LURE (The Ball & Chain Thrillers Book 4) by John W. Mefford

Author:John W. Mefford [Mefford, John W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: amateur sleuth, partners in crime, crime fiction, sports crime fiction
Publisher: Sugar Hill Press
Published: 2019-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

31

Cooper

If nothing else, Javier Mendrano was persistent and tireless. The man had been texting me back and forth for the last five hours. Every time I’d try to dig in and focus on my own research and documentation, he’d send me another name of one of Mindi’s old friends. Apparently, he was reaching out to different people and coming up with new names.

He wasn’t trying to nag me, and I appreciated the additional contacts. But the slow drip ate away at my efficiency. I wasn’t accustomed to nonstop interruptions, not since I took the gig as a journalist for The Wire.

I set the phone down and typed in the latest name Javier had sent over: Tasha Singleton. She was a New York transplant who’d recently moved to Fort Worth, the western half of the DFW Metroplex. It also happened to be the home of TCU, where Willow and I had met before I left to pursue my dream of playing Division I college basketball.

In my mind, I had needed something to push me, to help me carve out my own path in life. Willow had this desire—really more of a calling—to help people, and nursing was her avenue to do just that. Back then, she might have described my sudden departure as “chicken shit.” She’d even given me the nickname of Cooper “cut-and-run” Chain. She believed that I’d run off before the relationship could reach the point-of-no-turning-back status.

Thinking on it, maybe there was some validity to her thoughts. But look how things had turned out.

When not being kidnapped, threatened to have a limb severed, or shot at, life was pretty damn good. Of course, the Sack Brothers were still shadowing us, and Dr. V was probably plotting our demise, and Willow’s father had slipped out of town with an ominous cloud hanging over his head. Okay, we had our challenges.

Don’t they say that a challenge is nothing more than an opportunity?

I grabbed an open can of Orange Crush, tipped my head back, and drained it. Then I belched and set the empty down next to the three others.

I was just glad Lauren hadn’t heard it. She might declare that she was allowed to belch ten times for every one of mine—just like she’d declared about my cursing. I peeked over my shoulder toward the bedroom, where she and her best friend, Tori, were Facetiming off two phones, while intermittently taking pictures of Fire wearing some crazy outfits. I’d walked in earlier, and they had Fire wrapped in a pink boa.

I didn’t tell them that they’d probably scarred the pooch for life. Or was it me they’d scarred?

I’d yet to have enough time to do much digging on Mindi’s secret boyfriend that the author of the article had given me. She’d obtained the name—a Blake Barkley—four years ago, and she couldn’t even recall who’d told her about it, so she had no personal information on this guy. She said she used to enjoy the party scene too much to get into journalistic details.

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