Let me start by saying there will be spoilers in this post for my latest book, Getaway. So, if you haven't read it yet, go ahead and read it and then come back here. Go ahead, I'll wait.......done? That was fast! I guess you know the ending now, huh? What did you think? Good? I thought so!
Well, the book could have ended differently. Not dramatically, mind you, but perhaps a little less ambiguous. You see, I debated between two styles for the ending. There's, of course, the one you read and the one in my head. I'm going to detail the alternate ending here for you now. Remember, spoilers! (In case you somehow forgot you hadn't read Getaway yet) With the family dead, minus Samantha and Wesley, the two siblings decided to travel towards town together. Wesley was reluctant because it seemed Samantha had murdered their father for the death of Tyler. Despite this, he was forced to work with her. So far, this is all the same. But here's where they start to differ. In the alternate version they would have stopped to make camp and Wesley reaches for something, revealing a cut on his upper arm. Samantha notices this cut in both versions but I had played with the idea of Samantha acting on it. She decides to take first watch and let's Wesley fall asleep. As the fire slowly dies, Samantha takes her knife and kills her brother. From there, she marches into town with blood on her hands and is soon arrested for the murders at the cabin. Now, don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean she was the one who committed the murders in the book. It was just an idea for how to end it. Everything else would have been the same. Was Wesley the killer? Or was the scrape from his kayak accident? Did Tyler do it? Was he really sick? The answer to that died with him. And did the mother really commit suicide or was it one last kill? I've left all of that up to you to determine. In fact, I would love to hear your theories. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
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In case you haven't heard, my horror novella was released today. You can get your copy from your favorite e reader platform. You will enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you've never read one of my books before, this is a great place to start. Pick up your copy today and don't forget to leave a review!
Tomorrow night is the virtual launch party for my new horror novella, Getaway. If you haven't RSVP'd yet, today is the last day to be entered for a chance to win the grand prize. It consists of autographed paperback novels of To the Wolves, Sins of the Mother, and Death Can Wait. It will also contain a flash drive with all my books in e-format, and a short story never before published. Good luck and see you tomorrow night!
Click here to RSVP! Happy Force Friday everyone! If you're unaware what that is, it's basically the day all the new merchandise for the latest Star Wars movie comes out and people head to the store to buy it and participate in events and what not. Seems like a lot of fun and I'm all for anything that celebrates Star Wars!
Before I share with you Ethan's 5th case log, I should tell you about a friend of mine who directly inspired this story. This case is a collaboration, of sorts, with my buddy. He wrote a short story which featured my character Ethan McCormick. When you're finished reading this case log, head over to his Facebook page here and read his short story Rub-A-Dub-Dub.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The bizarre facts of this case are disturbing. If you're offended easily, I suggest skipping this post. Had I known it would have been unsolved and horrifyingly gruesome, I would have turned it down immediately. Unfortunately, I did not turn it down. So here, I present to you my case. After the missing child case, I've seen an increase in my business. I guess word travels fast. One woman in particular came to my door and explained how her husband vanished, seemingly into thin air. As I always do with these cases, I advised her to seek the help of the Miami Police Department but she said they had already dropped the case. "They claim he ran off with some woman at his office." She told me. "It's often the case with these matters." "My husband didn't run off with some slut. We had a good marriage." "I've seen it many times before. One spouse is unhappy but the other is completely unaware. I'm sorry to say, but the police are most likely right in this case. It's hard to hear-" "Mr. McCormick, something is seriously wrong. I need your help." I agreed to help her but I kept my assumptions. Loved ones never want to believe they weren't considered loved ones anymore. Sometimes the truth is hard to hear. Regardless of my feelings, I began investigating the facts. Cory, the missing husband, was last seen at work. I checked at his office and did learn one vital clue. A woman named Pam had stopped coming to work the day after Cory disappeared. I figured the police had already looked into her as a suspect during their investigation and had probably come to the same conclusion I already had. Cory ran off with Pam. Next, I tried to find this Pam woman. But that's where things began to get strange. Pam couldn't have been her real name as I found nothing about her. The social security number and driver's license number her employer had on file were both fake. The address on her license led me to an empty home for sale. I checked with the owner of the property but she was clean. After hitting what seemed like a dead end, I turned to social media. Maybe Pam was using a fake name and identity but if she had contacted Cory on social media, I'd have some sort of trail. Unfortunately, there was nothing on his page from anyone out of the ordinary. Certainly no one named Pam on his friends list. A whole week went by without any leads. I apologized to Cory's wife and explained it might be a case I would not be able to solve. But before I could give up, I decided to try one last thing. I checked Cory's phone records. All of the numbers he had been in contact with were explainable, wife, mother, job, etc. But there was one that didn't check out. He had received the call during work hours on the last day before his disappearance. The call was extremely short, only about ten seconds long. Whatever Cory was talking about with this mystery caller couldn't have been much. I wondered if the police had found this clue or if they had even bothered to check his phone records. When I looked up the number, I learned why the police didn't bother with the lead. It was a burner phone. No way to track down who it belonged to. But I wasn't finished there. Instead, I headed down to the police station and sat down with my new friend Detective Winchester. "Can you trace a phone number for me?" I asked him. "Normally I'd say no, but with your help on the Wilson case, I'm in. What's the number?" I handed him the phone number and told him when the call was received by Cory's phone. Winchester was then able to trace the signal to the nearest cell tower and gave me an approximate location to check. Unfortunately, that was the best he could do. "Wait," I stopped. "What about the GPS?" "It's a pay as you go phone. People leave those features off. Kind of the point of a burner, you know?" "Can we try it?" "If you want to waste the time, sure." I watched him run a GPS location trace and his jaw fell open. It seemed as if the GPS was switched on during the time of the phone call. "This makes no sense," Winchester explained. "Why use a burner if you're going to use the GPS function?" "Maybe they wanted to be found. Thanks Winchester, I'll call you if I need anything else." With that, I left his office and headed off down the road. I had to keep myself from calling Cory's wife and informing her of my new lead. I didn't want to get her hopes up. Instead, I drove towards the location Winchester had given me. Luckily, it was a home in the suburbs. Easy enough to find. I knocked several times and called out for Cory to no avail. Slipping my lock pick from my right shoe, I let myself in. A nauseating smell hit me in the face like a brick and I nearly doubled over. I had smelled rotting flesh before but somehow this was worse. Covering my face with my arm, I proceeded down the hallway. The smell grew in intensity and I held back bile in my throat. When I reached the bathroom, I knew I had found the source. Pulling back the shower curtain, I could no longer hold down my lunch. Sticking out of a blood filled bathtub, which looked more like sludge, were human appendages. A few arms and legs from different people. The smell was nearly toxic. My eyes burned. Coughing, I left the house and dialed Detective Winchester. The crime scene investigation unit cleaned up the mess and bagged anything that could be considered a clue. Unfortunately, there wasn't a single piece of usable evidence. They found no finger prints, no fibers, nothing. They were, however, able to identify one of the bodies in the tub as Cory. It was my sad duty to share this depressing news with his widow. For now, this case remains open. I have no clue who committed the murders or why. My instincts tell me the mystery woman known only as Pam has something to do with it. I'll update my findings if the case ever makes any motion. In celebration of 100 likes on my Facebook page, I've decided to release an unpublished short story. This story is rather significant as it was the story that first featured Ethan McCormick. The story you're about to read is not the original. It was re-written a few years ago and edited. The original was created in high school and I felt the project needed to be updated and made better. But nonetheless, it's the original story that kick started a career of writing and the creation of Ethan McCormick. Please, enjoy the story below and let me know what you think in the comments below. Enjoy!
___________________________________________________________________________________________________ With the sun beating down on the police interceptor, Ethan McCormick drove along on his patrol. Miami was hot this time of year. Ethan could stand the heat, but it was the humidity that got to him. He couldn’t go five minutes in the summertime without breaking out into a sweat. Living in Florida for several years he had yet to grow accustomed to the heat and humidity. He tried his hardest to ignore it. Wiping the sweat from his brow Ethan turned up the air conditioning to full blast. Coming up to a red light he began to run the license plates of the vehicles around him. When nothing out of the ordinary showed up he sat back and relaxed waiting for the light to change. Ethan McCormick had been a police officer in the city of Miami for several years. After his mother died he and his sister Valerie moved down south to Florida. For the first year, they shared an apartment while Ethan was in the police academy. Ethan and Valerie were always very close. When Valerie was young Ethan would take care of her whenever he had the opportunity. The two of them were practically inseparable. Finally, Ethan made it through the police academy and moved out on his own. They hung out almost every weekend. Eventually, they both began to make friends and get settled in their new lives. Valerie’s boyfriends would come and go. Most of them Ethan never really liked. Valerie would always get on his case asking why he had yet to settle down with a pretty young woman. Life as a police officer was not as exciting as television made it out to be, which was fine by Ethan. He wasn’t looking for a life of excitement and adventures. Since he was a young boy he wanted to serve and protect. Most of his days consisted of pulling over speeders, filling out paper work, and occasionally responding to domestic disturbances. They usually consisted of a half-naked man prancing around the house threatening to hit his wife. There were no gun fights and no car chases. Ethan had never once fired a shot at a criminal. As the red light changed Ethan turned the cruiser left onto a nearly vacant street. He let out a sigh of relief. It was sometimes nice to drive on an empty road when you were a police officer. In larger groups of traffic, everyone insisted on driving five miles under the speed limit. It could get aggravating. Suddenly, the radio blared loudly. Startled, Ethan turned down the volume a few notches. Listening to the broadcast he realized they were calling all officers in the area. “Some lunatic with a gun is holding hostages in an apartment on Fourth Street. We need all available officers in the area to respond immediately.” Ethan’s blood ran cold for a moment. Valerie lived in an apartment complex on Fourth Street. He listened for the address and prayed to God that it wouldn’t be her complex. His heart sank when he heard her complex’s address rambled over the radio. With his lights on Ethan slammed on the gas pedal. He wanted to reach for his cell phone and call Valerie, but he knew he couldn’t take his focus off of the road. He decided he would assess the situation when he got there. As he tore through the streets he tried to recall where Valerie would be this time of day. He couldn’t remember if she should have been at home today or at work. He now hoped that she would have been out on a date, anything that would have kept her from being home right now. The thought of his sister being held hostage sickened him. Trying not to think any more about it, he turned on to Fourth Street. Up ahead he could see more flashing blue and red lights. They had already begun to set up a perimeter. Any moment the SWAT team would arrive along with their hostage negotiating team. Pulling up to the barricade he threw his car into park and jumped out. He quickly helped to secure the area and push the bystanders back. He glanced up at the tall complex. It was over fifteen stories high; an off white color with a greenish hue. The complex itself was a very boring building, but now was the center of excitement. It wouldn’t be long before the reporters caught wind of what was happening and showed up with their news vans making all kinds of speculation as to what was going on. Ethan hoped the issue was resolved before that happened. Minutes later the SWAT team arrived as did the hostage negotiating team. Ethan was relieved and hoped that he could finally get some answers. He stood by while they set up a small command center. A few officers exchanged words with the negotiator and handed him a slip of paper. Ethan knew it was the phone number the hostage taker could be reached at. As the negotiator put the phone to his ear Ethan swallowed hard. He hoped the phone was not ringing in Valerie’s apartment. Watching the negotiator he observed how calm and reserved he seemed to be. Clearly, he was not new to the situation. Suddenly a surprised look plastered over his face and he began to look around frantically as if he were looking for something or someone. He pressed the phone back against his ear. A panicky look now formulating. Ethan walked closer hoping to catch a bit of what was going on. He heard the man state he would find him right away. The negotiator hung up and swore out loud. With a sense of urgency, he began to call out to the officers around him. “He is going to kill his hostage if we don’t find him. Someone find me, McCormick, now!” He screamed out the last word, but Ethan barely heard him. His ears seemed to have shut down when he heard his name. Moments later he finally snapped out of his trance. The negotiator was still swearing and cursing. “Where the hell is this McCormick? If he doesn’t show himself in the next ten seconds the death of that hostage will be on his hands!” Ethan nearly ran to his side and quickly introduced himself. “I’m Ethan McCormick,” he said extending his hand. The negotiator thrust the phone into his hand. “He wants to talk to you, says he will kill his hostage unless you call him.” Ethan’s heart skipped several beats as he stared at the number on the slip of paper, it was Valerie’s home number. He looked around hoping for some answers. “What does he want with me?” The negotiator shrugged. “Just call him, damnit!” he snapped at Ethan with an impatient tone. He tossed the slip of paper on the collapsible table that had been set up moments ago. He already knew the phone number by heart. With a large lump in his throat, he picked up the cordless phone off of its cradle. Slowly dialing the numbers his hands began to tremble. His worst fear would be to hear this person was holding his sister hostage. There would be nothing he could do for her. Ethan didn’t understand what was going on. He couldn’t understand why someone would take a hostage to get his attention. Placing the phone to his ear he listened to it ring. The ringing cut out quickly, “this better be McCormick or she…” Ethan interjected. “This is Officer McCormick.” The man on the other end chuckled, it made the hair on Ethan’s neck stand up. “How are you doing on this beautiful day Ethan?” There was a playfulness in the man’s voice. “What do you want from me?” Again the man chuckled. “All work and no play I see, well fine. I will just get right to it.” Now the man’s voice turned from playful to aggravation. “Ethan, I have someone here with me that I think you would like to see again,” Ethan tensed up. “I have sitting close by someone very dear to you, Valerie McCormick.” Nearly dropping the phone Ethan did his best to regain his composure. “What have you done to her?” “She’s fine, Ethan. I won’t hurt her as long as you do as I ask.” Gritting his teeth Ethan asked, “What is it that you want?” Now the man let out a long laugh. “All I want is for you to release a friend of mine.” “A friend?” “Yes, his name is Bryce King. Do you remember him?” The name sounded familiar, but Ethan could not quite place him. Several months ago Ethan had been part of an undercover operation where they took down several drug dealers at once. One of those men could have been Bryce, but Ethan wasn’t sure. He decided not to tell the man that he did not know Bryce. He did not want to risk angering him and making matters worse. “I remember Bryce, he was a friend of yours?” “Well, more of a business associate of mine. It doesn’t matter what I call him. What matters is his freedom. If you free him and guarantee me safe passage out of this I will let your sister go free, unharmed.” “I can work on that, but it is going to take some time.” “Bull shit, Ethan, don’t play your little cop games with me. I know exactly what it means when you tell me it’s going to take some time. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. Bryce goes free as do I or I blow your sister’s head off with a shotgun.” The sound of a pump action shotgun being pumped turned Ethan’s blood ice cold. In the background, he could hear Valerie whimpering. He assumed she was either gagged or her mouth was taped shut. It painted a bad image in Ethan’s mind. He knew he needed to save her, but he didn’t know what to do. “Fine, I will make sure we get Bryce out. I am going to make a call and get him released. Then I will call you back and make arrangements to escort you out of here.” The man let out a familiar chuckle. “Alright, Ethan, I’ll be waiting.” Half a second later the line went dead. The hostage negotiator had been listening from a hands free headset just a few steps away. Removing it from his head and tossing it on the table in front of him he made his way over to Ethan. “McCormick, right?” Ethan nodded. “Listen, there is something off about this whole situation.” Ethan remained silent, waiting for him to continue. “We won’t be able to get this Bryce person out of jail.” “Yeah, I know that.” “That’s what I find weird about this whole situation. He knows we aren’t going to be able to meet his demands, but he didn’t seem bothered by your lie.” “We just need to buy some time until we can figure out how to get my sister to safety.” “I understand, McCormick, but there is more to this than he is letting on. We just need to stay focused here.” Ethan stayed silent and the hostage negotiator walked back over to his table. He glanced around watching the pandemonium. Blue and red lights flashed constantly in the street. Other officers had just finished barricading their portion of the road off. The media still had not caught wind of this story, but it wouldn’t be long before every reporter in the area descended on this place. It would turn this place into a circus. Ethan sincerely hoped they could de-escalate the situation before it came to that. The hostage negotiator jogged back to Ethan’s side. “McCormick, I just wanted to let you know that we have a small team moving up the main stairwell to your sister’s level. They are going to be our eyes and ears in there, strictly a safety measure. I want to be able to act fast if things go south.” Ethan understood exactly what he was doing. It was a smart move. “I want to go with them. I just want to be able to see what’s going on in there.” The negotiator shook his head. “I can’t let you go up there. We need you down here in case he calls back. I don’t want to imagine what would happen if you weren’t here to answer his calls.” “Listen,” Ethan began. “I need to see that my sister is ok. If he calls while I am gone just tell him that I am still pulling strings to get his friend out of prison. He might not buy it, but he will accept it. I will follow the team up. Once I see that my sister is alright I will come right back down, I swear.” The negotiator thought for a moment before nodding his head. “If it were my family up there I wouldn’t let anyone hold me back either. Go ahead, just get your ass back here as soon as you see she is alright.” Ethan smiled and turned in the direction of the small S.W.A.T. team gathering at the entrance to the apartment complex. Other officers were now in the process of evacuating any remaining occupants from the apartment complex. If a gunfight broke out they wanted to make sure stray bullets didn’t kill any civilians. Everyone up to Valerie’s floor had been evacuated. Now the S.W.A.T. team had its chance to move in. Ethan followed closely behind them as they ascended the stairs. When they got to the top floor the officer in front stopped the group. He pointed at the closed door leading to the hallway. He signaled something with his hand that Ethan did not recognize. Another officer moved forward carefully as if looking for something. “What’s going on?” Ethan asked. The officer in front of him turned around to face him. “It looks like the door might be rigged with explosives. There is a small wire you can see running under the door. See it?” He pointed to the base of the door. Ethan squinted and saw a faint glimmer running under the door. “We’re going to take a closer look, but we might not be able to see what’s on the other side. If it’s too risky we will abort and think up a plan B.” Ethan dreaded to think that the S.W.A.T. team would have to go back downstairs. He wouldn’t be able to get eyes on his sister. It would also mean no stand by team in case things went wrong. He prayed they were able to disarm whatever it was. Several minutes later the officer inspecting the door took a small step back. Turning around he shook his head. Ethan watched as the officers all slumped their shoulders with disappointment. He didn’t need to be told that they couldn’t breach the door. It was just too risky. Reluctantly, Ethan followed the officers back downstairs. When they rendezvoused with the negotiator the leading S.W.A.T. officer explained that a breach was too risky. They didn’t know what was on the other side of the door. Ethan watched a wave of disappointment flush over his face. It wasn’t even close to the disappointment Ethan was feeling. Slowly frustration began to rise with Ethan. That frustration was quickly turning into anger. He was angry that his sister was in this situation, angry that he could do nothing about it. A vision flashed before of his eyes of himself kicking in the door to Valerie’s apartment. He then watched himself beat the man who had taken his sister hostage. Beating him until there was nothing more than a large pool of crimson blood pouring over the floor. Quickly Ethan took in a deep breath and controlled his anger. The fantasy faded from his mind and he returned back to his normal self. He was never one to lose his temper, but knowing that his younger sister was in trouble infuriated him. The phone began to ring again. The negotiator wasted no time tossing the phone to Ethan. “Yes?” He answered with more agitation in his voice than he thought he ought to. “My partner out yet, McCormick?” Ethan darted a glance to the negotiator. He motioned with his hand to stall for time. Ethan thought quickly and answered, “He is being released as we speak. He will be here soon. When he gets here, let my sister go and I will walk him up to you personally.” The man chuckled again. “Alright, Ethan, when Bryce is here you go ahead and call me back. I will let your sister go and you can walk him up here yourself.” He let out another chuckle and the line went dead. Stepping over to Ethan the negotiator shook his head. “I don’t like this. Something isn’t right about this.” Ethan shrugged. “I know, but I need to make sure my sister is free. I will call him back soon and tell him Bryce is here. After that, if I can get him to let my sister go we can send in the strike team again.” The negotiator nodded as he walked back over to his table. Ethan let out a sigh, hoping that everything would work out. After waiting nearly thirty minutes Ethan decided it was time to make the call. The media was slowly starting to show up. One local reporter was already standing a couple blocks away. A large heavy set man with a camera was pointed in their direction. From their angle, they couldn’t see much, but given too much longer there would be more reporters. Ethan hoped to have everything wrapped up before the others came. Snatching up the phone he dialed his sister’s phone number again. He felt a knot in his stomach as the phone began to ring. So many times he had dialed this number just to chat with his sister or to make plans. Having to call her number to talk to this psychopath was making Ethan sick. The line picked up with a familiar chuckle. “I assume Bryce is here?” Ethan gave a cold and blunt response, “Yes.” Another chuckle broke the silence. This time it sent shivers down his spine. “Alright, Ethan, you walk him up here and I will let your sister go. You come alone or I coat the walls with your sister’s brains, you understand?” Ethan said that he did and hung up the phone. He knew what he had to do next. The Glock on his side was loaded with a bullet already in the chamber. Everything he carried every day was firmly around his belt. Everything from handcuffs to pepper spray. The negotiator walked over to Ethan holding something in his hand. “Ethan, I don’t know what this guy is planning, but I don’t like it.” Ethan didn’t say a word. “I want you to take this with you.” He stretched out his hand and offered Ethan a large foldable knife. Ethan thanked him and tucked it into his shoe. More than likely this man would disarm him. He might get lucky and be able to keep the knife. Some sort of protection was better than nothing. Moments later Ethan was alone in the complex stairwell. Without the other officers around him, everything seemed more serious. There was no backup, there was no protection. There was just Ethan and the man with his sister. He knew his first goal was to get Valerie out. Everything after that he would have to play by ear. Climbing the stairs he hoped that the negotiator would still have the S.W.A.T. team standing by in case they needed to charge in. Something in Ethan’s gut was telling him something was wrong. Finally, he approached the wired door. It had prevented the team from entering the hall earlier. Now Ethan was unsure how he was going to get past. Then a terrifying thought crossed his mind. What if this is exactly what he wants me to do? Walk through the door and get taken out by his trap. The chuckling on the phone had indicated that something wasn’t right, but Ethan didn’t think this was it. He stepped towards the door and crouched low. He removed the knife from his shoe and flipped open the blade. Several seconds went by as he stared at the wire. To save his sister he would have to take the risk. Pushing the blade forward he slipped it behind the wire. Pulling forward the blade sliced it with ease. With his eyes shut tight he waited for nearly a minute. Nothing happened. There had been no explosion, no genius trap. Tucking the knife back in his shoe he stood up. Realizing the wire had been nothing more than fishing wire wrapped around the door as a diversion he pushed through. Once on the other side, he crept slowly towards Valerie’s apartment. He couldn’t believe this was happening. He had walked this hall many times to visit his sister. Everything now seemed too surreal. When he reached her door he paused to take in a deep breath. Death, he thought, could be waiting for him right through the door. Quickly he wrapped on the door with his knuckles. There was no movement inside. Ethan didn’t know what to think. Again he wrapped on the door with his knuckles. Same as before no noise came from inside. This time he banged on the door, but again he was met with silence. Reaching for his firearm Ethan prepped himself to kick the door in when something caught his eye on the wall next to the door. Leaning in close he could see something had been carved into the dry wall. A very faint arrow was pointing off to Ethan’s left. Glancing off to the left the first thing he saw was another stairwell at the end of the hall. Drawing his Glock he slowly advanced towards the doorway. Once there he spotted another faint arrow scratched into the wall. This one was pointing up. Ethan no longer needed anymore direction. He knew exactly where he was headed now. There was only one more door and it led to the roof. Once Ethan had ascended the stairs he found himself face to face with the door. Valerie and her captive were more than likely waiting on the other side. Just as the hostage negotiator believed Ethan felt there was more to this situation. He did not want to know what it was. He just wanted to get his sister to safety and arrest the man responsible for the whole situation. Letting out a long breath Ethan gripped the door handle and slowly swung it open. The scene was just as he had feared. Valerie stood several feet away near the edge of the roof. A gun was jammed against her temple. A man crouched behind her as if to hide from Ethan. Once the door swung shut behind Ethan the man poked his head out from behind her. His mouth widened into a large, toothy grin. “Ethan, it is so wonderful to finally meet you. Now please throw your gun away.” Without a second thought, Ethan did as he was told. He tossed the gun to his right. It slid out of view. Now he was unprotected and it made him nervous. “I’ve come up here to tell you that Bryce King is in a squad car downstairs. If you let her go I can give you and him safe pass-“The man let out a loud bellowing laugh. “Oh, come on Ethan. You and I both know he is not downstairs nor are you able to give me safe passage anywhere. What you might not know is Bryce King does not exist.” “What?” “I made him up. I anticipated you would feed me the regular cop bullshit and you didn’t disappoint me, did you?” “Why would you demand his release if-“ “Biding my time Officer McCormick. I had to get you up here and it had to be alone.” “You know I won’t be alone for long. Any second now a S.W.A.T. team will barge up here and force you to surrender. That will only end in bloodshed.” “Well, you are half right. The S.W.A.T. team will undoubtedly follow you up, but where do they think you are?” Ethan thought for a moment and realized he was right. They would waste their time breaching the apartment while they were up on the roof. It would give this maniac time to do whatever it was he planned to do to them. “That’s right, Ethan, they will check the apartment first, won’t they? I wonder what they will find in there.” “What do you mean-“ he stopped short realizing exactly what he had meant. With an expression of horror, he turned towards the door. He was preparing to flee downstairs to stop the other officers from entering the apartment. Suddenly there was a thunderous sound that made Ethan jump. The building beneath his feet shook momentarily. Ethan knew he was too late. The man had set a trap on the door and the S.W.A.T. team had walked right into it. Ethan could not help but feel partially responsible. “Well, that worked out just as I hoped it would.” “There’s no chance of you walking out of here now. Killing officers is only going to get you killed.” “Ethan, I was never planning on walking out of here. That was never my plan. Everything leading up to this moment has gone exactly as I wanted it to.” “What the hell do you want from me? And why her?” “She was to get your attention. Now that I have it allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jack Dodson.” Jack gave a small theatrical bow still ramming the gun into Valerie’s temple. Mascara smeared tears ran down her cheeks. All Ethan wanted was to get Valerie to safety. His mind was not on killing Jack, nor arresting him. The thought of revenge was not even on his mind. He only thought of Valerie. She was here because of him. “Why are you doing this, Jack?” “You may not know me, but I’ve been around for quite a while. I used to control most of the drug flow coming through this city. Most of the major drug lords in town worked for me. I was a very wealthy and powerful man. Then you came along. You made several arrests that just happened to be a lot of my best men. I don’t know how you managed to take them down, but you did. My business was hurt, badly. Worse, my reputation was ruined. I lost all of my clientele and all of my business. You cannot come back from that. Once your reputation is lost you are done. No one trusts you anymore and no one will do business with you.” “So you brought me up here so you could get your revenge, is that it? Did you think that would help bring your reputation back?” “Very good, Ethan, now you’re catching on. That’s exactly what it will do. Sure, I kill you and your sister here. I go to prison, probably for the rest of my life. Unless I cut a deal with someone, but that’s another story. In prison, I will be the man who killed the cop who ruined my reputation. I will regain my respect and be the king once again.” “Assuming one of the other officers doesn’t put a bullet in your back first.” “There’s always time to worry about that later. Now it’s time for me to finish the job. I don’t have long before your friends realize where we are.” Ethan knew that he had only a few precious seconds left to live. After he was gone his sister would be next. He had to keep that from happening, whatever the cost. “Your business is with me, Jack, not her. You can shoot me in the head for all I care, but let my sister go. I won’t resist if you do.” Ethan dropped to his knees and held out his arms. He knew it was a gamble, Jack could shoot him between the eyes then and be done with it. Ethan was willing to bet that Jack was into the theatrics of it all. He could see it in his eyes, something amused him. Slowly Jack inched forward with Valerie still pushed out ahead of him. Once they were standing just inches away from Ethan he pointed the gun down at him. As he did he pushed Valerie away. She stumbled past Ethan. She spun around and stood behind Ethan, but Jack motioned for her to stay put. “Leave us alone now, you wouldn’t want to see this.” Valerie sobbed. “Please, let him go. Don’t kill him.” Jack did not look at her. His eyes were locked with Ethan’s. “Valerie,” Ethan sighed. “You need to go. There is nothing that can be done. I can’t let him hurt you.” Valerie was torn. She did not want to leave her brother, but she was afraid Jack would shoot him if she didn’t. She also knew that if she left him it would be the last time she would ever see her brother. Her legs would not move. “Jack, can I least have one moment to say good bye to my sister? One last hug from her big brother? That’s all I ask.” Jack thought it over and finally motioned for Valerie to come closer. “You try anything and I will put you both down.” Valerie swung around and held her brother tightly. She was sobbing now. “Valerie, I need you to be strong. Everything is going to be alright. Run downstairs and tell the other officers where I am. I need you to stay down there with them and be safe.” He wrapped his arms around her one last time and squeezed as hard as he could. As he did he whispered something into her ear. He hoped that Jack did not notice. “Alright, Valerie run off now. You’re brother and I have business to attend to.” Valerie stepped away from Ethan wiping the tears out of her eyes. Ethan stared up at Jack and their eyes were locked once again. From behind he heard Valerie let out a loud gasp before falling to the floor. She had done exactly as Ethan had asked and she had done it perfectly. Jack’s eyes instinctively darted up to see what had happened. In that same second, Ethan threw his body forward wrapping both arms around him. They tumbled to the ground together. The gun slid out from Jack’s hands. Valerie ran off downstairs to get help from the officers. Quickly Jack threw Ethan off of him and jumped to his feet. The gun was too far away for either of them to run for it. For a moment they stood staring at each other. Jack threw the first punch, but Ethan quickly pushed it aside throwing Jack off balance. Without a second of hesitation, Ethan threw his own right hook at Jack. He did not have time to block it and took Ethan’s fist to the jaw. He nearly toppled to the ground but managed to catch himself in time. With lightning speed, he rammed his fist into Ethan’s midsection. The two men exchanged blows. Ethan jammed his leg out towards Jack’s chest hoping to get a powerful kick that would send him to the ground. Jack was quicker than Ethan had anticipated. Catching his leg he spun him around and threw him to the ground, landing only inches from the side of the roof. Jack and Ethan now fought on the edge of the building. Each punch threatening to knock the other one to the ground below. Ethan landed a lucky left hook to Jack’s head. He followed it up by jamming his knee into his midsection. The breath was knocked out of Jack and he collapsed on the ground. As Ethan reached for his hand cuffs Jack exposed a knife and took a swing at him. Ethan jumped back just in time to miss what would have been a cut to his throat. The cuffs fell to the ground as Ethan continued to dodge each strike from the knife. Jack swung the knife over hand nearly missing Ethan’s skull. As Ethan slipped to the side to dodge the blow he lost his balance and toppled to the ground. Immediately he knew it had been a lethal mistake. Now he was an easy target for Jack’s last swing. With the knife raised above his head, Jack stepped forward. The knife blade was pointing down directly over Ethan. The edge of the roofed loomed to Ethan’s right. There were not many places for him to go. Just in the nick of time, he rolled to the left dodging Jack’s strike. He felt a sharp pain burn in his right thigh in mid-roll. Ethan let out a cry of pain as the knife was buried deep into his thigh. Ethan came to a stop face down as blood soaked through his pant leg. A heavy foot clamped down just above the knife and he felt it forcefully jerked free. Ethan held in the urge to scream out in pain again. Something had caught his eye just a foot in front of him that pushed the pain far out of his mind. Adrenaline pumped through his body giving him new strength. Somewhere behind him, Jack was talking, but Ethan did not hear it. Throwing out his arm as far as he could, he wrapped his hand around the grip of his Glock. Rolling over he quickly fired off three shots, center mass into Jack. The knife clattered to the ground, still covered in Ethan’s blood. Jack stumbled back clutching his chest, an expression of fear plastered on his face. Jack’s right foot caught the edge of the roof and he lost his balance over the edge. It happened so fast that Ethan nearly missed it. He heard Jack’s body crash to the ground below and everything was silent. There was no final shoot out, no one liners, and no magnificent fire balls like in the movies. There was only silence. As Ethan was clutching his wounded leg a team of officers swarmed the roof. After they made sure the roof was secure they lifted Ethan and carried him downstairs. He was just in time to watch the coroners load Jack’s body into the back of an unmarked van. Ethan was relieved to have the scenario behind him. His leg was quickly bandaged up in the back of an ambulance. The paramedics had advised him that nothing major had been struck. There would be no long term damage. Ethan was relieved. Limping over to the hostage negotiator he explained everything that had transpired on the roof of the apartment complex. “I knew that bastard was up to something. I can’t say that I’m not happy to be rid of him.” With that, the negotiator patted Ethan on the back and wandered off to help clear the streets and get things back to normal. Finally, Ethan found Valerie. She had been sitting in the back of a squad car crying. She climbed out of the car and threw her arms around her brother. “Thank God you’re alright, Ethan.” He smiled and returned the hug. “Your big brother is a bit harder than that to kill.” He joked. Wiping the tears from her eyes Valerie giggled. “Well, you’re probably going to need a place to stay for a while. You are more than welcome to stay with me until we can get you a new place.” Valerie accepted his offer. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” Ethan walked his sister back to his squad car and let her in the passenger side. When he closed the door he circled around the front. Just before he climbed into the driver seat he gave a quick glance back at the apartment building. Letting out a brief sigh he climbed back into the driver seat. This kind of excitement was not common for an officer. Ethan was just glad to have it all behind him. Back in 2015 I decided to self publish my very first book. It was a thriller novel based on a character I had written short stories of throughout high school. It was titled To the Wolves. Less than two years later I've written a sequel, a stand alone novel, and I have a horror novella coming out this October. I had no idea I would have 4 books published in less than 2 short years.
But even more surprising is the fan base that has been growing. My followers on my social media pages have been increasing and people I've never met before on Instagram and Twitter were buying my books! I couldn't be more thrilled about this. Then, another milestone came. 100 likes on Facebook! It might not seem like that exciting of an ordeal but it's truly amazing. Of course, I can only thank all of you for getting me to where I am now. Without the support of my friends, family, and fans I would not be able to continue doing what I'm doing. Everyone who has been there for me, everyone who has read my books, everyone who has given their feedback or volunteered their time to help me- you are incredible people and you're amazing. So, to celebrate the 100 likes on Facebook, I've decided to give away free ebook copies of my latest book Sins of the Mother to anyone who shares this blog post (or the previous post on my Facebook) to Facebook. This page is at 100 but let's see if we can't reach 200 in half of the time! I will also be posting a previously unpublished short story to my Facebook page later this week, so be on the lookout for that! Thanks again, everyone! I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you and I look forward to many more years of entertaining you all! My Facebook page is on the verge of 100 likes. This is a pretty cool milestone and I wanted to celebrate it appropriately but I'm at a loss. I figured, I should ask you guys. What should I do once I hit 100 likes to say "Thank you". Should I reduce the price of my e-books? Should I share a previously unpublished short story to my Facebook page? What about a drawing for a free paperback? Let me know in the comments below what you think I should do!
Question for you all. What do you think about contractions? No, I don't mean the kind that follow pregnancy, I mean the type in literature. You know, like this- don't, won't shouldn't, it's, I'm. Those kinds of things.
When you're reading, what do you prefer? Do you prefer reading shortened words or would you prefer them to look more formal like this- do not, will not, should not, it is, I am? In school we learned not to professionally write with contractions but in works of creativity there is a lot of "rule bending" we do that is acceptable, yet there still seems to be a bit of controversy surrounding the subject. Some people claim writing with full words can make it sound bland and boring while others say contractions can sound sloppy. So, what do you prefer? Do you like formal or do you like loose? Let me know in the comments below! And if you head over to my Twitter page, @EvanBondAuthor, you can take part in a poll and see who is right! If you haven't heard yet, my latest book published on Friday. It's titled Sins of the Mother and is book two in the Ethan McCormick series. I'm sorry there wasn't a book launch party. Life's been a little busy lately and I didn't have time to do one. Hopefully in the future things will work out better.
In the meantime, I thought I would give a little info on the Ethan McCormick character and the series as well. So, I present to you, five things you didn't know about the Ethan McCormick series. 5. Valerie McCormick's name has musical inspiration I've mentioned before that the Ethan McCormick character came about when I was in high school as part of a writing project in my English class. What you might not know is the inspiration for the name of Ethan's sister. I got the name Valerie from a song by a little band called The Monkees. Maybe you've heard of them? If not, they're the one's to originally perform the song I'm a Believer, well before Smash Mouth. Their song Valerie was one of my favorites as a kid. 4. There are unpublished short stories with Ethan Total, there are about 4 short stories featuring the character Ethan McCormick. The first being Miami Hostage where I created him. I wrote two sequels and one prequel story. In the third story, Ethan fakes his death to catch a dangerous criminal. In my book To the Wolves there is a mention of something like that taking place in Ethan's past. The short stories will never be published, save for the first. I might release that one with a special edition of the Ethan McCormick series one day. 3. Ethan as a teenager In the prequel short story I wrote, Ethan McCormick is a teenager living in Michigan with his family. There's a deadly shooting at his school that he gets mixed in the middle of. In this story his name is not Ethan McCormick but Brian Balk. His family changes their name at the end and enter witness protection. This idea was scraped long before the novel was written. 2. Ethan almost never made it to print I started writing the first Ethan McCormick novel in high school. I would come home and sit at my computer for hours trying to figure out a plot and how to actually write a book. About four chapters in I deleted everything because I was so unsatisfied with the work. Starting over, I deleted that one too. When I gave up on yet another version of the book, I almost scrapped the idea all together. Luckily, I waited a few years and developed a plot I really loved and looked into self publishing! 1. Ethan's Death I had written several short stories based on Ethan McCormick that I almost killed off the character, thinking it was the only place left to go with him. I wrote the story, had him die, and changed my mind a while later. That's how he ended up faking his death instead. Those are some things about my character Ethan McCormick that you may not have known about. If you did know about any of these, let me know down in the comments. Oh, and that also means you must be a stalker because most of these are unknown facts, so....yeah. Anyway, thanks for reading! You can pick up the latest Ethan McCormick adventure as an ebook at most major retailers. The paperback and hardcover coming soon! We're on the final countdown everyone! This Friday my new novel, Sins of the Mother, comes out. This is the second Ethan McCormick novel and I know a lot of you have been asking for this since the first one came out. I'm really excited to share this one with you. I think you're going to love it.
I've also decided to extend out the preorder price through the weekend. Now, you can get it for only $.99 through July 9th without having to preorder. Isn't that exciting? I sincerely hope you enjoy this book. It's been a lot of fun writing it and I can't wait to bring you more Ethan McCormick adventures. There's a lot planned for him in the future but I also have a lot of other projects I will be working on soon. Can't wait to give you more on that soon! Wow, I am blown away by some of the reviews I've received on my book Death Can Wait. They have been amazing. I can't say thank you enough to the people who have left such glowing recommendations for my book. It means so much to me and helps me out more than you really know. Seeing these reviews renews my vigor and gets me back to the computer and writing. Thank you so very much for the kind words!
If you have read my books, please consider leaving me a review on Amazon or Goodreads or your favorite retailer. It really helps out a lot and even makes my day! Thanks for reading everyone! Alright, everyone. I'm really hoping to get some good feedback here. Take a look at the above image. It's my book cover for Death Can Wait. I've been receiving some excellent reviews about the book itself but several people have expressed their dissatisfaction with the book cover. Please, let me know what you honestly think about the cover. What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? Every honest answer is encouraged as it will help to make my future book covers better! Thank you everyone for your support and help. Also, if you have read the book, please consider heading over to Amazon or Goodreads and leave it a review. It really helps out a lot! Thanks for reading.
Episode one of [The] Writers' Block is live. You can head over to Podbean to check it out. Click here to listen on Podbean or here to listen on our Patreon page. It will be available on itunes soon, but it takes a little while for the RSS feed to update to their site. By next episode, they should be up at the same time.
Please, listen to our first episode and give us some feedback. What do you like, what don't you like? Help us expand and grow! We will always appreciate it. Our first episode touches on overcoming writer's block, how self publishing works, and we do a few segments that involve around magic characters. It's a lot of fun. Check it out today! Want an excerpt from my upcoming novel, Sins of the Mother? Read on!
His camera swept over a thick bush and something caught his eye. He stared through the viewfinder for nearly a minute trying to figure out what he was looking at. At first, he thought it was a trick of some nearby light, or even the bush itself. Then he realized exactly what he was looking at. There was a pale, white face staring up at the house. Its emotionless stare was utterly terrifying, sending chills down Ethan’s spine. “What the hell?” Ethan whispered, slinking down in his chair. It did not seem to move, making Ethan question if it was a person or some grotesque lawn ornament. As if on queue, the head shifted slightly as if trying to locate a nearby sound. Ethan kept as low as possible, making sure to keep his eyes on the mysterious figure. He did not want to draw attention to himself but he could not lose sight of it either. The white faced watcher seemed to be staring up at Martin’s home in curiosity, as if trying to figure a way in. Ethan had no clue what was happening before his eyes but it could not be good. It was then he wished he had brought the gun after all. It would have made him feel a little bit more secure. Music still blasted from the house and the woman cried in ecstasy. Ethan knew he had to stop the man from entering. He was not sure what he was going to do, but he had to think of something. There was no telling the figure’s intentions, though it was not a stretch to imagine they were malicious. As he prepared to exit the car and make a move towards the masked figure, something in his rearview mirror caught his eye. In the mirror he spotted another masked figure, tall and broad shouldered. His torso was covered with a dark black hoodie, the hood pulled up over his head. Black sweat pants bagged off his legs and his hands were covered with gloves, black of course. It was a truly foreboding sight which made Ethan leap out of his skin. He reached forward for the key hanging from his ignition, but the figure slunk down out of sight. It caused Ethan to stop and crane his neck, desperate to find the masked man. There seemed to be no sign of him, like he vanished into thin air. He knew it was impossible, but his mind wandered to the spotless crime scene. Had these masked people been the ones responsible? Their clothing would explain why no evidence was found. They were extremely careful, not exposing any part of themselves. Ethan turned back around, failing to see the masked man, and was greeted with the familiar empty stare of the white mask. It stared at him from outside the windshield, not moving, only staring. “Jesus Christ,” Ethan yelled, turning the key in the ignition. The man did not move out of the way, in fact he moved closer placing a gloved hand on the hood. He slowly drew one finger across the hood as he began to approach the driver side window. In his right hand stood a very sharp, crooked knife. It was oddly shaped, like a lightning bolt. Ethan had no intentions of finding out what the blade would be used for. He shifted in reverse and slammed on the gas. Tires screeched as he tore off backwards. The masked figure stood motionless in the street. Ethan dared a glance back at the house and was surprised to see the other masked figure still standing in the bushes, unfazed by the events in the street, almost as if in some sort of trance. Slamming on the brakes, Ethan switched to drive and revved the engine. The masked man in the road cocked his head as if to encourage Ethan to run him down. He decided to obey and slammed on the gas. Like a homing missile, Ethan aimed towards the masked man, but he leapt to safety at the last second. Ethan kept the pedal firmly pressed and drove as quickly as he could out of the neighborhood. As he tore down the streets to safety, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911. The operator answered instantly in a relaxed, almost monotone voice. “Send officers to the home of Martin Jones immediately, something is about to happen. The address is-“ “Sir, please calm down. Tell me exactly what has happened.” “There are masked men about to break into a man’s home. I don't think they're there for his TV.” “You believe they are there to hurt this person? Whyl?” “Because who the hell wears a mask outside in the middle of the night? Lady, just send every available officer to this address!” He rattled the address off in short breaths. “I’ll have an officer check it out.” “You better send them quickly, otherwise you’ll be chasing a ghost.” “I’m sorry sir, what do you mean?” “Jesus, contact Detective Winchester, tell him his suspect is about to go missing.” Before the woman could respond Ethan disconnected the call, tired of arguing with her. With one hand on the wheel, he dialed Winchester’s number. “Please pick up,” he whispered, hoping Winchester was not still bitter with him. Hello everyone!
I wanted to let you know that the pilot episode for [The] Writers' Block Podcast will be recorded tomorrow night. Which means, the release date for the first episode will be April 28th! Go ahead and follow the page now by heading over to Podbean or finding us on social media. Remember, if you follow the show before the first episode you will be entered to win an Amazon gift card during the second show, May 5th. You can follow the show on Podbean here. Also, our show has a Patreon account. If you're not familiar with Patreon, check them out. It's a wonderful site where you can support people with the works of creativity. If you'd like to fund the site, you can check us out here. There's some great rewards for becoming a patron! I, too, have a Patreon account for my writing. If you'd like to become a Patron for my writing go here. As always, thank you for your continued support and I hope you tune in for our first episode next Friday, April 28th! I realize I promised this cover on Saturday, April 1st. I could say it was an April fools joke, but in reality I forgot. So.......I will be revealing the book cover today.
My new novel, Sins of the Mother, is the second book in the Ethan McCormick series. First, how about a little more info on the book? Here is the synopsis: The life of a private investigator is not a glamorous one, nor is it exciting. Ex-Miami police officer Ethan McCormick learned that the hard way. His cases are low profile and rather boring. All of that changes when a desperate mother and father reach out to him. Their eight year old son, Desmond, is missing. When the mother, Laura, becomes a prime suspect in the case, Ethan decides to do what he can to find the missing child and find those responsible. He follows the trail of murder and deception to find the truth. The truth, however, is darker than he could have ever possibly imagined. What do you think? Sound good? Are you going to read it? Let me know in the comments below. As always, I love hearing from you guys! Alright, without further delay. Here is the reveal of the book cover. It wasn't too long ago I was contacted by a man named Sam. He came to me with tears in his eyes. Sam had started to suspect, as a lot of the clients I deal with do, that his wife was having an affair. Naturally, I took the case.
Gathering up whatever useful information about the man's wife I could, like her schedule, I waited for night to fall. That night Sam was leaving for the weekend on business and he suspected she would have her boyfriend over. At first, I parked my car down the street and watched the house. Minutes turned to hours before anything really happened. I watched as the next door neighbor walked out of his front door and straight to Sam's. One knock and Sam's wife, let's call her Daisy, answered the door. From my angle, I could see she was wearing a robe and probably nothing else. Before I could snap a picture, she had pulled him inside. It was obvious Daisy was having an affair now, but my problem was the proof. Walking up to the window would be too suspicious and I didn't see any good vantage points from the street. I had to get that shot. Exiting my car with camera in hand, I walked down the street. Desperately, I wanted to find any sort of spot to snap a photo or two and run. There had to be something. On the second story a light switched on. I could only assume it was the bedroom. There would be no chances after this. Looking behind me, I noticed the house directly across the street was for sale. I hoped it would provide a better vantage point. First I tried the front door but found it locked. Craning my neck all around, I was satisfied I was alone. Fishing my lock pick from my right shoe, I went to work on the knob. Within a minute I was in. **I suppose I should make a quick statement here, for legality reasons. I did not trespass on private property nor do I admit to breaking into any building or home in the Miami area. Some parts of this story may or may not be fictionalized.** That should do it. Carrying on, I went upstairs and found the bedroom facing the street. Staring at the bedroom window across the street, I noticed the curtains were open enough to see in. However, the bed was off to the left and not visible from the window. Luckily, for my client, I did not give up there. Using my camera, I zoomed in on the bedroom window and noticed something glimmer along the far wall. Through my viewfinder, I saw a mirror with two nude bodies twisting and turning on the bed. Snapping a few pictures, I had clear proof his wife was having an affair, with the neighbor no less. A couple days later, I decided to meet Sam at a local diner early in the morning. He was there before me and looked utterly distraught. Making that long walk from the door to the table, with the manila envelope in my hand, was heartbreaking. I didn't want to give this man the bad news, but that's my job. He took it about as well as you'd expect. Tears ran down his face in the middle of the diner. I looked around to make sure his scene wasn't attracting attention. When he calmed down, he pulled a wad of money from his pocket and stuffed it in my hands. I said something I hoped would make him feel better, knowing it wouldn't, and headed out of the diner and on with my day. I think I'm getting better at the bad news. Recently, I discovered a podcast called The No Sleep podcast thanks to author Roxie Prince. It's an amazing podcast that takes stories from a site called Reddit, I'm sure you've heard of it. There's a sub-Reddit there called No Sleep where people post tales of horror. It's a lot of fun to listen to said podcast as well as read these stories.
I'm delighted to tell you, I have submitted a story to No Sleep's Reddit page. It was a fun little story that I hope people will enjoy. If you want to read it head here: https://redd.it/5xciss. It's called Never Look it in the Eyes. While you're there hit the little up arrow in the top left corner to upvote. This will show you liked it! Leave a comment and let me know what you thought! If you want to check out the No Sleep Podcast go here: www.thenosleeppodcast.com/ I really recommend that you do. It's great! Also, check out Roxie Prince's website and social media pages. She's a fantastic author. You can find her information here: www.roxieprince.com/ Thanks for reading everyone! Have you ever read a book you loved so much you read again? And you know you'll read it again and again? I've had a few of those, actually, but I thought I'd take a minute to talk about one of my favorites.
I would have to say the Lord of the Rings books. Everything from The Hobbit to The Return of the King. Now, I know what you're thinking. That's cheating! That's four books! You're technically right. But I am OK with this. I started reading The Hobbit when I was a young kid and loved it. Then I started to read The Fellowship of the Ring before the movie came out. I power read through all three of those books so I could be ahead of the movies before they came out. I enjoyed every second of them and still remember the scenes clear as day. Recently, I reread the entire series and I'm sure it won't be the last time. What book have you read over and over and sill love it? How about a little more information regarding my upcoming horror novella? Since you asked so politely, I guess I can give up a little information.
A family vacation to a country home out in the middle of nowhere was meant to be relaxing. It was meant to be a way to bring the family closer together. Instead, it did nothing but pull them apart, piece by piece. Adultery, seduction, harassment, terror, and death awaits the family in the faded yellow country home. I can't give up too much information yet. Hopefully, this excites you as much as it does me! Don't forget, you'll get this book FREE if you sign up for my newsletter. I can't wait for you to hear it. Thank you very much for reading. I think this may have been my favorite case so far, though I've only had a few. It was evening when my smart phone buzzed to life on the end table next to me. I was watching a television show while I scooped popcorn from a bowl. Wiping my fingers on my jeans, I snatched up the phone to read the text message.
Mr. McCormick, I was hoping to hire your services for a very important and personal matter. It's in regards to my son whom I haven't seen in years. I was hoping you could help me find him. I quickly responded, saying I would be happy to meet up. We agreed on a coffee shop downtown first thing the next morning. When I arrived the following morning, I wasn't sure what to expect. It occurred to me then that I had failed to ask the person's name. Now I would have no idea who I was waiting for. It was a bit sloppy, but what can I say. I'm still figuring this detective business out. It didn't matter, however, as the client ended up meeting me instead. He was a large man with a full head of hear and a gleam in his bright blue eyes. He looked older than he actually was, his skin beginning to tighten and wrinkle like old leather. He licked his lips nervously and approached. "Mr. McCormick?" He asked, proffering his hand. "Please, call me Ethan." I replied, taking it. We sat down at the table and ignored the other patrons as we got down to business. "My name's Carl." He said. "Like I told you on the phone, I haven't seen my son in about ten years. I wanted your help to track him down." Pulling out my notebook, I said, "I'll do what I can. Tell me everything." "Sure. I was married to a wonderful woman, beautiful and bright. She was the light of my life. We had a young son together and had a wonderful life watching him grow. When he was about eleven years old, things got a little rough for me. I had lost my job, my parents died, and a host of other problems struck almost at once. I didn't cope well. I started to drink. I started to drink so much that it got in the way of my relationship with Stacy. Which, of course, put a strain on my relationship with my son. Anyway, things got worse as I spiraled downwards. Stacy tried to get my friends together for an intervention but I stormed out in anger. Eventually, I become unbearable. We fought, sometimes in front of Blake, I'm ashamed to admit. To keep a long story short, things got a little violent one night and Stacy took Blake out of our home and I never saw them again." He sighed and sat back in his chair. I continued to write notes in my notebook as he did. "I think she moved out of state and I was served divorce papers soon after. At the time, I blamed her. I refused to sign. I got angry. I drank more. And I lost even more. My house, the job I was barely holding on to as it was, all of my friends. It was a living nightmare. As the years went by, I started to clean up my act. I went to an AA meeting and haven't looked back since. I wanted to prove to Stacy I was worthy of seeing my son again. I couldn't bear being away from him for one more minute. Then the unthinkable happened. Stacy was killed in a car accident. Blake was all alone. Of course, he was an adult by this time and I think he moved away. He didn't know where his father was and he probably didn't want to see me. I reached out to family members, but never learned where he was. Now, I just want to find him. I want to show him I've cleaned up and I want to make amends. It'll be his choice. If he never wants to see me again, I'll understand." The man's story was a sad one. I had to give it to the man. Most people wouldn't have owned up in that situation but he had. He was doing whatever he could to rekindle his relationship with his son. I agreed and went about my work, looking for his son. The hunt for Blake was not an exciting one. I spent most of the time on phone calls, checking with local records or family members of Blake. I had to lie a couple times to get the information I needed. Finally, I got an address. It turned out, Blake had moved to Miami only a few months prior. I'd like to think he was there looking for his father. In the end, I was able to arrange a meeting and the two men sat down together. I haven't checked in with Carl, but I'd like to think they worked things out. After all, the last thing I saw after I left the two together was the warm and welcoming embrace Blake gave his dad. The latest author event I attended stood out from the others, thus far. First, the tables were set up and us authors arrived to set up. Four of us in total. At some point, someone checked the weather and realized rain was imminent. Moving the tables inside, we continued the event indoors. There, we got to talking and learning more about each other.
First, there was Latiesha Cook, author of Ashes to Ashes Dust to Bad Bitches. She's a motivational speaker and a wonderful person. It was a pleasure speaking with her and learning more about her accomplishments. If you're looking for motivational material, check her out on Amazon and follow her on Instagram @Latiesha_cook. Next up, there was Pam Saxelby. She was there with her two children's books, Josie the Great and Max and Bear. I flipped through them and was very impressed by the illustration and writing for both. Of course, my in-laws and my own mother showed up to this event. Thankfully, they picked up the books for my soon-to-be-born son, Desmond. If you have a child in your life then check out Pam Saxelby. You can follow her on Instagram @authorpamsaxelby or grab her books on Amazon. Last, but certainly not least, there was Shondra Mitchell, author of Troublesome Times are Here. Shondra is a motivational speaker as well. She was there with her cool son, Jordan. He knew a lot and taught all of us a thing or two. Definitely follow her on Instagram @authorshondram and check her out on Amazon as well. I don't really want to speak about myself, as this post is not about me but the lovely people I met at the last author event. Luckily, this is more about another author as well. While we were there, a man walked through the door and browsed a bit through the store. Eventually, he asked for a moment of my time. I agreed and he handed me a copy of his book, The Modern Vampire Torose. He exclaimed he had been checking me out on social media and my website as well and liked my style of writing. With that, he asked if I could take a look at his book and leave an honest review for him. Of course, I obliged. It was flattering to have another author ask for my opinion on their work. I will be reading M.B. West's The Modern Vampire Torose soon and write a review on my blog. Check him out on Amazon if Vampire novels are your thing! People never cease to amaze me...
A few days after working my first official case, I was contacted by a rather frantic woman. She claimed her husband was having an affair. I told her I could help with that and agreed to meet her right away. We discussed the case and she gave me all of the details. Her husband, Rick, had been spending a lot of late nights away. He would claim he was at the bar with friends but she did not believe him. One night, while going through the laundry, she found a pair of red panties that did not belong to her. Her heart sank, utterly crushed. There was no more denying it. Rick was having an affair. Naturally, Jenny confronted him about it. Instead of owning up to it, he lied once again. He said he had no idea what they were and insisted they must have been an older pair of hers she forgot about. "They aren't even my size, Rick." she told him. In fact, they were bigger than her size. Jenny had never been a bigger woman, they could not possibly be hers. The suspicion drove her mad. She knew Rick was lying about the affair but couldn't prove it. That's where I came in. She wanted me to snap a photo of Rick committing adultery so she could finally confront him about it. Jenny said they might see a marriage counselor and try and put the broken pieces back together. I accepted, of course, and went about my routine. With my camera and other items, I went about tailing him one Friday night. He did, in fact, go to the bar and hang out with some friends. I started to wonder if he was telling the truth after all, though it didn't explain the underwear. Around nine at night, he climbed in his car and drove off down the road. This is where I would catch him. I picked up my cell phone and called Jenny. "He's leaving the bar right now. Give him a call and see what he tells you." She did. He said he was still at the bar with his friends. Now I knew something was up. Rick pulled up to a club that I didn't recognize and gathered up what looked like a duffel bag. A few minutes later, he walked inside the club. After a few minutes, I realized I had to go inside. Unfortunately, I would have to ditch my camera and rely on my smart phone. No big deal. It would get the job done. I walked up to the front door and started to notice something peculiar. There was a major shortage of women walking in and out of the club. Shrugging, I stepped inside. Then it hit me like a semi-truck. I was stepping foot in a gay bar. Maybe he was having an affair after all, but with a man? I pushed further into the club, looking for Rick. I approached the bar and ordered a drink. The bartender politely mixed the drink and slapped it down in front of me. Taking a sip, I pulled out my phone and showed him a photo of Rick. "I'm looking for this guy. His name is Rick. You wouldn't happen to have seen him, would you?" I realized I was acting too much like a cop but it didn't matter. The man's eyes lit up, then he smiled. "Yes and no," he said. "He doesn't go by Rick here, though." "What do you mean?" I asked. Again, he smiled and pointed over towards the main stage. Taking my drink, I wandered over. A crowd of people gathered around the stage as if waiting for a show. The lights dimmed and a fog filled the stage. People cheered and hollered. I scanned as many faces as I could but didn't see Rick, or whatever alias he went by in the club. "Please welcome to the stage," an announcer called. "Lady Lori!" The crowd went wild. I stared at the curtain as a man dressed in drag emerged. It was Rick. I recognized him right away. He wore a red lingerie outfit with a long, flowing white wrap. He danced around the stage and put on quite a show. I snapped a picture with my phone and slowly made my way out of the club. I wasn't sure if Jenny would be relieved or angry to learn he dressed in drag and performed for men. At least he wasn't having an affair. I waited with her until Rick got home. He stepped inside and saw me. Hesitating for a moment, he looked upset. "Jenny, who is this man?" He almost seemed jealous and hurt. "He's a private detective I hired to follow you. After I found the underwear, I couldn't get passed it. Why didn't you just come clean about it? Why did you make me do this?" "Honey, I don't know what this man has been telling you, but he's lying. I'm not having an affair." "Oh, I know, Lady Lori." She held up her phone with a picture of him mid-dance, half naked in bright red lingerie. He seemed taken aback by this and hung his head in shame. She had learned his "terrible" secret and he was surely afraid she would leave him for it. I remained silent and watched it all unfold. "I admit it. The panties you found were mine. I dress in drag and go to the G-bar downtown. It makes me feel special. I don't know. I'm not gay, though. And I'm not having an affair!" Tears welled in her eyes and she ran to him. She threw her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his lips. "I don't care. As long as you're not having an affair. If this is who you really are, I want to be there with you. I want to support you." Now, he looked shocked. Not a lot of women would have understood. I wasn't completely sure if I did. But I was glad she accepted him for who he was. Saying my good-byes, I walked out into the night and headed home. It seemed the cases I had taken so far were never as they appeared at first. *Foreword* Ethan McCormick is a special character for me. He's one I've been developing over many years. He started as an English project in High School and over time became one of my main characters as a writer. If you haven't met him yet, he's an ex-Miami Police Officer turned private detective. I thought it would be neat to start a series of blog posts which outline some of the cases he works on between novels.This will be the only time I issue a foreword for "his" blog posts from here on out. I hope you enjoy these mini stories. If you like them, let me know in the comments below or on my social media pages. If you haven't read Ethan's adventure yet, you can pick up To the Wolves and learn what pushes him to become a private detective. His new adventure will be out later this year! Without further delay, here is Ethan McCormick's case logs.
It's been a few months since I left the police department for certain reasons. If you've watched the news lately, you'll know why. If you haven't, go ahead and look it up. I won't outline it here. I'm starting this blog to keep a public record of the cases I take. Names will be changed in order to protect everyone's identity. I received my first real case only a few days ago. It was a fairly straight forward one. I was contacted by the manager of a local restaurant. One of his employees had filed for worker's compensation. He wasn't so sure the claim was legit. Since he can't straight out call him a liar, he did the next best thing. He hired a private detective to prove he's faking. This was my first case since leaving the department, mind you. I've still got a lot to learn. The first night, I set up shop outside the man's home. I had my camera, my thermos of coffee, and a pair of binoculars. Watching him practically all night, I fought off the urge to sleep. I guess I had seen too many movies because night was the worst decision ever. I needed to try and catch him out in the middle of the day, walking on two legs instead of one in a cast and on crutches. So, the next day, I grabbed my camera and drove to his neighborhood. Parking a few houses down, I got out and went for a walk. After a few passes by his home, he finally came out to get the mail. He hobbled on one leg, fighting with the crutches. I immediately believed he was actually injured. The way he struggled with the crutches seemed realistic. I took a few snapshots from down the street and set off towards my car. I stopped in my tracks when another vehicle pulled up in front of his house. It was a bright red Mustang with a convertible roof. Out climbed a stunning woman in a skin tight, black dress. I don't know what compelled me to stay, but I ended up snapping a couple photos of the two of them sharing a passionate kiss in the front yard. After, she helped him inside. Shrugging off the encounter, I made it back to my own car and tossed the camera inside. From there, I drove straight to the restaurant with the evidence that his employee was telling the truth. Frank, the manager, was actually relieved. He liked his employee, Daniel. "He's a good kid," he said. "But I heard rumors he wasn't actually hurt. Gotta look into it, you know." The most interesting thing happened when I decided, for reasons unknown, to share the last photo of the kid I had taken. "Yeah, he seems nice and he's got a hell of a girlfriend," I told him as I passed him the camera. I have never seen a human being turn the shade of red Frank did. His face was the same color as a firetruck. I thought he was going to literally explode. Just as I was about to ask what was wrong, he yelled, "That's my wife. That little bastard!" Daniel had met Frank's wife at the restaurant one afternoon and bought her a drink. Frank was in the back doing paperwork and the two flirted lightly. One thing led to another, and Daniel started to sleep with Frank's wife. I guess it went on for quite some time. Worse, he really was faking the leg injury for the worker's comp money. It turned out, he and Jessica were planning a trip together and planned to "make Frank pay for it." It gave them more time to fool around while he was out of work for his "injury." Needless to say, it was a funny one. It seemed open and shut and yet there were layers to it that I could not have fathomed. It never ceases to amaze me what some people will do. But, without those type of people I would be out of a job. So I guess, thank you Daniel and Jessica, in a sort of messed up way. |
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ABOUT BONDTo cover up his search history, Evan Bond is a thriller/suspense author. As an outdoor enthusiast and horror lover, Evan Bond enjoys writing stories where the two come together. He lives in Florida with his wife and two sons. |