"Seeing Red"

Coming from Highland Press

Two mystery short stories as part of anthology with authors Lori Avocato,  Chris Holmes, and Susan Sweet.

In "Redshirted," Homicide Detective James T. Kirkland shows up for what looks like a slam dunk "death by natural causes" case, and finds more than a heart attack as cause of death. 

 (Unedited Excerpts)

The cloying odor of death wasn't what bothered me as I signed the patrol officer's clipboard and ducked under the yellow tape fastened across the door. It was seeing the name Frank McCoy printed on the sheet. I'd been chasing down dead-end leads on an ugly double-homicide for the last thirty-six hours, and I was not in the mood for his damn humor. Still, if I didn't play the medical examiner's game, I might never get out of here. I added my name under his, braced myself and stepped into the apartment.

"What do we have?" I asked, knowing exactly what I'd hear.

Frank raised his gaze from the corpse, which lay face up on the carpet. He grinned, saying the same thing he said every time he showed up at one of my homicides. "He's dead, Jim."

In "Red Flagged," he does a favor for his ex-wife and stumbles onto a murder scene.

"Call me when you've got a dead body," I said, and hung up the phone. I'd finally managed a few hours of shuteye, and wasn't going to function until I had a few more. On the bright side, the asshole who'd murdered two people was now behind bars. Cursing the idiot in Dispatch who'd punched my phone number instead of someone on the Missing Persons Squad, I went back to sleep.

The next time the phone rang, I debated throwing it across the room. Instead, I pulled a pillow over my head. Homicide detectives might be on call twenty-four seven, but that didn't mean the entire squad was. Let them call someone else. I was too groggy to realize it was my land line, not my cell ringing until my ex-wife's voice burrowed through the layers of fog and memory foam.

 NOWHERE TO HIDE, coming July 16, 2010, from The Wild Rose Press*

The trouble with running away is that you take yourself with you. After police officer Colleen McDonald is injured in a case gone south and her partner dies, she leaves her job and friends in Pine Hills, Oregon for a fresh start as a civilian in Orlando. When a deputy sheriff comes to her door investigating a possible missing person, she’s determined to get him out of her life by beating him at his own game.

Jeffrey Walters is missing—or is he? His stepdaughter insists he is. His aunt claims he’s simply out of town on business. His former business partner knows nothing. There’s a stranger living in his guesthouse.

To Deputy Sheriff Graham Harrigan, finding Jeffrey might be his ticket to a permanent slot in the Criminal Investigations Division. He’s determined to prove he’s worthy of the promotion despite an unearned reputation passed down by an unsavory training partner. The attractive woman living in Jeffrey’s guesthouse complicates matters. Their rivalry becomes a partnership that stretches the boundaries of a professional relationship.

Coming in 2011 from Five Star Expressions: WHERE DANGER HIDES

Hiding behind the public façade of a private investigation firm–Blackthorne, Incorporated–are a band of elite covert operatives.

Dalton (just Dalton—nobody dares call him Ambrose), is one of Blackthorne's best. A charming Texan, he prides himself on blending in, and there's no one he can't scam. But his obsession with putting a Colombian drug lord out of the picture threatens to endanger his life and the lives of his team. When Dalton nearly blows a simple undercover assignment at a fundraising gala, it convinces his boss to tether him to a dog-and-pony-show case at a halfway house. Instead, Dalton finds death, drugs, and danger.