“How’s your day, Mims?”

The voicemail made Mimi Goldman smile. Not just because she was listening to it while seated on her favorite bench in the world near the Bell Tower overlooking a bathtub-calm Chautauqua Lake. Or because she was listening to it while finishing a perfect PB&J on challah with a still-hot coffee from the Thermosful she’d brewed herself that morning like every morning.

The caller was Mimi’s fiancé, Walt Dellaria. Thrilling. And, okay, worrisome, too, for a 52-year-old former New York City tabloid copy editor like Mimi inclined to see every calm as presaging a storm.

Or a calamity (i.e. HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR).

How was Mimi’s day?

Mostly straightforward.

She got right up when her alarm rang at 7:30. She checked her phone for news and messages. She showered and dressed to her usual mix of classic rock and show tunes: Bruce that morning and “Follies,” the 2011 Broadway-cast version.

After Wheat Chex and coffee, Mimi turned off the coffeemaker. She didn’t want to be remembered as the Jewish lady from Brooklyn who burned down a quirky piece of Americana: the Chautauqua Institution that began in 1874 as a summer retreat for Methodist Sunday school teachers.

As usual Mimi arrived first at The Chautauquan Daily’s 9 a.m. staff meeting and watched the other 27 staffers, mainly college interns, join her.

The editor, Ryan Petrovic, began with announcements. Then he moved to reminders of how to spell the two most frequently misspelled words in Daily copy: Amphitheater (A-M-P-H-I-T-H-E-A-T-E-R), which was the 5,000-seat roofed, open-sided main venue for Chautauqua’s nine-week summer season of lectures, concerts, church services and other activities; and Athenaeum (A-T-H-E-N-A-E-U-M), which was the historic, wooden lakeside hotel that Mimi saw glistening in the sun from her bench.

After the spelling lesson, Ryan assured the staff the sheriff was close to an arrest in a bizarre fatal shooting the night before at a Fourth of July concert at the Amp.

The staff—or 27 of the 28—looked satisfied.

Mimi, nonetheless, finished her assignment for the day: a story on the new head of Chautauqua’s Tennis Center. She made a few calls about a future story on lawn bowling. She took a call Walt wouldn’t be happy about.

Remembering it two hours later, Mimi finished her lunch. She hopped up from the bench and dialed Walt, still unsure about what she’d say.

“Hey,” she began.

“Hey, to you,” Walt said. “Great to hear your voice. And not the client’s who kept me on the phone all morning. How’s a day in the life?”

“Fine.”

“Thought you’d be better than fine,” Walt said. “Just saw a news flash about the sheriff having a suspect.”

“Really?” Mimi asked. “That’s what Ryan said at the meeting but he didn’t have details.”

“The item said they’re about to arrest a stalker who followed the poor woman to Chautauqua from New York City. Guy named Craig Halladay.”

Mimi grew silent.

“Still there, Mims? Sounds like case closed, right?”

Mimi tried to pick her words carefully.

“Weird coincidence,” she said. “But the stalker’s brother, Joel Halladay, used to work with me 20 years ago on the copy desk of the New York Post. Joel called, sounding kind of desperate. He asked if I’d help Craig surrender so I’m racing to meet him now.”

“Wait a minute,” Walt said. “Is that smart?”

“Joel says Craig’s not dangerous. He’s expecting me and—”

“Didn’t he just kill someone?”

“Allegedly,” Mimi said. “Joel says his brother’s a scapegoat because of his mental problems and because—”

“He stalked the dead woman for years and followed her to Chautauqua and—”

“He used his own name on his airline ticket to Buffalo, on the shuttle bus to Chautauqua and his gate pass,” Mimi said. “Would a killer do that?”

“If they’re bat-shit crazy,” Walt said.

They shared a laugh before Mimi promised to be extra careful, to bail and call the cops if anything felt scary or off.

“And you’re still planning to be at your own wedding shower this afternoon?” Walt asked.

“Of course.”

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a kindle copy of Vengeance Is Mine. The giveaway ends September 18, 2018. Good luck everyone!

You can read more about Mimi in Vengeance Is Mine, the fourth book in the “Chautauqua Murder” mystery series.

Deb Pines’ fourth Chautauqua murder mystery starts with a bang — when Maureen Donahue, a filmmaker and speaker at the historic Chautauqua Institution is killed at a raucous Fourth of July concert.

There’s a quick arrest. But Chautauquan Daily reporter and relentless snoop Mimi Goldman (even with her own wedding to plan) is on the case.

Mimi’s questions about a racist personal trainer, shadowy piano teacher and chatty chimemaster and others lead to more questions — and to an ugly secret that points Mimi to the surprise real killer.

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Meet the author
Deb Pines, an award-winning New Post headline writer and former reporter, is the author of three other Mimi Goldman novels and one novelette including In the Shadow of Death, a Chautauqua Bookstore top-seller, and Beside Still Waters, an IndieReader-Approved Title called “an Agatha Christie for the text-message age.” (IndieReader)

A mother of two and SoulCycle indoor cycling fanatic, Deb is also a lover of puns, Scrabble, cooking and hiking. A Brooklyn, N.Y., native raised in Miami Beach, Fla., she now lives in New York City with her husband Dave.

Visit Deb’s website at debpines.tumblr.com, check out her books at Chautauqua Bookstore, her favorite bookstore, and on Amazon.

All comments are welcomed.