Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [713]
Detective Sergeant Bill Jadlowski of the Omaha Police Department for showing me that a homicide detective is so much more than the literary caricature we suspense writers tend to portray.
C. L. Retelsdorf, Douglas County Crime Scene Investigator, for describing piece by piece the painstaking process a crime scene investigator goes through. Also for taking me through the Norfolk bank robbery crime scene.
Tammy Partsch, now a reporter for KNCY-radio in Nebraska City, for giving me a reporter’s account of what it was like to cover the Norfolk bank robbery for KUSO-radio in Norfolk, Nebraska.
John Keenan, Omaha World Herald columnist, for sharing your personal trials and tribulations of dealing with a broken collarbone.
The fantastic crew at MIRA Books: Dianne Moggy, Craig Swinwood, Stacy Widdrington, Tania Charzewski, Loriana Sacilotto and Krystyna de Duleba, along with your amazing teams. Special thanks to Christine Langone, Pat Muir-Rand and Mike Smith and his incredible staff for rearranging your busy schedules to accommodate my book. And once again, a humble thank-you to Alex Osuszek and the best sales force in the publishing business.
Maureen Stead, at MIRA Books, for your amazing patience and for always taking such good care of me.
Megan Underwood and Goldberg McDuffie Communications, Inc., for your continued enthusiasm and dedication.
Patricia Kava, my mom, for being one of my biggest fans despite my use of blood and violence (and the “F-word”) in my books.
Sharon Car, fellow writer and friend, for always encouraging and listening.
Mary Means and Tammy Hall for taking care of my two most valuable possessions while I’m on the road.
Walter, Emilie and Patti Carlin for all the delicious meals and for taking such good care of me while I hid out to write a chunk of this novel in the comfortable confines of your beautiful home.
Also very special thanks to Kenny and Connie Kava, Patti El-Kachouti, Marlene Haney, Sandy Rockwood, Jeanie Shoemaker Mezger and John Mezger, Annie Belatti, Nicole and Tony Friend, Gene Egnoski and Rich Kava for your love and support, your friendship and your patience in putting up with my long absences.
Once again a humble and sincere thank-you to:
The many book buyers, booksellers and librarians for selling and recommending my books.
And to the readers—you inspire and challenge me, and I thank all of you for allowing me to continue doing what I love.
Lastly, this past year my books have managed to make the bestseller lists not only here in the United States but in Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Poland. I want to thank the publishing teams in each of these countries for doing such a fantastic job and for literally taking me places I never dreamed of going.
PART 1
Blind Man’s Bluff
Friday, August 27
PROLOGUE
1:13 p.m.
Nebraska State Penitentiary—Lincoln, Nebraska
Max Kramer wore his lucky red tie with his blue power suit. While he waited for the guard to unlock the door, he admired his reflection in the glass security window behind them. That Grecian hair formula really worked. He could barely see any of the gray. His wife kept telling him the salt and pepper made him look more distinguished. Of course she would say that. She always said stuff like that when she was suspicious, when she knew he was hunting for someone new. God, she knew him well, better than she realized.
“Big day,” the hulk of a guard said to him. But he was scowling instead of smiling.
Max had heard the nicknames the guards had given him in the last several weeks. He knew he wasn’t a popular guy here on death row. But that was to the guards. To the inmates he had reached hero status. And they were the ones he cared about; they were the ones who counted. They needed him to right their wrongs, to tell their stories, or rather their versions of their stories. Yes, they were the ones who mattered, but not because he was a bleeding-heart liberal like the Omaha World Herald or the Lincoln