Death on the Delaware an Alexander Steele Murder Mystery set in Philadelphia

 

Case of the Missing Men an Alexander Steele Murder Mystery set in Philadelphia

 

 

Alexander Steele had just wrapped up the case of the Death Dealer.  He was looking forward to spending some quality time with Shakia, but it was Sunday, which meant a trip over to Stan’s place. Hanging out at Stan’s bachelor pad on Sunday’s had become somewhat of a ritual, a tradition for Steele and the guys from the old neighborhood.  Usually, the men played chess or pinochle. Some Sundays, they would socialize while watching the Philadelphia Eagles or whatever game was on the tube. 

It was early afternoon when Steele parked his dark blue Jaguar behind Stan’s Lamborghini.  He looked at the hot sun before retrieving the bag of Maine lobsters from the cooler inside his trunk.  Seasons in the Northeast were as predictable as night and day. Still, no one could have foreseen the trouble over the horizon for retired Philly detective Alex Steele.  A category five shit storm was approaching and Steele would soon have his hands full with not one but two new enemies to deal with. 

Stan and Steele were best friends, but today Steele was tired, he didn’t want to be there, but he knew he needed to hang out with friends.  It had been less than forty-eight hours since he had wrapped up the Death Dealer case. He needed to be reminded that there were still good, honest, hardworking people around with all the hardcore bad guys in the world.  Trying to conceal his weapon, Steele yanked the back of his white tee-shirt over top of his cargo pants.  After a few attempts, he hiked up his pants and walked up the street towards the two-story brownstone.  Stan stood in the doorway. He was all smiles when he saw Steele headed his way.   

“What’s up my brother?”  

Steele handed him the bag of lobsters and walked inside while Stan held the screen door open.  He thanked Steele for the lobsters and followed him into the living room.   Steele turned to his friend and asked. 

“Where are the guys?”   

Stan pointed to the back. 

“Johnny, Frankie, Roger, and Sugar Bear are out on the deck. They just fired up the grill.  I guess the rest are on their way.”  

He put the bag of lobsters down on the large coffee table before picking up the Sunday Inquirer.  Stan’s playful expression was gone.  He gave Steele a stern look as he handed him the paper.  

“You seen this yet?”  

The bold black headline read. 

BLOODBATH IN THE BADLANDS  

Steele shook his head no.  Stan dropped the paper onto the coffee table. He looked toward the back door to see if any of their friends were about to walk in. 

“Well, let me enlighten you, brother.  Right after we left Trench’s restaurant last night, things got ugly, I mean really ugly.  Some other guys must have shown up.  There was a crazy shootout.  Nine dead, no witnesses.  The cops are still trying to identify some of the bodies.”  

Steele showed no emotion as he listened to the story.  Stan stepped closer,

 “you okay Steele?  Did you hear what I just said?”  

Steele nodded, 

“Yeah, I heard you.  I guess I’m just tired.  Who knows what kinda mess Trench got himself into?  He probably has more enemies than I do.”  

Stan corrected his friend; 

“you mean more than you had.  You can’t count the ones you put six feet under in Mount Lawn Cemetery.”  

Steele headed toward the back of the house.  

“We’ll talk about it later.  Come on, let’s go out back and try to forget about this stuff for a while.”  

Case of the Missing Men an Alexander Steele sneak preview. Novel coming soon.

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