her junior, as she finds most men her age or older to be “too serious” and “boring." She has a healthy appetite for sex, but finds getting into a serious relationship for long periods “a waste of time." She feels she has yet to find a man her equal both intellectually and physically. She does not believe in “love”—she defines relationships as a meeting of minds and a consensual approval of helping the other grow. Lily is into organic food and is a health and exercise buff (though mostly incidental—the exercising helps “clear her mind”). She is into “centering” and yoga. She has yet to give up smoking, though. She loves to shop but within reason. Anything excessive and lavish has to be justified, she feels. Lily is deeply into social work (she is a member of the local LGBT group as a generous donor for free HIV testing drives, among other advocacies.). She is also an advocate for animal adoption. She describes herself as “a city girl with a small-town heart."

Book preview

The Perfect Crime

By Lily Green

Published by Publications Circulations LLC.

SmashWords Edition

All contents copyright (C) 2014 by Publications Circulations LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, companies and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

The following story is for entertainment purposes only. This book contains sexually graphic scenes depicting consenting adults above the age of 18 engaging in passionate sexual acts. This story is intended only for persons over the legal adult age. By downloading and opening this document, you are stating that you are of legal age to access and view this work of fiction. Mature readers only. Reader discretion is advised.

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The publisher has used its best efforts in preparing this book, and the information provided herein is provided as is. Publications Circulations LLC makes no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose and shall in no event be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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1

Blood smelled like metal.

That's what Kit had been told. That's what he knew when faced with one in an endless series of paper cuts or a nose bloodied on account of an angry perp. Or a schoolyard bully. Too much time had been spent as the intended target of one David Seber to not smell what his father used to say stank up battlefields.

The smell of Nam was described as every shade of awful, and he knew that he'd never have the courage to face a flow rather than a trickle of the crimson stream.

But now he had no choice.

Winters lifted up the rubber sheet and surveyed the scene a second time. He was staring into an abyss of cold eyes and exposed intestines. Everything was out of place, seemed to still ooze even if what had been a man was now a corpse.

Jesus.

Winters continued to pull the covering back.

He thought of his mother bemoaning the apron of fat that substituted for a taut belly. It was a problem she'd never be able to eliminate. Not after four kids. If she could see this now, he knew that an extra fold of skin had to be preferable to a coiled mass that was meant to absorb food.

Maybe it still wanted to. When did the innards really stop working? When did they realize that the mouth was no longer moving, the tongue no longer salivating?