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Total Package Publications
Total Package Publications
Category:
Mystery/Suspense
Publisher: Total Package Publications, LLC
Type: Fiction
Pages: 226
Copyright: March 11, 2008
ISBN-13: 9780978927615
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
Psychological thriller which pits a scorned widow against the F.B.I. in a battle of wits and cunning.
Francine Styles is a scorned woman with a vengeance after learning that her husband has been brutally murdered at the hands of his male lover that he has been having an extramarital affair with. Now Francine is on a mission to end the lives of men that lead a similar double life. A life their partners are unaware of. Local law enforcement and FBI are hot on this serial killer’s trail; however, she continues to elude them with preciseness and intellect. Similar to the fabled black widow spider, this woman seduces her victims, before killing them in cold blood!
Excerpt
So tell me again, Mrs. Styles, what kind of man would describe your husband? More importantly, why are you here? You don’t have an appointment scheduled for today.
Please, Doctor Taylor, after all this time as my psychiatrist…call me Francine, or better yet, Fran. Everyone I know calls me Fran. I tell you that every session, and still you continue to be so formal.
Very well, Fran. I’ll try not to be so formal in the future. Sometimes I can’t help myself. I’m gonna need you to remind me about being such a stick in the mud. So tell me all about Maxwell. And start from the beginning.
My husband and I were married on Valentine’s Day – 1995. Sometimes I think he strayed into the arms of others because he knew I couldn’t birth any kids for him. I don’t know. We talked about it and he said it was no big deal – but…
At the beginning, everything was great. We did everything together. I didn’t work, and the few times I did, it wasn’t for long. You know – with my illness and everything. We enjoyed doing things together. We didn’t go on any extravagant out-of-the country vacations or anything, but we spent a lot of time doing a variety of things, such as walking through the park, cultural sight-seeing like the Statue of Liberty, and every now and then, visiting the museum or taking a trip to the zoo or something. But that didn’t last too long. Before you know it, Maxwell was hanging out all hours of the night with his buddies, who were a bunch of no-good losers that had no life and nothing better to do than go out every night drinking and riding around town searching for desperate women. Sometimes, he was getting home just as I was getting up to start my morning chores.
Did you suspect Maxwell of infidelity? You’ve been hinting during our last few sessions that you never were quite sure if you could trust anyone in your life…and that you wish he didn’t have to go out as much as he did.
Maxwell? Cheating on me? No. Not at all! I never suspected it for a moment. I mean, he was a big partygoer and all, but he was always like that, even before we were married. I remember when we were first courting – it was so funny.
How so?
Maxwell couldn’t even get up the nerve to ask me for a dance when he and I first met. Our eyes made contact for the first time at this low-key nightspot called Club Ecstasy located in downtown Baltimore. He had to get one of his friends to come over to my table and tell me his name. I don’t know. I thought it was cute of him…being all shy and what not.
‘Excuse me, little lady…you see that man over there? He would love for you to go over and talk to him. If you don’t, he is going to depress us all the way home. And if he does, you’re going to be to blame!’
That was Maxwell’s best friend since the seventh grade. His name was Kent.
Was?
He died of cancer about a year and a half ago. Very sad. He was too young to die like that. He was also one of the few friends Maxwell had that I actually liked. He was the best man at our wedding.
Speaking of weddings, do you think I look fat, doc? I’ve put on quite a bit of weight since my younger years.
Do I look like an idiot to you, Fran? I’m a married man, remember? Any way I answer that question, it’s the wrong answer! If I tell you that you look perfect, you’re going to say that is a typical response for a man. If I tell you that you have put on some weight, you’ll throw that chair that you’re sitting on at me. So, I think that I will plead the fifth on this one.
I’m five feet, seven inches, and have all of my real hair. Maxwell used to tell me that I had the sexiest cheekbones he’d ever saw. At the gym, I occasionally get compliments on my trim figure and caramel-brown complexion. So why am I questioning how I look?
Don’t be so down on yourself. You’re grieving, and you have a right to grieve. I would think you were in denial if you didn’t question yourself. Continue…
So anyway, I did finally go over and introduce myself to Maxwell. Truth be told, I was initially feeling his friend Kent. He was very smooth and knew how to talk to a woman. When I walked over, Maxwell was playing the shy role, and barely looked me in my eyes. He was turning me off from the very beginning. Five minutes into the conversation, though, he began to get up the nerve to display his winning personality. He became more outgoing with his delivery and seemed very sure of himself. It got me starting to think the whole shy role was a well-prepared plan to get me over there and feel sorry for him. I remember what he said to me that made me fall for him.
‘Even though we’ve only been talking back and forth for the last few minutes, I’m confident you and I will be married within the next year. Two years – TOPS!’
And he was so right! We got married exactly twelve months to that day. We thought it would be romantic to have that day etched in our lives forever. It was a relatively small wedding, with about one hundred and fifty people – mostly his family and some friends from around the way that were actually more like casual acquaintances. We just celebrated another anniversary last month. I thought for sure we would share many, many more together. I would never have guessed it. I still feel like this is all just one bad dream…a dream I still can’t awaken from.
So, from what you’ve told me, the phone call you got telling you that he was murdered by his male lover was totally out of character for him?
I couldn’t believe it when I heard it for the first time. I mean, I still can’t believe it’s true. Sure, Maxwell and I had our differences, and yes, we were having marital problems before he died, but damn…
Take it easy, Mrs., uh, I mean Fran. Would you like some tissue?
Yes, please, I would. It seems like this is all I do now.
Cry?
Yes. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and my pillows are damp from me crying. Sometimes, I just start crying in the middle of the day for no reason at all.
I want you to begin very slowly and try not to leave anything out. If you feel like you need to take a moment and regain your thoughts – well, that’s fine, too.
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