Running on Empty Read online

  'She dropped it when you surprised her.'

  AnnaLise remembered hearing something metallic hit the deck as the garage door descended on her. 'So, Ema took it with her when things didn't go as planned?'

  'So she says. Then put it back in Bobby's "miscellany cabinet", as she called it.'

  AnnaLise turned to Bobby. 'That's a very nice set-up there on your deck, by the way. The grill, the hot tub and...' She reached for his cup.

  'Uh-uh,' Bobby said. 'You're cut off.'

  'OK, OK,' AnnaLise said, settling back into the vinyl of the couch and closing her eyes to both her companions and the tufts of stuffing tickling her nose.

  'Short hitter, Lise,' she heard from Chuck, as though in a dream.

  'Let her sleep,' said Bobby, his voice like velvet. 'It's been a rough day all around.'

  'You're telling me.' Chuck cleared his throat apologetically. 'I have to go get your mother now.'

  'I know.' Silence. Then: 'Did Ma confess to everything?'

  'Pretty much. Said she wanted to get it all out, then forget and move on.'

  AnnaLise had that feeling of a patient listening to her doctors as the anesthesia kicks in.

  Bobby laughed. 'That surely sounds like her. The past is the past, she'd say. Now I know why.' A pause. 'Funny, isn't it?'

  'You're a better man than me, Bobby, if you can think of anything humorous just now.'

  'I mean odd, ironic. AnnaLise is so worried about Daisy losing her memories. And my mother? All she wants is to forget her own.'

  Ironic. AnnaLise, in her fugue state, approved the choice of vocabulary.

  Chuck's voice: 'Daisy's still got more on the ball than Lise might realize. Her mom heard the Spyder coming — you know, that noisy muffler?'

  AnnaLise thought Bobby might have nodded. At least, he should have.

  Chuck again: 'Well, Daisy kept Ema talking, pretending they were back in the day.'

  Now Bobby: 'So Annie would have time to get there? That is smart, I have to say.'

  'Yup.' A hesitation. 'Daisy is failing, though. It's hard to see... but impossible not to.'

  'You think Annie'll stay?'

  'I hope so.'

  Another pause. AnnaLise thought she might actually be falling... asleep.

  'You're going to have to ticket her for that muffler, you know.'

  'I know.'

  Discover Sandra Balzo on Nook

  Maggy Thorsen Mysteries

  Uncommon Grounds

  Grounds for Murder

  Bean There, Done That

  Brewed, Crude and Tattooed

  From the Grounds Up

  A Cup of Jo

  Triple Shot

  Main Street Mysteries

  Running on Empty

  Dead Ends

  Single Titles

  Heaven’s Fire

  The Grass is Always Greener and Other Stories

  About the Author

  Sandra Balzo turned to mystery writing after twenty years in corporate public relations, event management and publicity. Triple Shot, her seventh Maggy Thorsen coffeehouse mystery, was just released, and Sandy's second series, Main Street Mysteries, debuted in April with Running on Empty. The books, set in the popular vacation destination of North Carolina's High Country, will alternate with the Maggy Thorsen mysteries. Heaven's Fire, about a fireworks show gone badly wrong, was released directly to Kindle with excellent reviews.

  Balzo's novels have been nominated for both the Anthony and Macavity awards and received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist. In addition to her books about coffee-maven Maggy Thorsen and displaced journalist AnnaLise Griggs, Balzo writes short stories, two of which have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, winning the Macavity, Derringer and Robert L. Fish awards. Those psychological thrillers, along with a third original story, are available on Kindle in The Grass is Always Greener and Other Stories.

  Balzo has handled publicity for three Bouchercons (World Mystery Conventions), as well as the International Association of Crime Writers, and has served a national board member of Mystery Writers of America. A native of southeastern Wisconsin, she currently splits her time between Florida and the High Country of North Carolina.

  And roots for the Green Bay Packers.

  www.sandybalzo.com