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Thriller Category[ Back to Main Pitches Page ] [ Back to Category Page ] [ Authorlink SMART QUERY ] [ Rate this Work ] Welcome to AUTHORLINK, the electronic clearing house and information service for editors, agents and writers. This section displays brief synopses and excerpts of available manuscripts. Bella DonnaLinda Carter Summary The slain body of media magnate, Jules Bannerman--Australia's richest man has been found shot and poisoned in a Tasmanian forest zoned for deforestation. Bella Davini, clairvoyant to the stars, foresees his murder in a dream and becomes a target herself. Who is responsible for Bannerman's death? Could it be ambitious television presenter, Richard Powers, Tara's ex-boyfriend? And who is the "Mutilator"? A hit man or a man whose life has been poisoned by a lifelong personal vendetta? Bella Donna is about the poisonous relationships which can spring from the deep wells of human greed, ambition and lost love. From The Book CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE Bella looked around for a weapon, anything would do as long as it was large and heavy and capable of causing maximum damage—she wanted to brain the bastard—but the man was two steps ahead of her, pushing Grace in front of him and narrowing the gap between them until he was pointing the gun directly at Bella. “Sit,” He commanded, waving the gun at the lounge where she’d been sitting just a few moments ago, while still maintaining a stronghold on Grace, one large arm wrapped around her throat like a boa constrictor squeezing its prey to death. Bella hesitated, where the hell was the damn dog? If she sat down, she’d be at a definite disadvantage, but if she didn’t…he could hurt Grace. She sat. “Good,” he pointed the gun back at Grace’s head. “Now you join her. Move,” he said, pushing her towards the lounge. Grace stumbled, her face white as snow as she fell onto the lounge and clung on to Bella, while the man circled them, glancing quickly into the hallway and kitchen areas before coming back to stand directly in their path. Bella could feel Grace’s body trembling against her own as she tried to still her own fear. He hasn’t seen the dog was Bella’s first thought and she could see a small, almost indistinguishable movement to the left of her vision, near the doorway, where Eliot was crouched low and creeping towards them, teeth bared, a low growl issuing from his open jaws. The man heard the dog and turned towards it, raising his gun and aiming at Eliot as the dog sprang in one quick movement towards the attacker. Grace yelled “NO! Not the dog!” and jumped the gun, shoving the man’s arm upwards as Eliot sank his teeth into his leg and held on, shaking his head viciously to and fro. The man swore and went down, as Eliot lunged again, this time savaging the arm which held the gun. Blood spurted high as Eliot held on and the man gave a high pitched yell and Bella was sure she could hear bone crunching on bone despite all the commotion going on around her. Her stomach began to turn over; doing somersaults all by itself as she jumped to her feet. The handgun dropped to the floor and she watched as Grace promptly kicked it to the other side of the room, changed her mind and ran over and picked it up in one swift movement. Bella was momentarily distracted by Grace taking up a shooting stance—no doubt reenacting a scene from Thelma and Louise, Bella thought, as Grace fumbled with the gun and finally pointed it away from herself and towards their attacker—while Bella yelled to her sister to put down the gun and grabbed the nearest heavy object which happened to be her expensive turquoise vase with silver trim, raised it high and crashed it down with a hefty thunk on top of his head. Or where she thought his head was. She hadn’t wanted to see the impact so she closed her eyes and hoped for the best and when she opened them again, he was lying still with one half of the vase sitting on top of his head like a toy helmet, while blood continued to pour from his right arm which was still attached to the dog. “Good dog, good good Eliot,” Bella said, “let go now, boy.” Eliot did as he was told, stood and trotted over to Grace’s side where he dutifully sat and waited for Grace to put down the gun—which she was still holding spaghetti western style—and pat him on the head. Bella pulled her best blouse over her head and bandaged the man’s arm tightly to stem the flow of blood; she couldn’t just let him bleed all over her pure wool rug. He already owed her a new vase. She glanced up at Grace who appeared to have turned into a House of Wax model, still holding the gun which was shaking dangerously in her clasped hands, but unable or unwilling—Bella hadn’t worked that one out yet—to move. If she kept shaking the damn thing, thought Bella, she’d shoot herself in the foot. “Grace,” Bella said firmly, “put the gun down.” Eliot looked up at his new mistress and whined loudly. Grace lowered the gun and slumped down next to the dog which, Bella noticed, began slobbering red saliva exuberantly all over Grace’s hand. Bella shook her head in disgust, right, listen to the dog instead of me. The man was still unconscious, which was a damn good thing in Bella’s opinion seeing as he tried to kill them all. She pried the broken vase off his head to reveal a lump the size of an egg forming on his forehead. Even better, she thought, that’ll teach him trying to attack well-armed females—and a boy dog, of course—in the privacy of their own home. Bella searched his pockets, because she’d seen this done in crime scene investigation shows on TV, and came up with a cell phone, a packet half-filled with mini Mars Bars chocolates—she unwrapped one and threw it to Grace who demanded one for mucous mutt as well, so she threw an extra one over as a reward—and a man’s brown leather wallet. She stood with the wallet in hand, flicking it open and scanning the contents as she walked quickly to the kitchen to find some silver duct tape in the drawer under the sink. She rummaged around until she found a small pair of black scissors and went back to the lounge room to secure their attacker, a man by the name of Gomez (what sort of name was that, Bella wondered?) Gonzalez. With a name like that, the man could have stepped straight out of The Sopranos, he was tall, Bella could see, with thick dark brown hair, longish at the back and an olive complexion. He had a bumped-around nose which undoubtedly had seen some serious biff and a square jaw full of dark stubble. She’d call him Tony, he looked like a Tony and right now she was going to make sure Tony was tied up good and tight with duct tape. Tony the tethered wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Touché! Bella looked across the room to see Grace and the dog had finished their sugar fix and Grace was cuddling Eliot telling him what a good, brave dog he was. Bella had to agree with that one, he’d definitely be coming with her in the morning that is if she ever got any sleep this Century. She unrolled the tape around Tony’s ankles—having first taken off his Italian loafers to make it harder for him to run in the unlikely event of his trying to escape—and bound his legs like an Egyptian mummified body, all the way to his groin which she felt like trampling on but held herself back because there was enough mess on her floor already. Grace stood and walked over to have a proper look at Tony the tethered. “Told you he was big,” Grace said, eyeing him off. “What do we do with him now?” “Before we hand him over to Dave, I want some information out of him, like why was he following us and who sent him. Go get me some water.” Bella said, now in the process of binding his wrists—having to roll him sideways, then head down onto his face—in order to tie his hands behind his back. His head hit the floor with a loud thunk. The guy was going to have a serious headache going on. Good. “Haven’t you got anything stronger? Like gin or scotch or something? Aren’t you supposed to have brandy in the house in case of shock?” “Not for us, silly, the water is for throwing in his face to wake him up.” “Oh, okay, but I could still use a stiff one. It’s not often I get to fend off a gun-wielding maniac on my Saturday nights. Except there was that time with that cop I dated—he was really kinky in bed with the handcuffs and…” Bella had heard more than enough about Grace’s sex life in the Big Smoke, “Just get me the water, please?” “Sure,” Grace said and wandered off into the kitchen with Eliot hot on her heels. Those two were joined at the hip, thought Bella, wondering if she’d be able to get Eliot to leave Grace in the morning. She’d keep the packet of Mars Bars to feed to the dog in case she needed to entice him into the car. Although she shouldn’t have any trouble, it was after all Carl’s Jeep and she’d even let the window down so he could travel with his ears blowing in the wind because he was a good dog and he’d saved their hides tonight. He’d definitely be going to doggy heaven after a long and happy retirement funded by Bella and Grace. Hey, she might even adopt him but then she might have to adopt Carl and he was another kettle of fish altogether. This train of thought was getting her nowhere and Bella decided it was time to kick some serious Gomez Gonzalez, alias Tony the tethered, butt. “Can you hurry up?” Bella yelled to Grace. Grace walked back in, followed by Eliot, with a bottle of water in her hand. “Wasn’t sure if you wanted tap or bottled, so I got you bottled.” Grace handed the bottle to Bella who had to laugh at the sheer absurdity of the situation. She unscrewed the top and took a swig of the icy cold water and then splashed it happily on Tony’s face. “Hey, Bell, you might want to put some clothes on before you wake him up. He’s probably had enough excitement for one night.” Bella glanced down at the black lace bra she was wearing and smiled. “It might not be enough to make him talk,” Bella said, “why not show him your new assets in all their glory. We could be the Bra girls and dedicate our lives to upholding and uplifting female law enforcement.” “I’m not wearing one,” Grace said, stripping off her white lace top with a flourish to reveal two perfectly rounded size D breasts, the nipples rosy and taut. “Hey, he did a great job,” Bella said, admiring the workmanship from different angles, “how much did they cost?” Grace looked down as she cupped her breasts in both hands, “couple of thousand and a year long relationship with the surgeon.” Grace said, “I might get someone else’s opinion tomorrow, got a date with Steve, Carl’s friend.” Bella shook her head, “You’re such a tart sometimes, Grace.” “I know, isn’t it great?” Grace said proudly, stretching her arms in the air and twirling around on the spot. Bella thought she belonged on a trapeze in Moulin Rouge, hey; they loved Aussie girls over there. Bella and Grace both looked down to see Tony the tethered staring up at them in amazement, probably thinking he’d died and gone to heaven, Bella decided and giggled. Grace took advantage of the situation and pretended to pole dance, running her hands over her naked breasts and swaying her hips erotically. This was fun, Grace decided; she might try and get a job in the industry. Men at the mercy of women, what a turnaround in history that would be. Now all they needed was a female President to save the world and kick some serious male ass. “What the hell are you doing?” Tony the tethered asked, the shock of being bound up and in the vicinity of two near naked women, clearly not to his liking but then you just couldn’t account for the tastes of a killer in Bella’s opinion. The guy not only had a sicko job, he clearly didn’t have a sense of humor. “That’s my line, buster, you tried to kill us. Be careful or I’ll let you bleed to death.” Tony glanced down at his arm where blood continued to seep through the thin yellow material wrapped around his forearm and grimaced. He tried to move but couldn’t, realizing he was bound and going nowhere soon. “Untie me now, you bitch,” Tony growled, turning his head and catching sight of Eliot who was now lying curled up on Grace’s lace top using it as a bed. “I’m going to kill that bloody dog and you…you crazy bitches…what the hell are you doing looking like that?” “Grace, the man is being rude and uncouth. What should we do?” Bella asked, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly as she tried to suppress her amusement. “I’m thinking he should show a lot more respect towards the female of the species. Let me just get a knife from the kitchen and…” Tony the tethered turned pale and cringed and pleaded, “Let me go…don’t you touch me…or I’ll…I’ll…” “You’ll what?” Bella asked, deciding now would be a good a time as any to get any information they could out of him. “Call the police?” The man said nothing and averted his eyes from them. “Why did you try and kill us? We may decide not to call the police if you cooperate.” Bella said in her best I’m-the-good-cop voice. She could see Tony was thinking this through (even though she was lying, it was worth a try) and he turned back to face them. Bella could see his eyes were dark brown and narrowed cruelly and she shivered, wondering where his soul was hiding or if he even had one come to think of it. “Someone wants you dead, bitch, I’m just paid to do the job,” Tony smiled, his eyes deepening to the color of burnt toffee, brittle and cold. His mouth curled with evil cunning, like someone holding out an apple to a child, thought Bella, ready to snatch it away when the bait was taken. She’d seen that look before somewhere, probably in the media. Grace walked out of the room; heading for her bedroom, probably to get dressed, Bella thought, the guy sure didn’t deserve to be in the presence of great beauty. When she looked at Eliot, he was snoring and lying on his side, exhausted from his brief encounter with evil. “Who wants me dead?” Bella asked, fearing the answer yet needing to know. “I told you, I don’t get that information, I just get paid. You’re a crazy bitch, so I’m guessing there’s a long list of players.” Bella wanted to wipe that smirk off his face in the worst possible way, but instead, she rose and walked over to the landline and picked up the phone. She punched in the numbers to the police station, wondering if she should get a direct line put in at this rate, and spoke to the duty sergeant. Grace walked back in to the room wearing a black fitted T-shirt with an AC DC logo emblazoned on the front in gold lettering which Bella thought was pretty appropriate considering the different cup sizing the Bra girls would need to reinforce female law and order. Bella finished her conversation, disconnected and walked back over and squatted down in front of little Tony, alias Gomez Gonzalez. “The police are on their way,” Bella said calmly, “I’m sure you’re high up on their list of players as well. By the way, I’m taking the money out of your wallet to pay for dry-cleaning of my rug, plus the expense of my vase which I had to break over your sorry head. But then, you won’t need money where you’re going, I hear they take other forms of payment there.” Bella stood and trod heavily on his hand, which of course had been in her way and was cluttering up her lounge room floor. She really didn’t like the mess men would leave lying around the house. She walked into the kitchen to turn the kettle on. Bounty hunting was thirsty work. About The Author Linda Carter is the author of "Mister Doppelganger: A Ghost Story by Amy Freeman". She has a degree in Literature and has worked for many years in the booktrade. She lives in Tamworth, Australia with her teenage son. She would like to be reborn as her fictional character, Bella Davini. Copyright 2007-2008, Linda Carter (Expires July 20, 2008) To request information on this author or a manuscript contact the listed agent or e-mail: dbooth@authorlink.com AUTHORLINK SMART QUERYEditor/Agent Request for Manuscript/ScreenplayThis service is for legitimate publishers, editors and agents only. Please do not request a manuscript or information unless you can verify that you are an active professional in the industry. Thank you! Note to Editors and Agents: Your contact information will remain highly confidential at all times. 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