Crazed Reckoning, a Nick Spinelli Mystery

by Valerie J. Clarizio

  Crazed Reckoning, A Nick Spinelli Mystery

  Nick Spinelli Mysteries, Volume 3

  Valerie J. Clarizio

  Published by VJC Books, 2021.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  CRAZED RECKONING, A NICK SPINELLI MYSTERY

  First edition. September 29, 2021.

  Copyright © 2021 Valerie J. Clarizio.

  ISBN: 979-8201967963

  Written by Valerie J. Clarizio.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Crazed Reckoning, A Nick Spinelli Mystery (Nick Spinelli Mysteries, #3)

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Connect with Valerie

  Valerie J. Clarizio's Other Titles:

  Bonus Excerpt

  Sign up for Valerie J. Clarizio's Mailing List

  About the Author

  Dedication

  To Aunt Germaine and Uncle Myron, and Uncle Dan and Aunt Marge, thanks for everything.

  Love always, Val

  Blurb

  He’s an alpha detective on a mission to claim his love interest.

  She’s fighting for her freedom.

  With Spinelli at her side, will Shannon beat this decades-old family feud?

  After experiencing a murderous Christmas and Valentine's Day with his love, Shannon O'Hara, Detective Nick Spinelli assumed Saint Patrick's Day couldn't be any worse. He should have known better.

  While out on a geocaching adventure in Door County, Shannon and her friend Anna find more than they bargained for in the cache box.

  When Shannon disappears, Spinelli is sent racing to find her. Amidst the chaos of an unruly Irish celebration, and a decades-old Irish family feud, he must rescue her from the hands of a madman.

  *****

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  Chapter One

  Shannon studied her handheld global positioning unit before tossing a glance over her shoulder at Anna. “According to the coordinates, we’re exactly where we are supposed to be.”

  “Great, now, we just need to find our little treasure,” Anna replied with an excited schoolgirl grin usually reserved for Christmas morning.

  The ladies scavenged the area looking for the cache. What would it look like? How big would it be? And most importantly, would they be able to decipher the clue inside, leading them to the ultimate treasure. She imagined her and Anna wearing the two 14 karat gold Claddagh friendship rings, the grand prize for their club’s “Saint Patrick’s Day Women’s Geocaching Weekend Adventure” in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin.

  Shannon’s pulse raced and her eyes rapidly shifted back and forth, as she scanned her surroundings. “We need to hurry,” she informed Anna as if her friend already didn’t know they were competing against nine other teams of two.

  According to the instructions, four caches contained numeric clues. Once located and deciphered, they provided the coordinates leading to the fifth cache, the prize cache.

  “I’m looking as fast as I can,” Anna replied with a tinge of annoyance in her voice. Yet she kept her smile in place. “Is someone just a bit excited?”

  Shannon giggled. “I’m sorry. I guess I am.”

  Frigid air nipped at Shannon’s nose as she stood at the edge of the four-foot-high rock cliff lining the icy waters of the bay. Ice chunks of all shapes and sizes rushed past the ledge and rode the waves into the unforgiving ledge. Some broke into pieces as they struck the hard rock and sent a thunderous reverberation into the atmosphere with such force that Shannon’s chest vibrated in response.

  Shannon yanked her zipper up until it reached her chin, and then she pulled her headband over her already frozen ears. She glanced at Anna who had already done the same. “I’m sure glad I wore my Columbia jacket and ski pants on this adventure. I nearly didn’t, but then I remembered how Mother Nature tended to let loose her frustration in Door County in March.”

  Anna nodded. “Last year it was nearly sixty degrees on this weekend. This morning the weatherman predicted a high of thirty-five. What a difference.”

  Shannon pulled her phone from her pocket to snap a couple of pictures. “It’s so beautiful here.”

  “All the state parks in Door County are gorgeous, but I have to admit, this one is my favorite. My parents used to take my siblings and me camping here. And it wasn’t the kind of camping people do nowadays with campers, Dish TV, and handheld video games. It was the ‘pitch the tent’ kind with hiking and fishing.” Anna stepped closer to the edge and pointed to the left. “There’s a boat ramp over there. My dad would launch his little rowboat and we’d catch perch and sunfish. It was fun.”

  Shannon fixed her gaze on Anna as she stared out over the water. She looked content, lost in fond childhood memories.

  A twig snapped. A rustling sound followed from the same direction the women had just come. Shannon spun around. “Did you hear that?”

  Anna peered into the woods as well.

  Though just past noon, the overcast day darkened the woods as if it were early evening.

  The wind whipped around them. Trees swayed and creaked. “It was probably just the wind,” Anna assured.

  “Yeah,” Shannon whispered, though a hint of unease coiled around her spine.

  Anna shifted her gaze. “Well, it’s got to be here somewhere,” she commented before she dropped to all fours and leaned over the ledge. Her neck craned to see if anything was stashed beneath the overhang.

  Anna looked up, grinning like a kid in a candy store. “It’s hanging under there but I don’t think I can reach it.”

  Shannon knelt in the soft melting snow and leaned over the edge to take a look. She stretched out her arm, gripped the red cylinder, and handed it to Anna. Anna twisted off the top and pulled the small notepad from the container. After she signed the log, she ripped out the page addressed to their team and refastened the top to the container. Shannon returned the cylinder to where she’d found it.

  “Hmm,” they sounded in unison as they glanced at the clue. It meant nothing to them at the moment. They’d feed it into the deciphering software Shannon had purchased once they gathered all the clues from the four caches.

  As they walked back toward their car, they discovered a marked trail. “Excellent, a trail,” Anna commented. “It sure would have been handy if the GPS had taken us in on it rather than the roundabout way we took.”

  Shannon brought up the park map on her phone. “Looks like this trail will take us right back to the parking lot, but if we stay on the trail our fresh footprints will be a dead giveaway to the teams that follow us.” Shannon thought for a moment and then shrugged. “On the flipside, perhaps our next search will be made easier by our predecessors’ trail.” Hmm, easy or adventure? She forged on; she wanted the grand prize.

  Anna sucked in a loud breath. Shannon glanced over her shoulder. She didn’t know if her friend’s cheeks were rosy from the exertion or the wind. “I caught a glimpse of a bench up ahead. Do you want to take five?”

  Anna nodded. “Yeah, I’m not as young as I used to be.”

  Their hike to the cache h
adn’t been a long one, but the terrain they crossed didn’t make for an easy walk. They stepped over logs, through and around mucky areas, trekked through snow, and climbed small rock ledges. Anna was twenty-five years Shannon’s elder, nearly fifty-four, and carried a few extra pounds.

  Anna took a pull from her water bottle and swiped her brow as she rested on the bench. She cleared her throat. “I should probably go to the gym I joined, huh?”

  Shannon giggled.

  Another rustling noise sounded close behind them. Shannon sprang to her feet and looked in its direction. “What caused that? It was the same noise I heard before when we were by the water.”

  Anna shifted on the bench. “I don’t know. I’m sure it was nothing,”

  Anna replied as she slowly lifted herself from the bench. “We’d better get a move on. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today.”

  As they proceeded down the trail toward the parking lot, Shannon glanced periodically over her shoulder.

  “What’s the matter? What do you keep looking for?” Anna asked.

  Shannon hesitated before answering. After all, she’d been through in the past three months, was she just being paranoid? She thought about her friends, Roland Hudson and Aaron Reed, murdered by a drug cartel last December at the mall while wearing their Santa and elf costumes. She thought about Tony Rosso, Chad Williams, Mike Carter, and Joshua Meyers. Her past romantic interests all murdered last month on Valentine’s Day while dressed as Cupid. With Saint Patrick’s Day creeping up, she wasn’t sure she could make it through another holiday. Especially since this one fell on her birthday—double whammy.

  Shannon sighed. Was she really going to be twenty-eight in just two more days? She smiled at the thought of how happy it made her dad that she’d been born on Saint Patrick’s Day. When she was younger, he’d always claimed the Saint Patrick’s Day parades and festivities were thrown in celebration of her birthday. He’d been pretty convincing at the time. A vision of her dad’s ear-to-ear smile played through her mind. She should pay her parents a visit soon. It had been a while.

  The immediate issue at hand returned to Shannon. Could she make it through another holiday? She was running out of friends; hence, why she and Anna decided to take this geocaching trip. They wanted to get out of Milwaukee and harm’s way.

  Shannon met Anna’s gaze. “I don’t know. I feel like we’re being watched.”

  Anna pointed at the patchy snow on the trail. “There aren’t any footprints. I think the only things out here are birds, squirrels, and maybe some deer.

  Shannon looked ahead to the parking lot just in sight. Thank God. She threw one last glance over her shoulder. Nothing but trees swayed in the earthy-smelling breeze.

  Shannon slid into the driver’s seat of her blue Chevy Impala, cranked the engine, and threw the heater on full blast as they headed in the direction of the next coordinates.

  * * * *

  Davin O’Brien leaned forward and dug the tips of his fingers into the cold brick ledge as he stood on his tiptoes. He watched Bernie Mathison through the large plate-glass window. Bernie tended to his customers as he cleaned up from the night before. It was early, not even 10:00 a.m. yet. A few old-timers sat at a table, playing cards, while they drank from coffee mugs. Several men sat on barstools that lined the long wooden bar, drinking what looked to be Bloody Marys with beer chasers.

  Davin debated what to say to the lumberjack-like man who fit the recent description his father had given him. Why did Shannon O’Hara’s uncle have to be so big? Of course, most everyone was big compared to Davin. Shaking his head in dismay, he wondered how on earth he would broach this topic. He had practiced the spiel his father had instructed him to use at least a thousand times in his head during his travels. Now suddenly, the pre-packaged words didn’t seem appropriate. There was so much at stake, and his family counted on him. Davin swallowed the anxiety that rose in his throat. He couldn’t fail them now, not when they needed him most.

  Hardly able to keep his weary eyes open, let alone think, Davin, glanced at his watch. He’d been up for nearly twenty-four hours already. Luckily, he had caught a catnap during his layover in Newark but it wasn’t enough. Perhaps he should check into his hotel, get some rest and take care of business later. But time was of the essence.

  He sighed, pulling his sweaty hands from the frosty ledge as he eased down from his tiptoe stance. His father’s voice rang through his head. “I’m counting on you, son. You need to take care of this before it’s too late. Our entire family depends on you. I know you’ll do your best.” For the first time, his father’s voice was free of the condescending tone he normally used toward him. Why? Davin knew why. This time his almighty father found himself in a situation in which he desperately needed his son. Funny how that works.

  As Davin opened the door, the tiny bells on it clinked against the glass, drawing Bernie’s attention. His shocked gaze was unmistakable. Bernie’s torso deflated as the door shut, sucking the air from his lungs along with it. The large man’s shoulders slumped as he pulled his hands from the dishwater and wiped them dry with a white terrycloth towel. He tossed the towel onto the counter and stepped toward the opening at the end of the long narrow bar.

  Bernie’s chest inflated and his dagger-shooting gaze darkened with each passing moment. Davin sucked in a breath and kept his eyes in check. I guess he knows why I’m here.

  * * * *

  Shannon parked the car. She and Anna slid out, eager and ready to embark on their second cache of the day.

  Anna yanked at her jacket zipper. “Whoa, it’s a bit nippier up here in the northern Door County peninsula.”

  “Windier too,” Shannon added. She swiped her hair from in front of her eyes.

  They planned to complete this cache and then drive back to Sturgeon Bay to join the rest of the contestants for the banquet at their hotel. She smiled to herself. In their rush to get up north, they nearly forgot to check in by the deadline as they buzzed through the city.

  Shannon and Anna both glanced at the GPS unit. They plotted their hike with the use of the park’s map given to them by the nice lady at the ranger station. They knew by the ranger’s comments that they weren’t the first team to arrive. They needed to hurry if they wanted to complete this cache before they lost daylight. They’d complete the remaining cache’s tomorrow.

  They started down the trail that would get them closest to the cache. The hike on the established trail would be about a mile or so but they weren’t exactly sure of the distance of the off-trail walk. The best they could figure at this point was an eighth of a mile, give or take a bit. But due to the lingering snow, even the walk on a well-used path would not be easy or quick.

  The ladies chatted as they walked. Anna, as always, cut to the chase. “So how’s it been going with that handsome Detective Spinelli of yours lately?”

  Shannon glanced at her watch and then shot a smile over her shoulder. “Well, you took a bit longer than I expected,” she teased.

  Anna returned her smile. “I held out as long as I could. You know I’m living vicariously through you, so don’t keep this old lady waiting here.”

  Shannon stopped and waited for Anna to catch up. “Actually, he’s been kind of quiet and distant since the whole Valentine’s Day episode. I can’t seem to make him realize it wasn’t his fault. Bethany had issues.” Just saying Bethany’s name sent a bone-chilling disturbance deep into her core.

  Though the temperature still hovered around forty degrees, Anna swiped her gloved hand over her moist brow. “The poor guy. I’m not sure what to say. I can’t imagine how it must feel to have a psycho ex-girlfriend kill four of his present girlfriend’s ex-lovers, attempt to kill him, and then kill herself. And on Valentine’s Day of all days. The day I was sure he would pop the big question to you. What should have been one of the biggest and best days of his life turned out to be the worst.”

  “There’s not a day goes by I don’t think of that awful day. And he won’t talk abo
ut it. The second I bring up the topic, he clams up.” Shannon sighed. “And honestly, I really thought he would propose as well.”

  “With all that’s gone on in the past three months, I’m surprised he let you out of his sight to come along on our girls’ weekend.”

  “I know. I could tell by the look in his eyes when I told him our plans for this weekend, he wasn’t pleased. He asked me to reconsider, but I couldn’t. I just needed to get away from the city and everything that has gone on lately. At first, he insisted upon coming along, but Captain Jackson assigned some hot case to him, Walker and Marsh. So, he couldn’t get away.”

  Shannon’s eyes watered. Over the past three months, she’d found herself the happiest she’d ever been, the saddest, and the most frightened. She’d met Spinelli, and they’d gotten off to a rocky start. But she fell in love with him and couldn’t be any happier, with their relationship. During that same time frame, two of her co-workers had been murdered; she had been kidnapped and was next on the murder’s list. If Spinelli hadn’t stepped in and saved the day, she would have been killed. The whole rescue was like something right out of a fairy tale with a knight in shining armor coming to the rescue of an endangered maiden. Truth be told, he was actually dressed in a Santa suit rather than armor. But that didn’t matter to her; he was her knight no matter what he wore. And then, of course, there was the issue with Spinelli’s ex-girlfriend who sought murderous revenge against the both of them. Again, Nick stepped in and saved the day. My hero.

  Anna stepped forward and hugged Shannon. “I’m so sorry all this crap happened to you. You so didn’t deserve any of this, but you can’t change what’s already happened. The only thing you can do is figure out how to deal with it and move forward.”

  “I know.”

  Shannon’s cell phone vibrated. She pulled it from her zippered pocket and glanced at the display. She couldn’t help but smile as she read the text from Spinelli.