Antiques Roadkill (27 page)

“I have to thank him!”

“No. Never mention it. He said for me to tell you, consider it payment in full … for undercover work.”

I grinned. “Kind of a bonus!”

He arched an eyebrow. “Consider it a pension plan for your mother, Brandy—you two’re leaving the detective business, remember?”

“Sure. Sure thing, Brian.”

And we hired a couple of enterprising teenage farm boys—who hung around for just such a purpose—to help Brian load everything into the trailer, although it all didn’t fit.

Smaller things, like lamps and chairs, went into the trunk and backseat of the car, some parts protruding out the windows. And the dining room table—wrapped in a moving blanket, sweetly provided by Mr. Hayes—had been turned upside down and roped onto the roof.

Brian waved as we finally took off, looking like the Beverly Hillbillies with all their worldly possessions stuffed in one vehicle, slowly creeping away, big grins on our faces, all the way.

Mother and I didn’t even mind the car horns and occasional middle finger we received holding up traffic on the river road.

Sure was good to be home.

A Trash ‘n’ Treasures Tip

If you’re a fidgeter, always insist on a number card to hold up at an auction. Mother once scratched her nose and became the proud owner of a Civil War chamber pot.

Barbara Allan
is the joint pseudonym for husband-and-wife mystery writers Max Allan and Barbara Collins.

Max Allan Collins,
a five-time Mystery Writers of America “Edgar” nominee in both fiction and nonfiction categories, has been hailed as “the Renaissance man of mystery fiction.” He has earned an unprecedented fourteen Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations for his historical thrillers, winning twice for his Nathan Heller novels,
True Detective
(1983) and
Stolen Away
(1991).

His other credits include film criticism, short fiction, song-writing, trading-card sets, and movie/TV tie-in novels, including
Air Force One, In the Line of Fire,
and the
New York
Times–best-selling
Saving Private Ryan.

His graphic novel
Road to Perdition
is the basis of the Academy Award–winning DreamWorks feature film starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, and Jude Law, directed by Sam Mendes. Collins’s many comics credits include the
Dick Tracy
syndicated strip; his own Ms. Tree;
Batman;
and
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,
based on the hit TV series, for which he has also written four video games and a
USA
Today–best-selling series of novels.

An acclaimed and award-winning independent filmmaker in his native Midwest, Collins wrote and directed
Mommy,
premiering on Lifetime in 1996, as well as a 1997 sequel,
Mommy’s Day.
The screenwriter of
The Expert,
a 1995 HBO World Premiere, he wrote and directed the innovative made-for-DVD
Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market
(2000). His latest indie feature,
Shades of Noir
(2004), is an anthology of his short films, including his award-winning documentary,
Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane.
A DVD boxed set of his films,
The Black Box,
is currently in release.

Barbara Collins
is one of the most respected short story writers in the mystery field, with appearances in over a dozen top anthologies, including
Murder Most Delicious, Women on the Edge,
and the best-selling
Cat Crimes
series. She was the coeditor (and a contributor) to the best-selling anthology
Lethal Ladies,
and her stories were selected for inclusion in the first three volumes of
The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories.

Two acclaimed hardcover collections of her work have been published—
Too Many Tomcats
and (with her husband)
Murder—His and Hers.
The wife-and-husband team’s first novel together, the baby boomer thriller
Regeneration,
was a bestseller; their second collaborative novel,
Bomb-shell
—in which Marilyn Monroe saves the world from World War III—was published to excellent reviews.

Barbara has been the production manager and/or line producer on
Mommy, Mommy’s Day,
and
Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market,
and other independent film projects emanating from the production company she and her husband jointly run.

“Barbara Allan” live(s) in Muscatine, Iowa, their hometown; son Nathan recently graduated with honors in Japanese and computer science from the University of Iowa in nearby Iowa City.