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    Oil & Water
    Oil & Water
    Oil & Water
    Ebook98 pages1 hour

    Oil & Water

    By Nikki Andrews

    ()

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    About this ebook

    When gallery owner Ginny Brent accepts a post as judge for the prestigious Oil & Water Arts Festival in Ogunquit, Maine, she is looking forward to a weekend of pampering, good food, and camaraderie with creative people. Family feuds, business spats, a barroom brawl, and lobster pot thefts are definitely not on the menu. Then the body of a missing artist turns up on the rocky shore—just in time for Ginny to find it. Despite her determination not to get involved, she finds herself tracing the threads between deadly rivals, non-kissing cousins, and an artist’s sketchpad. Finally, she finds herself on a park ranger’s tiny boat, up the proverbial creek, on the track of a killer.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Wild Rose Press
    Release dateJan 8, 2018
    ISBN9781509218981
    Oil & Water
    Author

    Nikki Andrews

    Nikki Andrews has worked as a picture framer, store clerk, and administrative assistant, but in her real life she is a writer, editor, and songmaker. She is a member of Talespinners and the New Hampshire Writers Project, and is the author of Framed, a cozy mystery. When she's not at her desk, she might be releasing salmon fry on the Piscataquog River, making jams or sweaters, or exploring her surroundings on foot, bike or snowshoe. She lives near a waterfall in New Hampshire with her wonderful husband, a possessive cat, and assorted wildlife.

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      Book preview

      Oil & Water - Nikki Andrews

      Inc.

      It wasn’t exactly a luncheonette, but close.

      Three tables, with two chairs each, filled one side, while the rest held a compact kitchen, a small counter with a register, and a display case of cold bottled drinks. Racks of bagged chips, candy bars, fridge magnets, and postcards covered most horizontal spaces.

      Haven’t cleaned the tables yet in heah, Danea tossed over her shoulder. Mack! Coffee done?

      Two minutes, a masculine voice replied.

      Cinnamon rolls just out o’ the oven. Gimme a minute, and I’ll get a slice for ya with the coffee.

      Ginny nodded agreement and strolled to the single, salt-stained rear window. The place was only about thirty feet deep and ten wide, tight quarters for any shopkeeper. That explained the tables out front.

      The sun balanced on the horizon now, and the direct shafts of light nearly blinded her. The rocks rising up in the cove cast long, black fingers across the water, and the damp, seaweed-covered stones of the beach reflected glints into Ginny’s eyes. She scanned the curve, from the pines she’d just passed under, across the parking lot, past the restaurant, and out to the fabulously costly private homes at the tip of the neck. As her eyes adjusted, she could pick out more details—fish bones, bird droppings, a twist of netting, many shells. She puzzled over a large, shadowy lump, and her breath caught.

      Danea, she croaked. You’d better call the police.

      What for?

      There’s a body on the beach.

      Praise for Nikki Andrews

      "Ginny Brent has been asked to judge at the prestigious art contest, Oil and Water, in Maine. Little does she know she’ll be involved in a murder before she can say ‘Blue Ribbon.’ Author Nikki Andrews has taken a little known profession and a little known location and turned them into a fascinating tale you won’t want to put down. Do yourself a favor and read this first class mystery!"

      ~Liz Delisi, author

      ~*~

      I found this story to be an intriguing blend of mystery, art, and Maine. The details about the location made you feel as if you were there.

      ~Mary St. Peter

      ~*~

      "The characters came alive, and the setting was so real I felt like I was in Maine with them. Even though I fingered the wrong person as the villain, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Oil & Water."

      ~Nancy Siemienowicz

      Oil & Water

      by

      Nikki Andrews

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

      Oil & Water

      COPYRIGHT © 2018 by Nikki Andrews

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

      Contact Information: info@thewildrosepress.com

      Cover Art by RJ Morris

      The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

      PO Box 708

      Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

      Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

      Publishing History

      First Mainstream Mystery Edition, 2018

      Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-1898-1

      Published in the United States of America

      Dedications

      To Danea, Alisoun Hodges, Kristina Russell, and Colleen Grebus, for letting me use their names.

      ~*~

      To the good people of Ogunquit, who endure noisy tourists and nosy writers with grace and forbearance.

      ~*~

      To the staff of Art Experience, who inspired this series, and to all artists, who inspire my soul.

      ~*~

      To my editor, Lori Graham, for her wise guidance,

      and to RJ Morris for her incredible cover art.

      ~*~

      Most of all, of course, to Dave,

      who does the dishes while I write.

      Author’s Notes

      All the places in Oil & Water are real…more or less. Some may have been imported from elsewhere, undergone a name change, or operated differently than depicted. One or two exist only in my head, but that’s a real place, too.

      The inlet of the clicking rocks is exactly as described, and just as mesmerizing.

      Chapter One

      If it’s tourist season, why can’t we shoot ’em?

      Ginny Brent drummed her well-manicured fingers on the steering wheel and glared at the stoplight on Route 1 in York, Maine. Although she’d left home early on this Thursday morning, she was already hitting a lot of traffic with license plates from Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Quebec, and farther afield. She discounted the cars from her home state of New Hampshire; what were neighbors for, anyway?

      Ginny justified her bit of misanthropy by reminding herself she had a serious reason for heading to Ogunquit, the beautiful place by the sea as the original inhabitants had called it. The prestigious Oil & Water Art Council had invited her to act as a judge at the semi-annual exhibit, being held this year just at the start of the maddening, crowded, busy—but profitable—tourist season. The arts festival, traditionally held on Father’s Day weekend, was the first hurrah of the summer season. Earlier in the year, the weather was too iffy to plan on any outdoor activities. Snow in May was not unheard of.

      Ginny had nearly declined the invitation, but her employees at Brush & Bevel Gallery overrode her worries.

      We can take care of business for a weekend, said Elsie Kimball in her quiet, assured way. We’ve done it before.

      Sue Bradley raved about the baked goods at the bed and breakfast where the council had reserved rooms for the judges. I hear they’re the best of Down East. Besides, you deserve the honor. After all the work you’ve put into the arts scene here in New Hampshire and all the nice things people say about your judging critiques at local shows, Oil & Water is lucky to have you. Go let someone else take care of you for a weekend. Just make sure you head out on Thursday, or you won’t get there until it’s time to come home.

      The idea of being pampered certainly appealed to Ginny. The Council covered most of her costs for the weekend and offered a small honorarium. In exchange, her duties were light. She would attend the reception, cast her ballot as judge, and spend a few hours Saturday and Sunday as a docent in the Council’s big tent at the fair, where each artist would have a booth. To top it all off, she could deduct any additional expenses from her taxes.

      So here she was, stuck between a van full of what appeared to be Cub Scouts ahead of her and an impatient couple in a Mercedes with its top down, riding her rear bumper. She wasn’t worried about her business. Elsie and Sue were capable, and she was only a phone call away. However, she did regret her decision to leave I-95 at the York exit and follow US 1 north. She had allowed enough time for a side excursion to Cape Neddick and the Nubble Lighthouse—or so she thought. She’d forgotten how congested the vacation hotspot could be, even this early in the summer. As she waited at yet

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