A Purr Before Dying

Chapter 1 A Purr Before Dying When a nighttime soap opera comes to town to film an episode, no one’s more excited than Nora Charles, who’s landed the contract for catering the shoot. But if she thought the show’s plotlines were full of drama and intrigue, that’s nothing compared to what she witnesses among the cast and crew. With half of them sneaking off for secret liaisons one minute and at each other’s throats the next, it’s all a titillating behind-the-scenes look for Nora—until she stumbles across the body of the show’s slain director. It’s not long before the local authorities finger the brother of Nora’s good friend for the evil deed, and it’s up to Nora and her sidekick Nick to get him off the hook. As she begins to sort out the cast’s romantic entanglements and professional rivalries looking for a motive, she also discovers that the victim was involved in the mysterious death of the show’s previous director. And then another member of the crew is found murdered, and Nora knows she’ll have to act fast to figure out who’s playing the part of the killer, before she’s cast in the role of the next victim . . . Title Page  Copyright A Purr Before Dying T. C. LoTempio Beyond the Page Books are published by Beyond the Page Publishing www.beyondthepagepub.com Copyright © 2023 by T. C. LoTempio Cover design and illustration by Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs ISBN: 978-1-960511-01-0 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented without the express written permission of both the copyright holder and the publisher. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Acknowledgments As always, thanks go to my agent, Josh Getzler, and his assistant, Jon Cobb. Also a very special thanks to my wonderful editor, Bill Harris, who really went above and beyond this time. Many thanks for keeping me on track! And I always want to give a special shout-out to my cousin, Paul E. Ferrante, who has been a dedicated supporter of the Nick and Nora series and all my books. Finally, a big thank-you to all the readers and fans who buy the books and support the series. Without you, there would be no Nick and Nora! We hope to entertain you for many more volumes to come. Dedication Dedicated to the memory of my cousin, Paul T. Ferrante, and to his son, Paul E. Ferrante, two of Nick and Nora’s biggest supporters! Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Recipes Books by T. C. LoTempio About the Author Chapter One “I can’t believe it! You’re actually going to be cooking meals every day for two weeks for Preston McLintock! It’s like a dream come true. You are so lucky!” Myra Bassett, who was eighty if she was a day, pressed her hands together and rolled her eyes toward the flat-screen TV above my front counter with what I could only describe as a rapturous look. The show of choice right now was the super-popular cable soap opera All the Days of Tomorrow , and at the moment the forty-inch screen was filled with the image of a tall, handsome blonde man—shirtless—embracing a very pretty brunette wearing a lacy bra and a skirt that was practically nonexistent. The cast and crew of the show were set to arrive tomorrow for two weeks to do a location shoot in my hometown of Cruz, California, and I’d campaigned along with several other local venues for the honor of catering the food for the shoot’s duration. My competition had been in the food business a lot longer than me, so no one was more surprised than I was when I’d been notified that the specialty sandwich shop I’d inherited from my mother, Hot Bread, had been deemed the winner. Especially in light of the fact that I could count the times I’d actually seen the show on one hand. Nan Webb, the curator of the Cruz Museum, handed my assistant, Mollie, a crisp twenty for today’s breakfast special: the Preston McLintock, of course, named in honor of my new catering gig, which in actuality was a ham and cheese scramble on a toasted bagel and medium coffee. “Luck had nothing to do with it, Myra,” she said. “Everyone knows Nora inherited her talent for cooking from her mother. I’d have been surprised if she hadn’t won.” Myra leaned both elbows on my counter. “I hear Amos Greene was particularly upset.” Amos managed Chomps, a deli at the other end of town. She gave a loud sniff. “I don’t see why he should be, though. His grilled corned beef and Swiss on rye is good, but it can’t hold a candle to yours, Nora. Especially those mini pies you make. They