A semi-retired detective becomes bored in less than six months with his new, less stressful job. He decides that he needs a distraction to help fight the boredom. After asking permission to look at TDCJ's cold case files, one catches his eye. What starts as a distraction becomes an obsession.
Jay Magruder had been assigned, for most of his police career, to Houston, Texas's dangerous Third Ward. As a detective, he wanted to be assigned to the area of the nation's fourth largest city that would have the most action. Although it houses a major university and several mansions, the Third Ward has the reputation as the fifteenth most dangerous neighborhood in the U.S.
Age, however, takes its toll, and Jay finds himself wanting a less stressful job. He finds such a job with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. A supposed bonus, in addition to the bump in pay that he receives, is that TDCJ makes its headquarters in Huntsville, a sleepy hamlet seventy miles due north of downtown Houston. This sleepy hamlet, however, is also where the prison that houses Texas's death row inmates sits beside the prison where inmates who are paroled are processed to re-enter the free world.
Although Jay does not have to deal with Houston's infamous traffic or violent crimes anymore, his hiatus from the rigors of day-to-day detective work lasts less than six months, due to his own actions. He decides that he cannot just read every article in his hometown newspaper every day at his new job and be happy with it. That is when he asks permission to review the cold case files at his new job.
.
Jay needs his job, in addition to his police retirement fund, to pay child support to two of his three ex-wives. Each has three children by Jay. He also had three by his first wife, but all three are grown and self-supportive now. He has been on high alert as a detective with HPD for thirty years, however. The job of "Senior Investigative Detective" with TDCJ bores him to tears in only twenty weeks.
Jay is so bored that he pours over the cold case files until he finds a case that he is vaguely familiar with. He has some connection to both people involved. Strangely, the case was closed when it was determined to be a murder/suicide. What piques Jay's curiosity is that at least one other person does not believe this to be the situation- the person who assigned the file to the "Case Unsolved, Investigation Discontinued" box.
Although Magruder is a veteran first grade detective, he decides he needs some help with this particular case. He then takes out an ad. on social media. This ad. procures a very tall young man in his early twenties. He seems to know every detail of a story that encompasses over twenty-five years (which is longer than the young man has been alive!). The young man tells Jay that he will tell the story to him and that he will only charge the detective a few hours of his time. Jay is bored enough to listen to the young man's story.
As he is telling the story, the reader (like Jay) may become even more curious about the young man's identity than s/he is about the identity of both the murderer and the second victim involved in the case. Be sure to read the epilogue, where the young man's identity is revealed. HIs identity explains how he knows every detail of the story.
This is the first in a series of five books. If you enjoy reading this book, please look for the other four as they become available.
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