ISBN: 978-0-9877087-3-1 (e-Book)

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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This book is dedicated to the memory of Joan Clark Lord and Janet Clark Parker, two wonderful women who are sorely missed.

1

Hank Donaghue was asleep in a motel room in Harmony, Virginia at 2:21 a.m. when the door went flying off its hinges with a crash. He jerked awake, shocked. The dark room filled with sudden noise and movement. The lights came on. Strong hands gripped the front of his t-shirt and pulled him upright.

“Son of a bitch!” a man screamed into his face.

Hank chopped upwards with his forearms, trying to break the man’s hold. They twisted sideways together and Hank fell off the side of the bed. The man fell on top of him, pinning him down. Hank worked an arm free and groped above him.

Someone swept Hank’s clothes off the chair next to the bed and shouted, “Gun!”

Hank looked at the yellow stripe along the outer seam of the second man’s trousers. Cop. He looked up at a young man with blue eyes, a blond brush cut and a trimmed blond mustache. The officer pointed his weapon straight at Hank’s forehead in a business-like two-handed grip.