Praise for STEPHANIE BOND
Of Body Movers
“This is a series the reader will want to jump on in the very beginning.”
—Writers Unlimited
“Bond has successfully switched to the crime genre, bringing along her trademark humor and panache.”
—Booklist
Of Body Movers: 2 Bodies for the Price of 1
“Body Movers is one of the most delightful series I have read in quite some time.
Stephanie Bond shows her audience what a wickedly funny mystery should be all about.”
—Suspense Romance Writers
“This series is simply splendid. Vivid, quirky, flawed, wonderful people fill its pages and you care about what happens to them. Like the prior volume, it is replete with humor as well as action. I can hardly wait to see all these characters again.”
—Huntress Reviews
Of Body Movers: 3 Men and a Body
4 1/2 stars! “Bond continues her popular Body Movers series with a fast-paced and wickedly humorous story that skewers fame and celebrity obsession with deadly accuracy.”
—Romantic Times BOOKreviews
“Where the [Body Movers] series goes next continues to be an intriguing mystery.
Readers who love a combination of suspense and sexy romance will find their thrills in Bond’s latest offering.”
—BookPage
STEPHANIE BOND
5 BODIES TO DIE FOR
Acknowledgments
The middle book in a trilogy is a bit like the middle child—it tries to please everyone, tries to fill in all the gaps to keep everyone happy and moving along. (Can you tell I’m a middle child?) Writing this second book in the BODY MOVERS trilogy of books 4, 5 and 6 was a big challenge, and I couldn’t have gotten through it without my editor Brenda Chin, who eagerly asks, “What happens next?” with all the confidence that I somehow know and will pull it off. Thank you, Brenda, for high expectations and constant encouragement.
Thanks, too, to Margaret O’Neill Marbury and Valerie Gray for your ongoing support of the BODY MOVERS series within MIRA, and to all the sales, marketing and production people behind the scenes who work to get the BODY MOVERS books into the hands of readers. A big, big thank-you to Michael Rehder at MIRA for designing the amazing charm-bracelet covers—I love them!
Thanks to my agent Kimberly Whalen of Trident Media Group for keeping the ball rolling. As always, thanks to my critique partner, Rita Herron, for our weekly meetings to discuss pages and possibilities over glasses of wine.
To my husband, Chris, who still moves me after eighteen-plus years.
And to my readers—thank you for allowing me to entertain you.
Contents
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
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
1
Carlotta Wren shoved her head in the freezer, closing her eyes and allowing the frosty blast to cool the flush on her face and neck as she tried to absorb everything that had happened over the past few days.
A serial killer was on the loose in Atlanta. Dubbed The Charmed Killer by the press for his signature of leaving a charm in the mouth of his victims, the unknown assailant was racking up bodies at an astonishing rate—four women dead in a week, culminating in the murder of an assistant district attorney. According to Detective Jack Terry, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was joining the high-profile case.
And the Wren family was firmly in the middle of the fray.
She and her brother, Wesley, had been the body movers on the first two cases, and had been called in on the third, although Carlotta had had to step aside when she’d realized she had once crossed paths with the victim. Wesley had met the fourth victim, the deceased A.D.A., while settling his most recent legal trouble. And their father, Randolph “The Bird” Wren, a fugitive now for more than ten years for a white-collar crime, had been named a possible suspect. First, because one of the charms left behind had been a bird, and second, because one of the victims had worked in the same office building where he had once worked. Carlotta was sure she hadn’t helped matters by handing over the charm bracelet her father had given her when she was a teenager to the police, but she was hoping it would help to clear Randolph.
Meanwhile, Jack had warned her she might have to take a polygraph to clear herself, due to her proximity to the bodies.
Minus ten points.
A moan from the living room roused Carlotta from her churning thoughts. She reached for an ice tray to fill an ice bag, but the trays were empty, of freaking course. When her gaze landed on a bag of frozen peas, she grabbed it, closed the freezer door and walked back to the living room.
Peter Ashford lay on the couch recovering from the stun-baton zap she’d inadvertently administered when she’d mistaken Peter for an intruder. After discovering that someone had been living in their guest bedroom unbeknownst to her and her brother, she’d been skittish.
Carlotta leaned over to brush aside Peter’s blond hair with her fingers and place the bag of frozen peas on his forehead. “This is the best I can do. Feeling better?”
He was still pale, but his deep blue eyes seemed more alert. He nodded and reached for her hand. “It was stupid of me to come in the house unannounced. But the door was unlocked and I thought I’d surprise you.”
She smiled. “You did.”
“That’ll teach me.”
“And that’ll teach me for leaving the door unlocked.” She sighed. “I have to learn to be more careful.”
“I’m so glad you’ve agreed to move in with me.”
She bit her lip. It had been a decision she’d made once she fully understood that she wasn’t safe in the town house, not with uninvited houseguests coming and going, and a mysterious black SUV stalking the curb.
Oh,