Suddenly Deadly: A Terry Strong, PI, Mystery by Lo Monaco

SUDDENLY DEADLY SYNOPSIS by Lo Monaco TERRY STRONG, PI, is hired by NAYDEEN MATTSON to find her cousin, WAYNE CALDWELL. Naydeen’s brother, ARTIE MATTSON, had been murdered and his lover, SEAN GALLARD had been arrested. Naydeen wanted to find Wayne in order to give him the things Artie left to him. Terry is shocked to discover that Sean, an old classmate of hers, has been arrested for Artie’s murder. Terry visits Sean in jail and he begs her to find the real killer. There had been several art objects stolen from Sean and Artie’s house at the time of Artie’s murder. But Terry discovers that Sean hasn’t told the police about a carry-on bag containing $100,000 of possible drug money that had also been stolen. Terry has some second, and third, thoughts about taking the job, but finally relents. Terry finds Wayne Caldwell and despite her hesitancy, becomes involved romantically with him, causing her to have guilt feelings about her Sometime Significant Other, Homicide Lieutenant CARL BLACK, to plague her. When Terry finds Wayne, he shows all the signs of being terrified of Naydeen. He says he’s hiding from her because she’s a “drug queen” and only hired Terry to find him so she could kill him. Naydeen is presently in South America on business, which lends further credence to Wayne’s charges. One evening while leaving her office to go meet Carl, she is attacked by an unknown man. She is choked into unconsciousness, but not before she has sunk her teeth into the biceps of her attacker. The attacker is scared off by Carl’s arrival. Simultaneously, while searching for Wayne, Terry and her associate, JACKSON JEFFERSON, have been interviewing friends and neighbors of Sean Gallard and Artie Mattson, the murdered man. They find that on the afternoon of Artie’s death, a light-colored SUV had been parked in the driveway. Terry has her next-door neighbor and computer-guru, LINDEN HUGHES, check for autos driven by friends and relatives of Sean and Artie. One friend drives an SUV, but it’s black. As Terry becomes more romantically involved with Wayne, her relationship with Carl deteriorates. One night, after leaving a restaurant where she and Wayne had been having dinner, Terry is run off the road by a white SUV. Linden finds the registered owner is CELESTE DEVINE, the young woman who leased Wayne’s condo when he went into hiding. Jack and Terry go to the condo and sneak into the garage. The SUV is there and so are the art objects and the empty carry-on bag. In spite of the impending break-up of her and Carl’s relationship, Terry calls him and asks him to meet her at her office so she can tell him about what she found in the garage. Naydeen has returned from Peru and is to meet Terry at about the same time as Carl. Terry wants to question her about her reasons for wanting to find Wayne before she tells her where he is. Impatient about waiting for Carl and Naydeen, Terry leaves Jack at the office and goes to Celeste’s to talk to Celeste about the SUV and carry-on. Celeste is hostile, but Terry pushes her way in and discovers Wayne in the kitchen. Celeste admits running Terry off the road because of jealousy. She and Wayne have been living together and Celeste sees Terry as a rival for his affections. Wayne had been hiding in plain sight the whole time. Terry asks what happened to the money in the carry-on and at that moment Naydeen appears with a gun pointed at Wayne and demands to know the same thing: what happened to the money and the art objects that had been stolen from Sean and Artie’s house. Wayne manages to get the gun from Naydeen and shoots her. Naydeen falls to the floor. Celeste becomes hysterical and Wayne shoots her also, wounding her in the shoulder. Just as Wayne aims at Celeste again, Celeste’s neighbor shows up at the open doorway. Before he can turn the gun on the neighbor, Terry lashes out with a Tae Kwon Do Axe Kick and breaks Wayne’s neck, killing him. Naydeen survives and confesses that she and Wayne had gone to Sean and Artie’s because they believed the pair had gone to Acapulco. But Sean had gone alone after an argument with Artie. After being surprised by Artie, Wayne and he got into a tussle and Wayne struck him with the fireplace poker, killing him. Wayne took the carry-on and the art objects to make it look like a robbery gone bad and he and Naydeen split up. Wayne was to meet up with her later but disappeared instead. The SUV in the driveway on the day Artie died belonged to Wayne but had been registered under his mother’s name. Celeste, apparently, knew nothing ab the murder or the $100,000. Justice has been served: Sean is freed, but Terry has problems accepting what she has done. She knows she could have pulled the kick that killed Wayne … had she wanted to.