What Secret Lies Just Beyond this Road for Hero Jack Davis?

The quiet country road remained silent and empty.

A slight breeze lifted a few pieces of litter, scuttling across the gravel road.

A family farm sat just up ahead.

Sirens shock the peace of the country and approached fast…

Lives would never be the same.

What dark secrets lurk at the family farmhouse?

In my newest thriller novel, Silent Partner, K9 Deputy Jack Davis faces the difficult task of being a cop and protecting his girlfriend. He’s in pursuit of a serial killer terrorizing a coastal community. Each crime scene is more hideous than the last, taunting police and shocking the community.

Who is Jack Davis? What has shaped his life and instilled a sense of integrity?

Excerpt from Silent Partner’s Prologue:

1983

Jack Davis pumped his skinny eight-year-old legs faster as his bike zoomed down a dirt road just before the O’Connell’s farm. Summer radiated brightly and nothing could stand in his way to be outside, free from chores, and at his favorite fishing hole. In his opinion, it represented the greatest time of the year. School hid in the past and not even a slight thought for the near future. His best friend Pete was meeting him at their secret fishing spot with some new glowworms that he’d stolen from his older brother.

Two police cars, followed by a tan four-door sedan, sped past Jack with their lights flashing. No sirens.

Jack pulled his bike over to the side of the road, next to a broken barbwire fence and watched as the emergency vehicles turned down the O’Connell’s long, dirt driveway.

Dust plumed up into the air with a massive beige cloud making it difficult to see the farmhouse. Less than a minute later, a white van approached at a much slower speed. It too disappeared down the driveway.

Something terrible had happened. Jack heard stories at school about the monster that lived at the O’Connell farm. At least that’s what they called him, but in reality Mr. O’Connell was a bad man.

Jack kept his eyes on the road and listened for more cars. When he felt confident that no more vehicles headed his way, he squeezed through the broken fence, pushed his bike, and then eased down toward the commotion.

He jumped back on the bicycle and coasted down the hill. The bumpy backroad jarred his bones, but his curiosity, as well as concern, got the better of him.

Jack watched as two sheriff deputies roughly escorted Mr. O’Connell from the house. Arms pinned behind his back, wrists secured in handcuffs. His head hung forward as he stared aimlessly at the ground. The monster’s lips moved slowly, but no one paid any attention to his inaudible babble. Barely dressed in a grubby white t-shirt and dark, stained blue jeans, he seemed to have forgotten a pair of shoes. It looked like he hadn’t shaved or bathed in a week as his greasy, dark brown hair matted against the back of his skull.

Grim expressions clouded the deputies’ faces as they put the man in the backseat of the patrol car and slammed the door shut. They had witnessed the pure evil of what one person could do to another…