DEAD SET: Detective Jack Creed Mysteries - The Complete Short Stories Collection: 7 Book Box Set (Detective Jack Creed Murder Mystery Books Series 9)

by C T Mitchell

  “Doesn’t his family own a long distance truck company?” Jo asked.

  “I would think so. He’s very informal with the recipient’s name too. All the others have first and last names but this one looks like it’s a nickname. C from Sydney.”

  “It sounds suspicious to me. If he’s involved in that trucking company do you think they could have a hand in it? No one would suspect the company that they owned.”

  “It’s possible but we need more information before we jump on that possibility. I’m going to take a trip to that treatment place. Where is it? Pottsville Beach?”

  Jo nodded. “That’s it. I’ll take this information down to Dr. Russell to see if she could trace the drugs to the area that the truck drives down.”

  “Perfect,” Jack said before heading out the door.

  CHAPTER 8

  Pottsville Beach was one of the most beautiful places on Earth as far as Jack was concerned. Blue sea as far as the eye could see, white sand, and green grass and lush foliage mixed throughout. It didn’t take Jack long to find the hotel that read “The Pottsville Hotel” in a similar font to the town sign he just passed heading in to Pottsville Beach. Jack parked his car, climbed out, and entered the building. He was immediately greeted by a younger man who smiled politely at him.

  “Can I help you, sir?”

  “I hope so.” Jack flashed his badge. “I’m investigating a murder case. You or someone in this hotel might have some valuable information for me.”

  “Yes, officer, let me get my manager,” the clerk said. “He can help you.”

  Jack’s head bobbed as he patiently waited for the manager. Looking around, he saw that most people were largely ignoring him but a few spoke in hushed whispers. There were always at least some gawkers whenever the police showed up.

  A man around Jack’s age walked up and stopped in front of him. “I’m the manager of the Pottsville Hotel. How can I help you, Officer -- “He checked Jack’s badge. “Creed?”

  “I’m part of the team investigating the mayor’s murder,” Jack said. “I’m following a lead that the mayor’s family was involved in a trucking company. A lead that lead me straight to your fine establishment.”

  The manager’s face paled slightly before he motioned for Jack to follow him into his office. “It’s better we talk in private.” He sat down at his over-sized wood desk. Jack chose a seat across from him.

  “Do you know something that could help the investigation?” Jack had years of practice sounding casual when he knew he was closing in on important case-chasing information. Now was one of those times.

  “I’ve often heard of shipments being made through this area. The mayor’s company has been known to ship at odd times and not always stick to a schedule,” the manager said. “They shipped in the night or at hours you don’t think trucks like that would be on the road. Sometimes they’d have multiple shipments at once and then nothing for weeks. Most of the shipping trucks around here have regular schedules that they follow. I can make you a copy of the truck route if you wish.”

  “Thank you. That would be most helpful.”

  “There are some strange names, I tell you,” the manager said as he opened a file and hit ‘print.’ “Baby Boy and others like that. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they were up to something illegal.” He laughed suddenly as if he was trying to assure himself that the mayor was above reproach. “How silly to think something like that, don’t you think?”

  Jack gave him a tight lipped smile. Silly? This was exactly the kind of gold mine of information they were looking for. Out loud, he only said “Yes, how silly to think that.”

  *****

  “What did you find?” Jo immediately asked as soon as Jack returned to the police station. “I know that look. You found something.”

  Jack led the way into one of the evidence rooms so they couldn’t be overheard. “The mayor does have family inside that trucking company. They’ve been delivering at odd hours too. I got some names so I’m going to look those up and get a hold of the mayor’s aid again.” Jack watched as Jo opened her mouth and closed it, before opening it again and shutting it for good.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “It’s, uh, not about the case,” Jo admitted. “I’ve been noticing something. ..ummm, something about Dr. Russell but it’s really not my place to say anything so--”

  “That’s never stopped you before.” Jack bristled slightly at the mention of Jane Russell and the fact that someone noticed they were spending more time together than usually needed for work related business. If level headed Jo thought there might be something up, what would those gossip mongers at the desks think?

  “I...I really shouldn’t.” Jo looked everywhere but at Jack.

  Jack crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against a filing cabinet. “Spit it out already, Jo. You can’t hold it in forever.”

  Jo took a deep breath. “Fine. I just think you’re going down a dangerous path if you go along with that flirting behavior of hers. You really should consider letting her down easy and now before you’re in too deep.”

  “I don’t plan to be in anything too deep,” Jack said. “Vows are vows and I take mine serious in all aspects of life.”

  “Does Jane know that?”

  “She will.”

  Jo ran a hand through her blonde hair. “Just tell her sooner than later, ok? It’s kind of embarrassing watching her trying to get her flirt on. I don’t want the guys to start some betting pool on how long it takes you to succumb to her clumsy attempts.”

  “Try the day after never.”

  She furrowed her brow in worry. “Just be careful, okay? In everything you do.”

  “I always am,” he promised. “And I intend to keep it that way.”

  CHAPTER 9

  “If you go over those e-mails any more you’ll have them all memorized,” Jo half-joked two days later. The mayor’s aid was avoiding all phone calls and requests to come down to the station. Pretty soon they’d have to just pick him up and bring him in themselves. You couldn’t play nice if the other person wasn’t playing fair.

  Jack rubbed his tired eyes. “I wonder how much the mayor’s aid knew?”

  “Sometimes the more you learn about people the less you actually know them,” Jo mused. “It is possible that the mayor’s aid had no idea about this due to the secret e-mail. The mayor was a functioning addict and sometimes they can hide their addictions quite well.”

  “Avoiding all our efforts to speak to him does not do him any favors,” Jack said. “We need to find a way to get him to talk. Odds are he knew not to leave a paper trail anywhere. Even the lowliest aids learn that in politics 101.” Tapping through another e-mail folder Jack was surprised to see a few e-mails he hadn’t read. He moved them from the spam folder to the inbox in the hopes they might give up some more clues. He finally hit pay dirt when he came across a deceptively simple 2 line email:

  The mayor wants out of the deal. We need to do something about this!

  Jack read it out loud to Jo. “The deal,” he mused. “This so called deal might have something to do with the drugs. If the mayor didn’t want to have them shipped anymore, that is some good motivation to get him out of the picture.”

  “He would also have valuable information that could put them all away for a very long time,” Jo said. “It would be excellent motivation to get the mayor out of the picture. Let’s try to get hold of the e-mail provider. They may still have any e-mails that were deleted saved to their server. They say the internet is forever so we’re going to check that theory.”

  Jack continued to read the emails.

  The mayor is cutting us off so we need to do something. He has refused to listen to me even when I tried “negotiating” with him.

  Negotiating? That caught Jack’s attention. What types of “negotiations” were they in the middle of? Everyone involved had the power to bring each other down if one of them talked. Could the mayor be deeper in thi
s than they originally expected?

  Through the fragments of e-mails Jack was able to piece together a possible picture and some rather strong circumstantial evidence.

  The “medicine” the mayor needs will be late. The cops are becoming suspicious so we have to be discreet.

  Somewhere along the lines, and unknown to all of them, the aid found out about the mayor’s drug habit. One would think a reasonable person would try to quietly get the mayor into a very private rehabilitation center to help him get clean and stay that way. The amount of secrecy needed to keep this all under wraps must have weighed so heavily on their shoulders! The mayor’s aid surely had to pull a few rabbits out of his hat to keep the mayor’s cocaine addiction under wraps.

  The mayor’s speech went off without a hitch thanks to your delivery. No one was any wiser.

  What Jack didn’t know is did the mayor’s aid try to take advantage of the mayor’s addiction or was he somehow tempted into it by an unknown person? Could there be someone else out there that they needed to look out for?

  The mayor is being difficult. He’s wanting out of our arrangement.

  Jack already knew the mayor wanted out of the scene and did not want to pay his aid anymore. What a mess it was! The mayor finally wanted out and even to come clean. How he planned on doing this was something only he knew. He must have had a strong will or had enough of this whole ugly mess to try to change his life around. The aid must have panicked and given the mayor an ultimatum. The threat, however, must have fallen on deaf ears and the mayor was determined to go forth with his plans. The only other option was to silence the mayor so he would take his secrets with him to the grave. The mayor’s aid must have either spiked the drugs himself or had someone do it so he could claim he was innocent. Jack didn’t know which it was nor did he care at the moment.

  What they needed to do was to find the mayor’s aid. No more playing around. It was time he did some talking...and fast.

  CHAPTER 10

  It didn’t entirely come as a surprise to Jack or Jo that the mayor’s aid suddenly disappeared right when they finally had an arrest warrant ready to go. The ink on the warrant for his arrest wasn’t even dry yet when he vanished into thin air. When the police went to collect him, they found his meal was left on the table and was largely uneaten saved for the occasional fly that decided to land on the pancakes. His clothes were also missing, though his car was still in the drive way. The aid was gone in a hurry but he didn’t take his own car. A quick call to the bank also showed the aid cleaned out his bank account at closing time yesterday.

  “He isn’t making this easy on us,” Jo sighed after hanging up with the bank. “On the plus side, if he only pulled the money last night, he couldn’t have gotten far.”

  “Check the hospitals for anyone matching his general description,” Jack barked to one of the rookies loitering around. “Just in case.”

  Jack and Jo returned to the station to do the only thing they could do -- wait.

  *****

  The tip came in unexpectedly that afternoon. Someone matching the description of the mayor’s aide was seen at the storage unit near the outskirts of town. Jack, Jo, and a handful of other officers descended onto the location.

  “Comstock!” Jack called to one of the officers searching the storage units one by one. “Have you found any sign of him yet?”

  “Not yet. We’ve checked all the storage units so that just leaves the long haul trucks. Can your men start on one side and we start on the other? We can work our way in.”

  “Yeah,” Jack agreed. “Let’s go.”

  Jack was thankful the trucks were only latched and not fully locked. They didn’t have the time to get permission to break the locks. Jack forced the back end of the truck wide open. It lifted with a grinding and shrieking noise that hurt their ears if it was any louder. Those doors could certainly use a good amount of oil! The noise alone would tip off anyone who lived within a quarter mile radius! Jack flashed his flashlight inside the truck’s trailer.

  It was empty.

  Both relieved and annoyed, Jack helped Jo close the trailer before they moved onto the next one.

  The next few trailers were the same until they heard a noise that sounded like banging.

  “What was that?” Jo asked. “Do they have a rodent problem?”

  “Not that I’m aware of but…” Jack raised his hand to catch Comstock’s attention. “Did you hear that?”

  Comstock nodded and pointed to a truck that had not yet been investigated. “It’s from over there.”

  The officers gathered around the truck. Each person watched it for signs of life.

  Comstock grabbed the handle and with one swift motion jerked it upwards. The door rattled and groaned as it rose and Jack turned his flash light on.

  This truck, unlike the others, had some boxes in it. They were too small for a human to hide in but there were enough of them for a person could hide behind.

  “You take that side and I’ll take this one,” Jack told Comstock.

  “Right,” Comstock climbed inside while Jack and Jo waited outside the truck in case someone tried to make a break for it.

  A movement caught Comstock’s eyes, “Jack! We have a stowaway!”

  Jack turned and dropped his flash light at what he saw. Sitting before Comstock, half buried in boxes, was the mayor’s aide.

  CHAPTER 11

  Jack allowed himself the luxury of leaning back in his chair. What a case this had been! Sometimes it was amazing and downright terrifying what lengths some people would go to hide their skeletons.

  Jo calmly walked up to Jack and set a folder on his desk. “Our suspect has been lawyered up but we should be able to get a confession from him soon enough. With all that evidence stacked against him it should be a quick trial.”

  “We can hope.” Jack changed the subject. “Do you have any plans tonight?”

  “Not really. I was planning on going home and relaxing unless something else gets my attention.

  You?”

  “I don’t know. The idea of seeing Sally and Melissa sounds good but...”

  “But you’re still thinking about Jane?” Jo guessed.

  “I don’t know what I’m thinking,” Jack admitted. “It’s a confusing business both on and off the case.”

  “Evening all.” Jane stood in the doorway as if sensing they were talking about her. “Why don’t we go out to celebrate another case solved?”

  “Uh, too rich for my blood but why don’t you talk to Jack about it?” Jo made a hasty exit.

  Jack watched her retreating back. Traitor.

  Jane rocked back and forth on her heels, filling up the awkward silence with even more awkwardness before finally saying: “Jack, I wanted to talk about us…”

  “I did too,” Jack said before she could continue with whatever was on her mind. “Our relationship should be a strictly professional one. You’re young and want some fun but it’s not right, Jane.”

  Jane blinked, surprised. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s not right,” he repeated. “I’m married and I have a daughter. You know this. It’s not a secret. I need to be committed to my family and I can’t do that if I’m gallivanting with someone else. You deserve someone who can give you all their attention and time. That someone is not me. A life of living fast and loose could be fun on the outside but it is an empty life. The thrill of being bad is short lived and doesn’t usually end well. Trust me; I’ve done all that in the past. Besides, people gossip. Especially at work. You could lose your career and I could lose my career and my family. It’s not worth it, Jane. No matter how much you think so now. Life is full of temptations.”

  Jane nodded a little. Jack noticed tears pooling in her eyes. He knew she’d never admit how much the rejection hurt her. Unfortunately, he needed to hurt her just a little bit more before he could be well and clear of the would be flirtation.

  “Like the mayor, I’m also driven but I need to keep that grounding fo
rce of family love and morality to keep me going. I can’t stray from my vows. You’re always a huge help to Jo and I on cases and we both know we couldn’t have solved it without your help.”

  “I’m glad I could at least do that,” Jane said stiffly.

  Jack leaned forward when an idea sparked in his mind. “Hey, why not go out with Jo sometime? She knows how to paint the town red and you could both use a smart wingman when navigating the single scene. I’m sure she’d enjoy the company too.”

  “I guess I could try.” Jane wiped under her eyes. “I do need to get out more and not spend all my time at work.” She bit her bottom lip before continuing. “And Jack? Thanks for being so nice about letting me down easy like this. Not everyone would be so kind.”

  “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” he said. “You’re a special person and deserve to be with that special man.

  “Wherever he may be.” Jane wiped her eyes again before glancing at the clock over Jack’s desk.

  “I should go. Good night then.”

  “Good night.”

  After she was gone, Jack leaned back in his chair again and thought about the events of the day. Life was always full of temptations and options but at least he knew he made the correct one and his moral grounding was still safely in place. Life can tempt you to cross the thin line, but Jack knew which side of the line he needed to be on. The right side.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  C T Mitchell is an Amazon bestselling author of mystery short reads and novels with a thriller edge. He is multiple 5 star recipient in the 2017 Readers Choice Awards for his novel Dead Secret (formerly published as Breaking Point).

  Street educated, Australian-born C T Mitchell has traveled the world in his business dealings as a real estate negotiator encountering many interesting characters; some outright crooks. He brings these experiences as well as a love for mystery thrillers to his writing.

  His fast-paced Detective Jack Creek Mysteries weave together traditional police procedural practice, global locations, and a hint of thrillers. Described by readers as “Rebus in a Valentino suit" Jack Creed is the ‘hard copper’ you want on your case.