Midnight Louie 14 - Cat in a Midnight Choir
Read Midnight Louie 14 - Cat in a Midnight Choir Online
Authors: Carole Nelson Douglas
Tags: #General, #Women Sleuths, #Mystery & Detective, #Fiction
Cat in a
Midnight
Choir
By Carole Nelson Douglas from Tom Doherty Associates
MYSTERY
M
IDNIGHT
L
OUIE
M
YSTERIES
Catnap
Pussyfoot
Cat on a Blue Monday
Cat in a Crimson Haze
Cat in a Diamond Dazzle
Cat with an Emerald Eye
Cat in a Flamingo Fedora
Cat in a Golden Garland
Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt
Cat in an Indigo Mood
Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit
Cat in a Kiwi Con
Cat in a Leopard Spot
Cat in a Midnight Choir
Midnight Louie’s Pet Detectives
(anthology)
I
RENE
A
DLER
A
DVENTURES
Good Night, Mr. Holmes
Good Morning, Irene
Irene at Large
Irene’s Last Waltz
Chapel Noir
Marilyn: Shades of Blonde
(anthology)
HISTORICAL ROMANCE
Amberleigh
*
Lady Rogue
*
Fair Wind, Fiery Star
SCIENCE FICTION
Probe
*
Counterprobe
*
FANTASY
T
ALISWOMAN
Cup of Clay
Seed upon the Wind
S
WORD AND
C
IRCLET
Keepers of Edanvant
Heir of Rengarth
Seven of Swords
*
also mystery
Cat in a
Midnight
Choir
A MIDNIGHT LOUIE MYSTERY
Carole Nelson Douglas
A Tom Doherty Associates Book
New York
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
CAT IN A MIDNIGHT CHOIR
Copyright © 2002 by Carole Nelson Douglas
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Edited by Claire Eddy
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Forge
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Douglas, Carole Nelson.
Cat in a midnight choir / Carole Nelson Douglas. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-70619-7
1. Midnight Louie (Fictitious character) — Ficion. 2. Barr, Temple (Fictitious character) — Fiction. 3. Stripteasers — Crimes against — Fiction. 4. Public relations consultants — Fiction. 5. Women cat owners — Fiction. 6. Las Vegas (Nev.) — Fiction. 7. Cats — Fiction. I. Title.
PS3554.O8237 C2767 2002
813'.54 — dc21
2001058281
For the original and real Midnight Louie, stray cat extraordinaire, nine lives were not enough
Table of Contents
Midnight Louie’s Lives and Times…
As a serial killer-finder in a multivolume mystery series (not to mention a primo mouthpiece), I want to update my readers old and new on past crimes and present tensions.
None can deny that the Las Vegas crime scene is a pretty busy place, and I have been treading these mean neon streets for fourteen books now. When I call myself an “alphacat,” some think I am merely asserting my natural feline male dominance. But no, I refer to the fact that since I debuted in
Catnap
and
Pussyfoot
, I then commenced to a title sequence that is as sweet and simple as B to Z.
That is when I begin
my
alphabet, with the
B
in
Cat on a Blue Monday
. From then on, the color word in the title is in alphabetical order up to the current volume,
Cat in a Midnight Choir
.
Since I associate with a multifarious and nefarious crew of human beings, and since Las Vegas is littered with guidebooks as well as bodies, I wish to provide a guide to the local landmarks on my particular map of the world. A cast of characters, so to speak:
To wit, my lovely redheaded roommate and high-heel devotee, freelance PR ace Miss Temple Barr, who has reunited with her only love…
the once missing-in-action magician Mr. Max Kinsella, who has good reason for invisibility: years of international counterterrorism work after his cousin Sean died in a bomb attack in Ireland during a post–high school jaunt to the Old Sod…
but Mr. Max is sought by another dame, homicide lieutenant C. R. Molina, who is the mother of preteen Mariah…
and the good friend of Miss Temple’s recent good friend, Mr. Matt Devine, a radio talk-show shrink who not long ago was a Roman Catholic priest and who came to Las Vegas to track down his abusive stepfather, Mr. Cliff Effinger.
Speaking of inconvenient pasts, Lieutenant Carmen Molina is not thrilled that her former flame, Mr. Rafi Nadir, the unsuspecting father of Mariah, is in Las Vegas taking on shady muscle jobs after blowing his career on the LAPD…
or that Mr. Max Kinsella is hunting Rafi himself because the lieutenant blackmailed him into tailing her ex. While so engaged, Mr. Max’s attempted rescue of a pathetic young stripper, Cher Smith, soon found her dead…
and Mr. Rafi Nadir looks like the prime suspect.
Meanwhile, Mr. Matt has drawn a stalker, the local lass that young Max and his cousin Sean boyishly competed for in that long-ago Ireland
…one Kathleen O’Connor, for years an IRA operative who seduced rich men for guns and roses for the cause, deservedly rechristened by Miss Temple as Kitty the Cutter.
Miss Kitty, finding the Mystifying Max impossible to trace, has settled for harassing with tooth and nail the nearest innocent bystander, Mr. Matt Devine…
while he tries to recover from the crush he developed on his Circle Ritz condominium neighbor, Miss Temple, by not very boldly seeking new women, all of whom are now in danger from said Kitty the Cutter.
This human stuff is all very complex, but luckily my life is much simpler, revolving around a quest for union with…