Killer Deal

Chapter One "You need a dead body. A really cool dead body," Cassady suggested. "Is that something I order on-line or do they have a department upstairs?" I asked. Believe me, if there were a way to order up a stylish cadaver in Manhattan, Cassady Lynch would know. Networking is second nature to her and with her long legs, amazing figure, and cascading auburn curls, her life is overflowing with people eager to do her all sorts of favors. "I'm fairly sure you have to special order those," Tricia said. "Especially one that's already been refrigerated." My two best friends and I were spending our lunch hour shoppingthat's why granola bars fit in desk drawersat the marvel that is the flagship ABC Home Store on Broadway. High heaven for shopping addicts, it is eight levels of treasures ranging from dainty little soaps to massive French country antiques. When I was growing up, one of my favorite books was about two kids who deliberately get locked in the Metropolitan Museum of Art overnight; I used to dream about doing the same. Now I dream about being locked in ABC Home. With a platinum card. That someone else pays off. We were on the first floor, helping Cassady search for a new pair of earrings. A fellow intellectual properties lawyer at the public interest group where she works had persuaded her to attend some sort of scientific seminar that night. She was having second thoughts, but didn't want to leave her colleague hanging, so she'd decided new baubles would amp up her excitement about going. Cassady frowned, gently enough to show displeasure but not deeply enough to start a crease. "At the risk of disparaging the mayor or the commissioner, there have been plenty of homicides in Manhattan this summer. I'm sure several of them are unsolved and worthy of your talents." Love and murder are my favorite topics as a journalist and as a person. What with the extreme behavior, the denial of risk, the blinding focus, and the will to succeed, being in love and being homicidal aren't as far apart as one might think. Or hope. And the place where those two mind-sets intersect fascinates me most of all. But it's a dangerous intersection, and this time around, it would prove to be an incredibly costly one. "Believe me, I've tried," I said. "Not to sound like a ghoul, but whenever I hear about an interesting case, I pitch it to my darling editor, but she keeps shooting me down." "Maybe Eileenand/or Fateare suggesting you try a social crusade or a government scandal," Tricia suggested, examining a lovely pair of freshwater pearl dangles. "A less macabre route to greater journalistic glory." As opposed to the murder route I had been pursuing. While I'm best known as the advice columnist for Zeitgeist magazine, I've recentlythrough sets of unique circumstanceshad the opportunity to solve two murders. I wrote articles about both investigations that were well received, but didn't quite launch the career transformation I'd hoped for. My editor continues to scoff at my desire to formally move beyond "You Can Tell Me" and build up an investigative resume. And while I love my column and the front-row seat it gives me at the demolition derby of love, a girl needs a challenge. "Molly's got a gift, Tricia," Cassady said firmly. "We should encourage it." "I want to see her byline in The New York Times as much as you do,Anderson, Sheryl J. is the author of 'Killer Deal ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780312949365 and ISBN 0312949367.