Dead Spider Read online

  Lew thought hard, and while she did Osborne held his breath. “Okay, Doc. You are so thoughtful and I appreciate this. I really do but . . . ”

  His heart stood still.

  “ . . . how about a compromise? Three nights a week. Three nights a week I’m here, three nights you’re at my place and one night a week we’re each at home on our own.”

  “Sounds like a deal to me,” said Osborne. She stepped into his arms.

  That night, after sharing their favorite pizza at the Birchwood Bar outside Rhinelander, they walked down to his dock just as clouds impersonating flying saucers scudded overhead, backlit by moonlight. A light mist began to fall and they could hear a distant roll of thunder. By ten, as they were about to climb into bed, the rain was a steady drumming overhead. Lew paused to listen. “Doc, I love how we can hear the rain on your roof.”

  “Me, too,” said Osborne. “Since I was a kid, I’ve loved the sound of rain.”

  He remembered how Mary Lee had complained, right after they had moved into the house: “Honestly, Paul, that builder did not insulate the roof very well. I can hear the rain. I insist you call him first thing in the morning.”

  “Certainly, dear,” he had said and conveniently forgot to pester their builder.

  The rain grew louder and as Lew folded herself around him he felt in the small of his back a shimmer of desire.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Many people besides myself have worked to make this book possible: my editor, copyeditor, proofreader, page and jacket designers, publicist, sales reps, and booksellers—to name a few. But looking back over the history of publishing seventeen titles in my Loon Lake Mystery Series, I owe a special kind of gratitude to my publisher, Ben LeRoy, who has withstood the punishing realities of the book-publishing world today to keep Loon Lake on the bookshelf. Thank you, Ben.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  In her teens and twenties, mystery author VICTORIA HOUSTON was the classic hometown girl who couldn’t wait to leave her small Wisconsin town. She has not only returned to her hometown, Rhinelander, but she has based her popular mystery series in the region’s fi shing culture.

  FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR: Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Victoria-Houston

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  SimonandSchuster.com

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  Gallery Books

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  Copyright © 2017 by Victoria Houston.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Gallery Books hardcover edition JUNE 2017

  GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon and Schuster, Inc.

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  Interior design by Colleen Cunningham

  Cover design by Erin Alexander

  Cover image © 123RF/Anton Petrus

  Author photo courtesy of Marcha Moore

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Houston, Victoria, 1945- author.

  Dead spider / Victoria Houston.

  New York, NY: Tyrus Books, 2017.

  Loon Lake mystery series #17

  LCCN 2016056744 (print) | LCCN 2017003291 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440598807 (hc) | ISBN 9781440598814 (ebook)

  LCSH: Ferris, Lewellyn (Fictitious character)--Fiction. | Osbourne, Doc (Fictitious character)--Fiction. | Policewomen--Wisconsin--Fiction. | Murder--Investigation--Fiction. | Robbery investigation--Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General. | FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction.

  LCC PS3608.O88 D44 2017 (print) | LCC PS3608.O88 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6--dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016056744

  ISBN 978-1-4405-9880-7

  ISBN 978-1-4405-9881-4 (ebook)

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

  Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Simon & Schuster, Inc., was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.