by Scott Cook
I drew in a breath and let it out slowly, “Still feeling guilty… but at least we now know who was responsible.”
“It still bothers him,” Lisa said.
“Why?” Shelby asked, once again back at the wheel. “She snuck away and because of that, those guys caught her.”
I smiled at her, “I know…”
“It’s sad that she died,” Shelby went on, “but it’s nobody’s fault. She shouldn’t have left you. Sorry, but that was dumb. The only people who should feel guilty are the people who made it happen.”
Clay grinned at me, “Mouth of babes, Poppy Churro.”
I put an arm around Shelby and hugged her, “You’re right.”
What is it that drives people to murder? Is it evil? It’s hard to believe otherwise, frankly.
Veronica Bradford was targeted for a variety of reasons. Greed chief among them. Yet there was more, too. She was killed because some people didn’t want their deepest, darkest secrets revealed. They didn’t want anyone to know about the bad things they did, so they tried to cover them by doing an evil thing.
Marcus Bradford had betrayed his brother. Julius’ first wife had as well. Had she known they couldn’t get pregnant? Had she had an affair with her husband’s brother because of it? Julius Bradford had returned the favor, either knowingly or unknowingly, and in the process, created a child with Veronica.
Did Julius know that? Or did he think that he and his wife had conceived again, never knowing that neither conception was possible?
The son, Andrew, had apparently not been a party to the plot. Or at least there was no evidence to suggest it. It is hard to imagine that he had no idea, though. And the daughter… Veronica’s daughter Sarah Beth… had conspired to kill her own mother. She didn’t know that, yet somehow that would be little consolation now that the truth had come out.
Evil only begets evil, perhaps. And what of Lou Cardoza? Is he equally evil? Certainly he does bad things on a far more regular basis. Most of the time, it’s only business, though. He doesn’t do some of the terrible things he does out of hate or malice… not always anyway.
Did that make a murder better? Kill a man because he shorted you a few kilos… or murder a woman because she was about to discover that her dead husband’s daughter was, in fact, the baby girl she’d been grieving over for more than twenty years?
No… it didn’t. Evil was evil. Perhaps the Bradford’s evil went deeper, but it was still evil to take another’s life for your own personal gain. Whether you’re teaching some scumbag dealer a lesson or to prevent someone from exposing you and ruining you… you committed an act of evil. Stealing a woman’s child and selling it to another is no less evil, for that matter.
If only Veronica had trusted me. If only she’d confided in me that she began to suspect something about the Bradford family and Doctor Campbell. I could’ve investigated or confronted Felix for her. Instead, she must have made the connection and gone to demand that he tell her the truth… and Otter had been waiting.
It wasn’t a happy ending, yet it was at least resolved. In my business, that’s all you can hope for sometimes. And that once in a while, you can conquer evil… at least a little.
A Word From the Author
What!? Again!? How can such wonderment and fulfillment end so abruptly? Well, my valued and treasured reader… it always seems to, doesn’t it?
I want to sincerely thank you for reading this latest installment in the Scott Jarvis saga. 11 books, can you believe it? It’s hard for me to! Doesn’t seem that long ago when I was wondering what the heck this Kindle deal was all about… and now I’ve got 11 books in this series and another beginning to take root – at least as of this writing.
But none of it could happen without people like you. Voracious readers who seek out entertaining stories to fill their free hours. As much as I love writing, I, too, am a voracious reader. I love a good tale, and I hope that this one entertained you, made you laugh, made you cringe and made you cheer our heroes.
Well, it’s that time again. Time for your good buddy Scotty to hork his stuff!
Let me first recommend that you check out my new series based on a World War 2 Submarine called the U.S.S. Bull Shark. It’s an exciting series and as I finish this book, I’m already starting on book #2 in that one. Check it out, if you’re a lover of WW2 fiction, history and/or action and adventure, then this is right up your alley:
Check out Operation: Snare Drum – A WWII submarine Adventure here
Please visit my website and join our free crew roster. There you’ll get lots of updates, info and insider news on books and promos. You’ll also receive a free Jarvis novella I think you’ll enjoy:
www.scottwcook.com
Finally, follow me on Facebook at:
www.facebook.com/swcwriter
Once again, thank you for reading and I hope to have a new story for you soon!
