Authors: Alex Prentiss
Night Tides (25 page)
Rachel shrugged. “It’s still going to be no picnic.”
“That’s actually what I came in here to talk to you about. Carrie Kimmell doesn’t have insurance, and she can’t afford to get her tattoos removed. I’m doing a benefit for her this Saturday, and I wondered if I could post a flyer about it.”
“Of course.”
“And you’d be more than welcome to attend. I invited Faith, but she’s trying to, ahem,
distance
herself from the events.”
Rachel nodded. She’d seen Faith’s parents on TV and doubted they’d let their daughter out of their sight again until she was forty.
“There’s one more thing.” Patty looked down at the counter for a moment, then said softly, “That day in the basement, you … you promised to tell me why you did what you did. You know, when you… you know.”
Rachel blushed. “Yeah.” She looked up and said, “Helena? Patty and I are going for a walk. I’ll be back in a few.”
“Sure,” Helena said. “Clara and I can handle it until the lunch rush.”
“If she’ll let me off the leash,” Clara added.
“I think it’s time for Clara to fly solo,” Rachel said. Helena started to protest, then nodded. Clara beamed.
Rachel held the door for Patty. “It’s one of those stories that’s easier to believe if you’re actually there.”
Patty shrugged. “Okay.” When they were outside, she asked, “Where are we going?”
“To the lake,” Rachel said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A
LEX
P
RENTISS
left the South and was delighted to find Madison, Wisconsin, waiting. One marriage and two kids later, Prentiss is still glad to be living, and writing, in Madison.
Night Tides
is Alex Prentiss’s first novel.
A lake filled with memory…
A woman drawn to the spirits…
A murder that severs that connection …
When you’re in over your head, all you see is
DARK WATERS
A new Lady of the Lakes novel by Alex Prentiss
Usually when you help capture a serial killer, your job as a good citizen is done. But Rachel Matre, a diner owner by day, is also the Lady of the Lakes—which means she’s connected to the lake spirits of Madison … and therefore to the city itself.
When a community-center development becomes the source of controversy—and murder—Rachel finds herself once again in the middle. For not only is her sister the prime suspect, but the construction company is owned by Ethan, the man she is powerfully attracted to.
And when the spirits she has always counted on, for both information and pleasure, go silent, Rachel is forced to find answers on her own—answers about the spirits, her sister, and, perhaps most important, Ethan.
DARK WATERS
The follow-up to Alex Prentiss’s debut novel
, Night Tides
A Bantam Book coming in Fall 2010
Night Tides
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Bantam Books Mass Market Original
Copyright © 2009 by Alex Prentiss
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
B
ANTAM
B
OOKS
and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-553-90702-5
Retouching: Steven Youll
Lettering: Carol Russo
v3.0
Table of Contents
