Spotlight - Valentine's Day is Murder

Saturday is Valentine's Day, so to help celebrate I'm shining a spotlight on Valentine's Day is Murder by Carolyn Arnold. As a special treat, I'm sharing an excerpt from the book!

Chapter 2

Time Flies

Sean sipped his orange juice as he peered out a window that overlooked the backyard. The morning was overcast and would be downright gloomy if it wasn’t for the white blanket of snow clinging to the bushes and the trees. He had an odd realization—how depressing it would be if the snow were black, red, pink, or, essentially, any other color.

He was in the sitting room, with the dark wood trim and piano, both of which Sara had fallen in love with at first sight. She was holed up in her office, a room of the house she had claimed for her writing. He was glad to see that she was back to her craft and taking it more seriously than ever.

This left him with one concern. Valentine’s Day. It was a few days away and he wanted to make it memorable for Sara. But it was tough to devise a plan that would surprise the imagination of a novelist. He had given her jewels and a top-of-the-line desktop computer with a large monitor for Christmas.

And if the pressure of a memorable Valentine’s Day wasn’t enough, the end of this month marked one year since the day he’d proposed—and Sara’s birthday. Tagged onto that, the start of March was their wedding anniversary. Time had flown.

The last two months had been particularly busy as they set out organizing their private investigator firm. Obtaining their PI licenses had proven easy, given the advantage of their past experience. They renewed their licenses and registered a couple semi-automatic handguns. They were ready to go. The only things left were deciding on a name and setting up shop.

Sara came into the room. “Good morning, darling.”

“How’s the book coming along?”

“Oh, it comes.” She went over to him and kissed his forehead, but he tugged her down into his lap, swept his fingers through her hair, and took her mouth.

She put her hand on his chest, and pulled back. “Someone’s in a great mood this morning.”

“You have no idea. I was just thinking about how far we’ve come and how fast time goes.”

Sara let out a puff of breath. “I agree. Can you believe it’s almost been a year since we got married? It’s unbelievable to me.”

“It feels longer?”

She batted his chest and angled her head. “You want me to feed your ego? It’s been the best twelve months of my life, Sean.”

She pressed her lips to his, and he didn’t want the display of affection to end, but the shrill ring of the phone on the side table was enough to disrupt them.

“Let Helen get the phone. Now, where were—” He put his hand to the nape of her neck and drew her to him.

“Sara? Oh, I’m terribly sorry.” Helen, their housekeeper, stood in the doorway, her hand beneath her chin, and her eyes screwed up toward the ceiling. Her face was flushed when she looked back at them. “It’s for you, Sara.”

“Thank you.” She reached for the handset while remaining on Sean’s lap. “Hello, this is Sara McKinley.”

Sean played with her hair, twirling the long chestnut strands around his fingers.

“What do you mean gone?” Her eyes cut to him before she got up, paced a few steps, and stopped. “You have no idea where he is?”

Sean sat straighter and aligned eye contact with her.

“He just disappeared at dinner? And you haven’t seen him since? We’ll be there as fast as we can. Stay put, all right? Everything will be fine.” Sara lowered the receiver to its cradle. She appeared peaked.

Sean took her hand. “What is it?”

“Jimmy. He’s missing.”

“Missing?”

“Yes. Meredith said she’d excused herself to go to the washroom and when she came back he was gone. They hadn’t even finished their meal.”

“He never came back to the resort?”

Sara shook her head. “What could have happened to him, Sean? I can’t see him leaving her there. Did someone take Jimmy?”
“I don’t know, darling, but we’re going to find out and get him back.”