Gypped (22 page)

Frank Bird came around the corner, dressed in black, looking handsome, and decidedly less stressed than he did the night before. When he saw Zelda he smiled. “Did I arrive too early?”

Zelda’s eyes shone as she got up to greet him. “Not at all. This is the perfect time.”

Jack turned to Regan. “Well, my dear, we can still take off tomorrow for a couple days of vacation. We’ll just have to decide whether we want to go north or south.”

“With us it never matters,” Regan said. “We’re already there.”

N
ew York Times
bestselling author Carol Higgins Clark has written fourteen previous Regan Reilly mysteries. She is also co-author, with her mother, Mary Higgins Clark, of a bestselling holiday suspense series. Carol’s first mystery,
Decked,
was published in 1992 and was nominated for both the Anthony and the Agatha Awards.

Also an actress, Carol studied at the Beverly Hills Playhouse after receiving her B.A, from Mount Holyoke College. She appeared in Wendy Wasserstein’s
Uncommon Women and Others
at Carnegie Hall, a play set at Mount Holyoke. Recently she played twins who own a bar together in the TNT production of
Deck the Halls,
the first book Carol wrote with her mother. It’s also the book in which Regan meets Jack.

Using one word titles ending in “ED” came about by accident. After
Decked,
Carol wrote a book about a murder at a pantyhose convention. She joked that it should be called
Snagged. Snagged
it was! The rest is history! Carol has a long list of titles to come.