Greed Among Friends (eBook)

Van Tellfaster (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
348 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-1479-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Laura Applegate, a young private investigator, is about to face her first life-or-death case with her first overseas job-a high profile embezzlement case in Switzerland. As Laura and her colleagues dig into the details, additional suspects come to light and unscrupulous deals are cut in the shadows. But when the danger escalates as the truth unravels, can Laura outwit the ruthless attempted murders, bring the embezzlers to justice, and prove she's more than just a survivor--she's the real deal?

Van Tellfaster, a native of Philadelphia, PA, enlisted in the United States Air Force after high school. He earned a degree in International Relations from St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. He later became a commissioned officer in the military. He earned an MA in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma. Following a distinguished military career, with assignments overseas and in the United States culminating in a final assignment at the White House, Van Tellfaster transitioned to the civilian sector. He worked briefly as a contractor for the U.S. Department of State. After the contractor position at the U.S. Department of State, he went to work at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he focused on transportation security matters. He left USDOT, concentrated on writing, and self-published his first novel, The Private Investigator, in 2018. 

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It's summer 2014 and Laura Applegate, a young private investigator, is about to face her first life-or-death case. The private investigator has been assigned her first overseas job a high profile embezzlement case in Zurich, Switzerland for Cashway Investment Bank. Before Laura gets to interview her leading suspects, she is kidnapped by a pair of human traffickers, and things only continue to heat up from there!After Laura escapes her kidnappers, she and her colleagues dig into the details of the case, additional suspects come to light and unscrupulous deals are cut in the shadows. But when the danger escalates as the truth unravels, can Laura outwit the ruthless attempted murders, bring the embezzlers to justice, and prove she's more than just a survivor she's the real deal?

Textauszug

Chapter 1

Northern Virginia

Mid-August, 2014

Laura Applegate did not have time for jury duty. As she rushed through the warm rain toward the Fairfax County Courthouse, she could only hope this would be over quickly. You wouldn’t think a twenty-seven-year-old private investigator was exactly an ideal candidate for juror­—hadn’t she seen too much? Or lived too little?­—but this was not her first summons. Maybe they’d dismiss her if they knew that this time, she already had more important things to do. The kind she’d been waiting for­—a new billionaire client, the opportunity of a lifetime, the kind that usually went to more senior investigators at Hutchison and Satterfield International Investigations. Her chest twisted with anxiety at the thought of her boss pulling her off the case if this took too long.

Over her dead body.

She wished she had time for a cigarette. She was a healthy eater and a regular at the gym, but cigarettes were her one vice, a holdover from her short-lived career as a San Antonio police officer. She also didn’t like being late. She used her briefcase to shield her hair from the drizzle as she broke into a jog, clenching her Taupe Ruched Blazer close so her white blouse wouldn’t get wet. Her heart was pounding by the time she reached the lobby and took the elevator to the fifth floor, but not from the exertion. Heads turned in the reception area as she burst in, clearly the last to arrive. The sprint to the circuit court jury desk didn’t even faze her. She ignored them, scribbling her signature on the sign-in sheet, then glanced at her wristwatch: two minutes to spare, 8:58 a.m.

The short, heavy-set woman behind the circuit court jury desk fixed her with a stern look. “You just made it, honey.”

She grinned, unapologetic. “Yes, but I made it on time.”

“Can I see your summons?”

Laura dug around in her Samsonite Classic Leather Slim briefcase she snagged on sale from Macy’s in Pentagon City. Some people thought briefcases were old-fashioned, but to her, it signified class. She retrieved the form and held it up long enough for the official to read. “Here we go.”

The woman wrote down her number on a clipboard. “The lower left portion of your summons is your jury badge. Keep it with you at all times.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Laura’s heartbeat dropped to normal as she followed the signs down another hallway to the jury assembly area, entered, and sat near the back of the sizable, well-lit room. There seem to be a lot of people here, she thought. She felt another surge of hope that maybe they wouldn’t need her after all, and she could get the hell out of there and back to work. She pulled her iPhone from her briefcase to check on incoming text messages. She’d already put out a few feelers to start preparing for her case, but nothing had come back yet.

An attractive young woman with pretty brown eyes, wearing a comfortable-looking white dress, plopped down in the seat next to her and leaned close. “I’ve never done this before,” the woman confessed.

Laura backed away, hoping the woman would take the hint. She wasn’t in the mood.

“I heard this is an assault case,” the woman went on. “Your first time, too?”

Assault? Great. She glanced around the room again, noting how anxious everyone looked. She realized her own right leg was bouncing up and down, too­—maybe nervousness was contagious.

Laura picked up part of an abandoned newspaper she found on the empty chair next to her and was attempting to look engrossed in reading it when she heard a recognizable popping sound coming from a nearby hallway outside the jury room.

Abruptly, conversation ceased, and the room fell silent.

The popping sound continued. Is that what I think it is? Gunshots?­—an assault rifle?

The familiar sound grew louder, and she realized with horror that the shooter was advancing closer to the jury room. This can’t be happening.

Screams came from the corridor.

Laura’s heart raced with panic as she sprang into action.

Kicking her briefcase under her chair, she jumped up and rushed to the large double doors at the back of the room. She fought off a wave of light-headedness as she slammed the doors shut and turned the bolt. At the front of the room, the lone armed deputy sheriff she’d passed when she first entered the room was doing the same, locking the other entrance.

“Move back,” the deputy ordered them, visibly trying to stay calm. He looked to be in his early thirties­—maybe he’d never even encountered a shooting before. He withdrew his Glock from his holster and pointed his weapon at the door as the jurors obediently scrambled to back away, looking for cover. They all moved away from the doorway and cowered together, some hiding under furniture and others cowering in the corners. The screams from the hallway stopped. An eerie total silence replaced them.

Laura crouched with the others, but in a combat stance; her nostrils flared, and she inhaled deeply. She did a quick head count. There were about forty jurors trapped in the room. There was a palpable sense of fear in the room, but it manifested differently in each person. Some had contorted faces, some wore blank stares, and yet others were weeping.

Still crouching down, Laura turned to the juror closest to her. “Be quiet, and stay close to the floor.” Even though the building’s air conditioner blew out very cool air, she was sweating like a pig. She began to shake as her mind raced, and she considered possible offensive moves.

She instinctively reached for her handgun but quickly realized she had left her weapon at home. This is not good. What the fuck?! Her left eye twitched. Damn, she needed a cigarette. “Concentrate,” she said aloud. “I can do this.” Her heart kept beating like a drum. He’s gotta be standing just outside the doorway.

“Control to Deputy Brown. Come in,” a voice yelled over Brown’s walkie-talkie.

She glanced in the deputy’s direction. “Pay attention, deputy,” she mumbled. This guy could come through the door any minute, and you might not have time to respond.

The shooter blew two large holes in the door, and a third shot to the hinge caused the door to fly open. It was like a scene from an action flick.

Holy smoke! We’re toast.

Moments later, the shooter, dressed in black, short, stocky, stubble-faced, who had to be in his late twenties, carrying a semi-automatic rifle, bolted into the room through the open door like a soldier assaulting an enemy command post with a satchel of grenades.

Oh, hell, that’s an AR-15! Laura thought.

Deputy Brown fired off a couple of rounds, one of which hit the shooter in his left shoulder, but it didn’t stop the man.

Laura exhaled forcefully. “This shooter’s gotta be wearing some kinda hard armor vest because the deputy’s Glock didn’t phase the man,” she said under her breath.

The shooter fired back at Brown, and the deputy dropped like a rock, screamed in obvious pain, and rolled around on the floor.

Brown must be wearing a Level IIIA soft armor protective vest or something similar—it’s not good enough to stop those AR-15 rounds.

Deputy Brown dropped his Glock, which slid across the floor and ended up steps away from Laura.

Each gunshot was like a loud explosion, and her ears rang from the consistent gunfire. She worked her way closer to the front of the room and kneeled behind a row of chairs. The sulfur smell permeated the room’s air and made her nauseous, but that didn’t prevent her from being proactive and trying in every way to stop the shooter.

Chaos reigned throughout the room, with several jurors panicking and screaming uncontrollably.

The shooter picked off members of the jury pool at will.

One after the other dropped to the floor, and a river of red flowed across the floor with lots of blood spatter on the walls.

She low-crawled toward Brown’s Glock during the confusion. The weapon was lying under a chair, and she lunged for the deputy’s gun while the shooter was firing in the opposite direction. Laura received recognition for her outstanding marksmanship skills as a police cadet and police officer. She discharged her service weapon on more than one occasion when she worked for the San Antonio Police Department, and she knows how to handle a gun. She was no victim. Especially not here, not now. Not today.

With Deputy Brown’s gun in hand, she stood almost twenty feet from the shooter. “Hey, idiot!”

The shooter swiveled toward her, and she let off two rounds in succession, striking him in his chest.

He stumbled backward, and even though the shooter wore his protective vest, the sheer force of the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.11.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-1479-3 / 9798317814793