"If Peterson is singing my praises," he said, "then that means he is covering something up. Do we know anything more about the relationship between Ashland and Peterson?"
Pierson shook her head. "The official statement, provided by his lawyer last Tuesday, is that an unknown party--presumably Ashland--tried to extort money from Peterson to keep quiet about Newsome's role in killing Freeman. Supposedly Peterson contacted the police--and we have collaboration that the Lakewood Police did get a call from him--but that he had no real specifics about the extortionist."
"What about Ashland going to Peterson's office? How does Peterson explain that?"
"He doesn't," said Pierson. "He says Ashland was never in his office, never came to see him. His secretary, when shown a picture of Ashland, said she had never seen him before."
MacFarland had only seen Ashland around the CCP building, so he couldn't say who Ashland had seen inside the building. He could tell by her tone that Pierson wasn't convinced Peterson or his secretary were telling the truth. Like him, she had no way of determining what the real facts were.
"He can sing my praises from now to the end of time," said MacFarland. "I still think he is guilty of something."
Rufus looked up from his empty plate. "Whatever you say, boss. Say, are you going to finish those pancakes?"
Chapter 85
Friday, February 26, 1046 Hours
They finished their breakfast, and Baker offered to pay for everyone's meal. Pierson and Lockwood made faint attempts to pay for their own meals, but quickly let Baker cow them into accepting his largesse. They exited the Denny's and Rufus headed west on Alameda, awkwardly dragging his luggage carrier behind him. Lockwood offered to drive him to his destination, but Rufus was too smart for that. The fewer people who knew where your hidey-hole was, the longer you survived, and while Rufus trusted Lockwood, he couldn't undo years of caution. Lockwood shrugged, then got into his car and drove off.
Baker shook MacFarland's hand as they prepared to part. "You know, I really do think you did a great job on this case," he said. "And while my man is recovering from his ski accident, I might still need you to help out in the future. I hope you'll be open to that."
MacFarland shrugged. "I'm a hot dog seller, not a detective, Jerry."
Baker nodded. "Yeah, right. Well, I know where you'll be, I hope, and you know where to find me. And you can always get a message to me through my new courier."
Baker went over to his Lexus, checked it over for parking lot dings and scratches, got in and drove off. MacFarland and Pierson watched him drive away.
Pierson walked him over to her car and helped him get into the passenger side. As he sat down, he muttered something. "What did you say?" asked Pierson.
"I said that this little victory celebration was nice, but I don't really think the case is closed."
Pierson sighed, closed the door, and went around to the driver's side. As she got in, she said, "Maybe you should just give it a rest, Mac. Everyone else thinks the case is closed, and you should too."
"It will be closed," he whispered, more to himself than to Pierson. "It will be closed when Peterson pays for killing Nicole."
Author's Note
Although I've lived in Denver for more than thirty years, my job as a management consultant and corporate trainer often kept me away from the city I loved. Finally I got the courage to follow my dreams and stay home and write about a character who has lived inside my mind for several decades: a disgruntled detective who runs a hot dog stand and studies foreign languages (both of which I have often dreamed of doing). Mark MacFarland is my idea of the ultimate hero. Not the kind who can single-handedly save the world, but the kind who cares about what he is doing and does his best. He makes mistakes, often because he acts without thinking. Fortunately, he has Cynthia Pierson to do his thinking for him. He just needs to come to his senses and realize that.
The idea for the Avid Angler came to me from a story I used to tell in my training programs about a superstitious fisherman who never went fishing without his wife's sun bonnet on his head. Except now, my fisherman was also a professional hit man, but without the bonnet. I brought the Avid Angler to life two years ago. Developing the discipline to write every day was critical. Then my editor, Tara Maya of Misque Press, suggested I look into using the Blake-Snyder plot outline approach. I’ve been adapting that to mysteries and it has vastly helped my writing. Since then, Mac MacFarland's stories have practically written themselves.
I like to think of the Hot Dog Detective series as being a "semi" cozy mystery (though one reviewer feels that it is more of a hard boiled mystery). It follows some of the rules of cozy mysteries, but deliberately violates others. My hero is a man searching for himself, trying to put his life back together. The stories take place in metropolitan Denver, not exactly a small town, but a small enough city that you can feel at home here. MacFarland's occupation is one that has always fascinated me, being one of those jobs filled by the "invisible people" most people don't pay attention to. Being somewhat squeamish, I try to keep as much of the violence and gore out of my stories as I can. And, much to MacFarland's chagrin, the Hot Dog Detective is a master sleuth, but not the ladies' man he might wish he was.
The Hot Dog Detective series is not a forensics mystery, nor a police procedural mystery. On the other hand, forensics and police procedure cannot be ignored. Never having been a cop, nor even ever have been in jail (which might actually be a good thing), I have to do a lot of research in order to make my stories seem remotely realistic. Most of the time this includes book research; sometimes, interviewing subject matter experts; other times, going to locations to see what the site looks like. This is the fun part of being a writer—learning new things about the world around you.
Modern crime solving techniques are team efforts. Many critical skills go into bringing miscreants to justice. MacFarland lacks those. Helping MacFarland find suitable replacements for the systemic crime-fighting structure we call a police department is one of the other challenges the Hot Dog Detective series presents.
If you have suggestions for improving my series, please write me a personal message ([email protected]) or go to my blog at MathiyaAdams.com (https://mathiyaadams.com). You can also like me or friend me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/mathiya.adams) or follow me on Twitter (@MathiyaAdams).
The next book in the Hot Dog Detective series is The Busty Ballbreaker. You can get information about this and subsequent stories in the series by adding your name to my email list by sending your contact information to [email protected].
Mathiya Adams
Denver, Colorado
The Avid Angler - The Hot Dog Detective (A Denver Detective Cozy Mystery) Page 24
