Murder Never Sleeps: Ed Taylor Mystery Novella, #1

By Bob Moats

Ed Taylor is an investigator for a major insurance company and he received a message from his mother that his Uncle had died. His mother lives 250 miles from him in the village that he grew up in and left years ago to go to the big city for work. He arrives in the town and finds that his Uncle supposedly committed suicide but after meeting with the medical examiner, they find that the man didn't kill himself, he was murdered. Now it's up to Ed to investigate the cause of the murder. Before he can, there is another murder and he is finding out more about a conspiracy involving money and property for a major development of condos that will change the scenery of his town. Along the way he meets a woman he had a crush on in high school, will it develop into a relationship he hopes won't distract him from the murders, and his mother who needs his attention.
This is a new start of a series for Ed Taylor and is a novella, shorter than a novel but longer than a short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Moats
• Release date: Apr 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201471552

Bob Moats

Detroit area resident, Bob Moats, has been writing short stories and plays for as long as he can remember. He has lost most of his original stories, typed or handwritten, in the numerous moves he has made from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan to Northern Michigan, to Las Vegas and back to Fraser, where he now lives. Moats became one of the causalities of unemployment a year ago, and had time on his hands to finally pursue a life long dream of writing a full blown crime novel. Thus was born the first book, "Classmate Murders".What followed was a series of seven books starting with "The Classmate Murders" which introduces the main character, Jim Richards, who has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, one day, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for his help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into numerous murders of women from his high school who he hasn't seen in forty years. Along with a friend of his, Buck, a big, mustached biker, they go off to track down the killer before he can get to one former classmate, Penny Wickens, a TV talk show host who Jim has just fallen for while protecting her. The killer is also murdering the women right out from under police protection, driving homicide detective Will Trapper crazy, and he slowly depends on Jim to help. There's humor, suspense, wild chases across suburban Detroit with cops, classic cars and motorcycle clubs; murder, mayhem, a good amount of romance and a twist ending.Jim and his crime fighters, continue in the other books, traveling to Las Vegas twice, back to Detroit and out to New York to solve murders involving dominatrix; mistresses; Bridezillas; magic and strip clubs.Book titles: Classmate Murders; Vegas Showgirl Murders; Dominatrix Murders; Mistress Murders; Bridezilla Murders; Magic Murders; Strip Club Murders and Made-for-TV Murders.

Book preview

Extra special thanks to:

To Val Brooks, Amy Morningstar, and Al Norris, for reading the final copy and hopefully catching all those annoying little errors that slip through.  To Officer Russ Holthaus for checking the law enforcement correctness.

Thank you to all the people who purchased this story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it for my faithful readers.

Chapter 1

My uncle had died. Cause unknown.

My mother had sent the message to my home phone and that was the reason I sat on the northbound bus from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Frankfort, Michigan. I relaxed watching the scenery whizzing by out the window, thinking about the last time I saw my uncle. When was it? Thirty years ago?

He was a quiet man who worked for a local hospital that sat high above the town on a hill overlooking the small village resting on the Betsy Bay. Across the bay from the town was another village where there was a train landing for the car ferries going from the village of Elberta across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin and back again. They took railroad freight trains inside their massive hulls and transported them to who knows where. I lived in Frankfort for almost twenty-five years and never saw the other side of the voyage the boats had taken.

The boat line had been discontinued and now they sailed out from Ludington, south of Frankfort. When I was younger, I worked for Pinkerton Security, and I had to guard the big boats stored at the docks from people who wanted to sneak aboard and remove souvenirs from the vessels. It was a lonely job being alone on the huge ships trying not to trip over the railroad tracks in the cargo hold. I lasted about six months then they transferred me to the Pet Ritz Company on the edge of town where they made pies and other pastries.

My mother didn’t say anything as to why my Uncle Max had died. She did say I should come back home for the funeral, and she would tell me more. I hated mysteries and packed enough for a few days to go back home. I had no plans to stay for very long, so I packed light.

I wasn’t fond of bus rides but I left my car back in Ann Arbor, it was cheaper to travel by bus than pay the cost of gas for the distance, so it was the only way I would travel that far. The bus would go to Traverse City where my younger brother would pick me up and drive me into my former town. I hadn’t seen my brother in over ten years so this was going to be a reunion of sorts for me.

Finally, the bus pulled into the station and we all departed. I recognized my brother standing on the platform. He had grown a good deal since I last saw him, but he hadn’t changed much.

Ralph, you’ve grown. I said to him.

Well, Eddie, You look the same as I remember you. I guess Southern Michigan agrees with you, he replied.

I take care of myself. Shall we get out of here? I said wanting to get away from all the people I had spent six hours with on the bus. I tried to avoid conversations with most of them, but they just had to know all the details as to why I was going north in Michigan. When I told them I was going for a funeral, they would leave me alone.

We walked out to the parking lot to Ralph’s shiny Toyota Prius. I threw my bags in the back and got in the small car. I presume this is good on gas? I asked.

Yeah, I don’t have to travel far so I don’t use much gas. Especially with the price of gas today.

How’s Mom doing? I asked.

Not bad. You stopped calling her every week which disappointed her.

Yeah, well, I was busy with my life and didn’t have much to tell her. Boring stuff.

What is it you do now? he asked while driving the 40 minute trip from Traverse City to the town.

I’m an insurance investigator for a big company. I’m having to chase down people who try to cheat the company out of money through false insurance claims. It keeps me running.

Sounds exciting. Do you arrest people?

"No, I leave that up to the police. I just report to them