Martini on Ice

Rich McDonough

Description

How would you interpret a dead man in your freezer, with a .38 caliber slug planted smack between the eyes to police? If it was murder, who did it? If it was suicide, then he would have to be a magician. How about a professional hit?

CON MAN - Perry Martini.  Word on the street, he was iced because of the IRS threats to convict him on multiple counts of bribery, kick backs payoffs, and money laundering surrounding the shady underworlds of construction corruption.

Perry Martini, a successful land developer, investor and entrepreneur. In exchange for imunity, who was due to testify before a federal grand jury, that would cause a major upheaval with the high up political silent partners of Martini's lucrative land oil lease scheme. Which had raked in millions, undeclared and tax free, just days of his sudden and very abrupt death.

Enter Mac Shamus, PI, who is hired by Ben Gibson, a law partner of Mac's ex-homicide buddy, Lt. Jack Dumphy, at the Cincinnati police. Now, also a high priced defense attorney in the same firm. To help clear their client B.J. Alton, charged with aggravated murder.

Sujets

• Thrillers
• Suspense
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 12 décembre 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781467827089
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Martini on Ice
 
A MAC SHAMUS NOVEL
 
By Rich McDonough
Private Eye
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
Mac Shamus novels are based on more than thirty years of real-life case histories experienced by the author, Rich McDonough—a practicing private detective—and are not the total result the author’s imagination. While this is in fact the authors true name, throughout his actual career he was known and referred to as “ Mac” by most who knew him.
 
The operating name of his agency was “Shamus.” In view of this he felt it compelling and fitting to use the names he was so often called in real life – “Mac Shamus” as his main character name for all of his novels.
 
The storylines are basically true and factual in most instances. However, names, dates, times, characters, and some geographical references have been changed, and slightly enhanced in some instances. All attempts to preserve the participants’ identities are prevalent, and as well all efforts have been made to protect client confidentiality, self-preservation of the writer, and Mac Shamus Novels. “Any resemblence to actual persons, Living or dead, or locations, would be entirely coincidental.” 

 
AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: [phone]
 
 
 
 
© 2009 Rich McDonough. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 01/26/2023
 
ISBN: 978-1-4343-2888-5 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4678-2708-9 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007908844
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
About the Author
Chapter 1
Murdered. Shot right between the eyes. Perry Martini—successful long-time investor, land developer and entrepreneur—had been up to his ears in a maze of business corruption, bribery, deceit, and money laundering. Big deals, big cash payoffs, and kickbacks to very influential secret investors were all part of his scheme to screw the government, landowners, and big-time oil conglomerates out of millions.
Martini’s plot was staffed with former state and federal employees, along with key people having inside access and knowledge useful to Martini. Among them was April Salone, Martini’s private secretary, bookkeeper and lover. Little did Martini know that April had a scheme of her own. Offering and providing plenty of cash and sex for all—men and women alike—April’s plan was to eventually get the whole pie for herself after dumping those who were no longer useful to her. B.J. Alton, Carlotta Sims, and Kay Conte—they all thought they were partners, but could they really trust a woman like April Salone?
Unbeknownst to any of the schemers involved, IRS intelligence had had Martini under surveillance for almost a year, and pretty much knew the whole plot. The federal grand jury released a secret indictment against Martini, and he was scheduled to testify under a subpoena. The IRS wanted Martini to drop the dime on all the players in the scheme, especially the secret investors, in exchange for immunity. Word was, however, that the highly influential investors knew the IRS was on Martini’s ass, so a professional hit to prevent him from testifying was inevitable!
The day before Perry Martini was due to testify, he was found dead, flat on his back in a pool of blood on a dirt road, only twenty feet from the state line. He had a single .380 caliber slug planted smack between his eyes. No gun was found, but suicide was suspected, until witnesses said they saw a car with two occupants near the scene.
Within hours, B.J. Alton, one of Martini’s occasional business associates, was arrested and charged with aggravated murder. The prosecution’s key witness was none other than April Salone! Shortly thereafter, a high-dollar mouthpiece arrived at the Shamus Detective Agency at 917 Main Street in Cincinnati, to retain Mac Shamus to investigate B.J.’s true involvement in the case.
Ben Gibson, a local heavyweight criminal lawyer, got a sizeable retainer from B.J. Alton with a contingent agreement for acquittal of another $300,000.00—giving Gibson some real incentive to get him off. Gibson had to get the real facts and quick!
Ben Gibson was Jack Dumphy’s partner, who was an ex-homicide cop and close friend of Mac Shamus. Jack had been a lieutenant with the Cincinnati police, until he got his law degree and went into private practice with Gibson’s prestigious law firm.
Gibson had spoken to several candidates to investigate the Martini murder before he hired Mac. One was a former FBI agent, and the other was a detective out of L.A., but Gibson knew little about either. He needed someone with a real following and success rate.
Gibson, in talking with Jack Dumphy, his co-counsel, learned of Mac through Jack’s personal friendship and his experience serving with Mac, on several tours of duty in the military. He asked Jack if Mac Shamus was good and dependable at his work.
“Mac’s a no bullshit kind of guy…his determination and abilities are unsurpassed. I know in all the operations we were in together, my life, many times, hinged on his guts, drive, and the risks he took in our many missions. Total dependability—if he can’t get the real scoop, you may as well hang it up!”
“If you hire him, I can tell you one thing for sure…if Mac comes back empty handed as far as proving your man guilty, you have nothing to worry about. If he can’t find it, there is no way the cops or prosecution will. Now that’s a fact!”
“I served with Mac for over a year based out of Tripoli, North Africa, and a few other places in the Middle East around Cambodia. There’s no one else I’d want to have backing me up.”
“Mac got into the business in a round about way to start with. After basic training, he was sent to Cheyenne, Wyoming for about four months. He was training for what they called wire maintenance—repairing phone installations, switchboards, hanging phone lines, and other related electronic equipment.”
“After that, he was sent to Syracuse, New York to work in top secret block houses, with no windows. They were all part of the headquarters for the Eastern Air Defense Command. There, he did what he was trained for. Up until then, none of his training had anything to do with his P.I. background, at least up to that point.”
“From here he was sent to Ft. Devins, an ASA (Army Security Agency) school. He trained with a five-man detachment in very secretive, and intensive intelligence communications of encrypted Morse code. This training required a mandatory pledge to initiate his ‘last resort’ options if captured and tortured, rather than disclosing his missions. After that training, his work title was changed to a false name, though it was more of a descriptive title for radio researcher.”
“The new title was just a disguise for the intent purpose to confuse, not only our enemies, but also our own forces who didn’t have this type of security clearance. It was just another security measure that they took in that field.”
“Shortly after that training, his five-man detachment was taken to a ‘Special Forces’ base where for the next eight weeks or so they trained at Ft. Bragg, along with six other ‘radio researchers’ as they were now known. Their detachment was trained in a shortened but scaled-up version of combat kill tactics, with unique defensive techniques and weaponry. Heavy emphasis on ‘escape,’ torture, tolerance, and confessions, along with the ‘last resort’ trip!”
“He had a little cyanide pill implanted in his skin that would kill him in fifteen seconds if he took it. It was hidden in various unique areas of the body, and embedded just beneath the surface of the skin. It was made to appear as a small scar, used for the prevention of disclosing mission data, by torture as a last resort. Not too many guys stayed in units like this for long.”
“The kill tactics and hand-to-hand combat training were amazing. I was also there. It reflected unbelievable effectiveness. Veteran Special Forces, and Airborne Rangers of the 101 st Air Cav, methodically trained our detachment. It was unlike anything Mac or I had ever seen or knew of.
I know Mac. He had been a veteran of street fighting and small gang wars as a fatherless boy, and into his teens. He had been around pretty much. This training enlightened him.
After the training, he was sent to Tripoli where he hooked up with my five-man recon search detachment team. We were assigned a Navy crypto specialist and two agents of Israeli intelligence. Our mission then was reconnaissance—to gain subversive or enemy intelligence data through hard wire taps of encrypted Morse codes, along with a lot of photo recon.
Myself, Mac and the rest of our team ranged from patrolling various deserts for t