The Chronicles of Vengeance

By Shawn Brawner

A wise man once said a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Well, I for one am tired of walking in circles. Maybe I should start at the beginning so you don't follow the steps I've taken. First of all, let me introduce myself, my name is Mason, Mason Thomas Reynolds to be exact, I'm a former police officer turned private investigator not by choice I might add. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, W"Remember the text below: A wise man once said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Well, I, for one, am tired of walking in circles. Maybe I should start at the beginning so you don't follow the steps I've taken. First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Mason, Mason Thomas Reynolds to be exact. I'm a former police officer turned private investigator, not by choice, I might add. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Which, now that I think about it, seems to be my life's mantra. I seem to attract trouble - the kind of trouble that winks at you with a hint of mischief in their eyes and can hypnotize you with just one kiss."which now that I think about it that seems to be my life's mantra. I seem to attract trouble, the kind of trouble that winks at you with a hint of mischief in their eyes that can hypnotize you with just one kiss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shawn Brawner
• Release date: Jun 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227711823

Book preview

Table of Contents

The Chronicles of Vengeance

Chapter 1 – Game On

Chapter 22 – Waiting For the Bomb to Drop Chapter 23 – White Pickett Fences | Chapter 24 – Me,You and the Feds Make Three Chapter 25 – The Rescue | Epilogue

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

EPILOGUE

The Chronicles of Vengeance

By Shawn P. Brawner Dedicated to

This book is dedicated to my children for two reasons. The first reason is I wanted to show them that at any age you can succeed at anything if you try hard enough and that NO is not an option.

The second reason is that my children didn't roll their eyes or look at me like I was crazy when I told them about the book. Now what they did behind my back I've no idea , but to my face their wasn't even a chuckle. Table of contents

Chapter 1 – Game On

Chapter 2 – The Players Emerge

Chapter 3 – The Pursuit of Evidence

Chapter 4 – An Unwanted Vacation

Chapter 5 - Little Havana

Chapter 6 – Hello My Name Is ...

Chapter 7 – Dancing the Night Away Chapter 8 – The Best Laid Plans

Chapter 9 – The Return of Fife

Chapter 10 – A Cuban Reunion

Chapter 11- Heir Apparent

Chapter 12 - A Wanna Be Seal Team Chapter 13 – Rest your thoughts

Chapter 14 – As Normal As Normal Can Be Chapter 15 – New Beginnings

Chapter 16 – Back to The Bodega

Chapter 17 – The Washington Puzzle Chapter 18 – Senators and Saps

Chapter 19 – Country Girl Agenda

Chapter 20 – Jesse's Girl

Chapter 21 – Politician's make strange Bedfel Table of contents continued

low's

Chapter 22 – Waiting For the Bomb to Drop Chapter 23 – White Pickett Fences

Chapter 24 – Me,You and the Feds Make Three Chapter 25 – The Rescue

Epilogue

CHAPTER 1 GAME ON

A wise man once said a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Well, I for one am tired of walking in circles. Maybe I should start at the beginning so you don't follow the steps I've taken. First of all, let me introduce myself, my name is Mason, Mason Thomas Reynolds to be exact, I'm a former police officer turned private investigator not by choice I might add. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, which now that I think about it that seems to be my life's mantra. I seem to attract trouble, the kind of trouble that winks at you with a hint of mischief in their eyes that can hypnotize you with just one kiss.

That's exactly how I wound up in the position I'm in now, stuck out broke down in the middle of nowhere soaked to bone in this godforsaken monsoon that's has been going on forever. This was supposed to be a slam dunk case. But has wound up with me being a fugitive for murdering the person I was being paid to find. Her name is or was Taylor Ashcroft a typical spoiled rich girl who claims to fame of being the daughter of the man who invented a type of software that can infiltrate any computer system in the world using the cell phone. Now as for myself I can barely turn a phone on much less understand how that type of program might work but...... I digress lol

It all started a few days back as I was sitting in my office shuffling funds around to various bill collectors. Which is actually the corner table in a small diner a couple of blocks away from my favorite place to relax Minute Maid Park in Houston Texas. As I was enjoying my morning coffee and newspaper my cell phone rang which was odd for 08:00 on a Sunday morning and definitely one call I should not have taken cause it brings me back to where I am now stuck in the fucking mud in the Florida keys with a damn hurricane about to say hello. I'll have two eggs over easy with toast,bacon and grits and make sure to keep the coffee coming .This place has the best coffee on the planet It'll make you throw rocks at Starbucks I chuckled to myself as the waitress wrote down my order . This is my favorite day of the week , most everybody is still asleep from their Saturday night escapades, so I basically the only customer in the place this time of the morning, that's why I felt it odd to hear my phone ring this time of morning.

Damn who the hell is calling me at this time of morning I grumbling to myself as I reached into my jacket pocket for my phone. Worst mistake of my life as it turned out. As I cleared my throat as I answered the phone using my best secretary voice Reynolds Investigations I grumbled while attempting to get at least one sip of coffee before starting this soon to be a nightmare. Mister Reynolds please the voice answered in a voice of an angel, a fallen angel with broken wings as I would find out soon enough.

Mister Reynolds, my name is Ashley Ashcroft I'm calling you to try and find someone to help find my cousin she's disappeared. What do you mean by disappeared?I asked while trying to steal another sip of my coffee before it got cold. Well, I don't know if disappeared is the written word the young lady said, what I mean is we cant find her.

And how long as this be? What I mean is when's the last time you've seen her? I asked the young lady. It's been two days she took a flight to Miami we'll she boarded the flight but never got off the plane in Miami, my Uncle was there to meet the flight. And who is your uncle? I asked while stealing a bite of my cold eggs over easy. My uncle is William James Ashcroft of Ashcroft Aeronautics . well I don"t normally do business on a Sunday, but since my eggs are cold and my coffee even colder I'll tell you what, email me whatever information you have and if it looks like there's something I can do for you I'll contact you .Be sure and leave me your contact information. And with a sigh, she hung up.

As I folded up my antiquated flip phone and put it back in my pocket I stared briefly at my plate of eggs, grits and toast. Nothing worse than cold grits and eggs I grumbled to myself so I got up threw a twenty on the table and walked out to the brisk morning air. Now this being Texas in September it's still hotter than a Hell, if it gets below 60 degrees consider yourself lucky. Well, my day has started out like crap and it's not even Monday I think I'll take my ass back to bed I thought to myself as I walked down the street towards my car I've already had enough shit for one day.

I almost had a heart attack when my damn alarm went off the next morning , usually I'm up before it goes off that way I don't throw it across the room I stumbled to the dresser across the room to turn it off, as I steadied myself wiping the sleep from my eyes I could hear the world outside slowly coming to life , hopefully I can enjoy some coffee before the world starts to assault my attitude . Now my humble abode is well off the beaten path just a small travel trailer in a forgotten RV park, now my clients think I live uptown, I mean I've got to keep up appearances dont I? After a quick shower, I hop in my pride and joy a fully restored 1959 black Cadillac that I got for a steal at a police auction back when I was still in good favor with Houston's finest. So now Im headed to my office, not the diner where I do most of my business but I small house left to me by my grandmother I turned into an office. The only problem with that arrangement is the house came with a cute little pain in the ass that doubles as my secretary. Her name is Bailey and she actually knows more about my business than I do. When I say she came with the house what I mean is she's my grandmothers lost cause that I promised I'd look after her on my grandmothers deathbed, so for the most part if you can look past the tattoos and piercings of which she keeps wanting to show me the hidden ones shes a pretty good asset to have around.

Bailey I yelled as I walk thru the door of my house turned office Are you here yet ? A voice from another room belts out In here I walked in a bedroom/office and there's Bailey sprawled out on the floor with hundreds of my case files in disarray. What the hell are you doing, I asked with a little bit of a Monday morning attitude. Now don't get mad she said impishly I'm cataloging all your files and putting them in a computer program I've written Shaking my head I asked please tell me there's coffee. It's made fresh boss just like you like it 1st class mud she laughed. I smile as I wander off to try and enjoy my morning coffee and newspaper for once. She's a good kid I think to myself as I pour my coffee and she's hotter than my coffee 5ft 2in red hair tattoos and piercings everywhere and a 100 lbs of attitude but her best attribute is she is the best hacker not known to the feds. Which is great for me because like I said earlier I know nothing about the computer and smartphone world, I sit down at my desk take a sip of my coffee and there, as usual, is my morning headache which to say are my emails Rachel prints out for me as needed. I call them headaches because I consider email, text messages and telegrams to be one thing BAD NEWS.

Well might as well get started I mumbled as I stared at the stack of emails Bailey had printed out for me. The first two were just spam I don"t know why she prints these out when she knows it drives me crazy lol, I think she does it on purpose just to mess with me. Then the third one was from Ashley Ashcroft, soon to be a pain in my ass. There was also three attachment stapled with the email I glanced at them and set them aside as I read the email. It was basically a recap of what we had discussed over the phone so I started with the first attachment which was a copy of the police report nothing special about it just your standard report about the young lady gone missing. The second was a list of possible witness's starting with the flight crew and the young ladies father

Mr.Ashcroft. Last but certainly not least was a photo of young Miss Ashcroft. She certainly was a beauty 5 ft 7 105lb, long black hair almost down to ass, which was very enticing I must say as would every other hot-blooded male. I decided to talk with Miss Ashcroft more in depth before I made a decision to take this case as per my usual way talking in person with a potential client can give one a better read on the situation. I went to top off my coffee as I thought to myself about the what I knew so far, which was absolute zero. Little did I know this one case could end my fledgling career and my life.

Walking back to my office I checked in on Bailey and apologized for being an asshole she just shrugged her shoulders and said No Worrys boss " I know it's Monday and turned back to the pile of files on the floor. She never even looked my way again. Taking that as a sign that I better let her cool off and went back to my office and finished my pile of emails. I kicked various scenarios around in my head as I thought about the missing Ashcroft girl. How do you board a plane at one airport and disappear? I thought to myself. There's something not right here I thought as I picked up the phone to call Miss Ashcroft to make arrangements to talk further about her missing cousin. Not wanting to meet at Miss Ashcroft's estate I agreed to meet Miss Ashley at my downtown office hence the dinner I described earlier. I didn't bother to wait for her so I went ahead and ordered a chicken salad on rye with a side of Curly fries, which I might add are ten times better than the fries sold by the fast food place Jack in the crack as I call it lol. I was halfway through my sandwich when I through the door walked a beauty you knew didn't belong in this part of town. If I didn't know better I'd swear I was looking at the blonde from one of my favorite TV shows the big bang .....

She walked straight to my table and eased into the booth with a grace and style of a woman that knew the meaning of the word style. Mr. Reynolds ? Thank you for agreeing to help me. " Whoa slow down I haven't agreed to anything I said almost choking on my sandwich, taking a sip of my tea I said explain to me again exactly whats going on. So Ashley started explaining the situation as I listened closely nodding my head at all the right times. Actually, I barely heard a word I just wanted to get a read on the woman, my intuition is usually right about a person. She talked a nodded 45 minutes later we started to negotiate my fee. I can smell money so I hit the women with a price and she didn't even flinch $300.00 a day plus expenses and ill need a grand up front, is that a problem? I asked as I wiped the remainder of my sandwich off my chin. I hadn't even set my napkin down before I saw ten one hundred dollar bills being counted out before me. Wait I said I don't have any contracts with me I said as she counted out the bills. I'm not worried about contracts Mr. Reynolds just find my cousin her life depends on it. CHAPTER 2

THE PLAYERS EMERGE

Well the best place to start is at the beginning I thought to myself as I drove north on hwy 59 , Lets go see what the airport has to say I thought .as Ashley had given me the airline information I was hoping maybe I could sweet talk them into letting me look at the security footage the day her cousin Taylor had left for Miami . I got the usual run around at the airline complete with the bullshit line about homeland security and privacy issues but in the end, they let me look at

the footage of the day in question. Nothing out of the ordinary I thought as I watched the image of Taylor walking through security and boarding the flight. Nobody just disappears I grumbled as I thanked the cutie that allowed me to view the footage, I gave her my business card and winked at her. Call me if you can of anything that might help me find the young lady. She blushed a little as she accepted my card Yes sir I sure will in a voice that was pure sexy. I winked again as I turned and left the office. I paid the five dollar parking fee and made my way out of the airport in the maze of streets only Houston could think of, Bitching to myself I said Who is the dumb ass that designs the roads in this city, he had to be drunk two days before drawing the first line. GRRRRR .

Houston's finest weren't much help either, they didn't, however, give me the names of all the players involved that they knew about. But let's face it even though I'm an ex Houston cop we all know they couldn't find their ass with both hands. The file they gave me included the Houston police report and also a police report from Miami so now begins the question and answer time. Let's see whats what in the rich folk's world, everybody knows the skeletons in their closets are a lot more fun to play with. And so it begins and I hate talking to people that don't want to talk, to begin with. They always hide behind lawyers.

My first stop was Mr. Ashcroft's Houston office and as I knew it would be he was out of town. Next on the list was Taylor's sometimes boy toy Troy Bennett a rich boy living off mom and dads money while he partied his life away. They were old money and I already knew I'd get nowhere with these people. So I decided to check out the club scene since Taylor was a party girl I was thinking it wouldn't hurt to flash her picture around and kick a few rocks and see what crawled out from under them. In the meantime I figured I'd give Bailey a call and ask her to get me all the information she could find on the Ashcroft , and the night scene that would attract rich party girls With her being my favorite tattooed hacker I'd be willing to bet she could kick up some major rocks I chucked to myself, Bailey was less than enthusiastic about my request but assured me she'd find what she could . By the time I got back to my office sitting on my desk was everything you'd ever want to know about the Ashcroft and Houston's high society nightlife, So now starts the epic task of deciphering Bailey's findings and decide what useful and what wasn't. When you ask Bailey for something there's nothing half ass about her, she can find anything and everything about anybody.

First on the list of players for lack of a better term was the big cheese himself William James Ashcroft he was your typical CEO, a major player in the defense contract bidding wars in Washington D.C. Apparently ruffling a few feathers recently while trying to lock down a bid for a new type of guidance system for a new type of smart missile the navy was developing . As I read his further synopsis nothing jumped off the pages and grabbed my attention so I laid his file to the side and grabbed the next one. It was for the missing girl Taylor Ashcroft, 19 years old, long black hair with deep green eyes graduated high school from Klein ISD in Houston was now on a break from college at the University of Houston. She loved the night scene and the paparazzi loved her. Which I'm sure went really well with her father King William. I read further ...a couple of visits to a drug rehab, A DWI which was quickly hushed up and forgotten and mmmm lets see A minor affair