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Preview of Long Climb to the Top
Chapter 1
Margie Patenaude didn’t need to be a detective to know who had left the dirty dishes in the sink.
“Christina!”
“Gotta go, Mom,” Christina said, rushing into the room. She swept her long black hair out of the way as she shouldered her backpack so that it would not get caught under the strap. “The bus will be here any second. I’ll see you after school.” She headed toward the front door. “Oh, and you remember what I told you, right, about the Métis Club meeting after school today? So I’ll be late. Don’t expect me right after school.”
“You left dishes in the sink—”
“I have to go. If I stop and do them now, I’ll miss the bus, and then you’ll need to drive me to school.” Christina had the door open and was halfway out. “Sorry. I’ll load the dishwasher tonight. Okay? Bye!”
Margie watched her fifteen-year-old race across the street to the bus stop. And she was right, of course; the bus was making its way down the street, and if she had taken an extra ten seconds to have a conversation or rinse off the dishes, she would have missed it. But that was no excuse for Christina to leave them in the sink in the first place, when she knew she was supposed to rinse them and put them directly into the dishwasher.
She sighed and did it herself. She had to drive into work, and the other homicide detectives and Sergeant MacDonald wouldn’t know whether she had left five minutes later because of her daughter or if she had just hit the lights wrong or run into a traffic snarl on Blackfoot Trail. She checked the table and counter for any other orphaned dishes and didn’t find any. In another minute, she had the dishwasher running, Stella was settled for the day, and Margie was walking at a quick clip out to her car. It was a cool, crisp morning.
“Oh, Detective Pat!” called Mrs. Rose, a sweet little old lady who was the first and only owner of the 1960s bungalow next to Margie’s.
Margie stopped, anxious to get on her way but not willing to be rude or pretend that she hadn’t heard Mrs. Rose’s call. She took a couple of steps toward her neighbor, but stopped the prescribed two meters away. “Yes, Mrs. Rose? What can I do for you?”
“I just wanted to make sure that you had heard that the 55+ Society is open again.”
Margie’s expression must have betrayed her consternation at this announcement. Mrs. Rose smiled her sweet, pink-lipstick smile. “The 55+ Society. It’s over there on Twenty-Sixth Avenue, where your grandfather lives.”
“Oh, yes…?”
“And it’s been closed since the whole pandemic thing. But they’ve opened up again. And they have lots of programs for the seniors in the area. You should take a look at the activities and clubs that they run, see if there is anything that your grandfather would like to go to.”
“Oh! Okay, I will,” Margie agreed. She would see if there were anything that might interest Moushoom. “Thank you for letting me know.”
“They probably have flyers in the lobby of the building he lives in. But if they don’t, the 55+ Society is just about a block away. You can stop in there any time they are open and get their program guide. And they can give you a tour. They’re very helpful over there.”
“That’s great. I’m glad you let me know.” Margie gave Mrs. Rose a firm nod, then turned back toward her car. “Have a wonderful day.”
“I will, dear. You too.”
The workday passed quickly. The homicide team was working on a number of open cases, but none of them was burning hot. It was a matter of chasing down leads one at a time. Doing background checks on persons of interest, interviewing them, looking for connections or alibis. The day-to-day work of a homicide department.
She found it easier to move from one case to another than to stay focused on one all day, so she gathered shorter tasks from the primary investigator on each of the cases, read the file to bring herself up to speed, and worked on her assignment. Then she would jump to the next case.
No one on the team seemed to mind her ADHD approach. They were happy to have some of the less-desirable tasks taken off of their hands. Margie was eyeing the clock, trying to decide whether she would have time to review one more case before leaving for the day when Sergeant MacDonald—Mac—walked up to her desk. He was a tall man, towering over her when she was sitting down. His hair was almost entirely silver and he had lines of ‘experience’ around his mouth. He readjusted his thin-rimmed glasses.
“Yes, sir?” Margie immediately tried to think of what she might have done to attract his attention. Good or bad, she didn’t want to be under the sergeant’s scrutiny too often. Too much praise from him and the rest of the team would resent her, and too much criticism… well, any criticism was likely to keep Margie up half the night with anxiety over her mistake and how to avoid making it again in the future. No one liked being criticized, and Margie felt that she was particularly thin-skinned about it. She criticized herself for not accepting criticism well. How was that for a fault?
“I’ve got a case for you. I know you like to be home when your daughter gets home from school, but this one is going to need your immediate attention.”
The duty room was still as everyone else listened in. Margie had just solved the Fish Creek Park murder case. The next case should have gone to someone else. Although everyone else already had active files and Margie did not, so maybe that was why he had picked her.
“Uh, yes sir. She’s going to be later today and, of course, when it’s urgent, I can take the time I need to get started on it. She’s old enough to be on her own for a few hours if I’m needed elsewhere.”
She didn’t ask him what he had for her but, of course, that was the question on the minds of everyone in the room.
Mac nodded his appreciation. He ran his fingers through his short gray hair and leaned on her desk. “Here’s the thing. It’s the same MO as the Fish Creek Park murder.”
Margie’s eyes went wide. She stared at him in surprise. “The same MO?”
Robinson had been killed with a single stab wound. Margie had caught the killer. So they knew that it wasn’t the same killer. Just because another person was killed by a stab wound, that didn’t make it the same killer or the same case.
“The same MO,” MacDonald agreed. “It’s another provincial park. Male victim. Single stab wound with a single-edged blade. Bled out. No apparent provocation, no one heard yelling or was aware that anything was wrong. Body discovered by a family walking the trail with a toddler in a stroller.”
Not a dog-walker this time. But Margie was sure there were probably a number of dog-walkers close by. That one difference didn’t make the case different from the Fish Creek murder.
She hoped that the toddler hadn’t seen anything and wasn’t old enough to remember it later. Hopefully, she had been sleeping peacefully in the stroller at the time. It was a good time for an afternoon nap.
“Okay. I’ll look up this park and go see,” Margie agreed. “Is it near Fish Creek Park?”
“No. Halfway to Cochrane. It’s actually outside of Calgary city limits, but we are heading it up because of the connection to the Fish Creek case. Since it looks like the same killer.”
“It’s not, though,” Margie pointed out.
“But he admitted to it. We didn’t get the wrong person.”
“I don’t think so either. But innocent people do confess. It’s also possible that he
was released on bail or under his foster father’s supervision and is no longer in custody.”
“But if this other park isn’t close to his home… how would he get there? He couldn’t walk there like he did to Fish Creek. Is there a bus that goes all the way out there?”
“No, I don’t think there’s any bus service out there. Tours maybe. I’m sure it’s not related. But because of the similarity in the cases and the sites of the homicide, it’s your case.”
“Okay. Give me the details.” Margie looked at her watch. If she remembered correctly, Cochrane was west, toward the mountains. Margie’s home was in the east, on the opposite side of the city. She was going to be more than an hour or two late getting home for Christina. Just the travel time would add an extra hour, forget any investigative work and waiting for someone from the medical examiner’s office.
“Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park,” Sergeant MacDonald told her. He spelled it out for her. “Do you want directions?”
“Will it be on my GPS? If it’s outside of the city, it might not be…”
“Should be. It opened in 2011, so it’s been there long enough”.
Long Climb to the Top is book 2 in the Parks Pat Mysteries series and can be ordered at pdworkman.com
Also by P.D. Workman
MYSTERY/SUSPENSE:
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Parks Pat Mysteries
Out with the Sunset
Long Climb to the Top
Dark Water Under the Bridge
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Zachary Goldman Mysteries
She Wore Mourning
His Hands Were Quiet
She Was Dying Anyway
He Was Walking Alone
They Thought He was Safe
He Was Not There
Her Work Was Everything
She Told a Lie
He Never Forgot
She Was At Risk
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Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thrillers
Unlawful Harvest
Doctored Death (Coming soon)
Dosed to Death (Coming soon)
Gentle Angel (Coming soon)
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Auntie Clem’s Bakery
Gluten-Free Murder
Dairy-Free Death
Allergen-Free Assignation
Witch-Free Halloween (Halloween Short)
Dog-Free Dinner (Christmas Short)
Stirring Up Murder
Brewing Death
Coup de Glace
Sour Cherry Turnover
Apple-achian Treasure
Vegan Baked Alaska
Muffins Masks Murder
Tai Chi and Chai Tea
Santa Shortbread
Cold as Ice Cream
Changing Fortune Cookies
Hot on the Trail Mix
Recipes from Auntie Clem's Bakery
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Reg Rawlins, Psychic Detective
What the Cat Knew
A Psychic with Catitude
A Catastrophic Theft
Night of Nine Tails
Telepathy of Gardens
Delusions of the Past
Fairy Blade Unmade
Web of Nightmares
A Whisker's Breadth
Skunk Man Swamp (Coming Soon)
Magic Ain't A Game (Coming Soon)
Without Foresight (Coming Soon)
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High-Tech Crime Solvers Series
Virtually Harmless
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Cowritten with D. D. VanDyke
California Corwin P. I. Mystery Series
The Girl in the Morgue
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Stand Alone Suspense Novels
Looking Over Your Shoulder
Lion Within
Pursued by the Past
In the Tick of Time
Loose the Dogs
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YOUNG ADULT FICTION:
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Medical Kidnap Files:
Mito
EDS
Proxy
Toxo
Pain
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Between the Cracks:
Ruby
June and Justin
Michelle
Chloe
Ronnie
June, Into the Light
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Tamara’s Teardrops:
Tattooed Teardrops
Two Teardrops
Tortured Teardrops
Vanishing Teardrops
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Breaking the Pattern:
Deviation
Diversion
By-Pass
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Stand Alone YA novels
Stand Alone
Don’t Forget Steven
Those Who Believe
Cynthia has a Secret
Questing for a Dream
Once Brothers
Intersexion
Making Her Mark
Endless Change
Gem, Himself, Alone
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AND MORE AT PDWORKMAN.COM
About the Author
Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author P.D. (Pamela) Workman writes riveting mystery/suspense and young adult books dealing with mental illness, addiction, abuse, and other real-life issues. For as long as she can remember, the blank page has held an incredible allure and from a very young age she was trying to write her own books.
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Workman wrote her first complete novel at the age of twelve and continued to write as a hobby for many years. She started publishing in 2013. She has won several literary awards from Library Services for Youth in Custody for her young adult fiction. She currently has over 60 published titles and can be found at pdworkman.com.
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Born and raised in Alberta, Workman has been married for over 25 years and has one son.
Please visit P.D. Workman at pdworkman.com to see what else she is working on, to join her mailing list, and to link to her social networks.
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