Whiskey Rebellion (Romantic Mystery/Comedy) Book 1 (Addison Holmes Mysteries)

According to the file, Eddie was suing the insurance company for refusing to pay him when he put in a claim that he’d been unable to work due to injuries and mental trauma caused by the accident. My job was to disprove his claims of injury.
    “What is it?” Rose Marie asked excitedly. “I heard in the post office the other day that you were a genuine private detective now. Is this a sting? Should we act covert?”
    I looked at Rose Marie’s lime green flamingo print blouse and matching broom skirt and sighed. Rose Marie was my cross to bear. I opened my mouth to tell her there was nothing we could do, figuring Eddie was probably not stupid enough to stop his act out in public. I was probably going to have to catch him around his house, mowing the lawn or beating his wife.
    “Do you know who that is?” I asked Rose Marie as I pointed to Eddie.
    Rose Marie had grown up in W hiskey Bayou the same as I had—only she’d graduated a few years before me.
    “Sure, that’s Eddie Pogue. Why’s he using a walker?”
    “Auto accident. How well do you know him?”
    “We graduated together,” she said, shoveling a nacho into her mouth. “He’s a mean son-of-a-bitch. He was always too hoity-toity for the circles I ran with in high school. He was the no-neck jock, while I was Glee Club President.”
    Rose Marie said it matter-of-factly without resentment, so I didn’t think much of it. The world was divided into two categories—the jocks and everybody else. Rose Marie and I were in the everybody else category.
    “He liked to pull pranks on those of us that were unfortunate enough not to be him. He always thought they were funny, but he was really just cruel. He got that Warwick girl in trouble a couple of years ago and married her. Everybody knows he knocks her around all the time.”
    I gave one more look at Rose Marie’s flamingos and winced. “Come on,” I said, grabbing my bag and throwing enough money on the table to cover both our meals. “I need to see what he’s up to.”
    Rose Marie scurried after me, and I kept expecting her to slink behind columns and put her fingers up like a gun. I waved bye to the hostess when she gave us a strange look and kept my eyes on Ed die Pogue. He was headed toward the Starbucks at a brisk pace, his walker used like a battering ram to get through the crowd and into the line.
    Perfect. I could grab a mocha latte to counteract the margaritas and get some pictures with my camera phone at the same time. Eddie wo re a neck and knee brace to go along with his walker.
    I inhaled the scent of coffee as we walked in the Starbucks, and we took our place in line a couple of people behind Eddie, and I silently judged him as he ordered a skinny mocha no-whip latte. The drink didn’t fit with his baggy gangsta shorts and tank top, especially since he was rocking the middle-aged redneck look from the neck up.
    Eddie took his latte and sat by himself at a table that overlooked the parking lot, managing to look pitiful as he sipped his coffee and we waited on ours.
    Once we’d gotten our drinks, I directed Rose Marie to a corner table that gave me a direct line of sight to Eddie. Rose Marie’s face was flushed red with excitement and her compact mirror was out so she could see what was going on behind her. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that there was no way in hell Eddie hadn’t noticed us.
    Eddie exaggerated a limp as he tossed his drink in the trash and came over to our table.
    “Hey there, Addison. Make sure you tell your mother hello for me.” He ignored Rose Marie completely and walked off.
    Damn small towns.
    Catching Eddie Pogue was going to be difficult. Of course, every case I’ve had so far ha d left me maimed or addled, so having one that was only “difficult” sounded like a breath of fresh air.

    When I was a junior in high school the quarterback of the varsity football team asked me to go to the prom. I, of course, being the naïve nerd that I was, thought he’d finally come to realize that smart girls could be fun, and I was going to represent the overlooked and underappreciated at James Madison High School.
    So in preparation for the big event, I decided I needed a tan to show off my stunning wh ite gown to its best potential. Never having tanned before, I didn’t realize how necessary it was to wear the eye goggles when UV Rays are frying your body. I didn’t want to have white eyelids on a tan face, so I didn’t wear them and managed to sunburn