The Awful Abbey
by
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For a moment she thought "the hell with the Embusteros surveillance system." It was after all a public bridge, they didn't own it. But, she wasn't the only one in danger here. Curt Ralston might still be alive and hidden in the cellars of the abbey, to say nothing about Sharlee's plight and that of her child who might be sacrificed as well. Deedra didn't want all that on her conscience. Making certain the gun and flashlight were secure in her jacket pockets, she stooped, grasped a girder and swung out over the ravine. The sudden pull on her shoulders was greater than she had anticipated. It was all she could do to hold on. Gritting her teeth she began the hand over hand trek across the chasm, not daring to look down into its yawning void. Pain shot through the shoulder injured by Hannah's thrown rock. She tired rapidly and half-way over began doubt she could reach the other side where the ground was only a few feet under the bridge. Even her breathing became painful. The added weight and bulk of her jacket caused additional strain on her arm muscles. Waves of pain caused tremors, a trembling that made hanging onto the girders difficult. Where was Deke Thomas when she needed him? That thought brought her focus back on the task, this do or die thing, gave her the determination not to end her life by dropping into that dark chasm where the rattlesnakes could get her. The Awful Abbey59 After what seemed like a life time, she was only a few feet from the ledge, her focus centered on placing one hand over the other, painfully moving forward and always conscious of that dark void below her. Deedra didn't have the strength to lift her body onto the bridge or even hoist her body onto a girder. She just had to keep going though her breathing had become erratic, her heart sounds hammering in her ears. Deedra's hand touched a scaly rope-like thing. Her reaction was immediate. She heaved the snake away into the night, quickly grasping the girder again. The rattlesnake buzzed its anger from the depths of the echoing ravine. Suddenly the night air was filled with the angry buzzing of snakes in that dark chasm below. Shudders nearly caused her to let go, but the fact that snakes were below and a resolution not to end up there, gave her strength. Perspiration ran anew, tears slid down her face. Please God, she prayed, if I must die don't let it be among those snakes! She dropped to the ground, unable to hang on any longer and was surprised to find she had landed on the very edge of the slope. Her fall caused a slight landslide that startled the rattlesnakes into buzzing anger again.
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About the Book
Deedra Masefield has the reputation of being a tough investigative reporter, though if the truth be known to the public, she’s a gal who has suffered rejection and emotional pain, who cries into her pillow in the depths of night, and allows only her tough image to show. In this mystery, Deedra is sent by her newspaper’s editor to a small town in northern California to learn why a famous movie actress remains strangely out of touch with friends and Hollywood. Her last known address was a place called Anthea Abbey where her eccentric/inventor husband, Ricardo Embustero, state that "he could invent without disturbing near neighbors, and where Sharlee could have a castle of her own." However, if Sharlee Devon has a castle, it appears that she is captive there. A newspaper delivery boy disappears after reporting the finding of a note thrown out of an upstairs window of the old abbey by Sharlee. There are rumors in town about a ghost-nun and a huge mutant boy, and townsfolk avoid the area. Deedra visits the abbey where she unexpectedly meets, Hannah, a tall person with an elongated nose and a perpetual post-nasal drip. Hannah wears full-length black dresses reminiscent of the nuns of a by-gone age, and gives the impression that she is Ricardo’s sister. Deedra’s man and colleague, Deke Thomas, arrives to help, then Deedra recalls that he and Sharlee Devon were once lovers. Again she is smote with the fact that Deke is not the marrying kind, and renews her vow to hunt for "Mr. Right." When at last Deedra rescues Sharlee Devon, and earns that front-page story, her pillow is the only witness of her not-so-tough image.
About the Author
Born and raised in Covina, California, Dorothy attended schools there, and while on a class field trip to the Los Angeles Times realized that ink flowed in her veins, that writing was not only her hobby, but her passion. A member of the Mystery writers of America and for many years of The Western Writers of America, her many mysteries include the Deedra Masefield series, the Darcy Nicols series, and the Neddy Myles/Hugh Ingrahm series, (known as the Black and White Team). She lives in Salem, Oregon, where she loves the rainy winters when there’s time to write without the temptations of the outdoors. Her books, though not formerly dedicated to her dead daughter whose encouragement kept her writing through many a troubled year, are silently dedicated to that dear one. Her latest Deedra Masefield mystery is titled, There-- In The Swamp.