Antiques Flee Market Read online

  Also on the bed was my mail from the past few days, which a whimsical Mother had placed on a silver platter, because they were mostly bills. One letter, however, wasn’t an IOU. It came in a plain white envelope with no return address and my name and address computer-printed.

  I smirked. So, evil Connie Grimes was sending me a second poison-pen letter about Peggy Sue being my real mother, because the first one hadn’t created the expected fireworks.

  I tossed it in the corner wastebasket.

  Then I had a second thought: I’d mail the damned thing back to her. I’d love to see her face, then!

  I sat on the edge of the bed and opened the envelope, and the familiar typed words sprang forward: WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO KNOW…

  Only the last part of the sentence was completely different.

  …THAT YOUR REAL FATHER IS A SENATOR?

  I sprang from the bed, ran out into the hallway, and screamed, “Peggy Sue!”

  Stay tuned.

  A Trash ‘n’ Treasures Tip

  When acquiring antiques as an investment, remember that the most valuable collections are the ones gathered through love and commitment. If you try to anticipate what will be collectible tomorrow, today you will fail. (Anybody want to buy a box of pet rocks?)

  BARBARA ALLAN

  is the joint pseudonym for husband-and-wife mystery writers Barbara and Max Allan Collins.

  BARBARA COLLINS is one of the most respected short story writers in the mystery field, with appearances in over a dozen top anthologies, including Murder Most Delicious, Women on the Edge, Deadly Housewives, and the best-selling Cat Crimes series. She was the coeditor of (and a contributor to) the best-selling anthology Lethal Ladies, and her stories were selected for inclusion in the first three volumes of The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories.

  Two acclaimed hardcover collections of her work have been published—Too Many Tomcats and (with her husband) Murder—His and Hers. The Collins’s first novel together, the Baby Boomer thriller Regeneration, was a paperback bestseller; their second collaborative novel, Bombshell—in which Marilyn Monroe saves the world from World War III—was published in hardcover to excellent reviews.

  Barbara has been the production manager and/or line producer on Mommy, Mommy’s Day, Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market, Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life, and other independent film projects emanating from the production company she and her husband jointly run.

  MAX ALLAN COLLINS, a five-time Mystery Writers of America “Edgar” nominee in both fiction and nonfiction categories, has been hailed as “the Renaissance man of mystery fiction.” He has earned an unprecedented fourteen Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations for his historical thrillers, winning twice for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective (1983) and Stolen Away (1991), and was recently presented with the Eye, the Private Eye Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

  His other credits include film criticism, short fiction, songwriting, trading-card sets, and movie/TV tie-in novels, including Air Force One, In the Line of Fire, and the New York Times best sellers Saving Private Ryan and American Gangster. Currently he is writing a series of novels for the top-ten hit TV series Criminal Minds.

  His graphic novel Road to Perdition is the basis of the Academy Award-winning DreamWorks feature film starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, and Jude Law, directed by Sam Mendes. Max’s many comics credits include the “Dick Tracy” syndicated strip (1977–1993); his own “Ms. Tree” “Batman” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” based on the hit TV series, for which he has also written six video games and an internationally best-selling series of novels.

  One of the most acclaimed and award-winning independent filmmakers in the Midwest, he wrote and directed Mommy, premiering on Lifetime in 1996, as well as a 1997 sequel, Mommy’s Day. The screenwriter of The Expert, a 1995 HBO World Premiere, he wrote and directed the innovative made-for-DVD feature Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market (2000). A recent DVD boxed set of his films includes his award-winning documentary Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane. Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life, the film version of his Edgar-nominated play, has earned rave reviews and is available on DVD from VCI.

  “BARBARA ALLAN” live(s) in Muscatine, Iowa, their Serenity-esque hometown; son Nathan graduated with honors in Japanese and computer science at the University of Iowa in nearby Iowa City, did post-graduate study in Japan, and now works in the video game industry, translating Japanese into English.

  KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  850 Third Avenue

  New York, NY 10022

  Copyright © 2008 by Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2008929061

  ISBN: 0-7582-4988-8

  * Antiques Roadkill

  ** Antiques Maul

  Table of Contents

  Also By Barbara Allan

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Contents

  Chapter One: Market in the Book

  Chapter Two: Slay Bells Ring, Are You Listening?

  Chapter Three: Deck the Mall

  Chapter Four: Search and Seizure

  Chapter Five: Arrested Development

  Chapter Six: Keep Your Sunny-Side Up

  Chapter Seven: Cuckoo Clocked

  Chapter Eight: Sentimental Jury

  Chapter Nine: Insecurity Tape

  Chapter Ten: Fair Grounds for Murder

  Chapter Eleven: New Year’s Revolution

  BARBARA ALLAN

  Copyright