Dead Woman Driving: Episode 6: Married to Death: Dead Woman Driving, #6

By Sue Ann Jaffarian

Posing as a married RVing couple, Kate Hastings and Michael Antol, a fellow Hopkins crew member, tackle a big assignment. Their mission: to locate and recover Sarah Browning, a young woman who disappeared two years earlier. But rescuing Sarah comes with a lot more baggage than they expected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Novel RV
• Release date: Mar 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393107019

Book preview

DEAD WOMAN DRIVING

A Serial Novel

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EPISODE 6

MARRIED TO DEATH

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by

Sue Ann Jaffarian

CHAPTER

ONE

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No matter what time of day, Kate Hastings never tired of the spectacular views of Sedona’s famous red rocks. She was on a new assignment for the Hopkinses. The clients had been called to London unexpectedly on a family matter and she was sent to take care of their lovely modern home in the hills of Sedona, Arizona, along with their two cats. Every morning since arriving, she sat on the patio with her morning coffee while viewing Cathedral Rock in all its multi-hued glory. It was a peaceful way to start her day. She also did her yoga and exercises on the patio. Best job ever, she thought to herself every morning.

The gig was open ended, meaning that it could last as long as a month, maybe longer, but she was told when it began that it would be at least two weeks. She was currently in the middle of her third week with no end date in sight yet. It was her third job for Bill and Sharon and her third involving animals. She didn’t mind though. It was easy work and gave her time off the road while staying in a stunning place. Not that she needed to be off the road. She loved the freedom of her nomadic life, but this had been a nice change of pace and gave her time to focus on a project she’d been wanting to tackle ever since her last meeting with Sue Wright in Yuma.

When talking to Sue about having an exit plan from the road in the future, should the need arise, Kate confessed to her mentor that she wanted to finish high school and had been thinking of taking GED classes. Sue had cheered her on. After leaving JT, Kate had mulled it over more and had looked into the process. She could take classes online to prepare her for the GED exam. The question was, where would she take the test? There were tests online, but the official GED test, the one that really counted, had to be done in person at a state educational facility. The time in Sedona seemed like a perfect opportunity to accomplish this. She could take the exam at one of two nearby community colleges, depending on their schedules. She signed up for the online classes. The four courses were math, science, language arts, and social studies. She took an online review class and sample test. She did everything she could to prepare herself for the in-person exam. Yesterday morning she had driven to Flagstaff and taken all four exams in one day. Now she had to wait for the results, which would be emailed to her within a few days. If she passed, she would be granted a GED, a certificate of high school equivalency. She wondered what she would do if she didn’t pass. The exams had seemed okay, not difficult, but not easy either. The score to pass was not that high, but the higher she got, the better her chances of maybe signing up for some decent online college courses. Something she had never even dared to dream of doing before. This had been JT’s influence. Not that they ever discussed her education, but he had a Master’s Degree in business and sometimes she felt she wasn’t good enough for him with her dropout status. Although she knew he would argue against that. He thought she’d been homeschooled, when the truth was she’d run away from home at the age of fourteen and hadn’t taken a class since. Not to say she was dumb. Kate was far from that, and she knew it, but she wanted the validation of being educated, at least at the high school level. Kate took a deep breath of the desert mountain air and made a decision. If she didn’t pass the GED, she would simply study and keep taking the exams until she did. She would not give up.

The house sat atop a large piece of land on a hill with the most incredible views she’d ever seen from a home, or from most anywhere. The town was cute, touristy and upscale. There was plenty of room for her truck and trailer at the house and many trails to hike. One of the first hikes Kate had taken was the Cathedral Rock