For Sale by Owner

by Marcia Talley
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Publish Date: June 14, 2007
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Overview

Stanley viewed this the way he did having an appendectomy or paying income taxes-something you had to do. Grin and bear it. He stood at the customer service counter of The Jefferson County Pilot sucking on the end of his pen, studying a pre-printed 4 x 5 index card as if it were written in Serbo-Croatian instead of his native English. From her seat near the water cooler, his wife, Millie, glared at him. Sweat had soaked through the front of her pink cotton blouse and she dabbed at her face with a ragged tissue. Flecks of white clung to her damp forehead, but Stanley didn't intend to mention it.

Author Information

Marcia Talley

Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award-winning author of Through the Darkness, the sixth novel in the acclaimed Hannah Ives mystery series. Previous titles include This Enemy Town, Sing It to Her Bones, Unbreathed Memories, Occasion of Revenge, and In Death's Shadow. She is author/editor of two star-studded collaborative serial novels, Naked Came the Phoenix and I'd Kill For That. Her prize-winning short stories appear in more than a dozen collections. She is the president of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and serves as Secretary for the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America.

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Product Details

Published by

TeknoBooks
Publish Date

June 14, 2007
eBook ISBN

9781435510739
Imprint

TeknoBooks
Filesize

108.27 KB
Number of Print Pages*

N/A

* Number of eBook pages may differ. Click here for more information.

Excerpt from For Sale by Owner by Marcia Talley

"Mr. Hudson." Betty Sue leaned toward him over the counter and transferred her gum from one side of her cheek to the other with her tongue. "If you get that card filled out in the next ten minutes, we can get your ad in the Thursday edition."
Stanley gazed up at her with tired, gray eyes. "Do I pay you now?"
"5 lines, 5 days, 5 dollars," Betty Sue drawled. She slapped the Formica in front of her with a flat palm. "Cash on the counter." Stanley scribbled with his ballpoint pen on the back of the card to get the ink flowing, then began filling it out in neat, block letters: FOR SALE BY OWNER, SPACIOUS BUNGALOW ON LOVELY LOT, 3-BR, 2BA, MOD KIT, CAC, W/W CARPET...
While Stanley considered what to write on the fifth line, Betty Sue busied herself by thumbing through an untidy Rolodex. GAS FIRE IN LR Stanley concluded.
Stanley smoothed out a crumpled five dollar bill on the stained and pitted counter, placed the completed card on top of it and slid them both toward Betty Sue's impatient, well-manicured fingers. Before Stanley had time to turn around, she had snatched them up and disappeared through a door in the back.