🔥Everybody lies. Everybody.🔥 I stilled myself and then drew in a deep breath before reaching into my glove box for a notepad on which I wrote notes about my time of arrival and the conditions of the area. Outside, the air was bracing, and my breath came out in a puff of frost. On my drive over, I had noticed several houses nearby had draped tarps over their flower beds to protect the plants from frost damage. As I approached the scene, Officer Marcus Washington left the crime scene’s perimeter and walked toward me with a smile on his face. I met him in the light cast by a cast-iron, faux-Victorian lamppost. “Evening, Marcus,” I said, taking out my notepad. “I heard you were the first responder. What’s going on?” He pulled his own notepad from his utility belt. “We’ve got a homicide. Victim is Joel Robinson. According to his license, he’s a thirty-nine-year-old Caucasian male from The Woodlands, Texas. His car’s in the parking lot. Darlene and I searched it already but found nothing remarkable. The police in Houston arrested and charged him twelve years ago for driving under the influence, but other than that, his record’s clean. He looks like a solid citizen. “So far, Darlene and Kevius have collected eight spent .40-caliber Smith & Wesson casings, but we have yet to find the firearm. Shane Fox and Katie Martelle are searching the park and the surrounding area, but the shooter likely took the piece with him. I’ve checked out most of the houses nearby to see whether anybody saw anything or whether anybody has a surveillance camera overlooking the park, but I struck out. We have a witness, but he’s an older guy, and he saw the shooting from a distance. When I got here, he was feeling faint and experiencing chest pain. Paramedics took him to St. John’s for evaluation.” I nodded and jotted down notes. Then I glanced up. “Before paramedics took him, did the witness say anything?” “He said the shooter and victim spoke as if they knew each other. There was also a third party involved somehow, but he ran off before the shooting started. We’ve had patrols out in the neighborhood to find that guy, but no luck so far.”Marcus paused. “You look nice, Detective. Sorry if we ruined your evening.” I glanced at him from my notepad and smiled. I liked privacy, and I tried to keep my personal and work lives as separate as possible, but when you were on call twenty-four hours a day, a little mingling was impossible to avoid. “You didn’t shoot anybody, so you didn’t ruin anything. And thank you,” I said. “Is the body still here?” Marcus nodded. “Yeah, but that’s a little complicated.” I raised my eyebrows. “Oh? Do tell.” 👉FROM: The Man in the Park, the sixth book in the Joe Court series. 😋 WHAT’S THE JOE COURT SERIES ABOUT? Joe Court is a young detective in fictional tourist town and county of St Augustine, Missouri. The streets are well-swept, the surroundings are gorgeous, and the people are friendly—except for the murderers, of course. Beneath its beautiful exterior, St. Augustine is a county built on poison and lies. Its murder rate is astronomical, its government is corrupt, and drug use is out of control. Joe’s there to clean the place up. It’s not going to be easy, but she’s exactly the right person or the job. The books are gripping, gritty murder mysteries. In each book, Joe Court investigates a crime—usually a murder, but not always—and takes that crime to a thrilling conclusion. I don’t like cliffhangers. The main story is resolved in each book. You’re going to find out what happened to the bad guys in each story. That said, there are side stories that continue from one book to another. A rumor in one book might turn out to be a far bigger deal than anyone anticipated in later books. Because of that, it’s best to read the story in order. HOW DO YOU READ THESE EBOOKS? Upon purchasing, you’ll receive an email from BookFunnel, my eBook distributor. You’ll open that email and find links to book download pages. You’ll go to a download page, click a button that says “get my book” and follow the onscreen instructions to place the book on your tablet, phone, Kindle, Nook, etc. The process is pretty easy for most folks, and BookFunnel’s dedicated customer support staff is available to help you along the way.
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