Jack Davis Mystery - 01 - Shakedown (42 page)

It was shameful, insulting, and inevitable, but I couldn’t criticize Troy. Even now, I couldn’t separate the truth from the lies. Each version was layered with shades of guilt, from Colby’s confession exonerating Wendy, to his implied indictment of her on the playground, to Grisnik’s insistence that she was the biggest thief among the thieves. The version that was missing was her own. Until I knew that, I wouldn’t pass judgment.

Either she was dead, her body lost, or she was alive and had left us behind. Whichever was the case, I had failed her.

Three months later I was having coffee at Beanology, one of my favorite haunts not far from my house, laptop on my lap, surfing the web. It was one of those rare winter days when the temperature soared for no apparent reason into the upper sixties. I was sitting on the outdoor patio, the sun at a blinding, sharp angle, Ruby curled on the chair next to me.

A message popped up in my inbox telling me that someone had sent me an electronic greeting card. I clicked on the link and an image materialized on the screen. It was a monkey with an ear-to-ear grin. The caption read
Happy Birthday! Love, Monkey Girl.

It was my birthday. I’d forgotten, but Wendy hadn’t.

Thanks for adding The Dead Man to your digital library. The ebook revolution has opened new doors. Thanks for walking through one of mine.

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I have learned about tics through personal experience. My thanks to Dr. John Caviness at the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona, for his kind, compassionate treatment. My thanks to Rabbi Moshe Berger of the Siegal College of Judaic Studies for posing the compelling question whether there is a commanding voice in suffering. The answer is yes. The command is to live well, fully, and righteously. Writing this book is one small step in fulfillment of that command.

Humans have always struggled to divine the truth using everything from tea leaves to torture to separate fact from fiction. Recent research in this field was very helpful to me in writing this book. I first learned about Professor Paul Ekman and the Facial Action Coding System in Malcolm Gladwell’s book
Blink
. Dr. Ekman’s book
Telling Lies
explains more fully how a lie catcher can recognize deceit. I learned about additional brain research on lying in an article by Yaling Yang and others titled
Prefrontal White Matter in Pathological Liars
, published in 2005 in the
British Journal of Psychiatry
.
USA Today
reported on June 27, 2006, about the use of MRIs to detect lies.
Time
magazine reported in its July 17, 2006 issue about prosopagnosia or facial blindness.

I also benefited from Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s book,
Freakonomics
, which describes a drug-selling gang’s finances, including the importance of paying funeral benefits for those killed while doing the gang’s business. Dr. Levitt expanded on this research in a 1998 paper, entitled
An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang’s Finances
, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Murray Rhodes and Gilbert Castro shared with me the history of the Argentine Mine in Kansas City, Kansas. Steve Gershon answered questions about income taxes. I thank them all for their assistance.

I was privileged to participate in the FBI Citizens’ Academy in Kansas City. I learned a great deal about the difficult work the FBI does and was greatly impressed by the integrity, commitment, and passion of the men and women who serve that agency. I thank them and remind them that this book is a work of fiction. I really was paying attention in class.

Thanks, as always, to my agent, Meredith Bernstein, for her friendship and guidance. Thanks also to my editor, Audrey LaFehr, for her work in making this a better book.

Nothing in my life would be as rich without my wife, Hildy, and our children, Aaron, Daniel, and Michele. Thanks to them for going along for this ride.

Joel Goldman is an Edgar and Shamus nominated author who was a trial lawyer for twenty-eight years. He wrote his first thriller after one of his partners complained about another partner and he decided to write a mystery, kill the son-of-a-bitch off in the first chapter and spend the rest of the book figuring out who did it. No longer practicing law, he offices at Starbucks and lives in Kansas City with his wife and two dogs.

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The Dead Man
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When FBI Agent Jack Davis investigates a mass murder, a leak of crucial information and his imploding personal life throw him into the ultimate danger zone – where truth lies at the heart of betrayal.

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Motion To Kill
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Motion To Kill
!

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When two of his partners are killed, corruption, sex and murder fill trial lawyer Lou Mason’s docket as he tracks the killer. Will Lou be the next victim? Found out in
Motion To Kill
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If you love the twists, turns and suspense of John Grisham, you’ll love
The Last Witness
!

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The Last Witness
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The Last Witness
is an old fashioned, ‘40s, tough guy detective story set in modern times. There’s a lot of action, loads of suspects, and plenty of snappy dialogue. It’s a fun read from beginning to end.”

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Lou Mason is back and this time it’s personal when his surrogate father, Homicide Detective Harry Ryman, arrests his best friend, Wilson “Blues” Bluestone, Jr., for murder. Mason unearths secrets someone will do anything to keep as he closes in on a desperate killer, setting himself up as the next target. Goldman goes Grisham one better!

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The Last Witness
is a legal thriller written the way criminal law should be practiced: from the gut…one of the premier crime novels of the year.”

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Move over John Grisham! Joel Goldman is in the courthouse!

Copyright © 2008 Joel Goldman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Author, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is entirely coincidental.