A Killer Waits

By K.O. Johnson

A Killer WaitsSynopsis Memphis, 1986, a city still healing after decades of racial strife and one of the top ten murder cities in the U.S., is about to be dealt another blow to its reputation. A young Asian girl is found brutally slain and blood-drained among the decayed ruins of the old Magnolia Drive-In Theater. Captain Joseph "Buddy" Stern, pressured by the mayor and commissioner, orders Detectives Alexander Travis and Isaac Joe Turner to head up the investigation, not realizing that the pairing of the feuding cops could spur the racist killer to kill again. Not only are Travis and Turner two of Stern's best detectives, they are also black. Travis, head of narcotics, is educated, married and still in love with his wife, Michelle, whom he met in college when they marched alongside Martin Luther King. Their only problem is their inability to conceive a child. Turner, top cop with the vice squad, is streetwise and well-liked by the other cops for his self-deprecating humor and unethical involvement with prostitutes he has arrested. Lack of trust, continual verbal abuse, and Turner's suspected drug abuse drives the wedge deeper and deeper between the two cops. The killer, Private Eddy "Snake" Wilson, was 16 when he lied to be part of the "Big WW II." While stationed in Japan he lost his virginity to an experienced young prostitute who rejected his love and left him with a venereal disease. Now 67 he had spent most of his adult life in VA hospital mental wards where he could secure the drugs for his pain. While hiding out in the Memphis VA hospital, he is furious when he reads that inferior black cops have been assigned to investigate his work. To further aggravate the tension between Travis and Turner, a new white intern on the forensic team makes her appearance. Dr. Viola Ackerman, wedded to her work, is everything Turner has missed in his sordid relationships - she's intelligent, beautiful and, to his dismay, turned off by his aggressive, rude behavior. She is also gay. When Captain Stern gets word of a similar killing in a small Mississippi town he flies the inexperienced Viola with Travis and Turner to investigate. Travis is claustrophobic and hates to fly, but Turner is eager for time with Viola. Mississippi's Sheriff Duggins is pissed at having to deal with the "nigra" cops. He guides them through the gloomy Rosedale Ice House - the only place the small town had to keep the corpse. Travis, Turner and Viola are sickened at the sight of the pathetic body, encased in ice blocks and badly beaten from the trip down the raging river. And to their surprise, the victim is black and Killroy had never killed a black girl before. Viola calls Stern to inform him that she can't confirm the killer as Killroy. Stern orders her to investigate further. The trio returns to the creepy ice house, but this time Viola discovers something curious: a wad of soggy newspaper crammed deep in the victim's throat. It is the same news article Killroy read in the hospital with Travis and Turner's photo prominently displayed. Thinking that Killroy had moved on, the detectives are unaware that the killer has set his deadly sites on them. Turner, drunk and despondent from Viola's rejection, is a prime target for Killroy who runs him down with his truck. Risking his life, Travis proves to be Turner's savior, though Turner is badly injured. In saving Turner, Travis realizes how much his partner has come to mean to him. Disregarding all the evidence that Killroy's crazed mind has come completely unhinged, Travis, fighting a debilitating fear of closed places, corners the killer in a tunnel at the construction site next to the VA hospital and kills him.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1492869619
• ISBN13: 9781492869610
• Release Date: October 2013
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 590 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.3" x 6.0"