Reunion Murders: Jim Richards Murder Novels, #27
By Bob Moats
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About this ebook
Some things are better left in the past. A letter arrives for Jim and Penny inviting them to a class reunion at their old high school back in Michigan. Do they want to leave Las Vegas to see people they knew forty-five years back. Do they know that when they get back, there will be a few murders of those past classmates. Will Jim be pulled into solving the murders. Jim’s friends Buck and Will Trapper tag along with Jim and Penny to Michigan and they get into the action. While they are gone, Lynn Carter, former Las Vegas homicide lieutenant who joined Jim’s firm is now being asked by the Las Vegas police to help solve the murder of an important Vegas hotel manager. She is asked to team up with her husband, Deacon to track the killer. Will everyone catch their killers in Vegas and in Michigan?
Bob Moats
Detroit area resident, Bob Moats, has been writing short stories and plays for as long as he can remember. He has lost most of his original stories, typed or handwritten, in the numerous moves he has made from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan to Northern Michigan, to Las Vegas and back to Fraser, where he now lives. Moats became one of the causalities of unemployment a year ago, and had time on his hands to finally pursue a life long dream of writing a full blown crime novel. Thus was born the first book, "Classmate Murders".What followed was a series of seven books starting with "The Classmate Murders" which introduces the main character, Jim Richards, who has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, one day, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for his help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into numerous murders of women from his high school who he hasn't seen in forty years. Along with a friend of his, Buck, a big, mustached biker, they go off to track down the killer before he can get to one former classmate, Penny Wickens, a TV talk show host who Jim has just fallen for while protecting her. The killer is also murdering the women right out from under police protection, driving homicide detective Will Trapper crazy, and he slowly depends on Jim to help. There's humor, suspense, wild chases across suburban Detroit with cops, classic cars and motorcycle clubs; murder, mayhem, a good amount of romance and a twist ending.Jim and his crime fighters, continue in the other books, traveling to Las Vegas twice, back to Detroit and out to New York to solve murders involving dominatrix; mistresses; Bridezillas; magic and strip clubs.Book titles: Classmate Murders; Vegas Showgirl Murders; Dominatrix Murders; Mistress Murders; Bridezilla Murders; Magic Murders; Strip Club Murders and Made-for-TV Murders.
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Reunion Murders - Bob Moats
Reunion Murders
Copyright © 2013-14 by Bob Moats.
All rights reserved.
Revised 010814-2330
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This e-book is licensed for your personal use 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, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
This is a work of pure fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For information and address:
Magic 1 Productions
P.O. Box 524, Fraser MI 48026-0524
Website: http://murdernovels.com
Cover by Bob Moats, photo by Rita Meinburg.
My thanks to Shirley Davies, Ken Boggs, Sandy Sillman, Roland Hansen and Karen Meinburg Richwine for allowing me to use their images on the cover and I included them in the book as characters. There are a number of other people mentioned in the book who are all friends from Facebook. My thanks to them also.
Ebook ISBN Pending.
Other Jim Richards series books by Bob Moats
(In series order)
Classmate Murders
Vegas Showgirl Murders
Dominatrix Murders
Mistress Murders
Bridezilla Murders
Magic Murders
Strip Club Murders
Made-for-TV Murders
Mystery Cruise Murders
Talk Show Murders
Sin City Murders
Black Widow Murders
Vegas Vigilante Murders
Area 51 Murders
Mortuary Murders
Hypnotic Murders
Sunshine State Murders
Blue Suede Murders
Honky Tonk Murders
Dark Carnival Murders
Lipstick Murders
Pasta Murders
Talent Show Murders
Shyster Murders
Campground Murders
Network Murders
For a preview or to purchase a book go to http://murdernovels.com
What a few people are saying about the Murder Novels by Bob Moats
Mr. Moats, I just got your novel Classmate Murders
and have to let you know, I read it in one evening. That is the first book I have ever done that with. That was the most enjoyable book I have ever read. I just started reading e-books, and reading again, after getting my wife a Kindle. This book was my 12th, and the best. I just got Las Vegas Showgirls to (read) tomorrow evening. . I look forward to reading many of your books in this series. I have been searching for an author and books that were fun, entertaining reads. Your books are just the ticket.
Regards, A new fan, Bill from South Carolina
**********
Hi Bob, I just had to write you... Last week I purchased a Nook Soft Touch e-reader. I was downloading free e-books and downloaded Classmate Murders
from Barnes & Noble. I read it that night and enjoyed it so much that I went to search for the next one (as listed at end of the book). Read it and searched again. After reading the second one, I did a search from my e-reader for you and bought ALL of the books. So in the last week I have read all of the Jim Richards books. Finished the last one early this morning. I only read at night 10-6 when my neighbor is asleep. As I read the books I sometimes laughed and sometimes cried. I could relate to Jim as we are both in the 60s. I liked how Jim
refers to previous murders in each book. That is great for anyone who has not read the books in order and also as fast as I did. Anyway, I just had to write and tell you how much I enjoyed the books.
Nancie S.
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Another very nice comment submitted through my website from a person named Micki P.:
I recently was given a kindle for my 60th birthday. The first book I downloaded was the Classmate Murders and have now read every one of the them. Today I started on the Fatal Rejection series. Thank you for the wonderful ride with Jim and Penny and all the rest of the troop. I have laughed and giggled thru the stories, my poor family gave me the strangest looks! Now I really want a little Yorkie!! Fatal Rejection so far is another great read! I will be looking out for more of Jim Richards and since you are my #1 Author, anything of yours I can find.
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Received a feedback form reply on my website from a Cassy B. Here's what she said:
Well, I just finished all 22 of your novels. I certainly hope you are hard at work at your laptop. I haven't run straight through a series since John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series. I thoroughly enjoy your characters, the plot twists and the humor in all your stories. Keep them coming!
Extra special thanks to:
To Sally Berneathy, who originally edited this book and has edited a few of my other books.
Thanks to Val Brooks for beta reading the final copy of this book.
Thank you for purchasing this book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it for my faithful readers. Please feel free to email me to tell me what you thought about my stories. I love hearing from the readers. I can be reached at murdernovels@bobmoats.com thanks again!
Reunion Murders by Bob Moats
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Chapter 1
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The man hobbled down the stairs, slowly taking one step at a time. His leg was aching from his childhood injuries that now developed into arthritis. He hated getting old. He ambled to the door on the side of the basement, and with a key from his wallet he unlocked the door. He went in and over to the desk that sat along one wall, turning on the desk light. He picked up his prescription bottle and popped out a couple pills that the doctors told him would ease the pain. He opened the bottle of whiskey from a shelf and downed a shot glass of the liquid to wash down the pills.
He turned to the wall opposite the desk and went to it. He turned on another light, brightening a corkboard filled with photos. He stood, examining one particular photo of people grouped in the center. One woman and two men were of his interest.
He got closer to study them. Then, he pulled out a thin knife and started to stab the people in the photo, one at a time. One after another, right through their bodies, close to the heart.
Soon, I will make you regret what you did to me,
he said to the photo.
~~*~~
The invitation was addressed to the home of Jim Richards and his wife Penny Wickens.
Penny was not home when the mail came. She was interviewing guests on her TV talk show in Vegas. It was on a network station broadcasting across the country. I was feeding our dog, Willy, a toy Yorkie we’ve had for a number years since before we moved to Vegas from Michigan.
I jumped when I heard an alarm go off. It was a security feature that came with the house we purchased when we first moved to Vegas. I liked the security features of the house and Penny liked the stripper pole planted out by the half-sized Olympic pool out back. The house sat on a lonely road overlooking the Las Vegas valley and the strip of casinos and hotels in the distance. It was also at the foot of one of the mountains that ranged around the valley affording us privacy from the back of our property.
I shut down the alarm, turned on the monitor and saw a postal worker driving away in the truck. I took Willy out for a walk and a dump as I went to the mail box on a post by the road. Willy chased a butterfly while I took the mail out of the box.
Willy, stop!
I yelled to the dog before he could catch the butterfly. Willy stopped and sat down, looking at me with his dumb expression. Good puppy,
I said and walked back to the house. Willy followed.
At the snack bar I looked over the mail. Mostly junk wanting us to sign up for some credit card or for car insurance. I sorted and tossed the junk. Then, I studied one envelope, a square beige greeting card sized envelope addressed to us with very neat script handwriting. It was stamped with a forwarding address from our old address in Michigan. I was amazed it took almost six months to get to us.
I carefully opened the envelope and pulled a card out. It was an engraved invitation from Penny's and my old high school back in Michigan. It was for a class reunion.
I tried to do the math in my head, I still couldn’t. The invite said it was a forty-five year reunion but I felt that was short by a year or two. I wondered if Penny would want to go back to Michigan to this reunion. The invite said that due to problems, the reunion last year, number forty-five had been canceled. So they were backing up one year.
I smiled. My school always did what they wanted, even changing years. My mind wandered back to just before I met Penny again, after nearly forty years of being away from her. We were in the same school and, although she was a couple years younger than I, she had a really big crush on me. I could never figure out why, but I didn’t question it.
My mind also thought about the murders of cheerleaders that took place and Penny was supposed to be one of the victims. That was when Penny and I got back together, much to my delight. We stayed together and then moved out here. Happily ever after. Until I could be murdered by some criminal that I was hired to follow.
My private investigating and security firm was thriving, and going through many changes. I sat at the snack bar and set the invite down. Memories were flooding into my head. Some I'd rather forget. We had a good life in Vegas and my firm was keeping me and my associates busy. Will Trapper and Earl Daws, both retired cops from back home in Michigan, joined me at my firm and we picked up a number of people along the way.
Recently, we had a female homicide lieutenant from Vegas LVMPD join our firm. Lynn Carter had retired from the force after she had a baby. My friend, and the cop who saved Penny's life, Deacon DeAngelo, married Lynn and then they had a beautiful baby girl. I could never remember her full name so I just called her PJ, after Penny and me, which was part of her name.
I picked up my cell phone from where I left it on the counter and called Lacey, my office manager and certifiable crazy person. She picked up after two rings. Long enough for her to see