Booty Bones: A Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery Read online

  Bless their little hearts.

  Sweetie saved me from responding. She went to Scott and licked his hand. She remembered him. Even Pluto checked him out and gave him a pass. Chablis slept on. Her reunion with Sweetie and Pluto had exhausted her.

  Scott made a stiff Jack on the rocks for each of us. “To good times in Sunflower County.”

  We clinked glasses, and I drank. The burn went all the way to my toes.

  “Now let’s show these New Orleanians how to party.” He offered his arm.

  Together, we left the hotel room and arrived at the ball. My friends crowded close, and Scott left us to set up for his performance.

  I looked at Cece, Harold, Millie, Tinkie, Doc, Madame Tomeeka, and Oscar. My friends clustered around me, protective and loving. My heart was broken, but I wasn’t going to die. That much was clear. I would survive, as Jitty had pointed out. And maybe, sometime in the future, I would love again.

  ALSO BY CAROLYN HAINES

  SARAH BOOTH DELANEY MYSTERIES

  Smarty Bones

  Bonefire of the Vanities

  Bones of a Feather

  Bone Appétit

  Greedy Bones

  Wishbones

  Ham Bones

  Bones to Pick

  Hallowed Bones

  Crossed Bones

  Splintered Bones

  Buried Bones

  Them Bones

  NOVELS

  Revenant

  Fever Moon

  Penumbra

  Judas Burning

  Touched

  Summer of the Redeemers

  Summer of Fear

  NONFICTION

  My Mother’s Witness: The Peggy Morgan Story

  AS R. B. CHESTERTON

  The Darkling

  The Seeker

  About the Author

  CAROLYN HAINES is the author of the Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries. She is the recipient of both the Harper Lee Distinguished Writing Award and the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence. Born and raised in Mississippi, she now lives in Semmes, Alabama, on a farm with more dogs, cats, and horses than she can possibly keep track of.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  BOOTY BONES. Copyright © 2014 by Carolyn Haines. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.minotaurbooks.com

  Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein

  Cover illustration by Hiro Kimura

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  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Haines, Carolyn.

  Booty bones: a Sarah Booth Delaney mystery / Carolyn Haines.—First edition.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-250-04613-0 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4668-4629-6 (e-book)

  1. Delaney, Sarah Booth (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Women private investigators—Mississippi—Fiction. 3. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 4. Mississippi—Fiction. 5. Mystery fiction. I. Title.

  PS3558.A329B68 2014

  813'.54—dc23

  2014008158

  e-ISBN 9781466846296

  First Edition: May 2014