ZERO HERO (The Kate Huntington Mystery series) (39 page)

“Again, I won’t bore you with details, but a lot has happened in the last year. I lost a friend, my best friend. Jimmy didn’t make it.”

A communal moan rippled through the room.

“But at my lowest point, a bunch of people came out of nowhere to help me. A lawyer, a therapist, and a private detective gave me their services for free. Kinda sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? A lawyer, a therapist and a P.I. walked into a bar.”

Chuckles rolled through the audience.

“But it wasn’t just those three. The people that worked for them also went beyond the call of duty.” Pete looked their way again. “One of them almost died trying to get me out of trouble. And another, a recovering addict himself... well, he helped me a lot.”

Kate heard Manny, three seats over, clear his throat.

“They’re my heroes, all of them. But none of them would accept that label, any more than I did on 9/11. Because they were all just doing their jobs. Yeah, they weren’t getting paid at the moment for doing their jobs. But that’s how they saw it, just like I saw it that way. A building was burning and there were still people inside. I did my job.”

Pete paused. “Thanks for listening.”

“Thanks for sharing,” rippled through the audience. Then the room erupted in a standing ovation.

Author’s Notes

If you have enjoyed this book, please take a moment to leave a short review on Amazon and/or other retailers. You can readily find the links to these pages at the
misterio press
bookstore
. Reviews really help me keep the series going, by promoting sales that provide the funds for cover art, editing and formatting.

At
misterio press
, we take pride in producing top quality books for our readers. All manuscripts are proofread several times, but proofreaders are human. If you discover any errors in this book, please e-mail me at [email protected] Thank you!

Please indulge me for a few minutes here, and I will reward your patience with a synopsis of the next book in the series,
Fatal Forty-Eight.

Zero Hero
was a hard book to write, for several reasons. The characters were going through such emotional changes that I was sometimes not sure how they should be reacting to events and to each other. Ironically, Pete Jamieson was the easiest of the characters to portray. And I, like Kate, learned some things from him about heroism.

9/11 has left considerable emotional scar tissue on the American psyche. Our society’s ‘healthy denial’ about our security in the world was shaken to the core. As I listened in on Kate’s ‘sessions’ with Pete and watched her struggle with her feelings about his case, I was reminded of just how helpless I felt on that day in 2001.

Even though it was difficult at times, the telling of this story ended up being therapeutic for me. I hope that it has had a similar healing effect for you, the reader.

Moving on to other topics, I’d like to point out that yes, the characters of Benito and Tony Donati, and Benito’s Plumbing Supplies, are total figments of my imagination and any resemblance to real people or business establishments is purely coincidental. If your name happens to be Tony Donati, please accept my apologies for making your namesake in this book one of those criminals who is dumb as a rock.

There was, however, a real mob family, the Bufalino family, that was based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. And it did meet its demise when its boss was arrested and turned state’s evidence against some of his own people. William ‘Big Billy’ D’Elia will indeed be released from prison in 2014.

And there really is a Methodist church on Pocahontas Road near Finzel, Maryland, but I have no idea whether or not they hold AA meetings there.

To paraphrase an old saying, it takes a village to produce a book. As always, I am exceedingly grateful to my wonderful beta readers–Angi, Gina, Sue and Ralph–and to my proofreader, Kirsten Weiss, and especially to my critique partner and co-founder at
misterio press
, Shannon Esposito. After struggling so much to write this book, I was sure it was worthy only of the circular file. Imagine my amazement when they all–even my toughest betas–told me this was the best book yet in the series.

Also a huge thank you to my editor, Marcy Kennedy, whose advice has helped me to become a better writer in so many ways, and to Melinda VanLone, who produced a book cover that was exactly what I had envisioned in my mind’s eye.

And now that promised synopsis of Book 7.

FATAL FORTY-EIGHT, A Kate Huntington Mystery
:

Kate’s former boss, Sally Ford, is retiring. The new man in her life, Charles Tolliver, has convinced her to turn over the reins of The Trauma Recovery Center to others and spend her golden years with him.

But instead of many golden years, she may only have forty-eight hours. On the evening of her retirement party, she is kidnapped by a serial killer.

Normally the disappearance of an adult would be treated as a missing person’s case, but Lieutenant Judith Anderson of the Baltimore County Police Department realizes the MO is similar to a rash of kidnappings/murders that occurred in New York the previous year. When Kate and her P.I. husband insist on being part of the investigation, Judith’s hesitation is brief. A woman’s life is at stake and there is no time to lose.

Unfortunately the pair of FBI agents who arrive from New York have mixed emotions about civilian involvement. The middle-aged male agent is happy to have Kate’s assistance as he fine-tunes his psychological profile of the ‘unsub’ the New York press has dubbed the Forty-Eight Hour Killer. But the voluptuous, young female agent believes in doing things by the book.

As she locks horns out in the field with Skip, misunderstandings abound back at headquarters. But there’s no time for these innuendoes and jealousies. Sally has less than forty-eight hours to live.

About the Author –>

About the Author

Kassandra Lamb was a psychotherapist for over two decades, specializing in trauma recovery. She has also taught psychopathology at Towson University and at other colleges. Now retired, she devotes the majority of her time to her other greatest passion, writing. The magic portal to the world of Kate and her friends (i.e., Kassandra’s computer) is located in Florida, where Kass’s husband and dog catch occasional glimpses of her.

She has completed six books in the Kate Huntington series and one Kate on Vacation novella. She is currently working on book seven in the series and a second novella.

You can read and see more about Kassandra and the Kate Huntington series (including photo galleries) at
http://kassandralamb.com
. Please sign up for the newsletter to get updates regarding future releases and other interesting tidbits about the series.

Kassandra blogs at
http://misteriopress.com
about psychology, relationships, and a variety of other topics. Please check it out. She also hangs out on
Facebook
and her Twitter handle is @KassandraLamb, or you can contact her at [email protected]

Please check out these other
misterio press
series:

Karma’s A Bitch: The Pet Psychic series
by Shannon Esposito

Multiple Motives: The Kate Huntington series
by Kassandra Lamb

Maui Widow Waltz: The Islands of Aloha series
by JoAnn Bassett

The Metaphysical Detective: The Riga Hayworth series
by Kirsten Weiss

Dangerous and Unseemly: The Concordia Wells series
by K.B. Owen

Forever Road: The Peri Jean Mace series
by Catie Rhodes

Tin God: The Delta Crossroads series
by Stacy Green

plus even more great mysteries/thrillers in the
misterio press
bookstore

Table of Contents

Books by Kassandra Lamb

PROLOGUE