Frank sees how slip-shod some feds can be ...

The startled look shared between Wallace and McCabe could have passed for a priest’s embarrassed forgetfulness over not praying before he passed out the crackers. I had hit a soft spot, and a red-faced Wallace darted toward his door while mumbling something about being right back.

So, these high-level muckety-mucks didn’t think to look in their own closets before trying to squeeze something out of me. But I wanted to know more about the torture inflicted on my late boss of nearly two days. “How much electrical current can a cattle prod generate? And what parts of his body were prodded? I hope you are not going to say what I think, because that really would make it aggravated torture. What kind of weapon was used in the shooting and has it been recovered?”

Frank's encounter with the cops begins ...

This one was different from most, he had an air about him that I’d seen on the really tough characters who tried to get a suspect to confess to anything. He was a swarthy fellow with a mean-looking face, beefy from too much unhealthy food, his cheeks were pockmarked, and the cluster of five scars that dotted the skin ahead of his right ear reminded me of the pattern of some little-known constellation whose name I couldn’t recall. He was leaning in too close to my window and the offensive smell of sour sweat seemed appropriate for somebody whose shirt was stained by what looked like spaghetti sauce right above his ample belly.

The low growl from the backset let me know I wasn’t alone in my dislike of these two cops. Blackjack had sat upright in the middle of the backseat. “Easy, Blackjack,” I commanded as the flashlight’s beam shown over his form and lit up the car’s interior.

“Hot damn, watch out for that dog!” the patrolman said excitedly and jumped backward, bumping the detective to the side and nearly knocking him down. I saw the uniformed cop start to draw the handgun from his holster and I shouted: “He’s a pet, for god’s sake! Put that damn gun away!”

Excerpt from Chapter 6

Bernie Schwartz didn’t mince words when he answered the phone. “Why in the hell didn’t you call me back this afternoon; I left a message with the switchboard operator, didn’t you get it?”

“I’m sorry, Bernie, I did get your message, but I got busy with some things going on at EPIC and I forgot to call you back.”

“You cannot ever let that happen again, Frank. When you are working away from this office, I’ve got to be able to reach you. Especially on that assignment. We cannot communicate if you forget to call, and we need to communicate.”

“OK, never again. What was it you wanted to tell me, Bernie? Is there something wrong in Atlanta?”

“No, there’s something wrong in El Paso. I got a call from my D.C. contact with a warning that might affect you. Do you remember me talking about the security codes of my old agency and what ‘Red Six’ meant to us?”

That was a tough one, because it’s been awhile since he told me about his days at the CIA when he was working European stations during the 1950s. “Bernie, I can’t recollect exactly, but I believe it was one of the highest threat levels for your operations. I’m thinking ‘Red’ meant the Soviets were involved, but that certainly wasn’t very creative for the agency, was it? I don’t remember the significance of the ‘Six,’ other than it was higher than a ‘Five’.”

Bernie said my recollection was close enough, and assured me the warning he had gotten from his old pal approximated the “Red Six” category. It was so serious that Bernie was having second thoughts about me continuing the assignment.

“Frank, we may have to pull you out of there. I don’t want to spook you, because my contact couldn’t get specific about the threats at this point, but he did state emphatically that you could be in way over your head real fast. And if the right pieces don’t fit in this puzzle, you may not be able to get out of there in time.”

Third book in trilogy publishes ...

Private investigator Frank Knott goes undercover at a government agency in El Paso trying to discover who has been leaking sensitive information to a criminal enterprise.

The first person Frank meets in the West Texas town is a surly motel clerk, an older woman depressed and unhappy over being stuck in what she considers a dead-end life. Although the meeting is brief, it portends what awaits him in the desert region where violence has claimed the lives of countless innocents and untold outlaws since the town was settled in 1680.

As Frank goes about his mission, he quickly learns that surviving in the underbelly of El Paso still can test the mettle of the best of men.

EPIC Justice http://amzn.to/17YNrFH is now available from Amazon on Kindle e-books, and will publish in paperback later this week.

Here's what one reader says about the book: "Former bounty hunter turned private eye ... a four-legged sidekick ... former KGB agents keen on killing ... a blonde bombshell. It's enough to keep you up all night."