For your reading I have posted a the opening sequence of my book.


Blood spatter stained the walls and the ceiling of the room that I walked into. Murder had been committed in this room, a bad one. I had been called by the victim’s employer to investigate the death of the nanny and reported kidnapping of their daughter, Adrianne.

One good thing about this case is that I had the full cooperation of the police. They did not dare refuse me access to the evidence. The victims were wealthy and Jennifer, the kidnap victim’s mother, was well connected in local politics. It didn't hurt that Congress had passed a law allowing private individuals the right to hire investigators to "assist" police. Too many unsolved crimes and low manpower is getting to be too much for the good citizens to accept. This has made my life both easier and more complicated. Easier because jobs are more plentiful, harder because, well, following police chain of evidence protocols is complicated and restrictive. Ah, but such is life.

Like I said, the Castilles are wealthy. Jennifer Castille is an executive vice president of Torguersen Enterprises. I am not sure what sort of business Torguersen is into. All know about them is that they are a young company that is doing very well in the rough and tumble world of today's high tech market. I am not sure what they do exactly but I had the feeling I was going to find out before this case was solved. Everything in today’s market is rough and tumble because of the continuing oil crisis. The United States has a guaranteed source of oil. We can guarantee it because we fought a war and won. To the victor go the spoils, I guess. Even still there is a shortage of oil.

Xavier Castille. Well, what can I say about Xavier? I met him back when we were Uncle Sam's. We are both veterans of the Oil War. We were assigned to the same military intelligence unit. Please, no wise cracks about how military intelligence is an oxy-moron. Believe me, I have heard them all. Xavier was flat paranoid when I knew him and the army encouraged that trait in him. After all, thinking that everyone is out to get you is not a bad trait in a counter-intelligence officer. After we got out his paranoia worsened. He was always intelligent. Crazy smart. After discharge, we went our separate ways. He used his pension and the GI bill to further his education, receiving his Doctorate degree from MIT. I used my pension to get blind drunk for five years. I have the dubious honor of being one of the few men that he trusts, so we’ve kept in touch as much as his paranoia would allow. The contact is not much, but it got me this job.

What is my job? My Job is simple. Find Adrianne and bring her back alive. If she is not alive, my job is to bring the perps that committed this crime a taste of justice. That would be my pleasure. No one messes with little girls. No one!

"Joe, thanks for letting me in to eyeball the scene."

"No problem."

Joseph O’Connor is one of the good cops; hardworking and a very good investigator.

"Tell me something, Dan. It must be nice to be able to work only one or two cases at a time, right?"

"You sound a little bitter."

"I am. You private guys start coming in and busting the perps. It makes us look like we can’t do our jobs."

"Oh come on, Joe. I know better than that. If you guys had the time this case would be busted wide open. Just think of me as a special resource. I’m not here to take your job. I don’t want the stress. Besides, who cares who gets the perps as long as they are in cages where they belong?"

"The press, and by extension the mayor."

"Ah, man I am sorry."

" Surely. I know it’s not your fault. It is just that we are getting a lot of pressure on this one, ya know."

"I hear you. Tell ya what; I am on your side. I will keep you ‘department guys’ in the loop on what I shake loose."

"Thanks, Dan."

"I am not here to compete with you. I just want to find Adrianne."

"We know. That is one of the reasons that we cooperate with you. The law says that we have to let you work the case, but no one said we have to help you."

He stood there in the center of the room, his pristine gray suit looking very out of place in the chaos of the nearly destroyed room. His face was serious but his eyes held just a hint of mischievousness. Taking the chance.

"Okay what is going on? What's with the hostile speech?"

"Okay, officially, the department disapproves of the whole concept of going to private investigators for help and we are doing our best to discourage people from using them. Lets be real, most of your colleagues are better at photographing cheating husbands, and should stick to that. They could not investigate their way out of a paper bag. In fact, most of the people in my department feel the same way about you. Now, I know better. I just thought you should be prepared for the kind of reaction you are likely to get from the department."

"Okay, I can understand where you guys are coming from."

"Now that we have that clear, I think that you should be aware of a couple of things. These should be included in the reports we gave you, but I just wanted to make sure that you saw them. First, the security door was designed to be very difficult to by pass. Military grade explosives removed it. Second, the weapons used to kill the nanny were also military grade. She was shot at least four times by flechette rounds fired from two automatic weapons. The flechettes shredded the poor girl. There almost wasn't enough for the medical examiner to examine."

He wasn't kidding. I had seen the pictures included in the report they gave me. Nasty. It wasn't difficult to imagine how it had happened. Sarah, the nanny, was sitting here on what was then a couch, watching Adrianne and the TV. The heavy steel door exploded inward taking out the curio-cabinet. Even before the door was finished bouncing, at least 2 perps, probably more, leapt though the gaping hole in the wall, searching for targets. Two of them found her and fired two rounds. If this was a military operation that I was critiquing, I would have found very little to say. That was the scary part.

"I can see it in your eyes, Dan. You know how it happened don't you? If you find these guys don’t try to take them on your own. SWAT is a call a way."

"I thought you said the department guys don't like me."

"Many of them don't, but they hate these animals more."

"What is the motive?"

"Money, we assume. The Castilles have quite a bit of that commodity."

"The report does not mention a ransom demand."

"We are not holding out on you. The simple truth is we have not received one yet."

"Why would you hire a mercenary unit to snatch someone for money, then not ask for money? That doesn't make sense. How sure are we that Adrianne is still alive?"

"We’re not. We didn’t find a second murder scene in the house, but she could have been taken elsewhere and killed there. You know the statistics as well as I do. Most kidnapping victims are killed in the first three hours."

"I don't buy that and, neither do you. The job was too professional, too clean. No, if these guys wanted her dead they would have killed her right here rather than take the risk of getting caught with her. I guess they could have taken her to kill her in some kind of special statement, but the Castilles are not that connected to politics to make a good target. No, my guess is that the perps are waiting for official interest to die down. Then they will make their demand."

"That sounds as workable as any other theory the we have come up with down at Homicide.”

"What about the Fed's?"

"What about them?"

"This is a kidnapping. Don't they usually get involved?"

"This crime was not a kidnapping. According to them it was murder, so they are hands off."

"I know that this is an unusual request but, I would like to keep my involvement in this matter quiet. I know some of my colleagues would announce to the world that they are taking a case that you police can't solve. Then they proceed to tell everyone how they are going to be able to finish the job. I have no intention of doing that for two reasons. First, I have way to much respect for the department and for you personally to do that to you and second...."

" Surely that’s another reason we will help you, Dan."

".... I hope that by not announcing that I have become involved it will cause the perps to get confident and either go to the next step in the process, or make a mistake that can be exploited. Third, have no intention of making myself a target for the mercs to take pot shots at if I can help it."

"Now, that last part I can understand."

"What else should I know about the scene?"

"Everything else is in the report. Listen, just before you got here, the forensic guys paged me from the scene of a triple homicide. I have to go. There is a ‘uniform’ on duty outside if you need anything else."

"Okay, Joe. I will talk to you later. Hey, Joe, before you go there is something you need to see."

A glint of metal under the couch had caught my eye. I had pulled a light out of my pocket and shined it under the couch.

“What do you have?”

“Spent shell. You got a pen?”

“I thought my guys went over this went over this room with a fine tooth comb.”

Joe handed me a pen. I pulled the spent cartridge out and placed it into a bag that Joe has standing by. Joe held it up so he could read the markings.

“Looks like Forty caliber. Where did this come from?” Joe asked.

“The most likely shooter is Sarah.”

“There was no gun with her body.”

“Maybe she hit one and they took her gun to cover the fact they had wounded.”

“Why didn’t they take the shell?”

“Maybe they couldn’t find it.”

“Could be. Let me know if you find anything else. I really have to go.”

I watched Joe leave in his nice clean suit. His dry cleaning bill must be tremendous.

The room I was standing in was totally destroyed. The explosives that demolished the door also destroyed portions of the front wall. The door itself exploded with enough force to smash a cabinet and gouge big hole in the wallboard of the room. If the debris from the door breach were not enough to make the room unlivable, the blood sprayed all over the far wall and furniture would have completed the job. The room was a complete disaster.

Moving carefully around the room, I located the area where the police had recovered what was left of the body. Looking at the patterns of blood spray from the door to the wall I could tell where the shooters had been. Sarah was fast. She stood from the couch and turned to face the door just as the shooters entered the room. That may have been what got her killed. I doubted it. They would have probably killed her regardless.

I spent the next several minuets looking for the forty-caliber bullet matching the case that I gave to Joe. I didn’t find one. It may have left in the body of one of the attackers or it could have missed the attackers and gone out the open door. One thing for sure is the bullet was not in this room. Deciding that I could no longer spend time looking for the bullet that may not even be here I left room to take a look at the rest of the house.

The rest of the house was cordoned off as part of the crime scene. I need to find Adrianne's room. Quickly scanning the reports, I was able to find directions to the little girl’s room. I know it sounds strange... but honestly if you would have seen the size of the house you would have understood the enormity of the place. Lets be real, it would have taken the better part of hour to open every door in the place. Okay, so maybe that is an exaggeration but not much of one. I mean this place was big. After a few minutes of searching, I finally found Adrianne's room. My wife always tells me that I have a hard time following directions. She is right of course, she always is. That’s why she is in charge.

Adrianne's room was a complete contrast to the front room. In perfect order, it was almost as if the kidnappers had cleaned the room after they had taken the girl. Or, she had not put up a fuss. I knew a number of ways to take a person with out them resisting. The first and easiest is that the perp is someone the victim trusts. This would require inside help. I was not wild about that idea. If there was inside help, the perps would know I was coming. This was not a happy thought. Inside help was not the only way to take a person without resisting. Drugs would work as would simple overwhelming force. I needed to find out a little more about Adrianne. How would she react to the sound of gunfire? How well was she trained in the concept of Stranger Danger? Did she have a guard? If so, where was the guard? I wondered if the guard had been Sarah. Like I mentioned before, she did have good reaction time. Most people would have still have been sitting on the couch when the perps came though the door. After checking the scene I would need to carefully read over the reports, then Yoshi and I would need to go and interview the Castille's.

Jennifer is the only one that we will be able to interview. Xavier is missing, but no one thinks this fact is relevant. Xavier regularly went missing. It was rumored that he had a hidden lab in which he worked. I knew Xavier. He was nuts about security. His lab would be very difficult to find and, once found, it would be nearly impossible to penetrate. I would just have to wait for him to surface before speaking with him. From what I heard, that could take a while.