Deadly Affection: Ed Taylor Mystery Novella, #3

By Bob Moats

In this third book for the Ed Taylor mysteries, Ed is asked by the local police to help solve a murder of a man found in his car by a restaurant. Ed goes out to interview various witnesses when he can find them. He ends up talking to an attractive female singer for the band that plays in the restaurant. She sat with the victim the night he was murdered. Ed finally identifies the victim and contacts his mother who will help to arrest the killer. This is a novella, shorter than a novel but longer than a short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Moats
• Release date: May 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201869779

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. 

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

The phone call from Mike said they had another murder. He had nothing more, so I had to go to the police station to find out what it was about.

I went in the bedroom first and told Alex that I was going to see Mike. I asked if she wanted to come with me. Murder? No, thanks. You can go play P.I. and solve the case for them. She went on working with her jewelry creations and I left the house.

I had my own car now after we brought it from downstate when I moved all my belongings. Alex had hers, Mom had hers, and I had mine. It was good for everyone. I drove around the bay to Frankfort and parked in front of the police station. I had to laugh thinking about all the police stations I had to go into during my time as an investigator for the life insurance company. This was the smallest one that I ever worked in. They only had three police officers and the Chief, but that was enough for the town of 1300 people.

I worked on retainer for them as a detective, since they couldn’t afford a full-time detective. It was fine with me. I didn’t want to feel like I worked for them, I was part-time, and only when they needed me. Which it seems was now.

Hey, Mike, what’s up? I asked going into the front office.

At the Frontenac, they found a dead man in his car this morning when the restaurant opened up. They figured he fell asleep after drinking at the bar. Unfortunately, they discovered that he was dead, from what looked like a stabbing. Doc Bertram confirmed that he was stabbed in the chest and had been dead all night. They took him to the morgue this morning.

Were there any eyewitnesses or security camera videos? I asked.

"We’ve been really busy this morning with a domestic violence case. Both Frank and Dave had to go out