Horoscope: The Astrology Murders Read online

  PRAISE FOR HOROSCOPE

  “Frontiere grabs you immediately with her lucid prose and engaging style. Kelly York is a flawed but beautiful character whose dedication to helping people through the use of astrology, psychology, and wisdom is deeply touching and affecting. Horoscope is truly out of this world. A must-read.”

  —David Assael, writer/producer (Northern Exposure, St. Elsewhere, Picket Fences, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Evan’s Crime)

  “The story hooked me from the very start. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next as Kelly York gets more and more deeply involved in a murder case that draws her out of her comfortable existence and into a dangerous mystery.”

  —Andrew Tennenbaum, President, Flashpoint Entertainment, and producer (The Bourne Identity and Water for Elephants)

  “Frontiere has created a thoroughly believable character, and we know it’s only a matter of time before we enter her nightmare. An absorbing read.”

  —Phyllis Naylor, best-selling author of Shiloh, Faces in the Water, and Jade Green

  “Horoscope grabs your attention and keeps it. Better check your sign before reading this one!”

  —Dylan Ratigan, best-selling author of Greedy Bastards and sustainability entrepreneur

  “A taut psychological thriller, Horoscope combines the best of literary fiction with heart-pounding suspense. With its compelling characters and rich, multilayered plot, Horoscope is mystery writing at its best.”

  —Lori Andrews, author of the Alexandra Blake mysteries (Sequence, The Silent Assassin, and Immunity)

  “A real page-turner. I was totally engrossed in the mystery and captivated by the characters. Dr. Kelly York is the new leading lady of mystery thrillers.”

  —Robert Levy, producer and partner, Tapestry Films (Wedding Crashers, Serendipity, the Mary-Kate and Ashley series)

  “Frontiere has created an intelligent, sympathetic, and compelling character in Kelly York. I can hardly wait to read the Kelly York mysteries to come.”

  —Sara Risher, CEO, Chick Flicks Productions, and former Chair of Production, New Line Cinema

  “The Da Vinci Code meets Rear Window. Like Robert Langdon unravels mysteries utilizing a fascinating expertise, symbology, Kelly York solves crimes with an equally intriguing specialty, astrology. And just as Jimmy Stewart’s character faces thrills and murder while unable to leave his apartment, Kelly York encounters a killer and an ingenious whodunnit as she’s confined to her Manhattan brownstone. This exciting combo of Dan Brown and Alfred Hitchcock made Georgia Frontiere’s novel one of the most exciting reads I’ve had in a long time.”

  —Michael Davis, writer/director/artist (Shoot ’Em Up, Eight Days a Week)

  “Horoscope is an exceptionally well-written and engrossing thriller. The suspense will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page.”

  —Chris McGurk, Chairman and CEO, Cinedigm; former President, Walt Disney Motion Pictures; and former President, Universal Pictures

  “With its intriguing use of astrology as a repeating element and the touching backstory about its author, with an engaging and sympathetic heroine and its bonus supply of FBI lore, Horoscope is an absorbing and most satisfying read.”

  —Jamie Wolf, Vice President, PEN Center USA

  “A great read. A total page-turner with characters that pop off the page and a plot that keeps you guessing.”

  —Richard Arlook, producer/manager (Turn It Up, Rodham)

  “James Patterson, watch out—here comes Georgia Frontiere’s Horoscope. Enjoy this book. You won’t be able to put it down.”

  —Richard Krevolin, best-selling author of Screenwriting from the Soul and King Levine

  “A true page-turner. Kelly York is a terrific heroine—vulnerable, intelligent, and in real trouble. The combination of astrology and psychology is quite a twosome.”

  —Julian Schlossberg, theatrical producer (Bullets over Broadway, Sly Fox)

  “I loved this book! A page-turner and a great mystery. Kelly York is a great character!”

  —Andrew Jenks, best-selling author of My Adventures as a Young Filmmaker and filmmaker (World of Jenks, The Zen of Bobby V)

  “Frontiere has penned a mystery thriller worthy of the best Agatha Christie novel, and she clearly has a Hitchcockian instinct for relentless suspense. Horoscope will have your mind racing and your heart pumping! I can’t wait to go on Kelly York’s next adventure!”

  —Steve Bratter, filmmaker (Demolition Man), host of Talking Movies, and author of The Bratter Breakdown

  “Who knew that Georgia could write such a powerful thriller?”

  —John Shaw, former President, St. Louis Rams

  “Horoscope had me sitting on the edge of my seat from the first chapter throughout the entire read. A powerfully exciting storyline that’s impossible to put down. Bravo!”

  —Vicki Escarra, CEO, Opportunity International, and former CEO, Feeding America

  “Horoscope is fast-paced, colorful, and compelling … just like Georgia herself.”

  —Sandy Tung, filmmaker (Across the Tracks, Saving Shiloh)

  “From the first chapter, Horoscope captivates with its original characters and clever plots twists. I couldn’t put it down. I kept wishing it wouldn’t end.”

  —Bruce Taylor, writer/producer (The Brave One, The Equalizer)

  “Georgia Frontiere’s creation of the character Kelly York is inventive and unique. Frontiere’s mastery lies in her incredible attention to details. I look forward to seeing Kelly York in a movie or television series based on this enjoyable and well-crafted read.”

  —Carl Borack, producer (Shiloh, The Big Fix, Bienvenue à Cannes); US Olympian; and former Captain, US fencing team

  “Horoscope is not simply a compelling mystery but so much more. It is visceral, original, intelligent storytelling in the tradition of great contemporary mystery writers from John le Carré to Dan Brown; I actually did not want to put it down.”

  —Arthur Joseph, best-selling author of Vocal Leadership, creator of Vocal Awareness, and motivational speaker/educator

  HOROSCOPE

  The Astrology Murders

  A Novel

  GEORGIA FRONTIERE

  Copyright © 2014 by Violet Mountain Press

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Violet Mountain Press

  9595 Wilshire Blvd., #201

  Beverly Hills, CA 90212

  Ordering Information

  Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the address above.

  Orders by US trade bookstores and wholesalers. Please contact BCH: (800) 431-1579 or visit www.bookch.com for details.

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. It is a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to people, living or dead is purely coincidental. Occasionally, real places or institutions are used novelistically for atmosphere and are employed in a fictional manner. There is no connection between the characters or events in this novel to any real-life people, places, organizations, or companies of any kind.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 
Frontiere, Georgia.

  Horoscope : the astrology murders : a novel / Georgia

  Frontiere.

  pages cm

  ISBN 978-0-9903101-3-6 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-0-9903101-4-3 (ebook)

  1. Serial murders—Fiction. 2. Detective and mystery

  stories. I. Title.

  PS3606.R64H67 2014 813’.6

  QBI14-600103

  First Edition

  18 17 16 15 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Contents

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Thirty-Nine

  Forty

  Forty-One

  Forty-Two

  Forty-Three

  Forty-Four

  Forty-Five

  Forty-Six

  Forty-Seven

  Forty-Eight

  Forty-Nine

  Fifty

  Fifty-One

  Fifty-Two

  Fifty-Three

  Fifty-Four

  Fifty-Five

  Fifty-Six

  Fifty-Seven

  Fifty-Eight

  Fifty-Nine

  Sixty

  Sixty-One

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Horoscope: Murder in Mercury Retrograde

  Note to Reader

  OUR MOTHER WAS KNOWN as the first prominent woman to own an American sports team. But her background was very different from what sports fans believe. Born at the dawn of the Depression, she was raised in a show business home. By the time she was eighteen, she had travelled the country with her mother and her brother and had toured as a singer with Bob Hope and other major entertainers. Singing was one of her creative passions. The other was writing. She wrote hundreds of poems and kept notebooks filled with her thoughts, sometimes just her anticipation of what the day might bring. A limited edition book of her poetry was published in 2002, and she was very proud of it.

  Our mother died in 2008. In the last decade of her life, she had several offers to write an autobiography. She refused to do it on the grounds that she wouldn’t write anything negative about anybody else and publishers weren’t interested in a book that would have no negative gossip. She was compiling a book of anecdotes, photographs, and drawings that would tell her life story, and she contemplated publishing that at some point.

  She told those closest to her that she had started writing a thriller about an astrologer and psychologist named Dr. Kelly Elizabeth York who lives in New York City. She loved the character and enjoyed talking about what was happening in her book. She had ideas for Kelly to solve lots of mysteries.

  The initial book she was writing was to be called Horoscope. Our mother was so fascinated with astrology and psychology, she thought what better way to explore these fields than to come up with a character who was in both. Kelly and our mom shared another trait in common: the desire to help those around them. This became a core quality of Kelly’s and a way for our mom to relate even more to her creation.

  We had heard sections of the book read aloud over the phone or at dinner in the last couple of years before our mother died. We didn’t know what there was of the novel until we went through her papers. What we found was the almost completed novel along with several outlines for other adventures for Kelly and many notes about Kelly and the other characters that our mother created as part of Kelly’s life.

  We reached out to Mark Bruce Rosin, who not only is a friend of the family’s (including our mother) but is an accomplished writer and editor. We asked Mark to work on the manuscript as an editor and, in some ways, a collaborator. He read our mother’s draft and notes and saw that the book was essentially there; all it needed was a fresh pair of eyes and an expert editor to bring it into shape. He did a tremendous job of doing just that while honoring the book and characters our mom created.

  So, here is our mom’s book, Horoscope: The Astrology Murders. We hope that the other Kelly Elizabeth York stories will be told in the future too.

  Lucia Rodriguez

  Chip Rosenbloom

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  We would like to thank the following people who were both personally inspiring to and caring of our mother during the writing of this book and her wonderful life: her six grandchildren—William, Stuart, Andrew, Lauren, Alexander, and Olivia; Kathleen Rosenbloom, her daughter-in-law; Lupe Rodriguez, her son-in-law; Earle Weatherwax, her adored companion of nineteen years; Ken Irwin, her brother; her ten nieces and nephews; John Shaw, her dear friend and confidant; Tom Guthrie, her close friend; Mike Moyneur; Lance Ferguson, her personal astrologer; Margie Baldwin, our spectacular cousin; Father Sal Polizzi, Marshall Klein, and Paul Mason, her dear friends; and Mark Bruce Rosin, who made this book possible through his dedication, experience, and talent. We would also like to thank Jane Rosenman and Dr. Leana F. Melat, Jungian psychotherapist and student of astrology, for their valuable support.

  Prologue

  HE COULD JUST SEE the moon through the fog. It was a weak, round glow. If you didn’t know better, you might’ve thought it was full, but of course he did know better. It was only seven-eighths full.

  He’d also known to expect Long Beach to be foggy. After all, it was a beach town, and a light fog had just begun to settle in on the night he’d driven there to get a look at the house and plan for tonight.

  Tonight’s fog was heavier. As he walked, he could see only a few feet in any direction. Looking down, he could make out the asphalt driveway under his feet. Looking straight ahead, he couldn’t see any sign of the house, but he knew it was there, fifteen or twenty yards up the driveway. Most people preferred staying in on a night like this, but a night like this made his job easier. That’s how he’d thought about it at first, as a job, a job he loved, a job he was born for. Then he’d realized that it wasn’t just his job; it was his vocation. He had been called to it; it was his destiny.

  Earlier tonight, at home, in the special room he had made, he had dressed himself in black: black jeans, black sweater, black jacket, black running shoes. Black was his favorite color. Wearing black was like hiding. It was like being in a black hole—you could just disappear in it and stay lost forever.

  He heard the waves hitting the beach, and he knew he was nearing the house. He kept walking, and sure enough, through the fog, he began to see the outline of the house in the moonlight. Soon he arrived at the steps leading up to the porch. The house was dark, just as he knew it would be. It was 3:10 a.m. He knew she’d be asleep. She’d said she could sleep twelve hours at a go, and she had trouble waking up.

  He reached into his back pocket, took out a pair of surgical gloves, and put them on. When he’d pulled them snugly over his hands, he tried the door in case she hadn’t locked it. It didn’t budge. No worries; he’d worked it all out ahead of time. He was a born planner.

  He took the key from the front pocket of his jeans and slipped it into the lock. It went in easily, just as it was supposed to. He let himself in, noiselessly closing the door. He was enmeshed in darkness now, as if he’d disappeared into a real black hole. He
took his black ski mask from his jacket and put it over his head. It was new, and it didn’t have as much give as it would have later, after he’d used it more. He could feel it constraining his hair and his face, but it had slits for his eyes so he could see and for his nose and mouth so he could breathe.

  For a while he just stood there, feeling his excitement as his eyes became used to the darkness. He saw that a sliver of moonlight was entering the house through the narrow space between the top of the door and the doorframe. Through the soles of his running shoes he could feel the plush carpet beneath his feet. No wooden floors to creak under his weight as he walked. Another sign that tonight’s work would go well.

  In front of him was a small living room, barely visible in the darkness; to his left, an even smaller room—a den or a study—almost as dark; to his right, an ink-black hallway that he thought must lead to the bedrooms. He took his first silent steps on the carpet into the hallway.

  Almost immediately, he could hear her breathing in her sleep. He followed the sounds of her inhalations and exhalations. They were rhythmic and regular; soon they would cease altogether.

  But not quite yet. There was more to his job than just that.

  He stopped at the open door of her bedroom and looked inside. The drapes were open, and the moonlit fog came right up to her bare windows, casting the room in a silver light. He could see her torso as she slept, one of her arms dangling over the side of the mattress. She was still breathing deeply, unaware that he was in her house, unaware that he could be. That was part of what made him so excited: the element of surprise. The other part was the element of justice.

  He passed a closet, a small closet, the kind they used to build in houses like this. The door was closed, but he didn’t need to see inside to know what it was like in there: dark and close. If you sat on the floor of a closed closet like that, under the clothes, some of them hanging down and touching you, surrounding you, you would feel scared and you would think that you couldn’t breathe. But gradually, you would realize that you were breathing, because otherwise you would be dead. You would still be scared, but after a while, a long while, you would begin to feel safe. Safe and private because you were alone.