Norway to Hide by Maddy Hunter Read Free Book Online

admitted. “Too over the top. Real people don’t die like that.”
    “Exactly how did he die?” I asked in a wary voice.
    “The roof of his ice shanty caved in,” said Gus. “Killed him instantly.”
    Oh. My. God. The…the…plagiarist! I was going to strangle her! Of all the sneaky, low-down, conniving—She’d handed out a suitcase full of books! Did she think I wouldn’t overhear details? Did she think I was entirely stupid? Her book wasn’t about Emma Anderson; it was about me!
    “I hope Jackie’s working on a sequel,” said Gus.
    “I’d read the next installment,” said Reno.
    “Me, too,” said Vern. “But I have a few words of advice for her: more exploding vehicles and more midget wrestlers.”
    I smiled as an evil thought took root. “You like her book so much, you know what would be fun? Why don’t you tell her about all the scenes you like in person? I can hardly wait to see the look on her face.”
    All three men agreed to my suggestion, so after we bought our drinks, I led them through the maze of food stalls to our vacant tables, only to discover they were no longer vacant. “My whole group is back,” I said in surprise. “That was quick. They usually take forever deciding what to order.”
    “That’s not your group,” said Gus. “It’s ours.”
    “Yours?” I looked more closely. Aha. That explained the quick decisions. No one at the table was from Iowa; they were from Florida, and Jackie was making the rounds, schmoozing cordially with them all.
    “Someone must have bought your friend a drink,” Vern observed. “She’s still alive.”
    Yup, but when the gang returned to find their seats gone, she was going to wish she was dead.

CHAPTER 4
    I caught Jackie’s eye and fired her a look that could have singed her eyelashes. To her credit, she excused herself immediately and hurried over to me. Being female had really increased her ability to interpret dirty looks.
    “Emily, I’m so glad you’re back. Would you gentlemen excuse us for a moment?” She seized my arm and dragged me aside. “What am I going to do? They arrived en masse and just made themselves at home!”
    “Did you happen to mention the seats were saved?”
    “How could I? They’re my reading public. If I didn’t let them sit down, they might have gotten even by giving me a nasty review on Amazon. People can be so petty. Besides, Joleen Barnum was so nice. She gave me her own drink and made Jimbob go back andget her another. How could I tell them to go plunk themselves down somewhere else?”
    “The gang is not going to be happy about this, Jack.”
    “I know.” She gnawed the nail on her pinky as she glanced back toward the tables. “Why am I driven by this exhausting need to please everyone? I never felt like that when I was a guy.”
    “I think it has something to do with the female hippocamus.”
    “Well, it’s really annoying.” She rolled her shoulders as if readjusting her bra straps. “I’m not sure I would have made the change if I’d known this was going to happen. Life was so much easier when I could be selfish and unaccommodating.”
    “Speaking of which—” I poked my finger into her sternum. “Emma Anderson? Gay roommate? Detective friend with amnesia? Grandfather dies when an ice shanty collapses on him? Sound like anyone you know?”
    “It sounds like you.”
    “Don’t lie to me, Jack! You can’t bluff—” I paused. “You admit it?”
    “Novelists are supposed to write what they know, Emily, and who do I know better than you? No one.”
    “You splashed my life all over the pages of your book?”
    “Honestly, Emily, who’s going to know? I gave you a new name, and I fudged most of the important details.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like…Emma is addicted to half-caf decaf caramel macchiatos. You, on the other hand, never cared for them.”
    “You call that an important detail?”
    “I’ll have you know that caramel macchiatos play a crucial role at the end of the