Excerpt:
Aggie dropped the phone into her pocket and shouted, “Flash!”
While she was on the phone Jack had cast off and started the engine, but
he hadn’t yet moved away from the dock.
Aggie dived for the rope just as Flash reached the rail. She stripped the rope off the
cleat and tossed it to Flash, who made one circuit around the rail support
before leaping onto the dock with the end of the rope in his mouth. The boat began to edge away from the
dock, taking up the slack in the rope, as Aggie snatched the rope from Flash
and started to wind it around the cleat.
She was tying the knot when she heard the gear lock in and felt a strong
tug that almost pulled her off balance and into the water. Panic leapt to her throat. She finished tying the knot,
praying it would hold, and shouted, “Jack Saunders, cut your engines! Cut your engines and disembark! That’s an order!”
The line stretched taut but the knot held. The boat rocked in the
water. Saunders called back,
“You can’t give orders to a captain on his own boat!”
Aggie pulled her gun and got down on one knee in a shooter’s
stance. “Cut your engines this
minute or I swear I’ll fill this boat with so many holes she’ll never float again! Do it now!”
The boat railing began to creak as it strained against the pull of the
engines and the opposing pull of the rope. Aggie held her breath, but she also held her aim. In a moment the engines
throttled down. “Return to dock!” she shouted. “Disembark with your hands above your head!”
Flash jumped on board as
soon as the boat was close enough, and kept Saunders in the pine-scented
wheelhouse until Aggie had securely tied off again. He had done take-downs before, but never on water and never,
he had to admit, one that was this much fun. Captain Jack snarled at him but Flash had bigger teeth, and
after he demonstrated as much the captain gave him no more trouble. Saunders climbed sullenly onto the dock
and raised his hands in the air.
Flash kept a wary eye on him.
After all, people, as he well knew, were unpredictable.
Aggie holstered her gun and snatched Jack’s hands behind his back. She was breathing so hard she was
practically wheezing, and she was soaked in sweat. “You are under arrest,” she said, with difficulty, “for
evading a police officer, interfering with an investigation, withholding
evidence, and disobeying an order from an officer of the law. Damn it,” she said angrily as she snapped
the cuffs closed, “I told you not to make me do this the hard way.”
BLURB:
Still
recovering from the traumatic events of the past year, newlyweds Aggie Malone,
police chief of Dogleg Island, and Deputy Sheriff Ryan Grady are looking
forward to a carefree day of picnics, pirates and buried treasure with their
precocious—and uncannily perceptive-- border collie, Flash. But when Flash
discovers a body in a shallow grave on the deserted Wild Horse Island Nature
Preserve, a tangled knot of conspiracy, murder and deception begins to unfold,
revealing that the things that are buried are often the most dangerous and the
only pirates you have to fear are the ones that live next door.
Fifteen hundred miles away, an ex-con and a fifteen year old girl embark upon a crime spree that will earn them the nicknames “Bonnie and Clyde”. As they make their way inexorably south, Aggie, Grady and Flash are thrust into the middle of a murder investigation that leads to the arrest of one of their neighbors and the attempted suicide of another. When a search of the dead girl’s belongings reveals a priceless emerald bracelet and two of the islands most popular residents go missing, the puzzle becomes even more complicated. Grady and Aggie struggle to put all the pieces into place while Flash, ever obsessed with understanding the human condition, wrestles with a more painful dilemma: how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys when they are so often the same person?
Fifteen hundred miles away, an ex-con and a fifteen year old girl embark upon a crime spree that will earn them the nicknames “Bonnie and Clyde”. As they make their way inexorably south, Aggie, Grady and Flash are thrust into the middle of a murder investigation that leads to the arrest of one of their neighbors and the attempted suicide of another. When a search of the dead girl’s belongings reveals a priceless emerald bracelet and two of the islands most popular residents go missing, the puzzle becomes even more complicated. Grady and Aggie struggle to put all the pieces into place while Flash, ever obsessed with understanding the human condition, wrestles with a more painful dilemma: how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys when they are so often the same person?
Amazon buy link here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GOLP4FE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Donna Ball is the author of over
a hundred novels under several different pseudonyms in a variety of genres that
include romance, mystery, suspense, paranormal, western adventure, historical
and women’s fiction. Recent popular series include the Ladybug Farm series by
Berkley Books and the Raine Stockton Dog Mystery series.
Donna is an avid dog
lover and her dogs have won numerous titles for agility, obedience and canine
musical freestyle. She divides her time between the Blue Ridge mountains and the east coast of Florida, where
she lives with a variety of four-footed companions.
You can contact her at http://www.donnaball.net
The Sound of Running Horses, Book
Two in the Dogleg Island Mystery series, is available July 15 2016 in
paperback, and for Kindle and Nook.
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