Performing Murder

Joseph LeValley

Description

The violent death of a famous actress rocks the rural Iowa town of Orney, where a Hollywood movie company is filming on location. Local newspaper reporter Tony Harrington is stunned by the murder, as he was one of the last people to see her alive. Tony finds himself further entwined in the case when it's learned the actress was seen riding in his car on the night she was killed, and when her former lover attacks him and his best friend. Soon Tony's world view is shattered when someone he loves is officially charged with the murder, and the evidence collected by the authorities is indisputable. As Tony desperately seeks an alternative solution to the case, he finds it may have ties to a family secret from thirty years in the past. As the investigation intensifies, so does the action, leaving a second person dead and a third lying on the ground with a bullet hole in his side. At the point where Tony is ready to give up and concede the unthinkable is true, a newfound love convinces him to dig deeper. Her strength, intelligence, and belief in Tony helps him cling to hope and begin to unravel the truth, right up until the murderer fights back, putting Tony in the greatest peril of his life. Join Tony as he races against time to save an innocent man, win a woman's heart, and stop a criminal genius from once again "performing murder."

Sujets

• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Bookpress Publishing
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781947305342
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Praise for Joseph LeValley’s other
TONY HARRINGTON NOVELS
“5 out of 5 stars. A compelling and heartbreaking look at the best and the worst in us. A terrific story…A sure-fire winner from a composed and confident storyteller.”
— Great Mysteries And Thrillers.weebly.com
“LeValley draws on his own experience as a newspaper reporter to give the mystery an authentic feel. Fans of reporter sleuths…will be pleased.”
— Publishers Weekly
“LeValley skillfully weaves an intricate and involving tale even as he keeps his foot planted firmly on the accelerator. This is fiction based unfortunately on a very real problem. As such, it’s both entertaining and important.”
— U.S. Review of Books
“…a chilling tale as smoothly told as the crimes it recounts are brutal, with a reporter hero doggedly in pursuit of a story…and justice.”
— Max Allan Collins, author of ROAD TO PERDITION
“A chilling mystery-thriller…which will have the reader captivated. A tale full of suspense and twists that builds towards the nerve-racking climax and comes to an ending with every loose thread tied up. Heartily recommend it to readers who enjoy thrillers/crime dramas.”
— Online Book Club
“This book is filled with suspense that begins in the courtroom, and keeps readers on edge through a reporter’s emotional investigation of a double-homicide. Overall score: 9 of 10.”
— BookLife Prize
PERFORMING
MURDER
PERFORMING
MURDER
JOSEPH LEVALLEY
Copyright © 2022 by Joseph LeValley. All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without prior written permission of the publisher. Requests to the publisher for permission or information should be submitted via email at [e-mail] .
Any requests or questions for the author should be submitted to him directly at [e-mail] .
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Published in Des Moines, Iowa, by:
Bookpress Publishing
P.O. Box 71532
Des Moines, IA 50325
www.BookpressPublishing.com
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: LeValley, Joseph Darl, author.
Title: Performing Murder : a Tony Harrington Novel / by Joseph LeValley.
Description: Des Moines, IA: Bookpress Publishing, 2022.
Identifiers: LCCN: 2021909567 | ISBN: 978-1-947305-33-5
Subjects: LCSH Motion picture industry--Fiction. | Hollywood (Los Angeles, California)--Fiction. | Journalists--Fiction. | Iowa--Fiction. | Italy--Fiction. | Murder--Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories. | BISAC FICTION / Mystery / General Classification: LCC PS3612.E92311 P47 2021 | DDC 813.6--dc23
First Edition
Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For those who may never know the difference they made:
Wade, Ron, Dave, Sandy, Paul, Steve, Jim, Don, Roger, Mark, Dean, Dalton, Dick, Bill, Mif, Raymunda, Corita, Bob, Doug and many others. To paraphrase Mark Twain, a man who has friends can never be poor. I am rich indeed.
“Obviously it’s much more fun to play something you’re not than it is to play something you are.”
— Clint Eastwood
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
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Afterword
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1

Orney, Iowa — Sunday Morning, June 21, Present Day
A dead body is an unwelcome discovery during the heat of lovemaking. Hank Brewster learned this the hard way.
He stood in the grass behind the large, sprawling clubhouse, near the swimming pool. He and Holly Hanover, a former high school cheerleader, stood an arm’s length apart, catching their breath after scaling the country club’s fence and scurrying across the practice greens to the pool. They were illuminated only by the glow from landscape lighting at the edge of the pool deck and a sliver of moon above.
Hank had wanted Holly since they’d been sophomores at Southern Quincy High School. As a member of the basketball team, he had enjoyed an up-close view of the pixie-like blonde doing flips and splits in her miniskirt and tight sweater in the scarlet-and-black school colors. The fact he had spent his time at games watching Holly instead of his teammates probably explained why Hank had never made it off the bench to the first string. Sadly, the interest had not been mutual. Holly had ignored his efforts to talk with her, thwarting any thoughts of ever asking her out.
A girl as beautiful and smart as Holly was strictly a starter’s dating prospect. And even when she had been dating the captain of the team, Holly had earned a reputation for being uncompromising—fun, but unwilling to consider anything beyond kissing.
Now here she was, home for the summer from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, apparently excited to be alone with him in near-darkness, and ready to explore more than the shimmering waters of a swimming pool. Or was she? Hank found himself suddenly uncertain, afraid he had misread the signals. But hadn’t she seemed genuinely happy to bump into him while waiting in line for ice cream at the local Dairy Queen? Hadn’t she said she liked his new look, with longer hair and three days of stubble on his face? Hadn’t she suggested they leave her car in the parking lot and ride together in his truck? Hadn’t it been her idea to share drinks at the Iron Range Tap until almost 1 a.m.? More to the point, hadn’t she whispered in his ear, proposing he bring her here?
Now Hank was frozen in place, staring at the goddess who had been unattainable for so long. He ached to make a move but was terrified he would misstep and spoil the moment. He nearly squeaked when Holly looked him in the eyes and simply nodded.
Hank pulled off his SlipKnot T-shirt, letting it fall to the wet grass. He watched impatiently, and with no small amount of amazement, as Holly maneuvered the straps of her white sun dress off of her shoulders and let it slide to the ground. She stepped out of the bundle of material around her ankles and walked slowly toward him, a mischievous grin on her face. The grin disappeared as she reached him, pulled him tight against her, and began kissing his neck.
Hank slid his hands down her bare back and leaned in to kiss her. Lips parted and tongues entwined. God in Heaven, this is really gonna happen, Hank thought as the kiss continued. He felt her hands exploring the lump behind the zipper of his cargo shorts. Clearly Holly Hanover had learned more in college than just quadratic equations and regression analysis.
He broke the kiss long enough to take another look around and make sure no one was watching. Satisfied they were alone, Hank slid his hands further down Holly’s back and urged her panties downward. She slipped out of them easily, then unzipped his shorts and pushed them to the ground in a single motion. She then took his hand and pulled him to the edge of the pool. Hank would have preferred the soft grass and a more traditional first time, but he certainly wasn’t going to argue with the naked blonde urging him into the water. She dove in first, with Hank only seconds behind. They swam across the deep end to the other side, where Holly turned and faced him, her face flush with exertion, or excitement, or both. As Hank pulled her close, she locked her legs around him and found his lips again.
Suddenly, effortlessly, they were making love, she with her back against the concrete edge of the pool, and he standing on his toes on a narrow underwater ledge. It was the opposite of romance and tenderness, as Hank tried to fulfill seven years of pent-up desire in one explosive session of raw passion.
Holly did indeed like his shoulder-length hair. He fleetingly wondered whether this encounter might have happened sooner had he looked more rebellious in high school, rather than like a close-cropped, all-American boy. In any case, he liked that she liked it. One of Holly’s hands gripped his neck tightly, maintaining her ideal position, while the fingers of her other hand continually combed through his locks. The sensation of her fingers on his scalp was wonderful, but still placed a distant second to the other pleasures he was enjoying. When her fingers left his hair, he noticed, but just barely. Suddenly, she seemed to flounder and slip to one side. As Hank reached to steady her, he looked over his shoulder and saw her gripping his hair as it floated beside them in the pool. Floated beside…? But… no… that can’t be, Hank thought. What the hell?
He sensed… No, feared… what he was seeing. To his shame, he didn’t want to stop. He desperately wanted to finish before…
Holly screamed in terror, splitting the relative quiet of the night and numbing Hank’s left ear. She flailed wildly, desperately trying to climb up his torso and out of the pool, but hindered by the hair in which her hand was now tangled—the hair of a body floating face-down in the Orney Country Club swimming pool.
Chapter 2

Orney, Iowa — Sunday, June 14, Seven Days Earlier
Orney Mayor Tommy Bowman paced nervously in front of the Sapphire Skies Flight Service counter. The guests of honor were late, and everyone was waiting. In this case, the term “everyone” was not much of an exaggeration. The entire city council, the presidents of three international corporations based in Iowa, two state senators, and the governor we