Hiding in Plain Sight

Book 1: Frankie Gates Paranormal Mystery

by RP Dahlke

Genres: Urban Fantasy; Animal Cozy Mysteries; Female Sleuths; paranormal women fiction mystery; mystery and romance

Synopsis

All Mai-Lin Song ever wanted was to be free of her cruel husband … well, that and to be young again … and pretty. The kind of beauty that turned heads as she walked down the street. And for a price, her fortune teller had just the thing to make her dreams come true. All she needs to do is swallow the potion, and all her dreams will come true … except there’s an unexpected hitch in the plan…she's now a beauty, alright, but she's also a dog hiding under the bed of her 5^th-floor apartment, watching the devil slide a finger under the door.

Her Catholic upbringing scoffs at the superstitious nonsense―the finger is smoke, and it has nothing to do with the devil and everything to do with the man who wants her dead.  

 

Release date: December 29, 2022

Publisher: DEAD BEAR PUBLISING

Print pages: 250

Content advisory: over 18

Sample

Prologue:

 

All Mai-Lin Song ever wanted was to escape from a cruel husband, but she never imagined the opportunity would come so quickly or so deadly.

And to think, she laughed when her fortune teller smacked a hand on the rickety table between them and said, “For thirty years I have listened to you whine about your unhappy marriage, but when I offer you the very thing you need to fix it, you laugh? Huh! I wash my hands of you and your silly problems.”

Mai-Lin gasped, and before her fortune teller could change her mind, she snatched up the vial, threw down her money, and ran out of the shop.

Clutching the vial to her chest, she hurried past her usual stop at Alba’s bakery. She no longer needed almond cookies to make her happy. All she had to do was swallow the contents of the little glass vial, and she would be young again; the luxurious black hair of her youth swinging to her waist, the porcelain skin with a pink blush on her cheeks, her lips full and kissable and unmarked by the passage of time.

Yanking open the apartment building door, and ignoring her arthritic knees, she raced up the stairs to her second-floor apartment. With shaking hands, she managed to get the key into the lock and breathed a sigh of relief. The apartment was empty. He husband stayed out most nights, spending his money on his latest mistress and bragging about his rise in power with the Triad. She huffed out a laugh. The fool was nothing more than a boot-licking minion, their marriage a legal contract meant to bind two Chinese criminal families and as much of a failure as their marriage. And as his defeats, losses, and failures mounted, the beatings he gave his wife increased. Well, by tomorrow she would be free. He could send his entire crew to search, and they wouldn’t know her if they passed her on the street.

Removing her coat, she rummaged through her black bag, brought out the small glass vial and held it up to the light. Here was all she needed to start her new life.  Drink down the contents as soon as possible … or take it with a meal? Either way, there was plenty of time. He never came home before midnight and never without calling first, if only to tell her what meal he wanted to be served that night, and always on the landline. She gave the little vial a quick shake and frowned. What was it her fortune teller said? Take it before bed or sooner?

She reached for the vial again, only to be interrupted by the home phone ringing.  She had yet to take the potion, much less pack her bags, and the insistent ringing required attention. No one but her husband ever called this on this phone. It was a private number, and he forbade her to use it for personal reasons and he never called this early in the day.

Mai-lin stared at it as if it were a live thing until it stopped ringing. Satisfied, she turned back to her task only to hear it start up again. She swore in Mandarin, pushed aside her anger, and picked up the receiver.

 Relief that the caller wasn’t her husband was replaced with confusion… A strange voice on the other end said that he had vital information to give her.

The jerk had some nerve calling a private number and she hung up. The phone rang again, and this time his voice had a steely edge. “It would be in your best interest to hear what I have to say.”

Gritting her teeth, she said, “What do you want?”

“It’s what you want, and I don’t have much time. Yes or no?”

She nodded, then remembered he couldn't see her, she squeaked out a weak, “Yes,”

In less than five minutes, the stranger delivered soul-crushing news. Her husband, the bastard, had made a deal with the feds in exchange for Witness Protection, and he wasn’t planning on taking her with him.

Too shocked to respond or ask questions, Mai-Lin Song put the phone back on the cradle and collapsed onto the nearest chair. The minute her husband’s bosses got wind of his betrayal, there would be men coming to her home, looking for answers she didn’t have, and these men thought nothing of using torture to get answers.

She needed to pack a bag and leave, but the beating of her terrified heart was stealing her plans. And then someone was knocking on the door. Looking through the peephole she realized it was only the doorman with a package. She was expecting an order from Amazon. She wiped sweaty hands on her dress, opened the door, accepted a small box wrapped in plain brown paper, tipped the doorman and unwrapped the box.

Inside was aa short note oozing sympathy for the dangerous position her husband had put her in, along with a revolver wrapped in a leather pouch and,last but not least, where to find him today.

A moment of indecision almost swamped her courage, but then she remembered the potion her fortune teller sold her. All she had to do was keep her nerve and do it. Shoot her husband, swallow the potion, and no one would ever know she was guilty of murder.

She checked the time, burned the note, tucked the gun in her purse, and with grim determination, found a bus that would give her the two things she wanted—revenge and freedom.