Madeline Mann

Praise for
Madeline Mann

“In her bright debut, Maddy is a welcome addition to the cozy scene.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“An intriguing debut in an engaging, fresh new series. Make mine Madeline Mann!”

—Julia Spencer-Fleming, author of
I Shall Not Want

“This tightly plotted mystery is a fast-paced exhilarating ride, and investigative reporter Madeline Mann is by far the best female lead to come along since Stephanie Plum. A cool, clever, funny read, and the beginning of an absolutely delightful series. Julia Buckley rocks.”

—Anne Frasier, bestselling author of
Hush
and
Pale Immortal

“Madeline Mann is an absolute delight. Oh, that all murder mysteries could be so much fun to solve. I love Buckley's flawless style; her small town American settings are perfect, and her characters are so real it wouldn't surprise me to discover one of the brothers rummaging in my refrigerator. Julia Buckley has a winner here—charming, intelligent, and exciting. More ‘Madman,’ please—and soon!”

—Robert Fate, author of the
Baby Shark
series

“Madeline is warm, engaging, and fun, and the same goes for Julia Buckley's writing.”

—Hope McIntyre, author of
How To Marry a Ghost

“Julia Buckley's character Madeline Mann is witty, brave, smart, and … downright cool.”

—Cornelia Read, author of
Invisible Boy

“Reporter Madeline ‘Madman’ Mann is a great character: smart, warm, witty, and just wacky enough for spice. I hope this is the beginning of many, many Madman books to come.”

—Barbara D'Amato, author of the Cat Marsala Mysteries

“Fans of the traditional cozy will love
Madeline Mann
. Julia Buckley weaves an entertaining story rich with detail and frequent nods to past masters of the genre. ‘Madman’ tangles with love, murder, and a nagging family who are not quite ready to let her out of the nest. This character is a keeper!”

—Jess Lourey, author of the
Murder by Month
series

Madeline Mann

The First Madeline Mann Mystery

by

Julia Buckley

Madeline Mann

Copyright © 2010 by Julia Buckley

www.juliabuckley.com

Published in the United States of America

All rights reserved

Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Cover Model: Valerie Smetana

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Also by Julia Buckley

The Dark Backward

For my brothers and sisters: Bill, Claudia, Christopher, and Linda. You have helped me know the warmth of family; as a result, Madeline knows it too.

Madeline Mann

one

My capricious episodes
have made me notorious in my family. Often unexpected, even by me, they are whimsical impulses I sometimes feel compelled to follow. Often my motivation is clear—as in the doll-head-shaving incident when I was seven, prompted by my older brother's comment that my Beautiful Chrissy was “too girlie”—but sometimes the notion is a bit more mysterious, like the infamous wild ride I took in my father's gray Celebrity when I was seventeen. I'd been a sedate driver previous to the incident and ever since, but on this afternoon some demon caused me to rocket down Alder, Webley's quietest side street. I shot past a playground, glimpsed the pale, shocked faces of an elderly hand-holding couple in matching sweat suits, and set some aged doggies to barking. Despite some passionate last-minute braking, I rear-ended a newly minted Mr. Whippy ice cream truck and consequently alienated my father for a full month.

These sorts of occurrences earned me a nickname from both of my brothers: Madman. It wasn't a clever creation on their part, since it's merely an ironic combination of my first and last names, Madeline Mann, but I have a feeling Madman would have become my nickname even if I'd been christened Jill Smith. Though I'm basically a quiet, thoughtful person, I can sometimes be ruled by my impulses—based upon what I like to call the “floating vibes” I feel in a given situation. Sometimes I need to take vibe-restoring action. It's hard to explain, but there's a certain rightness about it within me. It's the only way to begin this story, I've decided, because I never would have become involved in a murder investigation if I hadn't, in fact, been mutinously reacting to something else.

A case in point is my hair. Jack, my upstairs neighbor for two years and my boyfriend for one, loved my brunette locks; they were fairly thick and smooth and hung straight and simple to my shoulders. When Jack and I had our first big argument one autumn night and I stormed out of his apartment and flew down the stairs to mine (we lived in the same three-flat), I was definitely in one of those unstable moods. I felt it was over, and I felt it was Jack's fault. I was miserable but furious.

Who knows where wacky ideas come from? I simply had one. I took out my barber's shears and carefully cut off two or three inches of my hair. I ran out to the drugstore and bought L’Oréal Preference blonde dye—“Because I'm worth it,” I murmured throatily to myself in the store aisle. I hurried home and applied the smelly stuff without further thought. I had to let it sit for forty-five minutes, during which time I played Peter, Paul, and Mary's
Ten Years Together
CD and sang along with every song while I perused a
Cat Fancy
magazine. (I don't have cats, but I fancy them. My landlord doesn't.)

I took a shower, rinsed out the dye, and pampered myself with some scented powder before slipping into my favorite jeans and a gray T-shirt with Shakespeare's face on it. I flopped into my papasan chair and considered the reading material on the steamer trunk that was my coffee table. My brother had lent me a biography of Howard Hughes and I had a Nora Roberts book from the library. Not in the mood for either, I decided. My life needed a little mystery. I opted for an Agatha Christie off the shelf above me. Eventually, three chapters into
What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
, I wandered back into the bathroom to take a look at what I'd done.

I was expecting the worst. I'd burned myself on numerous occasions—the bad perms, the “no Novocain” decision, the jalapeño eaten on a dare, the downright loony choice of watching my cousin's colicky six-month-old for a weekend—I could go on. To my amazement, I liked what I saw in the bathroom mirror. Not only did I look perky as a blonde, I looked like I'd been born a blonde. I have green eyes and pale skin, and I'd serendipitously chosen a shade that accentuated them.

Jack had told me on more than one occasion that I was beautiful; my mother had told me that I had “good German bones.” Now, for a moment, I thought I could see what they meant. I fancied that I looked like a sort of poor man's Elke Sommer. I pouted in front of the glass like a ferocious supermodel until I was quite sick of myself; then I decided to prowl around the building in hopes of a purposely accidental meeting with my brand-new ex, Jack.

I found him in the tiny laundry room, a small addition Mr. Altschul had built on the back of the ground floor of his large Victorian house (now three apartments accommodating the aforementioned German landlord, attractive ex-lover, and newly blonde me). Jack was stuffing all his clothes into the washer, darks and lights alike. He was obviously still angry about our fight, because he was jamming things in with extra force, as though his clothes offended him. I stepped casually into the room, ostensibly to check for an unused washing machine. Jack took one look at me and his hands flew to his stomach and one knee came up, as though I'd hurled a softball into his abdomen.

“What did you do to your hair?” he gasped.

“Isn't it obvious?” I asked, curling a blonde strand behind my ear.

“Are you nuts?”

“Is the washer available?”

“For God's sake, you couldn't just talk it out with me? You had to go and turn yourself into someone else?”

“I like it. Don't you like it?” I think my tone made clear that I wouldn't be happy with anything but an affirmative response.

“Madeline—”

“What?”

We faced each other, our unresolved argument still sitting like an iceberg between us. Since the crux of it was Jack's tendency to control me, his protest against my hair color choice was not, I thought, the wisest response.

He finished shoving his clothes into the washer, hastily sprinkled some Tide over them, shut the lid, and cranked the knob with energy. I had always admired Jack's athleticism, being rather sedentary myself; even now I could appreciate his well-shaped, tanned forearms as they strong-armed the coin slot. He turned to face me, trying to keep his emotions in check.

“Okay, I don't know what you want, Maddy, but I don't think you do either.”

“You've decided that for me?”

“Stop it.”

“Are you going to acknowledge that I'm an adult woman who can make her own decisions?”

“I never doubted it.” He folded his arms defensively in front of his chest. He was wearing a solid black T-shirt and some old gray jogging shorts. I felt a pang of sadness, because I used to borrow the outfit.

“You opened my mail, Jack.”

“It was a second notice—”

“It was
my
second notice!” I heard my voice shrilling, and I toned it down. “If I got a hundred notices, it wouldn't change the fact that they were addressed to me!”

Jack ran a hand through his wavy brown hair. He looked around the laundry room as though hunting for inspiration among the detergent and clothespins. I felt for him. In the year we'd been together, arguments had been rare, and always resolved. This one, to his surprise, wasn't going away.

Jack sighed and shrugged. “I'm sorry I made you angry. But I've got to tell you, Maddy, if I thought I was doing something wrong, I wouldn't have done it. I mean, if you don't know me by now…”

He let the sentence hang there. We faced each other like duelists.

“I guess I feel married to you,” he continued. “I don't think it's a big deal for a husband to open his wife's mail. I feel like a husband. We love each other, we sleep together, we're monogamous, we practically live together—”

“In separate apartments.”

“Only because you want it that way. So we both have some control here, don't we, Madeline?”

I took a deep breath and made myself unclench my fists. “I've got to be up early tomorrow to do some work, so I'm going to bed now. I suggest you steer clear of me unless you are willing to address the actual issue. This isn't about love or marriage or which bed I choose to sleep in. This is about acknowledging my autonomy and my rights, just as you would for a male best friend who was your roommate.”

His jaw dropped. “Are you calling me sexist?”

“If the narrow shoe fits,” I yelled over my shoulder as I stomped out of the room.

I caught a glimpse of Mr. Altschul's nose as he pulled it back into his apartment, and felt a blush of shame. We had turned this into
One Life to Live
in a matter of hours. I doubted our landlord would request our departure, since he was obviously thrilled by the fireworks, but I felt shame nonetheless. Aside from my aforementioned erratic moments, which were relatively rare, I was a reasonable, even reserved person. My brothers, Fritz and Gerhard, called this trait “the Too-Teutonic Reserve,” since they saw it as a hereditary flaw passed down by my German-immigrant parents—one that prevented
meine Bruder
from bonding with numerous women. My brothers liked Jack very much. They weren't going to be thrilled by my news of a breakup, especially since they thought everything I did was irrational. They thought I chose to date Jack, a rare family-sanctioned decision, because they were there when we met and they helped to influence the outcome—about which they were, of course, wrong.