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eBook Category: Mystery/Crime
eBook Description: Mortician Stuart Honich dreams about sinking his teeth into the flesh of his tormentors--his boss's daughters.... Being a cop was something Doug Milligan wanted since childhood, but his wife hates his profession and Doug will soon have to make a difficult choice.... Publicity hound, Rick Strickland, will do anything to further his career, and is having a secret affair with Liz Phelan, a divorcee with a drinking problem.... The murder of the Milligans' babysitter begins a series of events that could lead to the destruction of the entire Rocky Bluff Police department as well as many innocent citizens.

eBook Publisher: The Fiction Works, Published: http://www.fictionworks.com, 2004
Fictionwise Release Date: February 2004

This eBook is part of the following series:

• F. M. Meredith's Rocky Bluff P.D. Series

6 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [592 KB], eReader (PDB) [195 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [179 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [161 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [202 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [212 KB], hiebook (KML) [437 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [299 KB], iSilo (PDB) [148 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [184 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [245 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [245 KB]
Words: 52496
Reading time: 149-209 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Final Respects by F. M. Meredith is an excellent police novel set in Rocky Bluff, California. The hero is Doug Milligan, a career police officer with a troubled marriage and two children. The wealth of detail is amazing and no one can doubt that F. M. Meredith has done her research! From the two old men (the youngest being 86) who duke it out in a retirement home to dealing with car accidents, she lets readers see both the humor and tragedy in a policeman's life. A great read!"--Ellen Anthony, sampleBooks.com

"Damn kids!" Stuart Honich swatted a strand of oily, mouse-brown hair off his narrow forehead and stomped across the polished white tile floor of the embalming room and flung open the door.

Metal and wooden caskets, some open to display the recently departed at rest upon satin or velvet linings, had been tastefully arranged by Stuart's own hands in the large "holding" area. A pale blond head popped up from behind a gleaming oak casket. Giggles rippled from one side of the room to the other.

"Kayleen Tiedemann," Stuart growled, scowling fiercely, "you've been told time and again not to play in the mortuary! I'm going to march you right over to your father!"

The ten-year-old raised her pointy chin in defiance and flipped her long straight hair behind her narrow shoulders. "He won't do nothin' to us," Kayleen taunted. "But you can't catch us anyway!"

Stuart reached out for her, but she scooted from his grasp and raced across the room to the side door. Her two sisters jumped from their hiding places, and after another eruption of laughter, they clattered after her, golden pigtails flying behind one and bobbing yellow sausage curls on the other.

Heather, the youngest of the little monsters, whirled around on her tennis shoes and stuck her pink tongue out at him before scampering through the door that Kayleen held open for their escape. If he could have reached her, he'd have pulled the nasty child's tongue out by the roots and enjoyed doing it.

Unfortunately, Kayleen's remark had been correct. It would be a waste of time for him to report the children's trespassing to Mr. Tiedemann. As far as his employer was concerned, the little brats could do no wrong. In fact, Mr. Tiedemann seemed to find it humorous that his daughters found the mortuary an alluring playground. If only Mr. Taussig were still alive, he would most certainly have put a halt to the children's disrespectful attitude toward the dead. Surely the recently departed were entitled to peace and quiet.

Stuart had been the embalmer and all-around handyman for the Taussig and Tiedemann Mortuary for years. It was the only job he'd ever had. Oh how he missed Mr. Taussig! He'd been deceased nearly four years now, and nothing had been the same since.

The old gentlemen had known how to run the business properly; always dignified in word and deed, he dressed as a mortician should--which couldn't be said for Mr. Tiedemann. While lamenting the loss of his former employer, Stuart inspected each casket, making sure nothing had been disturbed or damaged. Though most were empty, three caskets contained bodies awaiting their turns in the viewing rooms. The angular man peered inside, checking the contents, adjusting a collar, smoothing a wisp of hair.

There were other reasons Stuart revered Mr. Taussig's memory. When Stuart's father had been brutally slain, Mr. Taussig took charge of the youth's life, paying his tuition to college and embalming school. And when his education was completed, he'd been given a job along with the attic apartment above the mortuary.

After Mr. Taussig's death, Stuart had been disappointed to learn that his mentor had not left the mortuary to him as he had hoped. In fact, he had not even written a will. Mrs. Taussig moved to Iowa to be near her sister and turned the business over to her younger brother, Mr. Tiedemann.

Stuart had learned to live with the situation, all except for the irreverent Tiedemann children. The girls had scant respect for their elders and none at all for the dead.

"If ever given the opportunity, I'd like to put my hands around those scrawny necks and strangle each one until their big blue eyes pop right out of their sockets," he growled.

Satisfied the young marauders had disturbed nothing but the tranquility, Stuart returned to his unfinished work. Mrs. Greenwalt lay stretched out on the steel embalming table, her gray wrinkled skin exposed to the glaring overhead light. Stuart clucked his sympathy as he slipped on a fresh pair of disposable surgical gloves.

"Sorry to have left you alone for so long, my dear. Don't you fret ... in just a bit, I'll have you looking better than you have in years!"