Buried in Bargains Read online

  Praise for

  50% off Murder

  “If you love to shop ’til you drop, watch out for Josie Belle’s first entry in a new mystery series—because murder’s no bargain.”

  —Leann Sweeney, author of The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon

  “Maggie Gerber runs the Good Buy Girls, made up of four women who are master shoppers and coupon clippers. That . . . premise launches an engaging mystery full of humor, a layered plot, and even a little romance.”

  —Amy Alessio, author of the Alana O’Neill Mysteries “50% off Murder is a great deal: there’s mystery, romance, and humor wrapped up in one entertaining package. As a bonus, there’s no extra charge for those laugh-out-loud moments. I look forward to many more adventures from Maggie and her friends . . . Meanwhile, bring on those money-saving tips!”

  —Mary Jane Maffini, author of the Charlotte Adams Mysteries “100% fun. It’s the real deal!”

  —B. B. Haywood, author of Town in a Pumpkin Bash

  “A fun, well-plotted mystery with the added bonus of some money-saving tips.”

  —The Mystery Reader

  “Best friends, bargain hunting, and murder! This new cozy mystery series has great promise and I’m looking forward to seeing what the bargain-hunting babes of St. Stanley will be up to next.”

  —Novel Reflections

  “This author knows how to engage the reader’s interest. Good, solid writing, well-formed characters, an enjoyable premise, a possible romance in the making, and a mystery that slowly unfolds its secrets. A bargain read for sure!”

  —Once Upon a Romance

  “What an enjoyable read! I loved the spunky Maggie.”

  —Two Lips Reviews

  “The Good Buy Girls love a good deal—and a good murder . . . The debut of an all-new mystery series—and it’s worth every penny.”

  —I Dream Books

  “50% off Murder successfully launches a new series filled with a terrific cast of characters. It’s a treat to see a mature group of women use their knowledge of the town and their business skills to look for a killer. And, Maggie is a wonderful amateur sleuth . . . 100% captivating and enjoyable.”

  —Lesa’s Book Critiques

  “An entertaining cozy starring interesting characters . . . Readers will admire [Maggie’s] risk-taking spunk and enjoy the sparks between her and the sheriff.”

  —The Mystery Gazette

  “With some interesting characters and a unique theme, this series is sure to be a hit!”

  —Debbie’s Book Bag

  “Readers who want a laugh-out-loud mystery should enjoy 50% off Murder.”

  —West Orlando News Online

  Berkley Prime Crime titles by Josie Belle

  50% OFF MURDER

  A DEAL TO DIE FOR

  BURIED IN BARGAINS

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England For more information about the Penguin Group, visit penguin.com.

  BURIED IN BARGAINS

  A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author Copyright © 2013 by Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  Excerpt from Marked Down for Murder by Josie Belle copyright © 2013 by Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group.

  BERKLEY® PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-101625644

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / October 2013

  Cover illustration by Mary Ann Lasher.

  Cover design by Sarah Oberrender.

  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. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  For my bargain-hunting buddy and dear friend Christina. Coffee and shopping dates with you are always full of belly-cramping laughs and lovely girl talk. I treasure the time we spend together. I love you, Sweetie!

  Contents

  Praise for 50% Murder

  Also by Josie Belle

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Money Saving Holiday Tips

  Hot Chocolate for Two

  Special Excerpt from Marked Down for Murder

  Chapter 1

  “Mom, you need to get a grip,” Laura Gerber said to her mother as they trudged up the sidewalk through the center of St. Stanley, Virginia. “Summer Phillips is not worth getting an ulcer over.”

  “I’m not getting an ulcer,” Maggie said. She noted that the small town was still quiet with very few people out in the chilly December morning temperatures.

  Maggie glanced at her daughter, who was home from college for the holidays. Laura looked remarkably like Maggie had when she was twenty years old, with the same wrinkle-free face, shoulder-length red hair and upturned nose. Only the eyes were different. Where Maggie had green eyes, Laura had gotten her father’s chocolate-brown eyes.

  Maggie felt a pang, wishing her late husband, Charlie, could see their daughter now. She had grown up to be a smart, confident and beautiful young woman. Maggie couldn’t have been more proud of her.

  “Yeah, right, no ulcer,” Laura said. “That’s why you’re popping antacid tablets like they’re Pez.”

  Maggie stuffed the roll of tablets back into her purse. “Let’s just focus on the mission, shall we?”

  “Mission?” Laura asked and laughed. “I think you and the rest of the Good Buy Girls missed your calling.”

  “Meaning?” Maggie asked.

  “You should really be military strategists,” she said. “I’ve never seen such an organized assault for bargains.”

  “It’s our gift,” Maggie said with a smile. “Now, we have to hurry. We need to get to the stationery store as soon as they open. Janice Truman is selling last year’s gift wrap at seventy-five percent off, and I want to stock up so we can offer free gift wrapping at My Sister’s Closet.”

  “Yes, yes, I know,” Laura said. “Do you really think customers will go to your resale shop instead of Summer’s Second Time Around just b
ecause of free gift wrap?”

  “If they have any taste they will,” Maggie said. “Did you see the hideous window display she has up? Giant cardboard cutouts of herself dressed in a slutty Santa’s helper outfit. Honestly, the woman has no sense of decency.”

  “Don’t tell me. Let me guess,” Ginger Lancaster said as she joined them at the corner. “We’re talking about Summer’s holiday window display.”

  “Revolting,” Joanne Claramotta said as she stepped out from in front of her husband’s deli, More than Meats, and joined their group. “I saw Tyler Fawkes standing in front of her store for about twenty minutes yesterday. I swear he would have licked the glass if he weren’t afraid of being seen.”

  “Ew,” the others said in unison.

  “See? It isn’t just me,” Maggie said to Laura.

  Laura rolled her eyes. “Where’s Claire?”

  “She’s meeting us in front of the shop,” Ginger said. “She has to get to the library as soon as we’re done.”

  Claire Freemont was the fourth member of the Good Buy Girls, a self-named club of bargain hunters, of which Maggie and Ginger were the longest-serving members. Best friends since they were toddlers, Maggie and Ginger had grown up in St. Stanley and settled down to raise their families there. When they began having children, both had become avid bargain hunters and had started the money-saving club together.

  Write On, Janice’s stationery store, was housed in a large brick building just off the town square. Maggie and her entourage turned the corner to Janice’s shop just in time to see Claire Freemont going nose to nose with Summer Phillips.

  “Darn it! I knew I should have camped out last night,” Maggie said.

  “Mom, seventy-five-percent-off wrapping paper is no reason to camp on a sidewalk,” Laura said. “It’s not like tickets to Springsteen.”

  “Michael would kill for tickets to Springsteen,” Joanne said.

  “Focus, people, focus,” Maggie said. “We’re thinking about wrapping paper, bows and tags right now, not hot sixty-year-olds who can still slide across the stage on their knees.”

  “I watched that on YouTube like ten times,” Ginger said. Then she fanned herself with one hand. “‘Waitin’ on a Sunny Day,’ indeed.”

  Maggie gave her a quelling look. “As I was saying, look out for the cheesy paper that rips easily; we want the foil or reversible paper. Remember, we’re going for quality here.”

  “Summer, I was here first,” Claire snapped. “You need to quit crowding me.”

  “I’m not crowding you.” Summer tossed her long blonde locks. “You’re just fat.”

  Ginger hissed in a breath through her teeth. She looked like she was gearing up to do some damage to Summer, who was tall and skinny with abnormally large frontal lobes—no, not the ones in her brain. Maggie put her hand on Ginger’s arm.

  “Out-shopping her will be the best revenge,” she said.

  Ginger adjusted the bright blue knitted cap she wore on her close-cropped hair. Her dark brown skin was flushed with temper, but she gave Maggie a nod.

  “Fine. Just stay between me and her,” she said.

  “I can do that,” Joanne said with a flick of her long brown ponytail.

  Joanne was six months pregnant and had finally started to show. It had taken her a long time to get pregnant, and she was so excited, she had started wearing maternity clothes on the day she made the announcement. Maggie was pleased to see that Joanne’s clothes were finally fitting her gently rounded belly.

  “Now, if there is a ruckus, you and the baby skedaddle,” Ginger said. “Maggie and Laura can run interference.”

  En masse they approached the front door, where Claire and Summer were jostling elbows.

  Claire spotted them and sent them a beaming smile. Maggie knew Claire must have been relieved to have her posse arrive just in time to save her from the bully.

  Summer followed Claire’s gaze and her eyes locked onto Maggie and then shifted to Laura.

  “Oh god, there’s two of you,” she said. “Because one wasn’t bad enough.”

  For some reason this delighted Maggie and she threw her arm around Laura and hugged her close.

  “Double the fun,” she said.

  Summer’s lip curled back, “More like a double hernia.”

  Laura glanced between them and frowned.

  “Don’t you think you two should get over this? You’re both women in business, you need to work together not tear each other apart. If women were more supportive of one another, instead of always shredding each other over their appearances or a man’s attention, we’d be getting a lot further in the world than having women make up only three percent of the CEOs in the United States.”

  Summer and Maggie looked at her and then at each other, and then they both shook their heads.

  “Normally, I would agree with you,” Maggie began, but Summer interrupted.

  “The truth is that your mother has never gotten over the fact that I stole her high school boyfriend. It’s a pity, because I really think we could have been friends, you know, if she wasn’t so jealous of me,” Summer said. The she turned back to the glass front door and started examining her reflection.

  “Argh,” Maggie growled. She wasn’t aware that she had reached out to grab a fistful of Summer’s blonde extensions until Ginger smacked her hand away.

  “Out-shop her, remember?” she hissed.

  Maggie’s growl became a low rumble in her throat. She knew she should let it go, but somehow she just couldn’t.

  “Laura, dear,” she began, “just so we’re clear. I was dating a very nice boy back in high school and, yes, I did think that Summer had hooked up with him, but it turned out she had gotten another boy to wear my boyfriend’s football jersey to trick me into thinking he was cheating on me.”

  “Ah!” Laura gasped. “That’s vile.”

  “Oh no, that’s nothing,” Maggie said. “Seeing Summer buck naked—now that was vile.”

  Summer whirled around and glared daggers at Maggie while Ginger snorted trying to keep from laughing. Maggie saw Janice, approaching to unlock the door. Knowing she could lure Summer away from the door, she took a step back. Summer followed, just like Maggie had known she would.

  “Why you—” Summer began, but Maggie interrupted her.

  “What?” Maggie said, stepping back from the others. Again, Summer followed and Maggie watched as the GBGs closed ranks on the door. “Did you really think Sam and I wouldn’t figure it out?”

  “Oh, so you admit that you are ‘Sam and I’ now,” Summer said. “Do not tell me that fabulous hunk of man is interested in you again.”

  Maggie maintained eye contact with Summer, but she could see over her shoulder that the door had opened and the GBGs had filed into the shop.

  “It’s none of your business,” Maggie said.

  “Oh, please,” Summer said. “Your shop is right across the street from mine. Do you honestly think I haven’t noticed that Sam stops by your shop regularly? What is going on between you two?”

  “He’s the sheriff. He’s just doing his job,” Maggie said. Now that the girls were in the shop, she didn’t want to be out here in the cold debating her love life with Summer. “Oh, look at that!”

  She scuttled around Summer toward the shop. She knew Summer was going to have a fit, and she braced herself to be taken out at the knees.

  “Oh!” Summer cried as she hurried to catch up to her. “You distracted me on purpose.”

  “You think?” Maggie asked.

  Summer’s longer stride overtook Maggie, and she gave Maggie a hearty shove to the side. Maggie let her. She trusted her peeps to have already scored the good stuff, leaving the dreck for Summer.

  “I loathe you, Maggie Gerber!” Summer cried as she yanked open the door and stormed into the shop. The door slammed in Maggie’s face, and she smiled. The feeling was entirely mutual.

  “Maggie, what are you up to now?” a voice asked from behind her.

  Maggi
e turned around and felt her chest get tight. Speak of the devil. Sheriff Sam Collins was standing behind her with his arms crossed over his chest and a small smile playing on his lips.

  Chapter 2

  “Hi, Sam,” Maggie said. She was pleased that her voice gave no indication of the tap dance her insides were doing at the sight of him. It had been twenty-plus years since they’d been a couple, but still the man made her dizzy. That could not be normal. “What makes you think I’m up to anything?”

  “As soon as Della Harris saw you walk by her bookstore with the GBGs toward the same place Summer had just gone, she called the station,” he said.

  “No way,” she said.

  “Way,” he said. “You and Summer do have a reputation, you know.”

  “It’s not me,” Maggie protested. “It’s her.”

  Sam rolled his eyes.

  “It is,” Maggie protested.

  “So, what’s the deal du jour?” he asked.

  “Seventy-five-percent-off wrapping paper.”

  “And you’re out here instead of in there because . . . ?”

  “The GBGs went in while I was exchanging . . . er . . . greetings with Summer.”

  Sam stepped closer to her and studied her with one eyebrow raised. “You didn’t give her a black eye or anything, did you?”

  “No!” Not that it wasn’t tempting to take a swing at big, blonde and mean, but Maggie prided herself on her self-control.

  Sam looked Maggie over in her black wool coat and olive green scarf. Her scarf had come loose, and he lifted one end and looped it around her head, adjusting it about her neck to keep her warm.

  Maggie had the sudden urge to lean into him, but she found she couldn’t move when he stood this close to her. The smoky citrus smell of his cologne made her inhale deeply, as if she could trap his scent inside of her.

  “You look pretty today,” he said. Then he gave her a smile hot enough to melt icicles. “Then again, you look pretty every day.”

  Maggie felt her face flame hot. Sam was flirting with her! Gone was her usual ability to verbally spar with him. She felt as if her tongue were stuck to the roof of her mouth like she’d just eaten a peanut butter sandwich. As if he knew this, he grinned and his eyes crinkled in the corners while dimples bracketed his smile.