by J. M. LeDuc
“What do you mean copies?”
Sin swung a leg over the seat of her bike. “Read it and then we’ll talk.”
“How am I supposed to reach you?”
“Capital Grille at noon, tomorrow.”
Sin looked up from her menu as Frank Graham took a seat. Few words were spoken as they ordered drinks and eyed the menus. Once their drinks were served, Graham opened the conversation.
“I can’t tell you how many dinners I had here with Folsom,” he sighed. “The man I knew and the man I read about in the file you gave me couldn’t be more polar opposites.”
“And yet, they were one in the same,” Sin answered.
“After I read the file, I went back and viewed your last case.”
Sin’s eyes rose in surprise. “Why?”
“I needed a different perspective. I wanted to see what drove you to do—”
“The right thing.” Sin finished his sentence. “You want to know what drives me Frank? I’ll tell you. Justice drives me.”
Frank leaned in across the table. “You call this justice?”
Sin leaned forward, closing the gap between. “You’re damn right I do.” They stared at each other until Frank turned away, diverting his sight. “Look me in the eyes,” Sin said, “and tell me that if we brought Westcott and Ramirez in to custody, they would have been convicted of murder.”
“Sinclair, we can only do our job and let the system do the rest.”
“Not,” she said through gritted teeth, “when it’s the fucking system on trial. Christ, Frank, he had federal judges in his pocket.”
“So, where does this leave us?”
“With a closed case,” Sin answered.
“You mentioned that this file contains copies. If this case is closed, I would like the originals.”
“I have one more request before I turn over the originals.”
Graham sat back and crossed his arms. “And that would be?”
“I have eleven good men who have fought for justice from outside the system for the past six years. They would like to work from the inside.”
“Speak clearer, Sin.”
“I would like my unit admitted into the next recruit class at the academy.”
“On one condition of my own,” Graham said.
“That is?”
“Upon completion of their training, your unit gets split up.”
Sin nodded. “There is always the annual Christmas party.”
“How am I supposed to find eleven ghosts?” Frank asked.
“Leave me business cards and I will see that they get them.”
Frank pulled a leather business card holder from his coat pocket and placed the cards on the table. Within the next few minutes, eleven people got up from tables around them, walked by, and took a card on their way out.
Fletcher slapped him on his back as he limped by. “We’ll be in touch.”
A few minutes later, Sin stood to leave.
Graham turned to Sin as they walked out the front door. “So where does this leave the two of us?”
She held up her hands in mock arrest. “Up to you, Frank.”
He reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out a badge—Sin’s badge. “I think you dropped this some time back. Hold on to it. I’ll be in touch.”
Sin reached out with pearl-painted nails and traced the cold metal with her fingers. “Thanks, Frank.”
Sin straddled her bike and kick-started the Harley.
“Agent,” Graham yelled over the wail of the exhaust “answer your phone when I call.”
Sin pulled her mirrored shades down over her eyes, flashed her pearly whites, and twisted hard on the throttle, leaving Frank in a cloud of dust.
Painted Beauty
Book 2: Sinclair O’Malley Series
Coming 2015
When the bodies of two young women turn up on Savannah Beach, the FBI keeps the investigation under wraps. When another turns up on Miami Beach a month later, the case gets blown wide open. There is no denying that the same killer or killers are to blame. The MO is identical—the girls are painted and staged—the only difference is that the “artiste” has now added a frame—and a note.
Frank Graham, the Director of the FBI, calls in the only person he knows who will stop at nothing to hunt down a psychotic serial killer—Agent Sinclair O’Malley.
As the numbers of “canvases” rise, Sin will have to contend with the local police captain who wants to see her fail and a perky reporter who is after the story of a lifetime.
For the “artiste” only the art matters. “Good or bad, it doesn’t matter, as long as they are talking about the art.” Words he lives by—and kills for!
Painted Beauty—where beauty is only skin deep!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Adduci, writing as J. M. LeDuc, is a native Bostonian, who transplanted to South Florida in 1985. He shares his love and life with his wife, Sherri and his daughter, Chelsea.
Blessed to have had a mother who loved the written word, her passion was passed on to him. It is in her maiden name he writes. When he is not crafting the plot of his next thriller, his alter ego is busy working as a professor at The Academy of Nursing and Health Occupations, a nursing college in West Palm Beach, Florida.
J.M. LeDuc’s first novel, “Cursed Blessing,” won a Royal Palm Literary Award in 2008 as an unpublished manuscript in the thriller category and was published in 2010. The rest of the Trilogy of the Chosen: “Cursed Presence” and “Cursed Days” followed in 2012, as well as a novella, “Phantom Squad”—a prequel to the trilogy. “Cornerstone,” the continuation of the Phantom Squad series was published in 2013 to critical acclaim.
“Sin” is the first book in the new Sinclair O’Malley series.
J.M. is a proud member of the prestigious International Thriller Writers (ITW) as well as the Florida Writers Association (FWA) and loves to interact with his fans. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Facebook on his author page.
