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"A" is for Alibi: A Kinsey Millhone Mystery (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries) - Hardcover

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Grafton

 
9780805013344: "A" is for Alibi: A Kinsey Millhone Mystery (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0805013342 ISBN 13: 9780805013344
Verlag: St. Martins Press-3PL, 1990

Inhaltsangabe

#1 New York Times bestselling mystery series

READ THE SENSATIONAL BLOCKBUSTER THAT STARTED IT ALL!

Take it from the top in award-winning author Sue Grafton's knockout thriller that introduced detective Kinsey Millhone-and a hot new attitude-to crime fiction...

"Kinsey Millhone is an entirely fresh and original character"-Patricia Moyes, author of the Henry Tibbett mysteries

A IS FOR AVENGER
A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she's got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes.

A IS FOR ACCUSED
That's why she draws desperate clients like Nikki Fife. Eight years ago, she was convicted of killing her philandering husband. Now she's out on parole and needs Kinsey's help to find the real killer. But after all this time, clearing Nikki's bad name won't be easy.

A IS FOR ALIBI
If there's one thing that makes Kinsey Millhone feel alive, it's playing on the edge. When her investigation turns up a second corpse, more suspects, and a new reason to kill, Kinsey discovers that the edge is closer-and sharper-than she imagined.

"A" Is for Alibi
"B" Is for Burglar
"C" Is for Corpse
"D" Is for Deadbeat
"E" Is for Evidence
"F" Is for Fugitive
"G" Is for Gumshoe
"H" Is for Homicide
"I" Is for Innocent
"J" Is for Judgment
"K" Is for Killer
"L" is for Lawless
"M" Is for Malice
"N" Is for Noose
"O" Is for Outlaw
"P" Is for Peril
"Q" Is for Quarry
"R" Is for Ricochet
"S" Is for Silence
"T" Is for Trespass
"U" Is for Undertow
"V" Is for Vengeance
"W" Is for Wasted
"X"

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sue Grafton

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

"A" is for Alibi

By Grafton, Sue

Henry Holt and Co.

Copyright © 1982 Grafton, Sue
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780805013344
Chapter One

My name is Kinsey Millhone. I’m a private investigator, licensed by the state of California. I’m thirty-two years old, twice divorced, no kids. The day before yesterday I killed someone and the fact weighs heavily on my mind. I’m a nice person and I have a lot of friends. My apartment is small but I like living in a cramped space. I’ve lived in trailers most of my life, but lately they’ve been getting too elaborate for my taste, so now I live in one room, a "bachelorette."I don’t have pets. I don’t have houseplants. I spend a lot of time on the road and I don’t like leaving things behind. Aside from the hazards of my profession, my life has always been ordinary, uneventful, and good. Killing someone feels odd to me and I haven’t quite sorted it through. I’ve already given a statement to the police, which I initialed page by page and then signed. I filled out a similar report for the office files. The language in both documents is neutral, the terminology oblique, and neither says quite enough.

Nikki Fife first came to my office three weeks ago. I occupy one small corner of a large suite of offices that house the California Fidelity Insurance Company, for whom I once worked. Our connection now is rather loose. I do a certain number of investigations for them in exchange for two rooms with a separate entrance and a small balcony overlooking the main street of Santa Teresa. I have an answering service to pick up calls when I’m out and I keep my own books. I don’t earn a lot of money but I make ends meet.

I’d been out for most of the morning, only stopping by the office to pick up my camera. Nikki Fife was standing in the corridor outside my office door. I’d never really met her but I’d been present at her trial eight years before when she was convicted of murdering her husband, Laurence, a prominent divorce attorney here in town. Nikki was in her late twenties then, with striking white-blonde hair, dark eyes, and flawless skin. Her lean face had filled out some, probably the result of prison food with its high starch content, but she still had the ethereal look that had made the accusation of murder seem so incongruous at the time. Her hair had grown out now to its natural shade, a brown so pale that it appeared nearly colorless. She was maybe thirty-five, thirty-six, and the years at the California Institute for Women had left no visible lines.

I didn’t say anything at first; just opened the door and let her in.

"You know who I am,"she said.

"I worked for your husband a couple of times."

She studied me carefully. "Was that the extent of it?"

I knew what she meant. "I was also there in court when you were being tried,"I said. "But if you’re asking if I was involved with him personally, the answer is no. He wasn’t my type. No offense. Would you like coffee?"

She nodded, relaxing almost imperceptibly. I pulled the coffeepot from the bottom of the file cabinet and filled it from the Sparkletts water bottle behind the door. I liked it that she didn’t protest the trouble I was going to. I put in a filter paper and ground coffee and plugged in the pot. The gurgling sound was comforting, like the pump in an aquarium.

Nikki sat very still, almost as though her emotional gears had been disengaged. She had no nervous mannerisms, didn’t smoke or twist her hair. I sat down in my swivel chair.

"When were you released?"

"A week ago."

"What’s freedom feel like?"

She shrugged. "It feels good, I guess, but I can survive the other way too. Better than you’d think."

I took a small carton of half-and-half out of the little refrigerator to my right. I keep clean mugs on top and I turned one over for each of us, filling them when the coffee was done. Nikki took hers with a murmured thanks.

"Maybe you’ve heard this one before,"she went on, "but I didn’t kill Laurence and I want you to find out who did."

"Why wait this long? You could have initiated an investigation from prison and maybe saved yourself some time."

She smiled faintly. "I’ve been claiming I was innocent for years. Who’d believe me? The minute I was indicted, I lost my credibility. I want that back. And I want to know who did me in."

I had thought her eyes were dark but I could see now that they were a metallic gray. Her look was level, flattened-out, as though some interior light were growing dim. She seemed to be a lady without much hope. I had never believed she was guilty myself but I couldn’t remember what had made me so sure. She seemed passionless and I couldn’t imagine her caring enough about anything to kill.

"You want to fill me in?"

She took a sip of coffee and then set the mug on the edge of my desk.

"I was married to Laurence for four years, a little more than that. He was unfaithful after the first six months. I don’t know why it came as such a shock. Actually, that’s how I got involved with him ...when he was with his first wife, being unfaithful to her with me. There’s a sort of egotism attached to being a mistress, I suppose. Anyway, I never expected to be in her shoes and I didn’t like it much."

"According to the prosecutor, that’s why you killed him."

"Look, they needed a conviction. I was it,"she said with the first sign of energy. "I’ve just spent the last eight years with killers of one kind or another and believe me, the motive isn’t apathy. You kill people you hate or you kill in rage or you kill to get even, but you don’t kill someone you’re indifferent to. By the time Laurence died, I didn’t give a damn about him. I fell out of love with him the first time I found out about the other women. It took me a while to get it all out of my system . . ."

"And that’s what the diary was all about?"I asked.

"Sure I kept track at first. I detailed every infidelity. I listened in on phone calls. I followed him around town. Then he started being more cautious about the whole thing and I started losing interest. I just didn’t give a shit."

A flush had crept up to her cheeks and I gave her a moment to compose herself. "I know it looked like I killed him out of jealousy or rage, but I didn’t care about that stuff. By the time he died, I just wanted to get on with my own life. I was going back to school, minding my own business. He went his way and I went mine . . ."Her voice trailed off.

"Who do you think killed him?"

"I think a lot of people wanted to. Whether they did or not is another matter. I mean, I could make a couple of educated guesses but I don’t have proof of anything. Which is why I’m here."

"Why come to me?"

She flushed again slightly. "I tried the two big agencies in town and...

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Verlag
St. Martins Press-3PL
Erscheinungsdatum
1990
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0805013342
ISBN 13 
9780805013344
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
286
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

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