“You gonna come back?”
“Why? Don’t like your new partner?”
“I like her fine. In fact, that’s why I’m asking. I was hoping to keep her. She’s awesome!”
Vanessa took a swing at him but she was slower than usual. Jason got out of the way.
“Don’t mess with the pregnant woman!”
“You know I’m kidding.” He turned serious.”I’m gonna miss you.”
“Thanks.”
“Anything you and Rob need, you call Sandy and I. Anything, you understand me?”
“I will.”
He gave her a hug.
“You can count on us.”
She smiled.
“I know.”
A note from the Author.
In my comments at the end of my first book, I mentioned how writing a novel is like “putting yourself out there.” It was a humbling experience but the response from you the reader was beyond what I hoped for.
It’s not that I sold a million copies, or that the movie will be coming out next week, but it’s the kind words that people took the time to send to me.
Whether you write, draw, or any other pursuit in which you look for the reaction of the audience, nothing can make you feel better than someone saying they ‘stayed up late to finish’ or ‘they couldn’t stop thinking about it.’
Probably the most consistent comment I received was ‘I had to see what happened next.’
Anyway, because of the response, I forged ahead with the second in the series. You know this because you just read it.
Jason Strong has taken center stage as he should but hopefully you enjoyed getting to know Vanessa, John Patton and Doc Davis.
Jason is the kind of detective I would want to be. Committed to what’s right, even if it bends the rules a little, and compassionate for both the victims and the people that are impacted by loss.
I am currently writing #3, and hope to have it out in August. Thank you again for setting time aside to visit the world of Jason Strong. As I said before, your comments make it worthwhile, (or a challenge) and I welcome them at my emaiclass="underline" jdalglish7@gmail.com or my webpage jcdalglish.webs.com.
Thanks Again and God Bless,
John
May 31, 2012
For My Brother
by
John C. Dalglish
Prologue
Donnie Jarvis stepped off the school bus with his friend Tim Brown and waved at the driver. Donnie and Tim were in the same sixth grade class and lived just three houses apart in their south San Antonio neighborhood. The day was warm but not uncomfortably as the two boys turned for home.
They cut across the corner of Mr. Lander’s perfect green lawn. It was a game the twelve year olds played almost every day with the retired man. Could they get across without him seeing? If he was outdoors, he would yell at them to get off the grass and if he was indoors, he’d pound on the large glass window overlooking the manicured lawn. Today was a win for them, he wasn’t watching.
Tim swung his left arm and hit Donnie lightly across the chest.
“Hey, what’s all that about?”
Donnie looked up to see what his friend was talking about. At the end of the block, in front of Donnie’s house, was a chaotic scene. Blue and red lights seemed to be everywhere, reflecting off dozens of windows, signs and cars. Yellow tape was being stretched across the front yard, wrapped around the big oak on the corner of their lot and down along the side yard to the back fence. People, most in some kind of uniform, were going in and out of his house.
“I don’t know….” Donnie’s voice trailed off as fear took hold of him.
Instantly, he was running. His heart beat wildly in his chest and he could hear the throbbing in his ears, as his feet pounded the pavement towards home. The closer he got to his house, the wilder the scene seemed to become. People, the neighbors mostly, were standing at the edge of the yellow tape. Some were crying, others in small groups were talking and pointing at the house. It seemed as if every head turned towards him as he ran up.
Donnie stopped at the edge of the crime tape, as still another police car with lights flashing, rolled up to the scene. The passenger door swung open before the car could get stopped. Donnie’s mom flew out of the car and rushed towards the house, tears streaming down her face. When she got to the front door, a man in plain clothes barred her from entering.
“Billy! Billy!” She tried to see over the man blocking her way. “Let me by!”
Donnie watched as the man held his mother in a bear hug and said something into her ear. She shook her head back and forth, as if trying to clear the words out of her head.
“No. Nooooo!”
She slumped against the man and he had to hold her up to keep her from collapsing on the walkway.
“Mom!”
His mom straightened up at the sound of Donnie’s voice and turned, looking for where she’d heard it. When she spotted him, she broke loose from the man, ran to Donnie, and wrapped her arms around him.
“Donnie! Are you okay?”
“Yeah. What’s going on? Why are all these policemen here?”
His mother’s face was drawn and almost gray. Pain welled up in her eyes and Donnie realized he had seen that look before. The last time their world had crashed around them, the last time tragedy had visited their home. It was just two years ago, when his dad passed away. The connection scared him even more and he started to cry. His mother brushed at his tears.
“Something has happened to Billy. There’s been an accident.”
Billy was Donnie’s seventeen year old big brother, and Donnie worshiped him. Billy, a senior in high school, would keep an eye on Donnie after school until his mom got home from work. They would throw a football around or play a video game and Billy never complained that it took time away from things he could be doing with his friends.
“What happened? Is he okay?”
“No. I’m afraid he’s not okay.”
She paused, seemingly gathering strength for what she was about to say.
“Billy is dead.”
She stared at him and Donnie could tell she was waiting. Waiting to see how he reacted, what he would say, expecting him to scream. But Donnie didn’t have a reaction because life suddenly stood still. The words ‘Billy is dead’ bounced around the walls of his soul, looking but not finding some place to grab onto, some place that could understand and let the truth settle inside him.
Instead, he refused to let the words be part of him, to take root, and when Tim walked up with the book-bag Donnie had dropped, he turned to him and acted like it was just another day.
“Oh thanks, Tim. I probably won’t be at school for a few days.”
“Okay...” His friend glanced at Donnie’s mother and back at his friend. “See ya’ later.”
****
Donnie sat on the grass with his mother as the house slowly cleared of personnel. He had seen the body bag containing his brother wheeled out on a stretcher and watched as it was loaded into a coroner’s van before being driven away. Most of the police cars were gone, one by one shutting off their lights and driving off into the early nightfall. The yellow tape, now sagging towards the ground, still flapped in the breeze but it no longer held onlookers at bay. People had returned to their homes to look for themselves on TV in the evening newscasts.