The Secret Lives of Doctors' Wives
He always got what he wanted Pierce Carver was one of Austin’s richest, most successful surgeons. And he was going to marry trauma nurse Rose Marie Castle and put her aching feet into glass slippers. Unfortunately, the doctor had a weakness for the allure of youth and feminine perfection. He jilted Rose Marie three years ago, and she’s still dreaming of revenge. Until someone wanted him deadAnd things are looking bad for Rose Marie. The night Pierce died she was inside his magnificent home, half naked and very willing to accept his apologies. Now she’s the prime suspect. Worse, her teenage sweetheart is the investigating detective.But if Rose Marie didn’t kill the not-so-good doctor, who did? Between his ex-wives, his angry step-children and the deep, dirty secrets driving their lives, somebody resorted to murder. And it looks as if Dr Carver kept the biggest, baddest secrets of all…
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Dead Men Do Tell Lies…Frequently
Becoming a doctor’s wife was Rose Marie Castle’s way of obtaining the beautiful life she wasn’t born into. But after being jilted at the altar by Mr Prominent Plastic Surgeon, this ageing beauty stumbles braless and pantyless out of her fortieth birthday party and into a murder investigation.
Dr Pierce Carver is Austin’s very own smoothtalking, fast-living, upwardly mobile, womanising…murder victim. And with his three ex-wives, widow, stepdaughters and estranged sons crawling out of the woodwork, it can finally be revealed just how many lives one man can lead.
Rosie’s sexy teen crush Michael Nash still remembers the time they spent together under the palm trees in Mexico. As the acting homicide detective on Rosie’s case, he just can’t agree with her on who derailed whose life. But with so much blame to pass, why not share it?
Now this nurse turned premature (yet never matured) grandmother has a coming-of-middle-age journey to take and a whodunit to unravel. With a rough-cut Texan police officer on her trail, Rosie snoops to find her fairy-tale ending behind the lies where the beautiful life loses its lustre.
Once, all she desired was Dr Pierce Carver’s head on a silver platter, and everyone knows it. Too bad her dreams do come true.
Also available fromAnn Major
THE GIRL WITH THE GOLDEN SPURS
THE HOT LADIES MURDER CLUB
This book is dedicated to Tara Gavin.
She contributed the title and much more, as always.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I need to thank Kimberly Huett for her help.
Prologue
Austin, Texas
He remembered the flash of the blade, the slender hand in the dark. His screams had been followed by eerie silence. Too late he recalled that this house had a history of tragedy.
The dying man could barely hear Rose Marie Castle’s flying bare feet on the sculpted stone staircase. Besides her shoes, she was missing several intimate garments that, doubtless, the police would find later.
Run, run as fast as you can…
His hands were bound together with Rosie’s silky black bra. Her paring knife was lodged firmly in his Adam’s apple. The security cameras would capture incriminating images of her escape, but he would be dead long before she was brought to justice, which could be slow, even in Texas.
The deathblow had been savage. Delicate vertebrae had been smashed, his spinal cord nicked or severed. He’d had no sensation of falling as he’d crumpled to the white carpet, his blood staining it a vivid crimson.
He’d been a fool, ensnared like a stupid fly in a web. Because of her—the bitch.
He was cold to the marrow of his bones.
Downstairs, Rosie let out a panicked little cry. She began to pound on the door with her fists. When it finally opened, and she stumbled outside, the prisms of the chandelier above the grand staircase tinkled.
He thought of his mother and father. Of the old life and its false promises; of all the bitter years when he’d longed for vengeance, which would have been his—except for her.
Down the hill, the big engine of her Beamer purred to life. When she sped away, his useless body convulsed. As his eyeballs rolled upward, he heard the wind in the branches of the pecan trees outside. She must have left the door open in her haste to escape.
The harsh music of the cicadas joined the sweeter chime of the chandelier that she’d imported from Paris.
Paris, France; not Paris, Texas. What grand ambitions she’d had before the wedding.
Run, run; you can’t catch me…
Like hell.
She’d pay. She deserved to pay.
His body convulsed one final time.
He thought about her dreams of being a grand lady in Austin society, married to the eminent plastic surgeon Pierce Carver. She’d wanted to live down the poverty and shame of her childhood.
Was there enough money or fame to heal such wounds?
The dying man almost felt pity for Rose Marie Castle as he died.
But not quite.
One
Austin, Texas
“Oh my God! More blood?” She’d thought it was only a nick.
Rosie couldn’t believe what had just happened. Pierce had gotten angry so quickly. He’d seemed weird, strung out, not himself at all.
Her every breath was a harsh, tortured rasp as she grabbed a tissue and dabbed at her cut finger and the steering wheel. She didn’t want to think about her former fiancé, or their quarrel, or how quickly the violence had escalated.
Perspiration drenched her, not just because it was a hot, sultry August night or because of the champagne she’d drunk with Pierce before the evening had gone wrong. Or because today was her fortieth birthday and maybe she was simply having an early hot flash.
She rubbed her head. Her scalp hurt where Pierce’s watch had caught her hair. He hadn’t cared that he’d hurt her. In fact, he’d smiled.
She wrapped the tissue around her finger and applied pressure. When the Beamer’s tires squealed, rounding a sharp curve, she gripped the wheel. It wasn’t like her to mistreat her car by driving too fast. She was that anxious to get away.
Well, at least she was finally over him. No more wisecracks to the other nurses about wanting revenge, to salve her wounded ego because they knew he’d dumped her for Anita.
