Jeanette Cooper Novels

Drama, Passion, Romance, Mystery/Suspense

 

Unwittingly becoming a major link in solving the murder of her beloved friend, Brianna’s association with Investigator David Sherman creates a ripple effect that nearly destroys her marriage before she stumbles on grisly evidence pointing to the killer.

 

Brianna has a near perfect marriage, or at least she thinks she does, until Maggie, her dearest friend, goes home one day from work and disappears. Then Brianna’s world begins to crumble when she is drawn into the investigation via contact with Investigator David Sherman with the Sheriff’s Department, a man her husband jealously despises. Given the ultimatum by her husband to choose between him and David, she refuses to be manipulated, thus, prompting a bitter separation.

 

Hurt and disillusioned, while overwhelmed with grief by her dear friend’s disappearance, Brianna is faced with dissolving her relationship with David or disclosing a secret to her husband involving his and her families that can possibly resolve their marital issues concerning David, but would likely cause negative affects on other’s lives. 

 

While Brianna is trying to sort out the problems in her marriage, the investigation into Maggie’s disappearance and suspected murder turns cold until she stumbles onto evidence that leads to a vicious killer and a grisly murder that shocks the roots of an entire community. Now, Brianna has only one chance left to save her marriage…

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  It was early November, 2007. A picture of a face I knew well appeared on the television news. It was the face of my friend of several years, a grand lady of 79, full of life, spirit, humor and lots of good will toward others. The news astounded and shocked me.

     My friend had disappeared sometime after arriving home after her last day at her job and foul play was suspected.

      Soon after a newscast announced that the victim's son had been picked up on unrelated charges—possession of a gun while on parole for a drug related felony.

     After the Sherriff’s Department grilled him hours on end, he declared he would not admit to anything, but he would tell them where his mother’s bones could be found.

     As bits and pieces of the story of my friend’s murder became known, the horror of what had happened disturbed me so badly, I couldn’t get it from my mind. She suffered a violent and grisly death at the hands of her son and the visions disturbed me continually. 

     I really needed someone to talk to about what happened to my friend, but since there was no one whom I could discuss it with, I started writing--freeing my emotions through the written word as I pounded out my thoughts and feelings about my fiend's murder on my keyboard.
     It took me a year to finish my story, and my book, thereof, which is called Under Suspicion.

EXCERPT:

Brianna felt prickly chills race through her. When David drew his gun, she knew instantly that something had happened to Maggie. A cold dread rushed through her, and deep inside came the thought she’d never see Maggie again. The sensation persisted, clinging like a seed of reality she couldn’t cast off. Nerves tingled along her spine and a choking sensation tightened her throat.

            She recalled the disturbing phone call Maggie was engaged in yesterday. Could whomever she was talking with have something to do with her disappearance?

            “What did you find?” Brianna inquired anxiously after David followed the path around the house and came back to her car, slipping his gun in the shoulder holster he wore beneath his coat.

            He pinched his nose to scratch it in a thoughtful gesture, and then placed one hand at the top of the car door and leaned into the open window. “If Maggie is inside that house and able to, she would have come to the door when I knocked. But since she hasn’t done that, it can only mean one thing. Something has happened here and I think it’s going to be bad news.” He held his handkerchief up to show Brianna.

            “Oh, my God, David, that looks like blood.”

            He nodded his head. “It is blood. Someone turned the sprinkler on probably hoping the water would wash the blood into the ground so it would go unnoticed beneath all that pine straw. They didn’t set the sprinkler in the right place to do the job though. The area with the blood didn’t get much more than a mist, which barely dampened it.          

            David pulled out his cell phone and called for backup.

            Brianna didn’t want to believe what David suspected. It just couldn’t be. “Aren’t you jumping to conclusions to call before you check inside?” Brianna asked, hoping there was an answer that had nothing to do with Maggie or the blood.

            “No, with that much blood on the ground something happened here. The body may be inside.”

            Brianna was staring at the handkerchief in David’s hand with trance-like fascination. The blood on the white fabric made her heart pound against her chest as if trying to burst from its moorings. She glanced toward the dark stain of blood upon the ground, her gaze returning to rest on David’s face. “I hope to God you’re wrong.”

 

EXCERPT:

Dr. Marlowe’s remark touched off dormant poison that could still boil up in a minute’s time from the scorn stewing inside Preston for years. It was enough to intensify his all ready-angry state and send him into a rage. He wheeled about to face his father, the veins standing out on his temples and neck. Gritting his teeth, he said in a dangerously controlled voice, “You’ve come at a bad time. I’d appreciate it if you’d leave.” He was biting back years of bitterness that he wanted to hurl in his father’s face.

            Dr. Marlowe didn’t see the poison brewing inside Preston. He didn’t realize his son was in a fighting mood. He was too caught up in his thoughts. “I’ll be the one to decide when I’ll leave. Do I need to remind you that this is my damn house and I’ll stay as long as I like.”

            Preston was trying his best to keep his temper under control, but it was seeping out and gaining momentum by the second. “Then if you want to stay, it’s all yours. I’ll pack my stuff and be out of here sometime tomorrow and you can pay the taxes, the insurance, the gardener, the housekeeper, the utilities, the plumbing and all the other repairs.”

            The old man looked startled just before his brows creased with hostility. “It’s no more than I expected of you. That’s the thanks I get for working my ass off to provide for you and those two worthless brothers of yours while you were growing up. I washed my hands of that goddamned good-for-nothing Donald a long time ago. He never should have worn the name Marlowe. He doesn’t deserve it.”

            Brianna cringed, fearing he was going to spill the story about the baby-switch. It wasn’t a good time for Preston to learn about it while he was like a volcano ready to erupt. She had never seen him as upset as he was tonight.  Still spewing nails because of David handcuffing him, and now listening to his father’s put downs, he was in a dangerous frame of mind.

            Preston exploded.

            “You son of a bitch, it was your responsibility to take care of us when we were growing up, but you never did. Sure, we had a house to live in, a bed to sleep in, and food, but that’s all we ever got from you. You were a stranger to us because you were never around, or never had time for us. Your affairs with your nurses took up all your spare time.”

            Dr. Marlowe stared at Preston in shock. No one had ever talked so disrespectfully to him.

            Preston continued in his raised voice, his face dark red with animosity.

            “Oh, don’t look shocked. I knew all about your affairs with your nurses. How could I not know when I heard mother begging you to stop seeing that woman who worked in your office? You think I don’t know why she left? She left because you weren’t about to stop your philandering and she couldn’t take it anymore.”

            “You don’t know a damn thing about me and your mother, or why she left.  Anyway, what happened between me and her is none of your damn business.”

            “Like hell it isn’t. You drove mother away. My mother, Robert’s mother, Donald’s mother. You deprived us of a mother. Then you damn well forgot that we existed and deprived us of a father, too. So let me correct you; you didn’t raise your kids. Your only interest in life was whichever nurse was working for you at any given time. Except for our nanny, we raised ourselves. I was the nearest thing to being a father that Donald or Robert ever had. You didn’t give a damn for any of us. You were the poorest excuse of a father any son ever had.”             Preston was yelling, everything he said spewing through his lips from the emotional depths of him. “You weren’t a father. The only thing between you and being a whore is that you are a man. Your whoring deprived me, Donald and Robert of a mother and father and you damn well don’t deserve respect from a single one of us.”

            The old man was fuming as much as Preston now. His eyes glinted darkly with venom. Like a flash of lightning, he raised his hand and slapped Preston hard across his cheek. “How dare you yell and scream like some infernal idiot at me. I’m still your father and I’ll not allow you to talk that way to me.”

            Even before the old man finished his statement, Preston had drawn back his arm, his fist tightly balled, prepared to do physical battle with his father.