A preview of my third thriller, “Criminal Opera (not yet available):”
“So here we are,” Jim said, “walking through the woods wearing Sniffy and Kamala Halloween masks on a late summer afternoon to find Kaltenbruner, fit him with the 13 loops of a traditional hangman’s noose and string him up. Not sure how we deal with any other folks around his weekend place but we need to have a plan even though we’re not sure who else might be there. Based on the information in that detailed summary, we made up the laminated sign to hang around Kaltenbruner’s neck when we string him up, spelling out the people he put to death (29) and the extra money he and the hospital collected from these activities (over $1,300,000). Our principal objective here is to punish the guilty and make the other bad guys fear that their time is coming – I’m guessing even Kaltenbruner will try the ‘I only did what I was told’ excuse. Someone is supposedly checking on whether he even paid taxes on that money. Maybe irrelevant because it would only be a claim against his estate or maybe his widow if they filed joint returns so I wouldn’t even bother with that question – taxes paid would only go to the corrupt governments anyway.”
“There’s the house through these bushes,” he said, parting some willow branches in front of them.
Before them was a newly painted, light brown two-story colonial farmhouse surrounded by a rolling green lawn. An elderly man with a white handlebar mustache was driving a four-wheeled gas-powered lawn mower, oblivious to his surroundings as he listened to a headset, apparently humming along with the music. A bright red Alpha-Romeo sedan was parked on a smooth asphalt driveway leading down the hill toward a field of apple trees across the main road. Not far from the house, a swimming pool with a two-story diving tower bubbled pleasantly.
“Let’s see if we can interrupt this guy’s mowing near the swimming pool on his next circuit,” Jordan suggested, reaching down with a gloved hand to check for a handful of zip ties in his jacket pocket.”
