Second To Nun (A Giulia Driscoll Mystery Book 2) Read online

  Praise for the Giulia Driscoll Mystery Series

  Books in the Giulia Driscoll Mystery Series

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  Copyright

  Dedication

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Thirty-Nine

  Forty

  Forty-One

  Forty-Two

  Forty-Three

  Forty-Four

  Forty-Five

  Forty-Six

  Forty-Seven

  Forty-Eight

  Forty-Nine

  Fifty

  Fifty-One

  Fifty-Two

  About the Author

  In case you missed the 1st in the series

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  THE DEEP END

  PILLOW STALK

  FRONT PAGE FATALITY

  FINDING SKY

  PRACTICAL SINS FOR COLD CLIMATES

  Praise for the Giulia Driscoll Mystery Series

  SECOND TO NUN (#2)

  “Giulia is a sympathetic, well-drawn character who has built a full life for herself after she leaving the convent, but appealing touches of the former nun remain.”

  – Booklist

  “Driscoll’s second solo turn as a sleuth (after Nun Too Soon) offers a fun and fast read with a lot of appeal.”

  – Library Journal

  “Former nun and current private eye Giulia Driscoll tackles ghosts with the same wit and wisdom she uses to tackle crooks. Great fun.”

  – Terrie Farley Moran,

  Agatha Award-Winning Author of the Read ’Em and Eat Mysteries

  “Loweecey’s characters are colorful without being caricatures, and once again we’re lucky that Giulia Driscoll left the convent behind. She solves the crime with a happy mix of online savvy, humor and intelligence.”

  – Sheila Connolly,

  New York Times Bestselling Author of An Early Wake

  “Loweecey is herself a former nun, and she brings to Giulia all of this inner conflict, residual guilt, and disillusionment…and how can you not love an author who quotes from the movies Airplane and Young Frankenstein? Giulia’s recent marriage adds a delightful dash of romance, but the real appeal of this series is her genuine likability and fiery independent streak that could never be hidden behind a veil.”

  – Kings River Life Magazine

  “Loweecey has once again crafted a delightful, sassy, smart tale that will send the hair on the back of your head skyward and keep your eyes glued to the page. I loved it!”

  – Jessie Chandler,

  Author of the Award-Winning Shay O’Hanlon Caper Series

  NUN TOO SOON (#1)

  “Exciting and suspenseful.”

  – Publishers Weekly

  “For those who have not yet read these incredible mysteries written by an actual ex-nun, you’re missing out...Brilliant, funny, a great whodunit; this is one writer who readers should definitely make a ‘habit’ of.”

  – Suspense Magazine

  “With tight procedural plotting, more flavoured coffee than you could shake a pastry at, and an ensemble cast who’ll steal your heart away, Nun Too Soon is a winner. I’m delighted that Giulia–and Alice!–left the convent for a life of crime.”

  – Catriona McPherson,

  Agatha Award-Winning Author of the Dandy Gilver Mystery Series

  “You’ll love Giulia Driscoll! She’s one of a kind—quirky, unpredictable and appealing. With an entertaining cast of characters, a clever premise and Loweecey’s unique perspective—this compelling not-quite-cozy is a winner.”

  – Hank Phillippi Ryan,

  Mary Higgins Clark Award-Winning Author of Truth Be Told

  “Grab your rosary beads and hang on for a fun ride with charming characters, amusing banter, and a heat-packing former nun.”

  – Barb Goffman,

  Macavity Award-Winning Author

  Books in the Giulia Driscoll Mystery Series

  by Alice Loweecey

  Novels

  NUN TOO SOON (#1)

  SECOND TO NUN (#2)

  NUN BUT THE BRAVE (#3)

  July 2016

  Short Stories

  CHANGING HABITS

  (prequel to NUN TOO SOON)

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  Copyright

  SECOND TO NUN

  A Giulia Driscoll Mystery

  Part of the Henery Press Mystery Collection

  First Edition

  Kindle edition | September 2015

  Henery Press

  www.henerypress.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including internet usage, without written permission from Henery Press, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Copyright © 2015 by Alice Loweecey

  Cover art by Stephanie Chontos

  This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Related subjects include: cozy mysteries, women sleuths, murder mystery series, whodunit mysteries (whodunnit), humorous murder mysteries, book club recommendations, private investigator mystery series.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-941962-95-4

  Printed in the United States of America

  Dedication

  To my family, who are still waiting to be killed off in a heart-wrenching scene in one of my books. Not this time, guys.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As always, thanks to my Awesome Agent, Kent D. Wolf; and my terrific editor, Rachel Jackson. To Natalie Case, for sharing her Tarot expertise. To my fellow Hens for their continual support and encouragement. And to everyone whose phobias include clowns and creepy dolls, my apologies.

  One

  Hot, tired, and triumphant,
Giulia Driscoll pushed open Driscoll Investigations’ frosted glass door.

  “Nobody talk to me until I rip these nylon torture devices off my legs.”

  She hung her purse on the coat rack and headed straight for the narrow bathroom. Seconds later, she stuffed her pantyhose into the pocket of her navy blue suit jacket and wiggled blissfully free toes. She opened the door again, carrying her low-heeled shoes in her left hand.

  “A few years back, I thought pretending to be a nun again was the worst undercover job I’d ever have. Wrong. If that company calls me for a follow-up interview, I’m wearing pants.”

  Zane, her all-but-genius admin, looked at her with that expression men get when women are the most inscrutable creatures on the planet. Sidney, her perky, all-natural assistant, fist-bumped Giulia as she went past.

  “If I ever try to institute a formal dress code here,” Giulia said, “you have permission to pour cold water over my head until I come to my senses.”

  “Did they fall for it?” Zane said.

  “Did you catch the cheating scumbag harassing the receptionist?” Sidney said.

  “To answer Zane’s question: Possibly. I gave the HR person ideal canned answers as much as I could. That’s one reason I used my maiden name. You never know if someone’s heard of Driscoll Investigations.”

  She pulled out a chair at the worktable under the single window and stretched her spine, dangling her head over the back of the chair and dropping the shoes in the same motion.

  The position gave her an upside-down view of the stores across the street: The pizza place that filled the air with the aroma of frying sausage every morning, the celebrity tanning studio, the combination New Age/Tarot Reading shop, and the cell phone store on the corner. The pre-lunch rush had started. Several people headed into the cell phone store. The pizza delivery Honda pulled into traffic after a taxi and a city bus zoomed past. The tanning salon looked deserted, as always. A tall, white-haired woman in flowered capris and a blue camp shirt came out of the Tarot shop.

  Zane said, “How soon did they ask you about your greatest weakness?”

  Giulia sat up again and laughed. “It’s one of the questions on the intake form.”

  Zane leaned forward, his white-blond hair falling over his eyes. “Do they think anyone answers that question honestly?”

  “Maybe it’s their inside joke. Sidney, the cheating scumbag did indeed harass the receptionist. He’s so good at it—you know what I mean—that if I hadn’t been looking for inappropriate touching I wouldn’t have noticed anything out of the ordinary.”

  Zane mirrored Sidney’s frown so well they looked like the positive and negative prints of a photograph. “Seriously, why is that receptionist putting up with his crap? This isn’t the 1950s. The company’s employee handbook has to have a section on sexual harassment.”

  “It’s not that straightforward. The CEO and the scumbag are golf and drinking buddies. He’s done this before and gotten away with it. He targets a low-level employee who can’t afford to make trouble at the job. The receptionist’s disabled father lives with her and her income pays the rent. She needs the job for that and the health insurance.”

  Sidney made a noise that sounded like an angry bear. “We’ve got giant hogweed in the fields behind our alpaca pasture. Let’s toss him into it naked.”

  Giulia said, “Is it similar to poison ivy?”

  “Not even close. Hogweed gets like ten feet tall and causes blisters and burns that can hang on for years.”

  “That’s much better than my idea of dumping him into the koi fountain in the company’s lobby.” Giulia stood, still barefoot. “Did I miss anything around here?”

  The door burst open. The white-haired woman from the Tarot shop strode in and looked at all three of them in turn.

  “I need the owner, right now.”

  Giulia stepped forward. “I’m Giulia Driscoll. How may I help you?”

  The woman grabbed Giulia’s hand and dragged her toward the door. “I have to take you to Lady Rowan.”

  Giulia dug her heels into the just-buffed wood floor. “Release my hand, please.”

  The woman tugged harder. Giulia braced against her and kept herself in the same spot.

  “Please release my hand.”

  “All right.” The woman complied. “I’m sorry, but this is urgent. Lady Rowan told me that I must seek the Veiled Woman immediately.”

  Giulia glanced at Sidney and Zane, who both shrugged.

  “She’s the Tarot reader, of course.” The woman pointed out the window with her left hand and reached into her straw purse with her right. “Here.” She slapped a checkbook with a lighthouse cover on Zane’s desk. “Private detectives get a retainer, right? They always do in the movies. You hold my checkbook while I take your boss to consult with Rowan. When we return I’ll pay for this appointment.”

  Giulia slipped bare feet into her shoes. This promised to be much better than spying on a cheating husband. “Let’s go.”

  Two

  Giulia and her new client walked side by side downstairs and out onto the sidewalk. Both women dodged a score of hurrying pedestrians.

  “Those stairs are an accident waiting to happen. I’m MacAllister Stone. Everyone calls me Mac. Here’s a gap in this insane traffic. Ready to run for it?”

  They dashed across the street to the music of honking taxi horns and at least one physically impossible suggestion. Giulia figured Mac to be in her early seventies, but her fitness level shaved off a good twenty years.

  “People these days have no manners.” Mac led Giulia past the tanning salon’s wide glass windows and under the New Age shop’s deep purple awning.

  The restrained storefront showcased different styles of Tarot decks for sale. A black velvet picture frame enclosed a rate sheet for various types of readings. The awning blocked the June sun, creating a pool of twilight for them to stand in. Mac opened the door and ushered Giulia inside. A bell chimed a single high note.

  Opposite them, a huge vase filled with stargazer lilies sat on the floor between two flowered armchairs. The scent of violets hung in the air, but didn’t overpower it. The dark floral carpet and mauve wallpaper completed the color scheme.

  “Jasper, you’re a lifesaver,” Mac said to the ponytailed young man behind the counter.

  “I can do more than blow stuff up, Aunt Mac.” He held out a prosthetic hand to Giulia. “I’m Jasper Fortin, Lady Rowan’s nephew.”

  Giulia shook hands. “I seem to be missing an essential clue here.”

  Jasper smiled. “Sorry. Hazard of the profession.” He stepped over to a violet jacquard tapestry hanging in a doorway. “They’re back.”

  A fluting voice answered, “Send them in, please.”

  He held aside the tapestry, still smiling. “Lady Rowan will see you now.”

  Mac led the way into a square, dim room with the same carpeting and wallpaper. A circular table and three Mission-style chairs took up seventy percent of the space.

  A dark-haired woman faced them. “Ms. Driscoll, I’m relieved you agreed to come with Mac. Take the right-hand chair, please. Mac, the other is the chair you sat in earlier.”

  She pressed a remote control and recessed ceiling lights brightened, banishing the spooky atmosphere. “Much better. Let’s get down to business.”

  Giulia sat in the indicated chair, trying to decide whether Lady Rowan was emulating Maria Ouspenskaya in The Wolf Man or going for cliché New Age Summer Fashion.

  Rowan winked at her. “Certain customers expect the mysterious Hollywood getup, Ms. Driscoll. Mac here likes the whole cosplay treatment. If it were just you and me, I’d wear a business suit. You don’t need the ambiance.”

  Giulia gave her points for reading all the nuances of the newcomer’s body language.

  “Rowan a
nd I were sorority sisters,” Mac said. “I think she looks adorable in all those scarves and shawls.”

  “I’m too old to qualify for adorable. Only because this place has excellent air-conditioning am I sporting the layered look today.” She placed her hands on either side of the complex pattern of Tarot cards on the table. “This isn’t your reading, Ms. Driscoll, so I won’t unpack everything. That would take another half-hour. The reason I sent Mac for you is this combination of the High Priestess, the Hanged Man, and the Moon.”

  The many bracelets on her arms jingled as she indicated the cards. “The High Priestess guards the veil of knowledge. When she combines with The Hanged Man in relation to Mac’s situation, the meaning started to become plain to me. When I turned over the Moon card, everything settled into its proper place.”

  Giulia turned her polite smile on both of them. “I don’t quite see what’s been settled in relation to Driscoll Investigations.”

  Rowan cackled. “That was a beautifully subtle mood-killer. In brief, I told Mac that she was to do nothing without consulting she who uncovers the truth. I called Jasper in here. He’s clairvoyant but needs more practice. He knew right away to whom the cards referred.”

  “You see?” Mac said. “The cards and Jasper directed me to you, the former nun. The Veiled Woman. You’re meant to help me.”

  Giulia didn’t have Rowan’s people-reading skills, but she knew how to take control of a situation. Step one was to get back on her own turf. “I appreciate your confidence in me. If Lady Rowan will excuse us, we can discuss in my office the possibility of Driscoll Investigations taking you on as a client.”