The Mythmakers Preview, plus Sunday Selfie

As promised, today we present the first chapter of our new book, The Mythmakers. We hope it whets your appetite for more!

Chapter 1

Mid-November

This is not going to be okay, Rory Roberts thought as she squirmed in the back seat of the deputy’s patrol car. The metal of the handcuffs felt cold and hard against her wrists and hurt as though it were pressing directly against bone. With her hands behind her back, she could not get comfortable. No matter which way she turned, some part of her body was scrunched or pulled. Her whole left side felt bruised from when that nutjob tackled her in her own backyard—at one thirty in the morning, no less—and her shoulders strained as she turned so she could see her little stone cottage, which the car was parked in front of. Then there was the fact that she was dressed only in her pajamas, robe, and L. L. Bean boots—perhaps not the most appropriate attire to be arrested in.

At a polite distance down the sidewalk, Rory’s neighbors stood watching, their faces lit by the flashing red and blue lights of sheriff’s department vehicles. They shuffled and whispered in the cool fall night, stealing glances in at Rory. They must all think I’ve lost my mind, she thought. One next-door neighbor, Mrs. Crabtree, scowled at her. Odd that the old woman’s husband wasn’t there. But whether Mr. Crabtree was there or not, the Mrs. would tell the sheriff, the press, and anyone else who would listen that she’d seen this coming for a long time. She never had liked Rory, for reasons Rory couldn’t comprehend. Laura Williams, Brooksford’s biggest worrier, stood shaking her head. She’d say that she’d seen it coming too, but she would attribute Rory’s sudden outburst of violence to stress and overwork rather than some defect of character. Madison Gunther, the town’s mayor and one of Rory’s best friends, stood alone among the crowd, a blank stare on her face. Was she having flashbacks to the night her husband had been arrested for trying to kill Rory? Well, what goes around comes around, I guess, Rory thought.

She turned her head to look up into the front window of her cottage, where her cat sat gazing out on the scene. The cat was a large, fluffy-tailed calico named Miss Cuddlywumps, though everyone called her Miss C. She was mostly white, with large patches of black and orange splashed over her head and back. Her tail had a distinctive white tip. Rory locked eyes with the cat. Who would take care of her? Frantically, Rory looked around for Lee Cooper, her other next-door neighbor and also her lifelong best friend. Ever since she had first come to this town as a little girl visiting her grandparents, she’d hit it off with the boy next door. Their friendship had lasted over forty years, but where was Lee now?

The driver’s door was opened, and Deputy Sergeant Opal Washington slid into the seat. Before Opal could say or do anything, Rory was asking, “Who’s going to take care of Miss C? My cat? I can’t just leave without someone to take care of my cat.”

Opal looked into the rearview mirror to meet Rory’s eyes. The deputy’s eyes were wide and kind, her skin caramel brown, and her voice was soothing when it came. “Don’t worry about Miss C. Your friend Lee is in there, and he’s said that he’ll watch over her. I take it he has a key to your place?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then don’t worry about it, Ms. Roberts. He’ll take care of things for you.”

After trying again to adjust herself to be more comfortable, Rory asked, “Could you just loosen the handcuffs? Please? Come on, Opal, you know I haven’t actually done anything wrong. I don’t know what that girl’s telling you, but I did not do anything to her friend.” She thought it best not to mention that this friend now lay dead in her backyard, stabbed with a knife Rory had been found holding.

Opal’s look hardened. “Sorry, Ms. Roberts. Sheriff Davis says everything is to be done by the book. No special favors for you.”

No special favors. Well, what was the point of dating the county sheriff if you couldn’t get any special favors when one of his deputies arrested you for something you didn’t do? Rory huffed, her patience wearing thin.

“Where is the sheriff? If I can just talk to him, we can straighten everything out.”

“I’m sure he’ll be talking to you once we get you processed.”

“Processed? You mean fingerprinted and photographed, like a criminal?” Rory’s voice rose in pitch and volume as panic flooded through her.

“Everything is to be done by the book,” Opal insisted.

“I want to call my father, before any of this processing.” Surely Rory’s dad, a retired prosecutor from a couple of counties over, would be able to make this right and get her released before they took the processing too far.

“When we get to the station, you can make your call. Until then, just sit tight.”

Rory squirmed in the seat some more, prompting Opal to say, “I’m telling you, Ms. Roberts, this’ll be a lot easier for everyone concerned if you just sit tight and calm down.”

“But, Opal—”

“Just calm down. It’s going to be okay.”

No it’s not. It’s not going to be okay, Rory thought. Deep down, she’d known it from the start of this whole, weird episode.

Text copyright Roby Sweet, 2017.



The whole book will be released on November 15! Need to catch up on the series before then? Get the set of Books I-IV for 20% off from the Cuddlywumps Publishing site!

And now for our Sunday Selfie...

We're not sure what Real Cat Webster was doing with his head under the sofa, but this is how we found him. He insisted we help him take a selfie so he could see what he looks like with his head under a piece of furniture.

We're joining the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by The Cat on My Head.