Collateral Damage: A Matt Royal Mystery - Softcover

Griffin, H. Terrell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1608090841 ISBN 13: 9781608090846

Verlag: Oceanview Publishing, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Best-Selling and Award-Winning Author

Four murders and a love affair—and all on the serenely beautiful island of Longboat Key

The quiet beauty of Longboat Key is shattered when a young groom is shot to death on the beach the day after his wedding. His father is an old army buddy of Matt Royal, and Matt tries to soften the anguish of his friend by finding his son's murderer. Matt's search takes on added complexity when there appears to be a link between this murder and three seemingly unrelated murders that occurred on board a dinner cruise on Sarasota Bay the same day.

Fortunately for Matt, his old buddies, Logan Hamilton and Jock Algren, show up to cover his back and to help investigate. But this case rekindles haunting events of Matt's past and incites a web of doubt, deception, and even suspicion, among the closest of friends.

When Longboat Key detective Jennifer Diane (J.D.) Duncan joins the investigation, Matt loses a little focus as he drifts toward more than just a professional relationship. Will this distraction cost lives when they encounter a shady and very dangerous cabal?

Perfect for fans of Robert Crais and John Sandford

While all of the novels in the Matt Royal Mystery Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:

Blood Island
Wyatt’s Revenge
Bitter Legacy
Collateral Damage
Fatal Decree
Found
Chasing Justice
Mortal Dilemma
Vindication

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

H. Terrell Griffin, a former trial lawyer and soldier, is the award-winning and best-selling author of the Matt Royal Mystery Series set on the Florida Gulf Coast island of Longboat Key, and Vindication, set in The Villages of Central Florida. His novels have repeatedly been compared to John D. MacDonald for their setting, character, and style. Collateral Damage joins the Longboat Key series of Blood Island, Wyatt’s Revenge, Bitter Legacy, Fatal Decree, Found, Chasing Justice, and Mortal Dilemma.

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Collateral Damage

A Matt Royal Mystery

By H. Terrell Griffin

Oceanview Publishing

Copyright © 2011 H. Terrell Griffin
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-60809-084-6

CHAPTER 1

On the last morning of his life, Jim Desmond woke to the sound of the gentle surf lapping on the beach, pushed by the onshore breeze that barely rippled the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Early light reflected off the water, the angle of the sun hanging over the mainland to the east giving the seascape a flat appearance, as if much of the color had been leeched out of the vivid hues that usually paint the southwest coast of Florida.

Desmond snuggled a little more deeply into the bed, a sheet and light blanket covering his naked body, protecting him from the cold air blowing from the air-conditioning vent in the ceiling. He knew it was already hot out on the beach, the June humidity lying like a damp shroud over the entire island.

A hand slowly reached over him, caressed his chest. He felt breasts snuggle against his back, a long leg cross his. Heard a slight snicker, felt a wet kiss on his shoulder, the warm breath of his wife against his skin. He turned toward her, kissed her smiling face, and began to make love to the woman he'd married the day before on the beach in front of the Hilton.

Later, they lay in the bed, her head on his shoulder, her blonde hair tickling his nose. They were sated for a time, their physical need for each other slaked. Two people on the cusp of the future, a long life of success and children and growing old together stretched before them. Happiness was their due, for they were the children of the baby boomers, the generation that had known tranquility in their world, enjoyed the fruits of their parents' success, gone off to college and joined fraternities and sororities, partied and studied, and moved into the wider world where they expected no less than life as they had always known it.

Jim kissed his bride on the forehead and padded to the shower. He dressed in running shoes, shorts, and a white T-shirt bearing the logo of his alma mater, the University of Georgia. His wife had made coffee in the small coffeemaker provided each room. She poured him some in a Styrofoam cup, and standing nude, smiling, held it out like an offering to the god of love. He sipped the coffee, kissed her chastely on the mouth, and went out the door for his morning jog. She never saw him again.

CHAPTER 2

My buddy Logan Hamilton and I were having lunch at Mar Vista, the bayside pub in the Village on the north end of Longboat Key. The year-rounders, those of us who don't go north in the spring and return in the late fall, know better than to sit outside in June. The heat and humidity, while not as bad as August, is brutal. Even the sea breezes that blow across our island don't bring relief. It is just hot air. Logan said it reminded him of trial lawyers, my former profession. I never argue with him when he's right.

We sat at a table next to a wall covered in currency of every kind, much of it American greenbacks. Many of the bills had messages scrawled on them from people who had left them along with their names and the dates of their visit. I wondered what made otherwise sane people tack good money to walls or throw coins into fountains. Like much of the human condition, it was a mystery to me.

Logan and I were planning a fishing trip for that evening. We thought we might have some luck after dark anchored off the north end of the Sister Keys just outside the channel. And if the fish weren't biting, we had beer and a lot of lies to tell. We'd get to Moore's Stone Crab Restaurant before closing and have a drink or two with Debbie the bartender. Maybe a nightcap at Tiny's. Not a bad way to spend a hot evening in Southwest Florida.

I was having the Caesar salad with blackened shrimp and Logan had ordered his usual, deep fried scallops and a Dewar's and water to wash it down. I felt the heat as the door to the parking lot opened behind me. Then, a voice. "Matt Royal, there you are." Cotty Johnson. I turned and saw my eighty-something-year-old neighbor coming toward us. "Hey Logan," she said.

Logan and I stood. Cotty pecked us both on the cheeks. "Join us," I said.

"No, thanks. Shirley Beachum is on her way. We thought we'd see how the vodka stock is doing."

I laughed. "Sit until she gets here."

Cotty took the chair next to Logan, across from me. "I guess you heard about the guy getting shot on the beach this morning."

I hadn't. Cotty knew everything that happened on the island, and often knew it before anybody else. No one ever figured out how she knew so much so quickly.

"Shot?" asked Logan.

"Yes. Apparently a high-powered rifle. The police think the gunman was in one of the condos just south of the Hilton. Got the guy right in the chest. He was dead before he hit the sand."

"Who was he?" I asked. "A local?"

"No. Some guy from Atlanta. Got married yesterday. He and his bride were staying at the Hilton. He went out for a jog early this morning."

"Any witnesses?"

"Not really. There were a couple of people on the beach who heard the shot and saw the guy hit the ground, but nobody saw where the shot came from."

"Any leads at all?" Logan asked.

"Not that I've heard. Bill Lester and that new detective J.D. Duncan are still at the Hilton doing whatever it is they do."

Bill Lester was the Longboat Key chief of police and J. D. Duncan was a detective who had recently joined the force after fifteen years with the Miami-Dade Police Department.

I felt another heat blast as the door opened again. Shirley came over to say hello and she and Cotty went to the bar and took seats. By the time they left, all the island gossip would be told and retold. As good a way as any to spend a hot afternoon.

Logan sipped his Scotch. "What do you make of the shooting?"

"No idea. I wonder who the victim was."

"The Chamber of Commerce isn't going to like this. They'll be afraid the publicity will scare the tourists away."

"I don't know. It's not like people regularly get mowed down on our beach."

"You're probably right."

Our conversation turned back to fishing. We put together a plan that mostly involved the question of where to get the beer and bait. We decided on Annie's in the settlement of Cortez across the bay.

CHAPTER 3

My home is Longboat Key, Florida. More specifically, Longbeach Village, long called simply the "Village," that takes up the north end of the island. My cottage backs up to the bay, giving me a view that brings real estate sales people to their knees. Tropical flowers are abundant in the yard, and I pay a guy more than I should to keep them blooming or whatever they're supposed to do during any given season.

Longboat Key itself is small, about ten miles long and less than a half-mile wide in most places. It lies off the coast of Southwest Florida, south of Tampa Bay and about half way down the peninsula. Once you leave the south end of the key you cross some bridges, another island and end up in downtown Sarasota. On the north end you'll cross the Longboat Pass Bridge, part of Anna Maria Island, then Cortez Bridge, and find yourself in the city of Bradenton.

The island is my slice of paradise. I'm not old enough for retirement, but I'd been to war as a young man, then college and law school. I'd practiced as a trial lawyer in Orlando for a number of years and despaired of the business that the profession was turning into. I began to drink too much and take myself way too seriously, plowing into the law practice with a single-minded devotion that left...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Oceanview Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1608090841
• ISBN 13: 9781608090846
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar