Free Birds in Paradise by Dorothy McFalls Page B

Pete...
    Pete .
    We still haven’t talked about that night in my hotel room. I suppose we never will. Things between us have become even more difficult ever since the chief of police, much to Pete’s chagrin, called me an asset to the community, paid my way into the police academy and is paying me a small stipend to boot. I’m not sure that I’m cut out for the police force, but I decided not to give up too quickly. Tormenting Pete is a huge incentive to stay.
    I’ve consulted on a few cases, with Pete begrudgingly acting as my supervisor. He still insists that I needlessly put myself in danger. I tell him that he’s wrong.
    As a compromise, though, I’ve moved into a high security apartment building Pete personally selected. Though he pays the rent, he’s never stepped foot inside the apartment. Not that I haven’t repeatedly invited him.
    It’s for the best, I keep telling myself. But who am I fooling? Things will never change. I still love him. And in his own way, he loves me back.
    All in all, life goes on in paradise.
     

Dear Reader,
    I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about Pete and Kyra. Their story was inspired by a trip to Hawai’i where I witnessed firsthand the various definitions of paradise. In Waikiki, great wealth and great poverty mingle together like vines in a banyan tree.
    My visit to the islands of Hawai’i captured both my imagination and my heart. The spirit and pride of the people living on the side of those silent volcanoes in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are examples of what’s right in this world. I look forward to returning there soon and continuing Pete and Kyra’s adventures.
    One of the joys I find in writing is the challenge of bringing to the reader new places and new experiences. In my new mystery series, I set my sights on Washington, D.C. and the White House. Travel with Casey Calhoun as she embarks on a new chapter in her life, uprooting from all she knows in Charleston, SC to accept the coveted position as White House gardener in my May 2011 release, FLOWERBED OF STATE .
    While in Washington, Casey digs up plots that have nothing to do with gardening and everything to do with murder. Casey must untangle the web of lies in this latest intrigue before she ends up permanently planted in a flowerbed of her own making.
    Catch a sneak peek of this exciting new mystery series, THE WHITE HOUSE GARDENER MYSTERIES from Berkley Prime Crime.
     
    “...a bright blossom in the garden of cozy mysteries.” ~ praise from Sherry Lewis, author of over 30 mystery and romance novels for FLOWERBED OF STATE.
     
     
     

Excerpt from Flowerbed of State
    A White House Gardener Mystery
    By Dorothy St. James
     
    Chapter One
     
    Casey, child, I swear some days ain’t good for nothing but spreading out on a lawn like fertilizer, Aunt Willow was known to sputter when everything but everything seemed to go wrong. And I don’t mean annoyances like when the car gets a flat tire, or the bank misplaces your deposit. No, she had to be really upset. It was the closest I’d ever heard my pearl-wearing, julep-sipping Southern belle relative come to swearing.
    She had thousands of odd sayings like that. So I had to wonder why that especially dire one kept worming its way through my head.
    Lately, everything in my life was coming up roses. Or perhaps I should say pink ruffled tulips , since I was apparently lying facedown in a bed of them.
    I carefully lifted my head. A blob of mud slid down the side of my nose and trailed across my cheek. A few inches away a shiny black ground beetle tipped its antenna in my direction. I watched as it traveled across the rim of a tulip bloom. Despite the dim morning light, I was able to take this all in without any trouble at all. But when I probed deeper, I couldn’t figure out why the devil I was napping in a bed of flowers.
    Slosh .
    I wasn’t in any obvious pain. Not yet , a frightened little voice in my head warned. I’d been here before, a long, long time ago. Not