Taunting (The Flint Files Book 1)

by Mark Treble

  “Carly, did I bring the wrong thing? You’re drinking water.” Cheryl meant it as an innocent question, but the whole room went still. Alex was impossible to read, Deidre had on her courtroom-blank face, and Ethan stared at his lap.

  “I’m not drinking, Cheryl.” Carly sat quiet for a full thirty seconds. “It’s the baby.” That’s when Ethan grinned.

  “We’re having a baby, and Alex can have a little brother, and we’re going to get married and we’re having a baby or maybe I already said that.” Ethan was grinning wide enough for a tractor-trailer to drive through.

  Danny jumped up and thumped Ethan on the back. Alex was grinning, too, but his meaning was hard to read. Cheryl, direct as ever, addressed the elephant in the room.

  “Carly, you’re on birth control pills, and I know from experience that Ethan doesn’t mind using a condom.” Ethan and Carly turned near-identical shades of crimson while Alex laughed and Deidre had a sudden urge to cover her mouth with her napkin. “What happened?”

  Carly was quicker than Ethan. “If you don’t know what happened, Cheryl, I think it’s time you considered a career besides nursing. I’ll spare you the details of how it happened, but I’m pregnant. The pills were making me sick and, well, Ethan and I had too much to drink one night and here we are.”

  Ethan’s face turned from scarlet to bright red. Alex saved him from having to say anything. “I’m amazed you can remember how at your age, Ethan. Maybe you forgot how to roll on a condom? I can give you some pointers if you like.” Deidre smacked him on the arm. Hard. Twice.

  The group spent about twenty minutes talking about baby stuff and the wedding and whatnot. Ethan had asked Alex’s “Uncle” Luke to be his best man. Herb Lockhart was throwing a reception at his club in New Orleans; he’d write the whole thing off on taxes and get away with it, too. Carly had learned that thirty illegal knockoff designer wedding dresses were being held by the NOPD awaiting word from Customs on what to do with them. She’d change the number to twenty-nine tomorrow.

  Eventually it got around to the Martyrs Murders and Joel Vanderveer. Ethan had been doing some digging in the newspaper’s archives.

  “You know, his parents weren’t Vanderveer’s only loss as a child. Yeah, he killed them, but he lost his brother in an accident earlier. Jeremiah Vanderveer fell off a roof and broke his neck at the age of eight. Joel was only six at the time. They’d been fooling around climbing and playing, and Jeremiah went head first onto the patio. Do you think the emotional shock accounted for him becoming a sociopath?”

  Deidre looked at Danny, Danny looked at Cheryl, and Cheryl looked at Carly. They each shook their heads.

  “Exhumation and autopsy?” That was Deidre.

  “Maybe, I’m not sure.” That was Cheryl.

  Danny had the last word. “Does it matter?”

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  Books by Mark Treble

  The Gulfside City Series

  The series chronicles decades of a basketball-crazy small town in rural Florida. Current high school players struggle with relationships, trauma and identity while the former stars struggle with advancing age and vanishing youth. Fans find themselves in positions that are at once awkward, funny and heart-breaking. Characters move fluidly across the stories, never falling on their faces until they’re inside.

  The Trip to Helen Gawne (Volume 1, comedy), available in early 2016

  Four lifetime friends go on a road trip to take one last shot at winning the heart of their mutual former crush, the Prom Queen. Except it’s almost fifty years after high school and the guys are all in their sixties. What can possibly go wrong?

  Jake, the class clown, is longing to restore his youth. Plus his knees, his colon, his hips, and half a dozen other body parts that will no longer cooperate.

  Alessandro, once nicknamed by the high school girls TDP (Tall Dark and Promiscuous) nowadays eats Viagra like candy. His third wife left when the sex went from bad to none, and he’s desperately seeking something to revive his flagging libido.

  Elvis divorced his wife after finding the new lawn care guy trimming her bush, plowing her garden and fertilizing her field. The town’s number one (and only) dentist, Elvis needs a break from looking down in the mouth. Not to mention hackneyed dentist jokes.

  Woody, the perennial bachelor, is along for the ride. Plus, if he goes, his sister’s twenty-some grandchildren can’t pester him to come out and throw the football with them. The one-time high school football star can no longer throw, can no longer hold the ball, and most importantly, can no longer remember where he left it.

  Helen Bradley, the Prom Queen, had married Richie Gawne, the basketball star in a sports-crazy town. An unfortunate accident with a bouncing basketball knocked loose a nasty clot in Richie’s brain and, well, he’s now playing for another team. And his widow, Helen Gawne, is once more available.

  As their golden years tarnish before their eyes, the four friends take off cross-country on their last desperate shot at youth. They’re on The Trip to Helen Gawne.

  Four Seconds on the Clock (Volume 2, coming of age & coming out), available now in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com

  Logan Matthews has it all: good grades, a leading position on the basketball team, a hot girlfriend, a smart best friend, a great part-time job and his own car - and a slam-dunk basketball scholarship to a nationally-ranked university. Everything’s going his way. So, why does life suddenly feel as though everything is spiraling out of control?

  A substitute teacher with an agenda is threatening to fail him in an important class. Some of his hidden activities on the job have been caught on video. There is even a whole website devoted to what he is doing. If it gets out, his father will throw him out of the house. And, if it stays secret, things could become infinitely worse than just being homeless.

  Logan’s hot girlfriend is finally loosening up on the physical relationship side. She’s promised him a special treat at the party. But Logan’s father has grounded him, ordered him to drop his girlfriend and find a new best friend. The current best friend is black, the girlfriend’s twin brother is gay, and Logan’s father the bigot has spoken.

  Tommy, Logan’s former best friend, despises Logan almost as much as Logan despises him. But, they have to work together or both lose their scholarships. And Coach won’t let up on forcing the issue. Either they put aside their differences or Coach will put aside their scholarships. There’s just too much history and pain to overcome.

  The pain boils over and both Tommy and Logan get sick. Finally, secrets both glorious and gruesome, buried too long, surface and the young men have to face the past to get on with the future.

  As Logan pivots his feet on the squeaky gym floor, he’s counting on a desperation play to win the game. And he wonders just how many more desperation plays, on and off the court, will have to succeed to get his life in order. It could all start with winning this game, but can he do it? After all, there are only four seconds left on the clock.

  The Head Game (Volume 3, sports comedy), available in late 2016

  “Basketball is one-third skill, one-third dedication, and the other two-thirds is mental.”

  - Coach Leslie Martin, Stoneport High School Head Basketball Coach

  The Stoneport, Florida, Sasquatch basketball team has average players with average talent and skills. The small rural school wins most of its games and is a perennial contender for the state championship.

  How do they do it? They mess with the other teams’ minds. Their opponents are playing basketball. These guys are playing the Head Game. The book follows a season of ups and downs and quite a few sideways.

  The Life Stories Series

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sp; These books revolve around the complex and combative relationship between a thirty-one year old stepfather, journalist Ethan, and his eighteen year old stepson, rebel Alex. The rich cultural life of Louisiana serves as a backdrop to mystery, adventure, drama and comedy.

  Life Struggles (Volume 1, mystery-thriller), available now at Amazon Kindle

  Ethan McQuade is a recently-widowed investigative reporter for a New Orleans newspaper. Thirty-one year old Ethan and his step-son of eighteen, Alex DeLauder, live together in a fragile truce that is broken and repaired at least daily. Unfortunately, the glue is running out as the relationship deteriorates.

  Then Alex mysteriously disappears and his clothes are found at the curb. Ethan’s search for his step-son is fruitless. Frantic, he calls the police with little hope of any assistance. He is happily surprised when Detective Danny Flint shows up quickly with reinforcements. The reason the police are taking this seriously, though, is frightening. Alex is the tenth young man to have gone missing without explanation in the past year.

  The police and the FBI’s profilers can find no pattern. No one knows who is responsible, why this is being done, or where the young men are. As the police conduct a search Ethan enlists the help of his own confidential sources to navigate the danger-filled underworld of New Orleans crime. He looks for explanations in sex, drugs, murder and elsewhere. Each step into this cesspool brings Ethan one step closer to his own death. An avaricious Motor Vehicle clerk, a convicted murderer and a gay graphic artist are only a few of those who lend a hand. Ultimately, though, Ethan is on his own. And he’s running out of time. Before Alex can be found Ethan is left for dead. Finding Alex just unpeels the first layer of the onion.

  Simple kidnappings rapidly evolve into a medical mystery. These young men all have something the kidnappers want, but for what purpose? Where are the young men, who are the perpetrators and who is behind this? Every time a layer is peeled back another, more complex, one is revealed. And, the final questions are not answered until the last page – if then.

  Life Continues (Volume 2, coming of age/comedy) available in early 2016

  Alex acts out while Ethan tries to cope. The stepson/stepfather duo cycles among fighting, sulking, looking for love (and sex if available), and having spectacular meltdowns.

  Being a teenager awash in hormones and deep in grief is no fun for anybody, least of all Ethan. Alex is arrested for soliciting prostitution. A cast of unlikely characters – a gay artist, the artist’s straight boyfriend, a music groupie and Monica, the vibrator queen of the South – all pitch in to help. Is there anything wrong with this picture?

  A bawdy trauma nurse and a sexually-frustrated policewoman keep the rest of the characters on their toes – and their backs and their knees and in other positions. A brilliant nurse trainee is learning diagnostic technical terms. For one patient, those turn out to be wacko and horny. A house full of raucous hedonists throws a party nobody can remember. Except for the policewoman who ignores Ethan’s advances in favor of pursuing attractive, suave and debonair Mike. At least until Mike calls Luke his boyfriend.

  Ethan and Alex wind their way through strange situations and characters. Alex’s politically correct grandparents see no conflict in their support of Women’s and Gender Studies at a university while deploring the fact that Ethan lives next door to a ho-mo-sex-wall. Their NAACP membership is in fully consistent with lamenting the integrated nature of Ethan’s neighborhood.

  A visit from a couple of Swedish-speaking Finns raises serious questions. Are most Americans prunish? No, not that prunish, that one’s a breakfast pastry. The other prunish. Would America ever have invaded Iraq if its men’s manslems hadn’t been mutilated as infants? Read and find out.

  Alex gets arrested again, this time for attempted murder. His innocence can be proven, of course. Just as soon as a woman comes out of a coma, a young girl regains the ability to speak, and a violent drug-maker stops clinging to his right to remain silent.

  Other characters make brief appearances. Officer Ding Dong and Officer Pantyhose are but two. Then there’s the fellow who “accidentally” wound up with a gerbil trapped in his rectum. The studio filming a movie of Ethan’s book wants a high-budget all-star cast. It also wants to use an actor who has been dead for thirty years in a lead part.

  Then Deidre, Alex and Ethan’s lawyer, wants to give legal advice to Alex's Zanderpinky behind closed bedroom doors. Attorney-client privilege, you know.

  Throughout the narrative the single most important character is already dead. Alex’s now-deceased mother (and Ethan’s now-deceased wife) drives the characters’ actions, motivations and accomplishments. Dana DeLauder’s sudden passing left her widower and her orphaned son each trying to save himself while working to sink the other. She left a legacy of lifted hearts and golden opportunities for the large number of musical groups she helped launch. She left a heritage of unconditional love for many others. How does the extended cast cope with her death?

  As Dana said, Life Continues.

  Life Creates (Volume 3, drama) available Summer 2016

  Alex feels cast aside. He had finally accepted his mother’s death and begun developing a healthy relationship with his stepfather. Then Ethan remarries and starts a new family. They’re back to Square One.

  While Ethan tries to help Alex adjust to the new circumstances, Alex plots to sabotage Ethan’s new marriage. How do you deal with a teenager trying to create new victims to join him in his misery? How do you love the stepson working to destroy you, the police officer wife who loves you, and the baby still on the way?

  Life becomes a pinball machine. Alex and Ethan are silver balls bouncing off one another as well as a host of traps and obstacles, both real and perceived. Friends, neighbors, rivals, strangers, enemies and lovers are flipping paddles faster than the balls can react. The only thing certain in the game is that a ball will go down a hole. Just where it pops up is anybody’s guess.

  Life destroys and life creates. The balls move faster and less predictably. As Ethan and Alex work to establish some kind of balance, they’re in a race with the machine. Each wants to win the game before the machine calls Tilt.

  The Flint Files

  This series of mystery thrillers follows Danny Flint, the new Deputy Commander of the New Orleans Police Department’s High Profile Case Squad. If it’s a high-profile homicide, robbery, fraud or any other kind of case, it belongs to the HPC.

  Taunting (Volume 1, mystery thriller) available for pre-order January 2016

  Somebody is killing the elderly members of New Orleans’ venerable Martyrs’ Episcopal Church. Are bigots targeting the church for holding gay weddings? Are activists targeting the church because its priest wants to preach instead of politicize, and minister instead of marching? Or, maybe it’s because the church’s congregation has shrunk while the value of its land has skyrocketed.

  Or maybe something else is going on here. As the bodies pile up suspicion turns to an arrogant lawyer who may have been embezzling funds from his clients. When a solid case is built against him, Detective Danny Flint learns that the lawyer cannot possibly have done all of this on his own. There has to be an accomplice.

  Suspicion about the accomplice shifts from person to person, chapter by chapter. Will anybody ever be held accountable for what may be as many as fifty murders?

  Harassing (Volume 2, mystery thriller) available in late 2016

  Danny Flint and the HPC are faced with an inexplicable series of smash-and-grab jewelry store robberies. They all share the same M.O. but the perps are all different.

  The robberies spread across the state, and then something changes. Somebody dies. Suddenly the jewelry store robberies cease and now it’s pawn shops. Same M.O. as the jewelry stores, just different perps every time. Then one of the perps dies. With an identity should come motive, but none can be found. He’s a successful businessman with nothing to gain from robbery, but everything to lose – including his life.

  When another businessman
comes forward with a tale of intrigue, blackmail and shame, it provides an explanation but puts the squad no closer to finding the people behind the crime spree. When an audacious crime is pulled off flawlessly, the well-to-do criminal is killed during the getaway by his own accomplices. Can the squad find the masterminds before anybody else has to die?

  The Finding Series

  From Wikipedia: Bromance. A bromance is a close, emotionally intense, non-sexual bond between two (or more) men. It is an exceptionally tight affectional, homosocialmale bonding relationship that exceeds that of usual friendship, that is distinguished by a particularly high level of emotional intimacy. .

  Finding Friendship (Volume 1, bromance), available soon in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com