from Blinded by the Sight by S.L. Smith


                 
 


We have with us today Lt. Peter Culnane with the St. Paul Police Department.  Lt. Culnane, please tell us about yourself.
Most people call me Pete … or a number of other names that don’t bear repeating. I’m a lieutenant on the St. Paul Police Department. Incidentally, in St. Paul we’re called   investigators, not detectives. I’ve been with the St. Paul PD for nine years.
 

Pete, tell us about this case. What made it so special? 
This case was special right out of the chute. The murdered man was believed to be homeless, but he was wearing a ring with a huge diamond. That made no sense. The body was reported by two young boys who disappeared a short time later. Attempting to determine the reason for their disappearance and whether they were safe became another priority. The lack of cooperation from some members of the victim’s family made
parts of the investigation difficult and revealed they were a splintered and secretive group. When all was said and done, I was amazed by the ways an attempt to help someone can go awry, ruining many lives.
 
Did anything make this case hard to solve? 
Two words sum it up:  loyalties and fear. The victim’s family was torn by conflicting
loyalties. Those loyalties were long-standing and divisive. In addition, poor   communication meant family members were afraid of implicating each other and  themselves. Fear also dictated the actions of others critical to solving the case. This fear wore many faces: the rejection of one’s cohort, the retribution of a parent or an employer, and betrayal to name just a few. Interestingly enough, each time fear was a factor, loyalty was always a part of that equation.
 
Did anyone outside of the police department help you solve this case? 
The two boys who reported the body and a homeless man were key. Although I’m not in a position to discuss the boys, gaining the trust and cooperation of the homeless man was  essential. Also, out of necessity, I solicited the cooperation of another police department. The cop with whom I worked was a real team player.
 
Has this case affected your personal life in any way? 
During this investigation, I gained a glimpse into and appreciation for both the plight of   the homeless and the absurdity of the stereotypes attributed to this group. It’s now impossible for me, as a regular citizen, to ignore a request for help from one of these people. I’m enough of a realist to know that the money doesn’t always go for the stated purpose. Whenever possible, I provide for the stated need in lieu of cash.
 
Anything else? 
We all assume things, and we often act on those assumptions. This case provided an excellent example of the tragedy that can result. Several people acted on assumptions they either failed to verify or were afraid to verify. They went off half-cocked and made
tragic mistakes—and the tragedy touched many lives. What a waste! I wish I knew of a way to get people to think more and react less. Yes, that includes me.
 
The last thing is more difficult to share. Since my wife’s death, I’ve avoided the opposite sex by hiding behind my job. Having run into a former acquaintance during this   investigation, I feel like I’m ready to pick up and carry on. And I love kids, want some of my own, but I want to do it the traditional way. My job makes my hours irregular and unpredictable, so I think it’s even more important for someone like me to ensure the stability of a traditional life foe my future. 

Pete, we wish you well with future investigations. I'm glad that you are ready to move forward in your personal life.
 
 
S. L. (Sharon) Smith was born in St. Cloud and moved to the Twin Cities after graduating from St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul. For Blinded by the Sight, S. L. drew upon her education in psychology, a career with vast amounts of law enforcement interaction, and her thrill for the investigative hunt. She is a member of the National Writers Union and Sisters in Crime (an organization that supports mystery writers). Blinded by the Sight was released on September 1, 2011 and is available at many St. Paul and Minneapolis bookstores. For more information visit her website www.slsmithbooks.com or email her at slsmithbooks@gmail.com.

 from The Widow’s Walk League by Nancy Lynn Jarvis. 


             



Welcome, Officer Everett. Please tell us about yourself and your role with the Santa Cruz Police Department.
Well, I lost an eye in a shootout several years back--- dumb mistake, but there’s no point going into that. I convinced the Santa Cruz Police Department to keep me on in a desk job as the media interface, public relations guy for the force rather than just retiring me. I’m only in my mid-forties and too young to be completely sidelined. I didn’t like my job at first, too many cats up a tree and stuff like that, but I figured out ways to keep a finger in some crime pies.

Do you like your job now?
After a while I came up with my personal trademark Hawaiian shirt for TV interviews and  realized how bad Santa Cruz, whose motto is "Keep Santa Cruz Weird" needed my interface between the force and the community. Eventually, I kind of started enjoying what I do.

You said you lost an eye in a shootout. 
 Oh, yeah, about my eye: we already have Jack O’Neill, the guy who invented wetsuits
as our local one-eyed-patch wearing celebrity, so my eye is a prosthetic. It matches my good eye perfectly, I’m told. I just can't wink very well because it mimics what my good eye does.

Officer Everett, can you tell us about this case?
We get some gang shootings and some one-shot personal murders, but this case, well,
Santa Cruz husbands started getting killed in some pretty public places. And then this little TV gal talked to some witnesses who said they saw somebody dressed like Death hanging around when the first guy bought it. The media went nuts. By the time of the second murder, everybody was seeing Death. 

Did anyone outside of the police department help you solve this case?
You would ask that, wouldn’t you? See, I’ve got this gal-pal — my wife’s a friend of her husband’s, too, so that makes us kind of extra-tight — who’s become kind of a meddler. She’s a real estate agent, not exactly a job profile that makes her well-trained to solve murders, but she gets these ideas… It started a couple of years ago when a real estate buddy of hers was top of our list of suspects in a murder. We just didn’t have the personnel to pursue it instantly and she’s, well, she’s kind of nosey and impatient. 

My train of thought is getting derailed here. Regan, that’s her name, Regan McHenry, well, she has a way of doing that to me; she gets me involved in the messes she makes with her amateur detecting. Sometimes she even gets me to tell her things about cases I probably shouldn’t. It’s irritating how she finds things out that she has no right to know. Ah, don't get me started. I worry about her, too. Like I said, she's a friend. She's gonna get herself seriously hurt one of these days even though I try to keep her out of trouble.

How did she help with this case?
Oh yeah, this case. All the widows of these dead guys started coming to her to sell their houses — and she realized they all knew one another because they belonged to this walking group called the Widow’s Walk League. She got all worked up, like she does, and thought the head of this group seemed suspicious, even had designs on her husband. The case got solved, not exactly because of her, but —don’t you dare tell her I said this because she already thinks she’s cleverer than she is — but because of some stuff she discovered and because she caught a few lucky breaks. 

Thank you for being with us today. I wish you the best in helping to keep our streets safe and Regan out of messes.


Nancy Lynn Jarvis has been a Santa Cruz, California, Realtor® for more than twenty
years. She still owns a real estate company with her husband, but has been having so much fun killing people that she will probably never sell another house. The Widow’s Walk League, the fourth in her Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries, was released in July. For more information on her or her books visit her Amazon author page under Nancy Lynn Jarvis  http://www.goodreadmysteries.com 
and at  http://www.facebook.com/ReganMcHenryRealEstateMysteries?ref=ts. 

 From Smoky Mountain Meltdown by Sharleen Johnson  


JACK, the Doberman Pinscher, is a member of the K-9 Division of the Gatlinburg Police Department.  He has been instrumental in solving many cases involving "search and rescue," "chase and take-down," and drug detection."

Jack, how  did you get involved in this case? 
I had been working with Chief of Police Max Lamont for a couple of years.  Three months
ago he married my partner, Annie Murphy Malone, owner of The Tin Roof Cafe. Chief Lamont was working on a drug case out of Atlanta and was gunned down and killed in the parking lot behind the City Police Department building.  Annie has been devastated, but has turned her sadness into a dogged—excuse the word—pursuit of Max's killer.

 
Why is this case so special to you?
It has hit too close to home.

 
What made the case hard for you to solve?
The fact that some of the undercover cops out of the Atlanta Narcotics Division have turned bad.  Those guys are playing on both sides of the street. 

Anything else?
We also have the problem of communication.  Less than 99.9% of the human population can hear us. We have a facilitator, Charles Weaver, homeless, who Annie has befriended.  He suffered a devastating brain injury as a child.  We think he can hear us because of an anomaly in his frontal lobe.

 
Do you have any help with your investigation?
My pal, Jill, and of course, Annie.  A guy named Darrien Hatcher with the Atlanta Cops also helped. He was a good cop who turned bad, then back to good again.  The cartel didn't appreciate his defection and his name was placed on a hit list.

 
How has being a member of the K-9 Division affected your life?  
I've had a very busy life.  From the moment I was born I was trained to be in service to human. I graduated from three of the top schools in Atlanta and Tampa for my particular line of work.  In fact, I just returned from Florida where I took a refresher course in
drug detection.

Thank you for being with us today, Jack. With such a busy and productive life we hope you are able to stay out of the "dog house." Thank you for your service. 


 SHARLEEN JOHNSON has been writing for several years and has published novels in three different genres. She lives with her husband in Ooltewah, TN, a growing suburb of Chattanooga. Smoky Mountain Meltdown, the third in the series is scheduled to be released in January. For more information on Sharleen or her books visit her  at www.sharleenjohnson.com or sharleenjohnson.blogspot.com.


 
 
 

 from the mystery Dumpster Dying by Lesley A. Diehl


 


Detective Toby Sands was with the Big Lake Police Department for over twenty years. His record of closing cases was disappointing until the captain paired him with Detective Stanton Lewis. Following his last and most famous murder case with Stanton, Sands “retired”, a forced retirement for medical reasons according to the police department.  I was fortunate to be able to track him down at a cabin on the Kissimmee River.
     
Detective Sands, tell us about this case.
Call me Toby (He spits brown liquid from his mouth toward a rusty coffee can on the floor and misses.) See, I’m just a good ole boy from rural Florida.  I don’t do fancy cop stuff, none of that high tech BMW stuff.

Do you mean DNA? 
Whatever.  Like I said, I’m old fashioned in my approach.  I can sit in my car under a palm tree for hours waiting out my perp. This case was no different.  My partner, Detective Lewis was running around after leads all over the county, but I just sat tight and the killer kind of fell into my clutches.

What made this case so special? 
Well, what was special about the case was that the wealthiest rancher in the county was killed and his body put into a dumpster at the country club just outside town.  Now that means you got to step lightly around these folks.  They’re real important, got lots of money.  Don’t cross ‘em none.  Like his widow.  Widow Davy was a gal to reckon with.  I tried not to rile her none.  She had some temper.  I could tell you stories…  Well, anyway, I kept a low profile in my cruiser cuz I knew better than to upset the Widow Davy.  See, Toby’s been around here a good long while, and I know how to get what I want out of a suspect. 
       
What made the case hard to solve? 
Like I told you, it wasn’t so hard.  Just took a lot of sitting and waiting and listening to folks talk, like my favorite bartender at the Burnt Biscuit.  Let me tell ya, he knows more about what’s happening around here than I do. And, of course, I know plenty.  I’m appealing those bribery charges.  I took that money only temporarily to find out what was going on with some crooked lawyers. I was intending to give it all back, but I got jumped by some federal cops and… Well, that’s another story.
       
Did anyone outside of the police department help you solve this case? 
Hell, no. Even my partner was useless. Course he was sweet on that little gal who found the body. Now there’s the real problem. Women. Women always get in the way of solving a crime.  I don’t have no women in my life.  My dog, ole Pokey, is a boy.  Don’t trust bitch dogs none.
       
Has this case affected your personal life in any way? 
Hell, yes, it has. I’m sitting here out on bail waiting for my second trial.  No one in the department, not my partner, not the captain appreciated all I done to solve that case.  I lost my house, mortgaged it to pay my lawyer—he turned out to be a crook—to get me off, and here I sit in this crummy dump waiting for the next trial.  Yeah, you could say it affected my life. (Toby spits in the can once more and once moremisses.)
       
It’s rumored around the police department and town that you’re a crooked cop.  How do you respond to that? 
I already told you. I was just trying to find out what was going on, and someone offered me money, so I took it. Otherwise how could I win their trust? In my years in law enforcement, I always played friendly when someone offered me money.  Let me tell you, I found out plenty about folks around here. I got a reputation for being willing to play ball with those who were generous to me.  I was the guy in the department you could trust.  If the price was right.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today, Toby. Good luck with your trial and appeal.



 Lesley A. Diehl retired from her life as a professor of psychology and moved to a small cottage in the Butternut River Valley in upstate New York.  In the winter she migrates to old Florida—a place where spurs still jingle in the post office. Dumpster Dying was released by Oak Tree Press, January 2011.  Her books can be obtained through
Amazon.com, B&N.com, and independent book sellers. For more information visit her website at www.lesleydiehl.com  or her blog http://anotherdraught.blogspot.com. 
 


 
 

from Button Hollow Chronicles #1: The Leaf Peeper Murders by Loni Emmert & P.I. Barrington  


We have with us Sheriff Jeff Ramsey of the Button Hollow, New Hampshire Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Ramsey joined the Button Hollow force as a deputy as a young man and has been serving the citizens of the village of Button Hollow for over twenty years.


Sheriff Ramsey, tell us about the recent crime spree in Button Hollow. 
Button Hollow is a small village in central New Hampshire. It’s a small town where everyone knows everyone else, and I mean that literally. Most residents have lived their entire life in Button Hollow, so when we had two citizens found dead in a swamp looking like suicides I became suspicious. Sure, both were down on their luck, one a prostitute with a love for meth and the other a loud-mouthed drunk but I knew both of them for   years and neither one seemed to me to be a good candidate for suicide. The  circumstances were off, and there were too many unanswered questions.  
    
Some people say that things like that happen to people like the ones you described. 
In their youth they were the same as you and me, they just made some bad decisions. That did not give anyone the right to kill them. 
      
Why is this case so special to you? 
Murder in Button Hollow, that’s what! We’d had some other strange activity go on in town, and something just didn’t sit right in my gut, you know what I mean? I know my town inside and out and I knew something unusual was going on. 
     
Did anything make these murders hard to solve? 
The Button Hollow Citizens’ Brigade made it damn hard to solve. 
      
Citizens’ Brigade? What’s that? 
Unfortunately, our town had established the Citizens’ Brigade which is a group of elderly residents that feel the need to stick their noses where they don’t belong and get involved in police business. Most of the time they get in my way and make my job more difficult,
which they definitely accomplished this time, but, I gotta admit they actually helped me solve the case. I gotta say that Button Hollow does produce some tough, upstanding citizens. 
      
How has this case affected your personal life? 
I hate to talk about my personal life but throughout this case my wife Sharon and I had been having some problems. We worked that all out now and hopefully things on the home front will remain calm. 
 
And the Brigade, is it still around? 
Yep. I conceded and let them stay together. After one of them willingly put their life on the line to help me prove that two of their neighbors were murdered what else could I do? So, they’re still around. Still annoying me and still getting in my way.

                
Thank you, Sheriff Ramsey. I hope that the Citizens’ Brigade helps you keep Button Hollow safe for all of your residents.



Loni Emmert lives in Southern California, works in entertainment, and loves to write murder mysteries. Button Hollow Chronicles #1: The Leaf Peeper Murders was released in August 2010. The Covered Bridge Murders, the second in the series is scheduled to be released soon. Button Hollow Chronicles #1: The Leaf Peeper Murders can be purchased through Amazon.com, Mainly Murder Press or the author’s website:  http://thewordmistresses.com.


 

 introduced in One Foot on the Edge and still having plenty to say in Two Feet Below by C.K. Crigger




 Sgt. Lars Hansen has a lot of seniority in the Spokane Police Department. He’s as rough and tough as the wide open town allows, and is in close contact with the seedier types that populate Spokane’s tenderloin district. Word is he’s always interested in a pretty woman, and if she happens to be acquainted with his nemesis, P.I. Gratton Doyle, so much the better.

Tell us about this case, Sgt. Hansen. 
The first I knew there even was a case is when China Bohannon slipped up and told me a feller named Jett Etter had backed her into a corner.

Jett Etter?
He’s a no-good outta Missoula and not somebody a lady like China wants to meet--ever. See, thats what comes of her working for Doyle & Howe Investigations. I don’t like it. I don’t like Gratton Doyle, either, butting his nose in whenever I try to talk to China. I know he’s told her things about me...

What kind of things?
Things like that little set-to regarding the working girls at Mama Jane’s Pleasure Palace, but let's don't talk about that right now. 

So what happened? 
When I heard China had been tossed over the side of the steamboat “Georgie Oakes” into Coeur d’Alene Lake, it got my dander up. I mean, what man in his right mind would go after a little lady like her, though she does have a tendency to pry into affairs that’re none of her concern. I’ve warned her, but she doesn’t listen.
 
 Did you find this case hard to solve?
 Well, I had nothing to do with solving this case, a murder nobody told me about. It all added up to China Bohannon and the Doyle & Howe Investigations boys. About all I got to do this time is keep my eyes and ears open for Etter and his pal, McNally. When China says McNally took a shot at her, I got no reason to doubt her word. Anyways, he’s from Idaho. Idaho men don’t come into my town and threaten my folks without asking permission. I don’t care who they are.
 
Has this case affected your personal life in any way?
I don’t want this nosed around, but China caught me coming out of Levi Krau’s grocery store (yeah,all right, so there’s a “rooming house” on the second floor) and I could see she thought something was going on in there. Doyle’s fault. He’s told her too much. Looks like I got my work cut out, getting back on her good side. I’ll have to do her a “favor” one
of these days. The trouble she gets into, it shouldn’t be too hard.

Thank you, Sgt. Hansen for being with us today. I wish you luck in getting back on China's good side.


 C.K. Crigger is the author of eleven published books with more on the way. Several of her short stories have been included in various anthologies. She lives with her husband and three feisty little dogs in beautiful eastern Washington, and manages to include the area in her books. Two Feet Below, the second book of the China Bohannon series, was released in March and is available for order through any bookstore ormost online booksellers. Send her an email at ckcww@aol.com, explore her website at www.ckcrigger.com and discover more about China Bohannon and the 1890s at http://twofeetbelow.blogspot.com.


 
 

from Angel Lost by F.M. Meredith (a.k.a. Marilyn Meredith)

I'd like you to meet Officer Stacey Wilbur, the only female oficer and the head of Vice Squad of the Rocky Bluff Police Department in the beach community of Rocky Bluff. She is a single mom with a little boy, though that's soon to change.

Stacey, being the head of the Vice Squad sounds pretty important.
I'm really the only one on the Vice Squad, but if I need help, another officer will be temporarily assigned.

Tell us about the case you are working on now.
A flasher is exposing himself to women jogging on the beach, and I'm going to act as a decoy to catch the pervert.

That sounds like it could be dangerous. How do you feel about doing it?
I'm not worried. A new hire, an officer with experience in these kinds of cases, is going to be my back-up. What does worry me, though, is the heavy fog that's been hanging around every morning.

I've heard there's something else exciting going on in your life these days. Do you want to tell me about that?
I'm getting married on Saturday, and I have to confess, I'm so excited that I'm having trouble keeping my mind focused on my work.

Who's the lucky man?
Though I vowed I'd never date a police officer, I fell in love with Detective Doug Milligan. We worked on several cases together and well--I don't need to go into detail, but he proposed and we're going to be married. My little boy is almost as happy as I am.

I understand that there is a no-fraternization policy in many police departments.
Thank goodness, that wasn't the case here. Rocky Bluff P.D. is small. We don't have much backing from the city fathers especially when it comes to budget matters. Our chief seems to be happy that the officers he has are loyal and for the most part have stayed with the department and not moved on to higher paying cities. RBPD is like a big family. We work together, we socialize with each other, and we help one another out in a crisis.

Let's get back to the wedding. Do you mind telling me a bit about your plans?
It's going to be small though we're holding it in the Rocky Bluff Community Church. We've only invited family and all of our police department friends. I've picked out a simple but beautiful blue dress. The women of the church are taking care of our reception. I can hardly wait.

Thank you, Stacey, for talking with us today. I know you are busy getting ready for the big day. I wish you luck on catching the flasher and on your upcoming wedding. Congratulations and all the best for your future.


F.M. Meredith, also known as Marilyn Meredith, is the author of nearly thirty published novels. Her latest in the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series, from Oak Tree Press, is Angel Lost. Marilyn is a member of four chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the internet chapter, Mystery Writers of America, EPIC, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. Visit her website at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com for more information on her or any of her books.