The tires of Melody Kincaid’s black and gold Jeep Grand Cherokee jolted against the curb in front of Bunning Hardware, making the steering wheel shimmy in her hands. Melody clicked the stick into PARK and took her foot from the brake before shutting off the engine, then leaned over the console to gaze into the rearview mirror.
She patted her fire-engine coiffure, batted her artificially lengthened lashes, smacked her lips to even out the layered gloss. Her reflection smiled back wickedly. Mac Bunning couldn’t resist this package.
For several months she’d come twice weekly, just past closing, to his downtown store. Melody about had Mac convinced. Get rid of Claire the Cow. Mission accomplished, she’d have the hunk to herself. Along with, of course, his money.
They needed to do it before Claire milked him.
The first time, Melody boldly flipped the OPEN sign and came to him. Mac had her on the back table between the nuts-and-bolts and the screws-and-nails. Her dilemma was, while Mac drove needlelike splinters into her derriere, Claire slept comfortably in Mac’s king-sized waterbed. Time for a change. Something, she was positive, could be arranged.
Dressed impractically in black pumps and pantyhose, Melody stepped carefully from the car up onto the slushy sidewalk. She entered the interior warmth of…
