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Crestfallen's Widow [MultiFormat]
eBook by Simon Wood
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eBook Category: Mystery/Crime
eBook Description: PI Peter Crestfallen is back on the case. This time the cops have a high-profile widow in their sights. Desperate for help, she turns to Crestfallen. Can he prove her innocence before they throw away the key?
eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Dime Anthology, 2004
Fictionwise Release Date: May 2006
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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [198 KB], eReader (PDB) [28 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [14 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [14 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [75 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [85 KB], hiebook (KML) [93 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [42 KB], iSilo (PDB) [11 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [15 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [43 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [23 KB]
Words: 4133
Reading time: 11-16 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
 
CRESTFALLEN'S WIDOWBy Simon Wood
* * * *
"I suppose you know who I am?" she asked.
Crestfallen was a smart detective. He knew who she was. In the San Francisco Bay Area, it was hard not to know Jane Staam. In the week since her millionaire husband, Jack Staam, had nose-dived his car off Highway 1 and down the cliffs south of Stinson Beach, she had become a celebrity.
The Chronicle had reported the property developer's death as suicide. Business worries weren't to blame. You had to be a special kind of stupid not to make money in the property market in the Bay Area. Even Crestfallen was worth a small fortune thanks to his modest home he'd bought a few years back. He could move to Nutsack, Arkansas and live like a king. But who wanted to live in Nutsack, Arkansas?
Something much more devastating than a bad day at the office had caused Jack Staam to end it all. Prostate cancer. Staam was a depressed man who wanted to go out on his terms. He told his wife something cryptic then did the deed. Health was the great leveler. Not even the riches of Solomon could save someone from terminal illness. It didn't care who you were.
So, what brought Jane Staam to his office? She was the grieving wife, but public opinion had done an about-face when Staam's business partner had announced that Staam was planning a divorce and a change in his will. She was a signature away from losing her desirable status as next of kin and the cops had a case. She went from damsel to demon in a day.
"Mrs. Staam, what is it you think I can do for you?"
The redhead from the accounting firm next door drifted by his office. Normally, Crestfallen tracked her progress with avid interest, but not today. Jane Staam commanded any man's undivided attention. God had had a hand in her creation. She possessed shampoo commercial good looks, the kind the plebs would never attain. At forty, time should have been eroding her, but it wasn't. It was adding to her beauty. Maybe Staam's business partner was right and she had killed her husband. She had only to ask, "Oh be a dear, Jack, and drive off a cliff for me." Hell, Crestfallen knew he would have done it, if she'd asked him. The redhead looked distinctly miffed at being neglected, but she'd get over it.
"I need to prove Jack killed himself. The police are building a case against me. I don't have anyone rooting for me."
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