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    Switch Child
    Switch Child
    Switch Child
    Ebook41 pages41 minutes

    Switch Child

    By David Howells

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    About this ebook

    The Northeast is concerned over the expanding scope of minor electrical fluctuations that no one can explain. The problem started in a 300 bed chronic care facility, and the first investigator was Karl Hoffman, who traced the disturbances to a brain dead child, the last 'survivor' of a boating accident.
    Karl is called before a Police Detective, and must explain with great care his role in tracking down and fixing the problem. If he tells too much, he may lose the best friend he has...the brain dead child who isn't quite as damaged as the experts thought.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Howells
    Release dateApr 11, 2013
    ISBN9781301301768
    Switch Child
    Author

    David Howells

    Doctor of Chiropractic since 11/1984. Former Chief of Nuclear Medicine, Lutheran Medical Center, St. Louis, MO. Volunteer EMT, Hurley Fire and Rescue Squad, Hurley NY. Folk musician, volunteer soundman for the Hudson Valley Folk Guild. Kiwanis Club of Kingston. Society for Creative Anachronism fighter, archer, and chirurgeon. Greetings and welcome to my website. Thanks for stopping by. I welcome you to download VANESSA with my complements and see if you like the style. I'm told by readers the first two chapters are a slow acceleration (others say 'no problem') and then it takes off from there as a great page turner. Each of the four sequels had good reviews on first released a few years back, so I hope you'll try those as well. Time Snap and Hell Rise were more recent efforts I hope you'll like. The short stories have been a lot of fun to write, and are getting good response levels. Thank you all so very much! Long and merry life, best of health, David L Howells PS: I've done my best to filter out errors in the copy, but if you see one on any of the works, please notify me at twosword at earthlink dot net? I'd appreciate it (just include a three word sequence and which title, and I'll fix it with a search and correct). Happy reading!

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      Book preview

      Switch Child - David Howells

      SWITCH CHILD

      A Short Story in the Slice of Life Series

      David Lee Howells

      Copyright 2013

      Smashwords Edition

      This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Pardon me, Officer, ma’am? I’m Karl Hoffman. I’m supposed to give a statement or something to a detective?

      The Desk Officer was a thirty-ish Afro-American, a little heavy from her sedentary job description. But her dark eyes struck one’s attention when she looked up at you. She gave a slight smile, then checked the screen that rose above the seemingly random folders, paper stacks, computer discs, coffee cups and wadded items that would require unwadding to find their level of importance.

      The man before her would never be mistaken for white collar. The lines of his face documented thousands of hours squinting, focused on dealing with things mechanical. His open and friendly expression suggested that he’d not do well in a competitive business environment. The ball cap was a little strange...the front was ‘FIXIT’ emblazoned. It was one of those caps with LED’s built into the brim to shed light on something you needed both hands free for. The fellow had a Blue Tooth ear piece on board...it seemed a little out of place, but not badly so.

      The snapshot scan by the officer accomplished, she said, Please have a seat, Mr. Hoffman. I have you on the list to talk to Detective Roland. She’s interviewing someone else at the moment. As soon as she’s available, we’ll call you on the loudspeaker. There’s coffee and snack machines just down the hall, or you can go down those stairs to the cafeteria. The intercom doesn’t work too well there so you’d have to check back in, say twenty minutes?

      Thanks, um, Officer. I’ll just get a cup of tea and read my paper over there. Karl Hoffman, handyman for the Granite City Chronic Care Facility walked down the hallway and dropped six quarters in an aging hot drink vending machine and pushed a button. Nothing happened. He tried the decaf tea. Same story. Oh, well. No, leave it alone...repairs might draw attention. He pushed the button for black coffee. Third time’s the charm, though he’d been trying to cut back on the caffeine bean. What’s one more gonna hurt?

      Karl went back to a bank of chairs against the wall facing the Desk Officer and wondered if all police departments had chairs including cup holders like this one. He thought briefly that, finally, his tax dollars actually paid for something useful to the common man.

      Before opening the paper, it seemed a good opportunity to watch the comings and goings inside a station. Granite City didn’t have the size and depersonalization of a New York City or L.A., so he didn’t feel that there would be a similar bizarre clientele for people-watching, but this was his first visit to ‘Compound Constable’. It was only eight PM and things were buzzing,

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