Message by Chotchkies

Message by Chotchkies

by

Thea Hutcheson

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Lilac Moon Books on Smashwords

Message by Chotchkies

Copyright (c) 2013 Thea Hutcheson

Cover by Laura Givens

Copyright (c) 2014

http://www.lauragivens-artist.com

Discover other titles by Thea Hutcheson at Smashwords.com

And at http://www.theahutcheson.com

SMASHWORDS EDITION LICENSE NOTES

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Maddie heard clinking and tinkling as she worked at the immense desk in the corner of her home office. The Herman Miller chair squeaked as she sat back and swiveled to look at the wall-to-wall pine bookshelves, thinking a breeze through the open window was tickling the Japanese mobile.

No. Or at least not enough to make the rectangles of painted glass shiver and dance. She did smell someone's barbecue, though, making her belly grumble.

All six shelves lay in shadow, the books and chotchkies filling them made darker angles and oddly shaped lumps. That meant it was after seven. Her back ached from hunching over the keyboard for too long.

Ordinarily, she was very strict about getting up and stretching, but this job had her all wound up. It started as a simple favor for Jordan Daniels to import a statue in time for a show some women artists were mounting in his gallery. She'd had downtime between research gigs and the money seemed easy enough. But it had turned into a Murphy free for all and Jordan had become a nightmare client.

She stared at the glow-in-the-dark professor figure facing her, front and center on the third shelf from the top, right at eye level. Now that was odd. She pointed the desk lamp at the shelves. The blue gummy mummy sarcophagus stood between the professor and a troll wizard, and a silver dagger letter opener lay behind them, pointed at the professor. Maddie stared at the tip of the dagger catching the bright light of the lamp.

All four knick knacks belonged on separate shelves. And she was reasonably certain they'd been in their usual places when she came in to work this morning.

A shiver went through her and she swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry and fusty. The north Denver house had a reputation as haunted before she'd bought it, but she'd brushed it off, along with the notion that it was squarely centered on intersecting ley lines. Perhaps she shouldn't have taken the stories so lightly.

She stood up and stretched, trying not to think about things moving about on her bookshelf and what that might mean given the house and its reputation.

She was mistaken about the items moving. That was all. She'd moved them looking for some book or simply set them there when she unpacked. That had been a crazy time, trying to unpack and start a research project for a Civil War book about women running away to join the fighting.

And now everything was compounded by Jordan's crazy behavior after she took on the job of importing the ancient statue, insisting that she finish this job as soon as possible, even threatening her reputation by placing negative comments on social media outlets if she failed to get the crate into the country and set up in his gallery by his irrational deadline.

She had a solid reputation among her clients and they gave