by A. E. Howe
“Maybe. I don’t know. Some junk, yeah. But I’ve moved twice since then.” The first time I’d moved after she left me was because I was afraid she’d come back, but I decided pointing that out wouldn’t help the situation.
“Are you telling me you threw it out?” It was like watching a locomotive start moving down the track. I could see the pressure building up behind her eyes.
“Yes. I don’t think there was anything but some old makeup, maybe some towels, an old pair of sandals. Literally just junk,” I told her, trying to think of anything else she might have left and what she could possibly want with it now.
“That was my stuff,” she said, glaring at me.
“Well, maybe you should have gotten it when you moved out,” I answered, exasperated.
I watched as she calculated how far to take this. Suddenly, her eyes shifted. “Yeah, okay. You’re saying you don’t have anything of mine?”
“That’s right.” I knew that she’d shifted into plotting mode. Not a good sign, but I couldn’t do anything about it.
“Fine, be that way.” Marcy threw open the door to her car, trying to hit me with it, and dropped into the driver’s seat. I moved away quickly, knowing that if she had the opportunity she’d run me over as she left the parking lot. From a safe distance, I watched her spin out of the driveway.
A boxy sedan that I recognized pulled in seconds after Marcy took off down the road. “Was that who I think it was?” Pete asked me after he got out.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said good-naturedly.
“I understand that, brother.” Pete and I hadn’t known each other back when I was dating Marcy, but he’d heard the stories, both from me and from mutual friends. He looked over at the Donut Hole. “I sure miss Winston’s.” He held up his hand to stop me. “Not Winston himself. That guy can rot in hell.”
“How’s Mary doing?” I asked.
“Confused. Trying to understand everything.” Pete shrugged. “It has to be tough when you find out your loving father is a serial killer.”
“You ready to go, Rookie?” Darlene asked, coming up behind me.
I rolled my eyes so that only Pete could see. “Talk to you later,” I told him, longing for the days when we were partners.
I’d just pulled the car out of the driveway when the dispatch radio cut in to tell us that Sergeant Will Toomey was requesting our presence out at Parrish Farm, but not giving any details. Whenever possible, our dispatchers tried to be discreet. Even in this day and age of two hundred TV channels and the Internet, a few folks in the county still had police band scanners. And they also had cell phones; if they heard something really exciting going down on the radio, they’d text it to half the county.
If Toomey wanted us, then it was important. Once I was headed that way, I called him on my phone.
“Possibly an accident, but equally likely it’s a homicide. And no one is going to be happy about the victim,” Toomey said sadly. “It’s Mr. Parrish himself.”
Damn it, I thought. Hank Parrish was one of the richest farmers in the county and a model human being. More personally, he’d been a great friend to my dad, helping him with his first election to sheriff and supporting him ever since.
Parrish land covered thousands of acres spread over a large part of the county. Toomey gave me directions to a hay field a quarter mile from the main house. I told him we’d be there in fifteen minutes and hung up.
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Additional Books in the Series
November’s Past
A Larry Macklin Mystery–Book 1
The job of criminal investigator in a rural Florida county is never easy, but it’s even harder when your father is the sheriff.
When Larry Macklin investigates the murder of a mutilated stranger, the search for the victim’s identity intersects with an arson investigation. The common thread is a small group of people who were in high school together in the ’70s, including Larry’s own father. Before Larry can rule any of them out as the killer, one of them turns up dead.
Why is the murderer targeting this particular group? What past secrets could be worth killing for now? Larry is running out of time and suspects, and his search for the truth may make him the next victim.
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December’s Secrets
A Larry Macklin Mystery–Book 2
Still smarting from his disastrous last date with Cara Laursen, criminal investigator Larry Macklin is nevertheless thrilled to get a call from her. But when he arrives at her house, he finds the chief suspect in his latest murder case sitting in her living room—her father, Henry.
Henry claims he is being framed and Larry wants to believe him, but evidence suggests otherwise. And when another murder occurs with direct links to Henry, Larry can’t stop him from being taken into custody.
For Cara’s sake, Larry will do anything to prove Henry’s innocence, but will he have to sacrifice his own ethics and risk obstructing justice in order to do it?
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January’s Betrayal
A Larry Macklin Mystery–Book 3
The specter of corruption has hovered over the Adams County Sheriff’s Office for months. Criminal investigator Larry Macklin is convinced he’s identified a mole for drug dealers within the department, but he doesn’t have enough evidence to prove it.
Larry’s attention is diverted when a recently released suspect in a series of rapes is shot and killed in the act of raping and murdering a woman… or so it seems. But the more Larry digs into the case, the more it becomes clear that the incident is part of a larger conspiracy—one that could have a devastating effect on his father’s career as sheriff.
Larry is desperate to find the real killer and to protect the reputation of the sheriff’s office, but it just might lead him to make the biggest mistake of his career.
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April’s Desires
A Larry Macklin Mystery–Book 6
Coming March 2017!
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About the Author
A. E. Howe lives and writes on a farm in the wilds of north Florida with his wife, horses and more cats than he can count. He received a degree in English Education from the University of Georgia and is a produced screenwriter and playwright. His first published book was Broken State; the Larry Macklin Mysteries is his first series and he has plans for more. Howe is also the co-host of the “Guns of Hollywood” podcast, part of the Firearms Radio Network. When not writing or podcasting, Howe enjoys riding, competitive shooting and working on the farm.
Acknowledgements
A big thank you goes to my beta readers, Sam Azner and Liane Schrader, for their comments and encouragement. And thanks to everyone who has read this series so far—I am humbled by how well it has done and I’m glad that others seem to enjoy reading this series as much as I enjoy writing it.
As always, I have to recognize the amazing and constant support and encouragement I’ve received from H. Y. Hanna. Her advice has been invaluable and I firmly believe that her cover designs have played a big part in the series’ success. Words cannot express my appreciation for all her help.
Good fortune smiled on me when I met a woman who could be my friend, my editor and my wife. Many things in my life, including this series, could not be accomplished without Melanie by my side.
Copyright © 2016 by A. E. Howe
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments, persons or animals, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including pho
tocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.