A Murder State of Mind Boxed Set Read online

  A Murder State of Mind

  Boxed Set

  Contains three complete novels

  Deadly Secrets

  Deadly Betrayal

  Deadly Consequences

  ISBN: 978-1-77145-420-9

  Copyright 2015 by Jude Pittman

  Cover copyright 2015 by Michelle Lee

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  DEDICATION

  Dedicated to my daughters

  Judi-Ann Cartwright Smith (1965-2004)

  Tami Cartwright

  Billie Cartwright

  Roxanne Pittman Nolan

  A Murder State of Mind – Book 1

  Deadly Secrets

  Chapter One

  Prologue

  Kelly McWinter strode into the squad room of Fort Worth Special Ops. Except for the slight hitch in one of his long legs compliments of a gang banger who didn’t appreciate having his meth lab shut down you’d never know the lanky Texan with the crooked smile and barely definable dimple in his chin, was a 13 year veteran of the Fort Worth PD.

  “Hi Gil, Dan, everything ready?” Kelly nodded to his fellow officers.

  “All set. Got the warrant right here,” Dan Gallows patted his jacket pocket and picked up his automatic rifle.

  “Command Central confirms there are four of them. Two in the front of the house and two back in the lab. They’ve only been cooking since noon, so they’ll have to stay put the rest of the day.

  “Okay.” Kelly fastened his vest and buttoned up his jacket. We have two squad cars on standby they’ll pick us up at the corner of Belknap and Knight and follow us to the clubhouse.”

  “We going in quiet?” Gil Martin asked as he stepped up beside his Chief.

  “Dead silent. Remember, they’ll be heavily armed and they aren’t likely to go down easy.”

  * * *

  Luckily the takedown went smooth as butter. They hit the clubhouse hard and fast, took all four by surprise, and never fired a shot. Gil and Dan crashed through the front door at the same instant that Kelly and Jeff Steuben from Patrol came through the back. The guards up front were having lunch and the two cooks in the back were sitting at a table playing cribbage. The Team had them down and cuffed before they could clear their heads enough to know they’d been breached.

  * * *

  Three weeks after the raid everything went to hell and Kelly’s life exploded in a nightmare of flames and gut wrenching grief.

  Someone leaked Kelly’s home address to the bikers. They staked out his apartment and on a night when both Kelly and Lynda should have been attending a surprise party to celebrate Kelly’s mentor, Jim Forbes’ retirement from the force, they’d thrown a barrage of Molotov cocktails through the bedroom window. Kelly and Lynda had both planned to attend, but a couple hours before time to leave, Lynda got one of her migraines. Kelly had been torn between staying home with his sick wife and paying tribute to his mentor, but Lynda had insisted he attend the party. She’d already taken her pain medicine and by the time Kelly left she’d been sound asleep. He went alone.

  Later, when he got the call to come home, the apartment building had burned to the ground. The fire chief told Kelly that the explosion had killed Lynda instantly. She’d never awoken and felt no pain. It was small consolation.

  In the aftermath of the tragedy, Kelly resigned from the force, cut off all contact with his fellow officers and took a dead end job working security for a country flea market out in Indian Creek. He’d been there five years when murder brought him face to face with his past.

  Chapter One

  In the act of stepping through the front door at the Hideaway Bar and Barbecue, Kelly paused in mid-stride.

  “You just try to throw me out of this cockroach-infested whorehouse.” Anna Davis’ shriek shattered the sound barrier.

  Kelly had agreed to meet bar owner Cam Belcher for a couple of beers but if he’d known Anna was on one of her rampages, he’d have turned Cam’s invitation down flat. He gritted his teeth, prepared to face the inevitable, and strolled across to the bar. A cloud of thick blue smoke cloaked the semi-dark room and Kelly aimed his eyes toward the sound of Anna’s voice.

  “Cam’s got his hands full tonight.” Darlene, Cam’s barmaid, stopped beside Kelly and pointed across the room to where a scrawny little woman in an old black poncho had Cam backed as far up against the pool table as he could get without settling his backside onto the felt.

  “Sure looks that way,” Kelly agreed. “Bring me a cool one, will you? I’ve got a feeling I’m going to need a couple of them.”

  Turning back to watch the show, Kelly was just in time to catch Cam’s eye. “Help!” the desperate barman mouthed a plea. With a resigned shrug, Kelly swung his leg off the barstool and headed across the room.

  “What’s wrong with my best gal?” Kelly moved in front of Anna and blocked her view of Cam.

  “Stupid jackass says I can’t hold my whiskey.” Anna lifted her head and wobbled unsteadily.

  “Whoa. Steady now.” Kelly reached out to catch her shoulders just as she lurched and landed flat against his chest. Giggling, she tilted her head and gave him a drunken smile.

  Kelly sighed and tightened his arm around her shoulders. He liked Anna a lot, even if she was a drunk. “Easy now.”

  He took her arm and steered her toward a table where Bubba Tate and Leroy Elliott were set up with one of those giant bottles of whiskey the locals referred to as Texas Mickies.

  “How’s it going, boys?” Kelly nodded to Bubba and Leroy.

  “Hey, Kelly!” Bubba grinned at Kelly and reached over to pull out a chair. “How ya doin’?”

  “Not bad.” Kelly helped Anna into the chair and rested his arm along the backrest.

  Bubba, a bowlegged, potbellied shorty with the face of a mischievous boy, pushed his cowboy hat back on his forehead and pointed at the bottle. “Care for a shot?”

  “Thanks, I’ll pass but Anna could probably do with one,” Kelly picked up a glass and handed it across the table. “I’m going over to have a chat with Cam, so how about you boys keep her company for a spell?”

  “You bet!” Bubba grabbed the bottle. “She was sitting here with me’n Leroy before her and Cam got mixing it up.” Bubba poured a healthy shot into Anna’s glass.

  “Good!” Kelly patted Anna’s arm and turned away.

  At the bar, Cam had his head bent over a sink full of soapsuds. “Time for a break,” Kelly shouted over the clamor of voices.

  Cam grabbed the towel from around his neck and wiped his hands. “You bet, this place has been nuts all night. Guess you noticed, Anna’s on one of her benders.”

  Kelly grinned. “Yep, got that okay. Why not let Darlene take over for a while and we’ll go out on the patio.” Kelly nodded his head toward the back of the room.

  “Sure thing.” Cam waved a hand to get Darlene’s attention. “I’m going to step outside with Kelly for a spell.”

  “Gotcha, boss.”

  Cam grabbed a couple of longnecks out of the cooler and followed Kelly outside. The patio—added after his folks retired—was Cam’s pride and joy. The fancy barbecue pit, charcoal smoker and raised platform stage had been an instant hit and the row of outdoor booths flanking the stage allowed non-smokers like Kelly an opportunity to join the fun while still preserving their lungs.

  “So, what’s going on with you and Anna?” Kelly fo
lded his legs into one of the booths and accepted a beer.

  “Not me. She’s been like this ever since she came in from the flea market.”

  Kelly frowned. “What did she mean by that crack about you throwing her out?”

  Cam flushed. “I was just tryin’ some damage control. You know how she gets when she starts on the whiskey. She started raisin’ hell with Bubba and I knew it was only a matter of time before she exploded and there’d be furniture flyin’.”

  “Hopefully, Bubba and Leroy will keep her occupied for a while. In any event, the way she’s pouring it back, she won’t last long.”

  Cam brushed his hair back off his forehead and sighed. “She’s hard to take when she gets on the hard stuff. I’ll give her another hour or two, then get Darlene to walk her home. She handles Anna better than I do.”

  “There was a young gal at the flea market earlier today who got into some kind of ruckus with Anna. Maybe that had something to do with the mood she’s in?”

  “What happened?”

  “I’m not sure. It seems the girl knocked Anna out of her chair. I wouldn’t have known anything about it if the girl hadn’t caught my eye when she first came into the flea market.”

  “A looker?”

  “As a matter of fact, she was. But what got my attention was the way she edged into the flea market. Almost like she was hiding from someone.”

  “A street kid?”

  “Not at all. She looked like she belonged over at Lake Country estates—classy dresser.”

  “Wonder what she wanted with Anna?”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. She stuck out like a sore thumb the way she kept darting looks over her shoulder. Of course that made me curious enough to start following her, but she spotted me quick enough.”

  “Getting careless in your old age?”

  Kelly laughed. “You know what it’s like on Saturday afternoons with the kids running up and down the aisles and mom and pop keeping one eye on them and the other peeled for bargains. I tried not to be obvious but I had to get close just to keep her in sight and that’s what spooked her. As soon as she realized I was following her, she ducked into the refreshment stand.”

  “Maybe she thought you were stalking her.”

  “Nope. She came in the door watching her back. Anyway, I ducked behind Luis’ patio and watched her after she went inside the refreshment stand. She darted into that little kitchen where Luis steams his tamales, then ducked out again. I had a good view from where I stood, so I stayed put and kept my eye on her. She watched the crowd for a while, looking for me probably, then she started edging up toward Anna’s stall.”

  “Was anybody in the stall besides Anna?”

  “Not at first but Bubba came along while the girl was watching. It was right after he showed up she went into her act.”

  “It sounds more like you and Bubba set her off than Anna. Hell, she might’ve been an out-of-town collector going to Anna’s stall on business. You gotta look at it from her point of view. First she spots this long, tall country dude with a knowing look in his eye following her down the aisle and she no sooner ditches him than she runs smack into a sawed-off shrimp with exactly the same kinda knowing look in his eye.”

  Kelly chuckled. “Frankly, I’d be inclined to chalk it up to a bad case of the jitters if it wasn’t for the way Anna acted after the whole thing was over.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Like I said, I wasn’t sure about her intentions so when she started edging toward Anna’s stall, I moved in a little closer. I’d just about reached the entrance when the girl lit into a run, made a flying leap across the aisle and straight into the stall. I hopped on it then and made it to the door just in time to see Anna’s rocker tipping ass over tea kettle. Dumped the girl face down on the floor and spilled Anna on top of her.”

  “I bet Anna was chewing nails.”

  “That’s the funny part. The woman was out cold but Anna was okay. When I picked Anna up and dusted her off, I expected she’d cuss that gal up one side and down the other but she never said a thing. Not one single word. She just sat back down in that rocker, turned her eyes onto the girl and kept them there. I swear to God, Cam, she acted like she’d seen a ghost.”

  “You figure Anna knew the girl?”

  “Either that or there was something going on between them that I didn’t pick up on. The girl came around while I was watching Anna. Before I knew it, she’d taken off out the door and disappeared into the crowd.”

  “Strange,” Cam shook his head.

  “Yeah, it’s got my curiosity piqued. I’m going to wait until Bubba sobers up and see if he knows anything about her.”

  “Good plan.” Cam nodded agreement. “By the way, where’d Jake get to?”

  “Oh, he was off somewhere when I left—probably chasing squirrels again—so I came without him.”

  Jake was Kelly’s dog, or as Kelly liked to put it, Jake was a dog and the question of who was master hadn’t been decided. The black-and-tan German shepherd with one ragged ear and enough scars to show he’d been around was all the family Kelly had left now that Lynda and his mom were both dead.

  Jake must have had his ESP turned on because Cam had no sooner asked about him than he came bounding through the gate and up the steps of the patio.

  “About time you put in an appearance.” Kelly reached out to stroke the dog’s head.

  Jake slapped his tail against Kelly’s leg and walked over to shove his nose into Cam’s outstretched hand.

  “He’s probably been out ridding the woods of dangerous squirrels,” Cam said, running an affectionate hand along Jake’s ribs.

  “I guess at least one of us needs to get some exercise.” Kelly unwound his six-foot frame from the booth and stretched to loosen a few muscles.

  “Well, I guess it’s time to get back to work,” Cam said, standing up beside Kelly. “Wish me luck with Anna.”

  “It’d be nice if I could say things will probably settle down around here.” Kelly stepped over to the railing and tilted his head to look up at the sky. “But it’s a full moon out there and I’m afraid it’s going to be one of those nights.”

  The two of them peered up through the pecan trees to where the moon—plump and rich in its fullness—bathed the branches in gleaming silver.

  “What’s that old superstition about pale riders and moonlit nights?” Kelly grinned and closed his eye in a teasing wink.

  “Don’t even joke about stuff like that.” Cam shuddered and shook himself as if to ward off an evil eye.

  Chapter Two

  Back at the cabin Kelly stretched out in his recliner and dozed. At one-thirty, when the alarm buzzed for his two o'clock rounds at the flea market, he woke to find a storm had rolled in while he slept.

  Kelly swiped the steaming window and squinted at the steady stream of rain that poured off the eaves. "Looks like a real gully washer, Jake."

  Jake hated storms. He paced anxiously back and forth from the front door to the kitchen.

  "You might as well settle down. We aren't going out in that stuff. Kelly picked up the coffee pot and flicked the switch for brew. He pulled a chair up to the kitchen table. When the coffee finished, he poured a cup and watched as a faint glimmer of light broke through the clouds. Giant maples thick with darkening leaves leaned across the path to the flea market. By two o'clock the winds had receded. "Looks like it's about blown itself out, Jake." Kelly pulled on his boots and grabbed a slicker out of the closet.

  Jake raced across the room and stood expectantly in front of the door.

  "Okay, I get it," Kelly chuckled. "Let's get on down there and get it over with."

  Inside the barn housing the flea market, the beam from Kelly's flashlight danced over sheet-covered tables. These tables were for short-term vendors who rented from Friday to Sunday and covered their goods with sheets when they left for the night.

  Permanent dealers had their own shops, enclosed three-sided cubicles with
curtained entrances where they sold everything from old standbys like hats, boots, jeans and t-shirts to gaudy jewelry and swirling salsa dresses. Then there were the new and used shops, like Anna's, where treasure hunters could browse through boxes of ornamental plates, old glasses and beer steins and baskets overflowing with everything from spoon collections to buttons and badges dating back to the Civil War.

  Kelly and Jake walked along the aisles. Gusts of wind whipped across the shrouded tables and buffeted the sheets into dancing ghosts. The barn steamed with moisture left by the storm and Kelly itched to complete his rounds. He had an edgy feeling that made him anxious to get out of the barn. Jake seemed to feel it too. He paced the concrete, ears perked and alert, as if listening for something half expected.

  When they finally turned into the last aisle, Kelly breathed a sigh of relief and quickened his pace. The refreshment stand, dimly lit by a Budweiser neon guitar cut in the shape of the state of Texas, loomed ahead in the shadows.

  Jake had trotted ahead. He stopped and lifted his nose, then pulled back his lips and let out a menacing growl. Kelly clicked the flashlight on high and trained it into the refreshment stand. Inside, an old refrigerator leaned against the wall and a silver coffee urn glinted on the counter.

  Kelly moved the light across the stand and on the ground in front of the door. The light picked out a dark bundle that looked like rags. Kelly focused the light and started forward, moving fast. When he reached a spot where the light sharpened the shadows into images, the bundle became a body and a sharp odor—the kind you never forgot—stung his nostrils.

  "My God!" He sprinted the distance to the booth, Jake hard on his heels.