Murdered by News Read online

  Murdered by News

  A Midwest Cozy Mystery - Book 5

  BY

  DIANNE HARMAN

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form without written permission except for the use of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Published by: Dianne Harman

  www.dianneharman.com

  Interior, cover design and website by

  Vivek Rajan

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN:

  Copyright © 2018 Dianne Harman

  All rights reserved.

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  i

  1

  Prologue

  1

  2

  Chapter One

  4

  3

  Chapter Two

  10

  4

  Chapter Three

  17

  5

  Chapter Four

  24

  6

  Chapter Five

  30

  7

  Chapter Six

  35

  8

  Chapter Seven

  41

  9

  Chapter Eight

  46

  10

  Chapter Nine

  53

  11

  Chapter Ten

  58

  12

  Chapter Eleven

  64

  13

  Chapter Twelve

  70

  14

  Chapter Thirteen

  76

  15

  Chapter Fourteen

  81

  16

  Chapter Fifteen

  88

  17

  Chapter Sixteen

  95

  18

  Chapter Seventeen

  102

  19

  Chapter Eighteen

  109

  20

  Chapter Nineteen

  115

  21

  Chapter Twenty

  121

  23

  Chapter Twenty-One

  126

  24

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  132

  25

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  137

  26

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  142

  27

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  148

  28

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  153

  29

  Epilogue

  157

  30

  Recipes

  162

  31

  New Release!

  167

  32

  About Dianne

  169

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  When I wrote The Professor’s Predicament and Murder at the Courthouse, a character kept re-emerging, Ashlee, the television news anchor everyone loved to hate. She stayed with me, and I felt she had a story to tell.

  My muse dictated a lot of this book to me at odd hours of the day and night. I like the way the muse ended it, and I hope you will as well.

  My sincere thanks to my family for putting up with me when my mind tends to wander, mentally figuring how to deal with a plot problem. Also, many thanks to my in-house editor, Tom; my technical guru, Vivek; and you, dear readers, for taking the time to buy, borrow, read, and review my books.

  None of my books would consistently be bestsellers without the people behind the book and the people sitting in front of the book. I’m indebted to all of you!

  .

  Prologue

  Chance Nelson glanced at the gold Rolex watch on his tanned arm, and with a long sigh, shook his head. It was just a few minutes shy of 11:00 a.m. The way his editorial on the graduation was going, added to the numerous papers he had piled up in his inbox, he didn’t imagine he’d be out the front door of the building until 7:00 that evening, at the earliest.

  An eerie silence had settled over the usually bustling news office. All of the other staff members of The Lindsay News were attending the graduation. The annual event was a huge news story in the small university town of Lindsay, Kansas. Although today was a bright late May morning, the empty office felt the same as in the old days when he’d first taken over from his father as owner and editor of the newspaper. Back in the early days, he’d cooped himself up in his office, double and triple checking everything, desperately hoping he wouldn’t screw up his father’s legacy.

  Not that Mr. Nelson, Sr. had seemed all that bothered by anything Chance said about the paper. He was fishing in the Caribbean and refused to answer any of Chance’s panicked questions. “She’s your problem now, boy,” he’d say with a chuckle, then resume his long-winded report about his catch of the day.

  His father had always hated Kansas winters, and now he reveled in soaking up the sun and finally slowing down. The delight in his old man’s voice got under Chance’s skin when he was super stressed and pushed up against a deadline. But lately, he’d come to view the struggle as a rite of passage, and now he and his father were getting along much better. Chance had even traveled to the Virgin Islands a couple of times to visit his parents and try his own hand at fishing. He wasn’t very good.

  Chance was used to working late. The Lindsay News certainly didn’t edit itself. He didn’t mind, and his wife certainly wasn’t sitting at home crying over the evening meal she had prepared, waiting for him to come home. Ashlee usually rolled through the front door far later than he did, often still on the phone bullying someone for a story, even if her eyes were red from staying up so long and her morning-neat chignon was a disheveled mess of stray hairs.

  “I’m an evening person,” she always said, when he admonished her for working so hard. “That’s why the Kansas City nightly TV news job is perfect for me. You just watch. I’ll snag it.”

  “An evening person,” he’d say back, grinning and pulling her into an embrace. He’d wiggle the phone from her hand and pull out her chignon so her hair fanned out down her back. “A morning, noon, and night person, too, huh?” But he couldn’t tease her too much for her work ethic – she was the most ambitious, cutthroat newsperson he’d ever had the pleasure of knowing, and he was very proud of her.

  Chance paused, his vintage Montblanc pen hovering over the editorial he had to finish for next morning’s edition. The pen came with the job and had been handed down from his father, along with the worn leather chair where he sat. He leaned his elbow on the large polished mahogany desk, feeling stuck.

  Perhaps he’d get an idea from watching the news on television. He switched on the TV to the local station and images of the graduation filled the screen. It wasn’t long before Ashlee appeared on the screen, her broad smile and sharp eyes boring through the screen at him. She was in her element. He loved to see her doing her thing. He couldn’t help but smile.

  Then a tremendous crash sent his world into blackness. His skull caved in, crushing his brain, and killing him instantly. He wasn’t alive to see or hear the red flashes of the fire extinguisher, or the horrible clank of thick metal pounding against his skull, as it was smashed into his head again and again.

  There was no opportunity for him to see his killer pause for a moment, looking around to make sure no evidence had been left. Satisfied, the perpetrator slipped out of his office, undetected.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Kat Denham paused momentarily
from seasoning her mashed potatoes and frowned at her two dogs, Jazz and Rudy, who were jumping up, chasing their tails, and play-biting at each other.

  Her husband, district attorney Blaine Evans, strolled into the kitchen, tucking his freshly laundered soft gray shirt into his slacks. Kat adored that shirt. She’d picked it out for him, because it brought out the gray flecks in his eyes. “What’s gotten into them?” he said with a grin. “They’re acting like nervous puppies.”

  Kat bit her lip and got back to pressing down the now-buttery and pepper-flecked potatoes with the masher. “I think nervous is the key word,” she said. “Maybe they’re picking it up from me by some kind of osmosis.”

  Blaine walked over and wrapped his arms around Kat’s waist from behind. “Oh, Kat, honey,” he said. His voice was soothing, but the knot in her stomach remained. “I know you’re nervous. Who wouldn’t be? Lacie is your baby and she always will be, even if she is graduating from college next week. Now that she’s bringing over the young man she’s been seeing, it’s only natural to be apprehensive, but I’m sure everything will be fine. Lacie’s got a good head on her shoulders. Don’t worry. She knows what she’s doing.”

  Kat sighed. “I guess you’re right.” She leaned her head back to rest it on Blaine’s shoulder for a moment, and looked up into his eyes, seeing his face upside down. “And it’s not as if this Tyler Moore is a college dropout or anything. Lacie told me he’s just completed his first year as a veterinarian student at the university.”

  “Exactly,” Blaine said, then gave her a kiss on her temple. “He sounds like a respectable young man.”

  “Yes,” Kat said with a sigh, getting back to putting the final touches on the mashed potatoes. “I guess it’s just a mom’s prerogative to worry, that’s all.”

  Blaine bent down to sneak a peek through the glass door of the oven. He knew better than to open it, after the wonderful-smelling-pastry-fiasco, when he’d ruined an entire batch of Danish pastries by opening the oven door at a crucial moment in the baking process. “Well, no one has to worry about the food, that’s for sure. It smells delicious, Kat. What are you serving?”

  “Lacie’s special occasion dinner. Meat balls in a mushroom Marsala sauce, over mashed potatoes with a wedge salad on the side.” Kat had lost count of how many birthdays, great report cards, and holidays that dinner had graced. It was Lacie’s favorite, hands down.

  Just then the doorbell rang. Jazz and Rudy excitedly rushed to the door in a flurry of fur and wagging tails.

  “They’re here!” Kat said. Her stomach churned, and she looked around the kitchen with wide eyes, wondering if she’d forgotten anything.

  Blaine grinned at her with his lovely lopsided grin that made her feel like a giddy young teenager every time she saw it, even though they were both well into their fifties. “Anything I can do to help?”

  “Well, we’ll need to take the dogs out,” Kat said. She hurriedly slipped her kitchen apron over her neck and hung it on its special hook behind the kitchen door. “But it looks like that’ll have to wait. Let’s go see Lacie and meet Tyler.”

  She beamed up at him as she fixed his shirt collar. “And try to make a good impression, Mr. District Attorney.” She loved to play around and call him that, especially in intimate domestic moments when that part of his life seemed a world away. Somehow, it made the world seem smaller and more comforting.

  In return, usually with a sly wink, Blaine often called her “Sexy Cissy,” the pen name she used for the successful and super-steamy romance novels that she wrote. When she first started writing romance novels, Kat had felt exceedingly embarrassed to be penning what some considered ‘smut’. In fact, when she’d first met Blaine, just after her book editor had been tragically murdered, she’d come dangerously close to giving up her writing career.

  A lot of people weren’t too happy with the subject matter of her books, and though she loved to write them because they just felt so liberating, she’d almost caved under the pressure and shame. But Blaine and her arsenal of positive internet reviews had encouraged her, and she’d made the decision to continue.

  She hadn’t known just how much Blaine respected her work until recently. She’d had to take a break from it to clear Blaine’s name in conjunction with the murder of Judge Dickerson. Although she still maintained that the private investigation firm owned by Blaine’s brother, Nick, was a more valuable resource in solving the murder than her time and investigating skills, Blaine had been exceptionally grateful to her for her efforts.

  “Undying gratitude” was a term he often used when referring to how grateful he was for her help. And he didn’t miss an opportunity to tell her how glad he was she was able to get back to her work and wow her readers with some hot, new steamy novels.

  Kat followed Blaine as he strode down the hallway to the front door, admiring his handsome physique. When Lacie’s father and Kat’s then husband Greg had died in a tragic auto accident, Kat never imagined she’d get over her grief, let alone remarry. But time had a way of healing old wounds, and when Blaine turned up out of the blue, it all felt so right that Kat had decided to give him a chance. To put it mildly, he’d totally aced that chance.

  Blaine opened the door to greet Lacie and the young man standing next to her, Tyler Moore.

  “Hey, Mom, Blaine,” Lacie said, “I want you to meet Tyler Moore.” Lacie glanced sideways at her companion with a shy smile. “Tyler, this is my mom and her husband, Blaine.”

  Tyler shook both of their hands.

  Kat’s heart filled with joy every time she saw her only child. They’d become very good friends as Lacie had reached young adulthood. She embraced her daughter and said, “I’m so glad both of you could join us for dinner tonight.” Pulling away from Lacie, she continued, “Tyler, come on in. You’re very welcome in our home.”

  Blaine was holding back the dogs, but just as Tyler opened his mouth to answer Kat, Rudy bounded out of Blaine’s grip and jumped up on Tyler.

  “Whoa, boy,” Kat said. She tried to grab him to pull him off Tyler, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on Rudy or Tyler.

  “He likes you,” Lacie said with a grin.

  Tyler ruffled Rudy’s ears and grinned. “Hey, there, boy. You’re excited tonight, aren’t you?”

  Kat watched his interaction with Rudy, impressed. She gave a little nod and smile to Lacie, who returned the look. Rudy had always been a good judge of character, barking up a storm around unsavory characters, while latching onto people he liked, panting and slobbering all over them.

  “That’s Rudy,” Lacie explained. “And that’s Jazz over there.”

  “Hi, Rudy,” Tyler said, in a very friendly voice. He gently pushed Rudy to the side and ruffled Jazz’s head, too. “Hello, Jazz.” Then he straightened and looked back up at Kat and Blaine with a sheepish smile. “I feel so unmannerly. I’ve met the dogs before I’ve met you two.”

  Before long, they were sitting in the dining room, eating Lacie’s special occasion dinner. “This is absolutely delicious, Ms. Denham,” Tyler mumbled, his mouth still a little full, and wiping it with a napkin at the same time. He may not have had the best table manners, but he certainly was an appreciative eater. His enthusiastic tone of voice warmed Kat. The way the young man looked at her daughter, she could tell he was smitten. Lacie seemed quite taken with him, too.

  “It’s my absolute all-time favorite,” Lacie said with a grin. “I have it for every single special occasion I can.” She gave Tyler a nudge. “What do you think we’re going to do on the day when you graduate from vet school? Coming here and eating meatballs, mashed potatoes, and a wedge salad, of course!”

  Tyler smiled back at her. “I wouldn’t say no to that suggestion,” he said, shoveling another huge forkful into his mouth.

  “Speaking of which,” Kat said, curious, “what are your plans after you graduate?”

  Tyler took a while to chew and swallow and indicated this with a bloated smile before he spoke again. “Well,”
he said finally, “after I come over to eat these delicious meatballs again… I’m going to keep working with the vet in town. I’m interning with him right now.”