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A Beautiful Corpse
Christi Daugherty
Copyright (#ucac769f1-70d8-584b-aa80-2eb53a110df6)
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Christi Daugherty 2019
Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover photographs © Mark Fearon/Arcangel (http://www.arcangel.com)
Christi Daugherty asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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 HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008238827
Ebook Edition © March 2019 ISBN: 9780008238841
Version: 2019-01-02
Dedication (#ucac769f1-70d8-584b-aa80-2eb53a110df6)
For all the women whose murders end up on page six
Contents
Cover (#u04286ac2-fa3a-5921-bfd7-60a0136facbb)
Title Page (#uf496e0aa-beef-5cb9-968c-697f2f7cac45)
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
One Week Later
Acknowledgements
Keep Reading …
About the Author
Also by Christi Daugherty
About the Publisher
Chapter One (#ucac769f1-70d8-584b-aa80-2eb53a110df6)
‘Eight ball in the corner pocket.’
Leaning over the edge of the pool table, Harper McClain stared across the long expanse of empty green felt. The cue in her hands was smooth and cool. She’d had four of Bonnie’s super-strength margaritas tonight, but her grip was steady.
There was a delicate, transient point somewhere between too much alcohol and too little where her pool skills absolutely peaked. This was it.
Exhaling slowly, she took the shot. The cue ball flew straight and true, slamming into the eight, sending it rolling to the pocket. There was never any question – it hit the polished wood edge of the table only lightly, and dropped like a stone.
‘Yes.’ Harper raised her fist. ‘Three in a row.’
But the cue ball was still rolling.
Lowering her hand, Harper leaned against the table.
‘No, no, no,’ she pleaded.
As she watched in dismay, the scuffed white cue ball headed after the eight like a faithful hound.
‘Come on, cue ball,’ Bonnie cajoled from the other side of the table. ‘Mama needs a new pair of shoes.’
Reaching the pocket lip, the ball trembled for an instant as if making up its mind and then, with a decisive clunk, disappeared into the table’s insides, taking the game with it.
‘At last.’ Bonnie raised her cue above her head. ‘Victory is mine.’
Harper glared. ‘Have you been waiting all night to say that?’
‘Oh my God, yes.’ Bonnie was unrepentant.
It was very late. Aside from the two of them, the Library Bar was empty. Naomi, who had worked the late shift with Bonnie, had finished wiping down the bar an hour ago and gone home.
All the lights were on in the rambling bar, illuminating the battered books on the shelves that still covered the old walls from the days when it had actually been a library. It could easily hold sixty people but, with just the two of them, the place was comfortable – even cozy, in its way, with Tom Waits growling from the jukebox about love gone wrong.
Despite the hour, Harper was in no hurry to leave. It wasn’t far to walk. But all she had at home was a cat, a bottle of whiskey and a lot of bad memories. And she’d spent enough time with them lately.
‘Rematch?’ She glanced at Bonnie, hopefully. ‘Winner takes all?’
Propping her cue against a sign that read: ‘Books + Beer = LIFE’, Bonnie walked around the table. The blue streaks in her long blond hair caught the light when she held out her hand.
‘Loser pays,’ she said, adding, ‘Also, I’m all out of change.’
‘I thought bartenders always had change,’ Harper complained, pulling the last coins from her pocket.
‘Bartenders are smart enough to put their money away before they start playing pool with you,’ Bonnie replied.
There was a break in the music as the jukebox switched songs. In the sudden silence, the shrill ring of Harper’s phone made them both jump.
Grabbing the device off the table next to her, Harper glanced at the screen.
‘Hang on,’ she said, hitting the answer button. ‘It’s Miles.’
Miles Jackson was the crime photographer at the Savannah Daily News. He wouldn’t call at this hour without a good reason.
‘What’s up?’ Harper said, by way of hello.
‘Get yourself downtown. We’ve got ourselves a murder on River Street,’ he announced.
‘You’re kidding me.’ Harper dropped her cue on the pool table. ‘Are you at the scene?’
