The Art Museum Murders

Download or read book The Art Museum Murders written by Richard Cole Stephens and published by . This book was released on 2005-12-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Miles Morgan is recruited out of the Soho art district in New York, via Santa Fe, to the director of the new 16.5 million dollar art museum on the campus of Arizona State University. Morgan is attractive, single, middle-aged, an art pro, but all is not good: She doesn't like the museum building; it is dark and ominous. She has been stalked since she left Santa Fe, and there is a serial rapist operating on campus. Executives at the university, three men and one woman, do not want her on campus. She might discover their embezzlement of nearly four million dollars during the construction of the museum. Morgan has walked into a complicated game of hide-and-seek, double-crosses, evasive tactics, and sheer terror. But she must tend to business-get the museum up and running, a first exhibit confirmed. She accidentally uncovered the embezzlement and identifies the thieving executives with an ingenious sting. But before they are arrested, two of the culprits are brutally murdered, and Morgan is a suspect. The first exhibit is a hit but Morgan is still being stalked. The campus rapist attacks Morgan on the night of the opening show-attempts to rape her-but she escapes. The rapist is arrested only to murdered while out on bail. Morgan's guilt looks stronger, but then the police arrest a man-DNA identifies him as the murdered of the rapist and the two executives. He escapes jail and it appears he commits suicide. Morgan is safe; it is all over. It is the second show of the season, Morgan is closing the museum, but someone is in the shadows. The unknown stalker, the murdered who fakes his suicide, is in the darkened museum. He is Morgan's former lover from New York, and he can't have her in Arizona, but he's trying. He had stalked Morgan and killed anyone who he thought was threatening her, hoping she would come back to him. A chase through the museum ends when the man is killed by a friend who has returned to the museum. The story ends with Morgan standing outside the museum planning a re-paint of the ugly gray exterior.