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Nick Turner is a cool, easy-going private investigator, who goes about his business solving other peoples problems. He’s a thinker, who works well, with his German Shepherd, Zeus.

Excerpt:

Chapter 1

Nick rubbed hard at his eyes for at least the fourth or fifth time over the last ten miles. He wiped away tears, trying desperately to clear the blurriness brought on by them. And the lightning from the storm that had so conveniently hit the area, wasn’t helping any.

Zeus, Nick’s eight-year-old white German Shepherd sat in the passenger seat. He, too, was nervous and at every flash of lightning would prance around in the seat. Even though Nick had reassured the animal that everything was okay, it was evident that the dog knew better. Nick knew, too, that Zeus could sense that things weren’t right.

Zeus was more to Nick than just a dog. He had been a companion, a friend, and on several stakeouts and surveillance jobs over the past several years, a partner. Hell, there were even a few times when Zeus had proven to be just as smart, if not smarter, than Nick himself.

Now as they traveled down the storm drenched highway, Nick knew that Zeus was well aware of what was going on.

“Hell of a night I picked to leave Connie, huh, Boy?” Nick said to the dog. “I must be some kind of an idiot…” he went on as he reached for yet another tissue, “…what in the world was she thinking? That I’d stick around and watch her?” He was talking to the animal as he remembered how she did those lines of cocaine right in front of him. “Maybe that’s just what she wanted huh, Boy?” Nick was going on as if he expected the animal to answer him.

He knew that his marriage had long been over. He had known for some time. It had all come to a barrel head when he had caught his wife with her lover. He had made the discovery of the affair after a short three-day investigation. It had been the easiest case of his career: his own.

Did she really think she could hide it? Or did she actually set it all up, he wondered. The thought of it all suddenly hit home. In his mind it was beginning to register. At that point he felt like a real heel for the first time in his life. He also realized that he’d been had.

Nick was finally starting to think straight after some thirty minutes on the road, when another large crack of lightning flashed overhead. His eyes burned and blurred as tears again formed in them. Zeus also was becoming more agitated by the large amount of lightning that night flashing continuously about them.

“I wonder how long this storm is going to last, Boy?” He said to Zeus. The animal turned to face him with nervous eyes. His tail was wagging vigorously as Nick held the one way conversation. “Perhaps it’ll let up soon.” It was both a statement and a thought Nick seriously doubted. “Then again, retract that statement. It doesn’t look as though we’re going to get that lucky tonight.”

Nick just wanted to get to his cabin. If it rained all-night it would not matter as long as he and Zeus were safe and dry. He wiped his eyes again with the tissue, and started looking for the turn off. A half-mile later he turned onto the bumpy, dirt road known as Lakeside Drive.

He drove slowly and cautiously as he navigated the narrow lane that led to his cabin.

It had always been the one place that served as more than just a retreat for Nick over the past thirty years. The cabin had belonged to his parents and had been left to him in their wills.

“Three more miles and we’re home free, Boy.” Nick told Zeus as he was paying close attention to the sharp curves in the road. He knew them to be extremely dangerous when wet, and slick.

He continued to think about his wife, but knew that once he was at the cabin he’d have plenty of time to give it his full attention. Maybe then, he thought, he’d be able to figure out just, “what she was thinking”.

Nick had no sooner let the thought pass when yet another bright flash of lightning struck. He hit the brakes hard, but not because of the lightning. Zeus, too, had gone off. He was barking loudly and pranced nervously in his seat. That was enough to alert Nick that something was terribly wrong.

Once Nick had the car stopped, he gave attention to what he had thought he had seen sticking out from the bushes on the right side of the road. Zeus was looking back in the same direction, Nick observed.

The lightning flash had struck directly overhead and it had hit close. When it did, it lit up the area like a night flare over the jungles of Vietnam when he had been out on night patrol.

“Was that what I thought it was, Boy?” he asked Zeus, who answered with two loud yelps.

Nick turned in his seat and tried to peer out the back window. But it was useless, the window was fogged from the heavy rainfall and made seeing anything difficult at best.

“Maybe it was just a stick or something like that?” he said. Zeus didn’t agree, and went off again with loud barks and prancing in his seat. His ears were up and he was in full alert mode. That was enough to convince Nick that a look at the area was warranted. “Okay, Boy, let’s take a look.” What Nick was talking about was an arm. He actually had thought he had seen an arm sticking out from the brush, though it seemed ridiculous. Nick almost started driving forward again, but when Zeus let out another insistent yelp, he knew he had to back up and take another look. His investigative mind was also in full detective mode and he knew he‘d be wondering all night about it if he didn‘t.

Nick adjusted himself in his seat and backed the car up as carefully as he could from what little he could see using his mirrors. “Always the detectives, aren’t we, Zeus?” he mumbled to the animal that was staring out the side window, his nose plastered to it. “Okay, okay, we’ll take a look.” He told the dog. “Calm down,” Nick commanded, and Zeus relaxed just a bit.

Slowly Nick backed the Mustang up the road being careful to keep it to the left side. He wanted to be sure not to run over whatever it had been that he had seen sticking out from the bushes. After a short distance he stopped to get his bearings, not sure at all how far back the object had been. As he studied the area, another flash of lightning sizzled across the sky and Zeus was once again going off. The brightness of the lighting had also made it easy for Nick to now see what Zeus was seeing. Sure enough there was an arm lying out in the road.

Nick set the parking brake and told Zeus to sit tight. He climbed from the car and made his way toward the arm. What he found was something he had hope he wouldn’t.

The arm was attached to a very bruised and battered woman. She was also not moving and appeared to be unconscious.

The rain now seemed to be beating down on Nick like a cow pissing on a flat rock. It was actually causing a bit of discomfort as he examined the woman’s body, which he discovered was nearly naked, except for some lingerie, and a mud covered skirt that barely covered anything. He quickly checked for a pulse and found one, though very weak. At least she was still alive, Nick thought, and sent up a silent prayer for the woman to live. He knew her condition was grave, but she still had a fighting chance. He had to get her to the cabin and quickly. He also thought it was a small miracle that she was still breathing as he lifted her carefully into his arms and headed for his car.

The rain continued to pour down profusely on him and the woman’s face. He was hoping it might help to revive her if nothing else.

When Nick reached the car he shouted for Zeus to get in the back seat. The dog quickly obeyed the command; he leaped between the console and landed on the rear seat. He stood and watched as Nick placed the injured woman where Zeus had been sitting.

When he had her seated safely in the car and buckled up, Nick headed for the drivers side of the car as fast as his legs would carry him on the heavily mudded road. But before he could reach the drivers side door, he took a hard flop, and landed butt first in the wet, sticky goop. He had gotten the only clothing he had with him full of mud, and was covered from his ankles to his ass in it. His hands, too, were smeared with mud. “What a klutz you are, Nick.” He told himself as he climbed back to his feet. Then he opened the door and slipped in behind the wheel. Reaching for the tissue box, he grabbed a handful of them, and wiped his hands the best he could. Zeus stood in the back and watched intently. It was as though the animal, too, thought Nick was a klutz.

Nick took a few minutes to gather himself as he cleaned up and then said to Zeus, “Good work, Boy. You did real well. Now lets see if we can make it to the cabin without any further mishaps.”

Before putting the car in gear Nick checked the woman for a pulse again. Comforted that she had one, he started out for the cabin. As he drove he wondered how she may have gotten left on the side of the road? Was she dumped there? Had she walked there? Though that thought seemed totally unlikely. He hadn’t noticed anything or anyone in the area as he had approached. In fact there hadn’t been another car in sight for some time, and no one had passed them since turning in from the county road. So how had she gotten there? This was really bothering him.

Nick had tracked down a lot of missing women in his career, most of which had never really been missing in the first place. They just didn’t want to be found. But, this was so totally different. He hadn’t been looking for this woman. It seemed as though she had found him. It was also the first time since his days in Vietnam that he had rescued anyone, on or off duty, from the perils of death. Nick couldn’t remember shaking so violently since his days as a Marine, when he had tried desperately to save so many other lives and had often failed.

As he approached his cabin, he gave thought to the woman’s injuries and hoped he could remember enough first aid to help her. He prayed again that he would, and at least enough to keep her alive until he could get her the proper medical attention she might require.

By the time he had reached the cabin, the rain was coming down even harder then it had been all night. The storm seemed to now be at its height. The wind, too, had increased. It had blown several branches down around the cabin. It was going to be a rough night and Nick knew it. Zeus seemed to be sensing it as well, as he was again prancing in the back seat, moving back and forth. He would stop only long enough to sniff at the unconscious woman in the front seat.

Nick had been through a few very rough storms in his past, but never under these particular circumstances. He hoped the woman next to him would at least make it through the night. Then, in the morning he could get her back to town and to the hospital where she could get the best of care.

Nick had reached the cabin and was making his way around the car to the passenger side when another large earth-shaking crash split the night. A bolt of lightning, so powerful that it severed a large branch from a tree that sat at the corner of the lane, lit up the sky once again. The impact from it shook the ground, and Nick once again found himself on his ass after losing his footing.

Not only was he pissed off at being on his ass, but also the branch that had fallen was now blocking the road, and his exit from the cabin.

Getting to his feet, he forced himself to move faster and more carefully. He wondered if the storm could get any worst? Just then another lightning strike hit dangerously close, and his thoughts were quickly answered. He began to move even faster than he thought he could.

Lifting the limp unconscious woman up into his arms, Nick headed for the safety of the cabin. Calling for Zeus to get out, he bumped the car door closed with his hip.

“Looks as though we have our hands full now, Zeus,” Nick said as a passing thought. He climbed the steps of the cabin as Zeus led the way up. At the door, Nick struggled with his load as he fumbled to find the right key. A slew of thoughts invaded his mind. His fingers were numb and as wrinkled as a prune.

Nick had no way of knowing that what he would learn over the next few days would make this thunderstorm look like a spring shower. He found the key and opened the door.

Entering the cabin after Zeus had slipped quickly in, Nick made his way straight for the bedroom. There he placed the unconscious woman on the bed. Then he covered her with a thick quilt and went to find the first aid kit.

As he clawed his way through the mass of junk he had collected in the storage cabinet over the years, he said to himself in a soft-spoken voice. “It’s going to be a long night, Nick.” Then after a few more minutes of searching he found what he was looking for.

After pulling the large medical bag from the rear of the kitchen cabinet, Nick headed back for the bedroom.

Copyright © 2008 EF. D. Bersey Jr.. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

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