Ex Marks the Spot by Merline Lovelace

Author:Merline Lovelace [Lovelace, Merline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Published: 2012-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

HER MIND SPINNING WITH the details of her plot, Andi went back to the camcorder. As Dave had warned, the battery was stone-cold dead.

She plugged the charger into a wall outlet and connected the other end to the camera. The instrument beeped to life in her hands.

“Okay, sweetheart, let’s see what you can do.”

Following the instructions, she opened the viewing screen and switched from still to movie mode. Activating the remote mike required additional references to the manual.

Now to see if it worked.

Aiming the telescopic lens at the far corner of the great room, Andi slipped the supersensitive mike into her shirt pocket and crossed to the far corner of the room.

“Testing, one, two, three.”

For good measure, she opened the sliding glass doors to add a chorus of night sounds to her test. Cicadas chirped, the bug lights popped as an unwary mosquito got zapped and the sea murmured restlessly in the distance.

“Testing, one, two, three.”

When she went to review the test, the sound played back with astonishing clarity, but the video screen remained blank.

Hell! She must have hit the wrong setting. Not hard to do, since the minicam came packed with enough variations to record a full-length animated feature film. Wondering how engineers managed to cram so many options into such a small case, Andi reread the manual and tried again. This time the tiny viewing screen lit up.

“Yes!”

She hit the reverse button, saw a blur of colorful scenes whir by and had to search for the stop button. She was about to fast-forward again when the three-inch screen filled with bright, colorful lights.

“What’s this?”

A Christmas tree, she saw as the camera zoomed out, its lights twinkling against stressed-oak paneling. With a jolt, she recognized the paneling. She’d picked it for the den of the last home she and Dave had shared.

Have you figured it out yet?

Her disembodied voice floated through the camcorder’s speaker. Dave’s deep baritone followed.

I think so.

The camera panned, jerked to a stop and zoomed in on a creature sitting cross-legged amid a pile of unwrapped presents, her hair in wild tangles and a Santa Claus coffee mug poised halfway to her lips.

Smile, Andi. Better yet, wave and sing “Jingle Bells.”

Uh-uh! You know I can’t carry a tune in a duffel bag.

Be a sport, Mrs. Claus. Croon for the camera.

No.

The woman in the video made a face and hid behind her Santa mug. The woman watching her blinked away the prick of hot, stinging tears.

Jeez, you’re stubborn. Guess I’ll have to mount this on the tripod and get in the shot with you. We’ll make it a duet.

Walls and floor tilted as the camera swung crazily. A thump sounded. The view leveled. Dave had plunked his Christmas present on the coffee table, Andi remembered, her throat tight and aching.

As he rustled through boxes and wadded paper for the tripod she’d bought to go with the camera, the camcorder’s sensitive mike magnified the sounds. Every crack and crackle seemed to stab into Andi’s chest.

How do you hook

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