by Diana Orgain | Jun 22, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
From Lethal Lullaby Chapter One To Do: 1. Pick up Andrew, Tracy, and girls from airport. 2. Play nice with Tracy, even when she’s being a pill. 3. Find new case! (But not until family visit is over.) 4. Final payment to contractor for renovation. 5. Interview Rachelle re: nanny job. 6. Cookout! “Can I hold Laurie?” Asked Emily, my eight-year-old niece, her eyes wide. Angelic curls framed her face, and she wore a lacy white dress perfect for the summer heat. Edwina, two years younger and Emily’s miniature in almost every way, bounced wordlessly at her side. I’d asked myself many times how the same two parents had landed on both the names Emily and Edwina. It was an unsolvable mystery, like the Bermuda Triangle or the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. The mouthwatering smell of barbecue drifted through my back‐ yard. In the background, the voices of my mom and brother blended in a pleasant hum, occasionally punctuated by the less-pleasant sound of my sister-in-law’s voice. Shrill. That was the best way to describe Tracy. “You can hold Laurie if you’re very careful,” I replied, standing up from the picnic table under the pergola, a sleeping Laurie in my arms. “Why don’t you run inside and get a beach towel, and we’ll all sit on the grass?” She disappeared into the house, leaving the sliding glass door wide open. “Wait!” I cried. “Close the door. Whiskers will get out!” But I was trying not to wake Laurie, so my voice was too quiet for Emily to hear. I bounced my baby girl on my hip and jogged toward...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 22, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? Did you miss Chapter Two? Did you miss part one of Chapter Three? From Lethal Lullaby Chapter Three Continued… Susan was cold and distant. “Why would you tell me that?” “You deserve to know,” said Lisa. “I really am terribly sorry.” “Are you trying to get me to leave my husband?” Susan snapped. I couldn’t quite make out Lisa’s response. Had Lisa . . . just told Susan about the affair? Good gravy. This was going to be awkward. “Well,” continued Susan, her voice returning to normal, though I could detect an edge of contempt. “It’s hardly Oliver’s first dalliance and it won’t be his last. I prefer it when I don’t know these things, and I certainly didn’t need you to come bare your soul, you shameless little hussy. What was your plan? Did you sleep with him to get a promo‐ tion? And when that didn’t work, you decided to try to get me to leave him so that you could swoop in to be the next Mrs. Fischer?” She scoffed. “Hardly. Oliver and I love each other in our way, and I’m certainly not going to leave him. He’ll have forgotten your name in six months, and so will I.” Time to make myself scarce. I walked in the opposite direction for several steps, then struck off onto the shady lawn. I’d return to our picnic gathering in a round‐ about way so that Susan and Lisa wouldn’t know I’d overheard them. Thankfully, the breeze had picked up again, which helped it feel not quite so hot—although I was still baking....
by Diana Orgain | Jun 22, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? Did you miss Chapter Two? From Lethal Lullaby Chapter Three By the time we reached Toscano di Napa, it was blisteringly hot outside. The gentle breeze had ceased, and the sun beat down on us relentlessly. “This is beautiful weather!” exclaimed Nick as we reached our picnic spot. “Is that so?” I asked wryly. “Feels like an oven to me.” Natalie grabbed the invisible microphone. “The weather is a balmy ninety degrees, but the humidity is only at twenty percent.” “It’s a dry heat,” said Nick. “Like a sauna.” The back of my shirt was damp with sweat, and I chuckled at the phrase dry heat. What did that even mean? “You wouldn’t believe how humid it gets on the East Coast, Kate,” said Andrew. “Sometimes it feels like you’re immersed in a full-body hot tub when you’re just walking down the street. This does feel nice by comparison.” A group of three people came over the hill: an attractive middle-aged couple dressed impeccably and a heavyset African American woman. I did a double take at the African American woman. She was quite pretty, with flawless eye makeup and manicured nails, but she was at least forty. Was Lisa an older college student, and not the twenty-one-year-old I’d pictured? Then Nick waved at them with a huge smile. “Roxi, I didn’t realize you were coming!” “Oliver’s assistant,” Andrew whispered to me under his breath. “She’s a lot of fun, and definitely the smartest person at the firm.” “Ah.” So, this wasn’t Lisa. Roxi called back, “Of course I’m here. You know Oliver wouldn’t be...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 22, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? From Lethal Lullaby Chapter Two To Do: 1. Pick up Andrew, Tracy, and girls from airport. 2. Play nice with Tracy, even when she’s being a pill. 3. Find new case! (But not until family visit is over.) 4. Final payment to contractor for renovation. 5. Interview Rachelle re: nanny job. 6. Cookout! 7. Pick vineyards for wine tour. The sky was a glorious California blue as Andrew, Tracy, and I drove to the second winery in Napa the next day. “Did the photos turn out?” I asked, glancing at Tracy in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, they’re fine, thanks,” she said, swiping through her phone. “I’m pretty sure I’ve found one usable one.” In contrast to my empire-waist maternity blouse and slacks and Andrew’s polo and khakis, Tracy had worn her usual attire of yoga pants and a flowy workout tank top. “There will be some great aesthetics,” she’d explained. “Perfect for Instagram photos.” She’d spent half the first wine tasting in tree pose in the courtyard while I’d snapped photos on her phone. But I’d held my tongue. I’d determined last night that I was going to befriend Tracy if it killed me. And now, two hours into the outing, I was beginning to conclude that it might just kill me. I already had a stabbing pain behind my eyes. “You know where we should really go for photos, hon?” Andrew said, turning around. “Cliff House. It’s gorgeous.” A soft smile played on my lips. “Good memories there, huh?” “The best,” he said with a grin. I’d gotten married at the Cliff House,...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 22, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss Chapter One? Did you miss part one of Chapter Two? From Lethal Lullaby Chapter Two Continued… It smelled good, but I had to suppress a smile at all the pageantry. I loved a good wine tour as much as the next person, but a lot of it seemed like theatrics to me—could anyone really taste all those notes in the wine? Could anyone really tell the difference between a fifteen-dollar bottle and a hundred-dollar bottle? I was skeptical. With a side‐ ways glance at Andrew, I filched his chocolate. I mean, if I can’t have the wine . . . They sipped the wine with very serious expressions. “An excellent choice,” declared Nick. Natalie, Nick’s girlfriend, started talking as if she were speaking to a camera. “Nick is sipping the 2017 Merlot, infused with dried floral and vanilla and perfumed with berry aromas.” She thrust her empty fist toward his face as if she held a microphone. “Tell us, can you taste the lingering finish?” He chuckled and leaned over to give her a quick kiss, then turned to us. “Natalie’s going to be the next anchor on our local news chan‐ nel, so she’s using this trip to practice.” She suddenly looked shy, tucking back a strand of dark hair that had come loose from her ponytail. “Well, I’m still in the interview process,” she said, “but I’m hopeful. It’d be a dream come true.” “That sounds like an exciting career,” I said. “Have you always wanted to be a journalist?” She nodded. “This is going to be my big break. I’m sure of it.”...
by Diana Orgain | Jun 22, 2021 | Maternal Instincts Mysteries, Sneak Peek, Uncategorized
Did you miss part one of Chapter One? From Lethal Lullaby Chapter One Continued… “Tracy, we’ve used that marinade for years. He just didn’t think to check—” But she was already storming out to the backyard. “Wait!” I chased after her but stopped to carefully close the sliding glass door. She marched right up to Jim. “I cannot believe you!” she yelled. Jim’s eyes widened, and he looked from Tracy to me. Andrew jumped up from where he was sitting with Mom and the girls and raced to Tracy’s side. “How could you not know the marinade had gluten?” she demanded, her face reddening as she waved the bottle at Jim. “Are you trying to poison me?” Jim stuttered, “I . . . I . . . what has gluten?” “The steak marinade!” Her face was red. “Which means all these steaks have gluten.” My poor husband looked like a deer in the headlights. No—he was way more startled than a deer. Maybe an opossum in the headlights. Andrew put an arm around Tracy’s shoulder. “It was an accident, sweetheart. How about we order a gluten-free pizza for you?” Jim looked at me and shrugged helplessly. I crossed my arms and studied the scene with a scowl. So, I hadn’t been imagining it; I’d felt like Tracy had been especially short-tempered with Jim ever since she’d arrived. But this was the last straw. My brother had come to San Francisco on a business trip—he worked for a real estate investing firm—and since it was summer break, Tracy and the girls had tagged along. If I was perfectly honest, Tracy...
