Copycat Killer: A Shelf Indulgence Cozy Mystery by S.E. Babin

Author:S.E. Babin [Babin, S.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

Things started out well. Mary Ruth came out, Hardy at her heels. I pretended not to notice the possessive hand she laid on him right before she settled in at the table like a queen bee. An air of quiet anticipation settled over the room. I had to hand it to her. She knew how to wait and how to milk the crowd. The noise level grew and she waited to speak until it died down to quiet whispers.

Harper busied herself with making sure all the copies of her newest book were stacked neatly on a table right in front of the register. The Knitting Chihuahua series felt a little odd to me, but she had a loyal fanbase. From the amount of people crammed into the shop, that fanbase was larger than I thought it was.

Once Mary Ruth began to speak, I turned my attention to other things.

Hardy hung around for a while and when he was ready to leave, he motioned me over. I put down the books I was stocking and headed over to the door. My heartbeat picked up a little faster as I approached.

We'd gone out to see an Agatha Christie play a few nights ago. It wasn't a date, but it was kind of a date. It felt like Hardy mostly wanted to get the peace back between us after Cole had been picked up for murder. It did the trick, but a tension that hadn't been there before lurked between us now.

Plus, I couldn't deny how handsome and available he was, even as I knew getting involved wasn't what I wanted. Not right now anyway.

He leaned forward, his breath tickling my ear. "She's a real piece of work, isn't she?"

I sighed and looked over at the author. Her hands waved animatedly around as she read from her book. The crowd laughed. "She's good at this."

He nodded. "Manipulators usually are."

I glanced up at him sharply. "Those are strong words."

Hardy stared at Mary Ruth for a long moment, his jaw clenched. "I see people like her every day in my line of work. She surrounds herself with people who give her what she wants. The second someone questions her, she turns it around and plays the victim."

I felt much the same way about her. "She's only here for today. Once this is over, I plan to be much more discerning about the people I bring in to sign."

"Probably not a bad idea." His gaze trailed over the people sitting around Mary Ruth. "Though you have a full house today with this one."

I opened my mouth to speak.

"Mary Ruth, my name is Martha Hemming." I glanced over at her. She was a regular at Tattered Pages. I'd never had any trouble with her, and I always thought she was a kind sort.

Today, though, her face held an anger I'd never seen before. She clenched and unclenched the fists resting at her sides. "I wrote a book last year about a knitting chihuahua and sent it over to an alpha reader for some feedback.

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