“Great. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s a damn blabbermouth.”
Roberta walked in, huffing and puffing. “Sorry,” she said. “My legs are too short.”
She looked at my cast and started to cry. “Look what they deed to my poor Mr. Ben.” She walked over and put her arms around my head, sobbing. My face was between her huge breasts, and I couldn’t breathe. When she let go, Maggie bent over laughing as I gasped for breath. “You come home,” Roberta said. “I will take care of you.” She wiped her eyes and slipped her hankie in her sleeve.
“I think I can come home tomorrow … or Monday,” I said.
Maggie left to run a couple of errands, but Roberta stayed. She sat in the chair to my right and wouldn’t take her eyes off me. “You’re famous, Mr. Ben,” she said. “They talk about you on the TV this morning. Are you going to get a big reward?”
“No, I’m afraid there’s no reward.”
She slowly shook her head, but didn’t add the usual Poor Miss Maggie. Instead, she reached over and held my hand. It felt good. The last few days had been just terrible—and I was so tired. I closed my eyes, and we just sat silently together for awhile. “I saw the painting … ,” she said softly, still holding my hand. “Have you talked with Jesus?”
I laughed. “No, I haven’t had time. But I’ll do it when I come home.”
“Let’s do it now,” Roberta said. “We pray together.”
“No, thank you. Not right now. I don’t feel very well.”
She huffed, and then she pleaded. “You must, Mr. Ben! You must do it now! You must open your heart to Jesus and confess your sins … or else your soul will go to hell.”
I rubbed my face. “Roberta, please. Besides, I don’t have a Bible.”
“I do! I have one in my bag!” She bent over and began rummaging through her bag.
“No, Roberta … not now … please, Roberta?” She wasn’t listening to a word I was saying. I was about to be forced to talk to Jesus until Maggie returned. I grabbed the pendant and hit the call button.
“Yes?”
I watched Roberta pull the Bible from the bottom of her bag. “Please send Nurse Slaughter back with the morphine injection right away. I have pain … terrible, terrible pain.”
About the Author
Harry James Krebs was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. After receiving his BA in applied physics from Aurora University in Illinois, Harry spent thirty-seven years with United States Department of Energy Contractors as a senior mechanical engineer. He designed, built, maintained, and operated large experimental detectors for high-energy physics experiments at national laboratories such as the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the Superconducting Super Collider, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University.
Krebs always wanted to write mystery novels, but his engineering career left him little time to write until now.
The author and his wife currently live in Raleigh, North Carolina with their Chihuahua, Lucille.
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Acknowledgements
To Shiloh Burnam, from Peak City Publishing, for your unwavering confidence in me and this project. Thank you also for your patience and the tireless commitment and dedication you put forth to produce such a high-quality product.
To editor, Kerry Holjes, for the remarkable talent and the extraordinary effort you so generously provided to transform the manuscript to publishable form. Your fastidious, unfaltering attention to detail makes me look like a rock star. I never knew an editor could have such respect for an author’s fiercely protected labor of love.
Most of all, I thank my wife, Patricia, who is not only my partner in life, but my partner in writing as well. It is your creativity that breathes true life into the characters we’ve created. I love you dearly.
If you enjoyed Vengeance is Mine, try Fractured Persona by Harry James Krebs
Structural engineer, Richard Fornek, awakens from a coma in a North Carolina hospital in full possession of a lifetime of memories-but not in possession of his body. A glimpse in a mirror and the evidence of a driver's license prove that Fornek is trapped in the body of warehouse worker Daniel Curtis. Terrified, he insists that he's Richard Fornek, but when faced with the prospect of admittance to a psychiatric hospital, he is forced to assume a new role to buy time to figure out what’s going on. Alone and confused, things go from bad to worse as he struggles to regain control of his life. A little romance, a little murder, and a whole lot of hair-raising suspense unfold as he scrambles to stay one step ahead of the mayhem.
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Table of Contents
Vengeance is M
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24When Holly Springs
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
About the Author
AcknowledgementsTo Shiloh Burnam
If you enjoyed Vengeance isMine
Vengeance is Mine - A Benjamin Tucker Mystery Page 31
