Book 1, The Dan Alsop Series
Murder Mystery
Date Published: March 28, 2025
A cowboy lies dead on the trail, shot through the heart with no one around. Detective Dan Alsop must find his killer through a maze of squabbling relatives, disgruntled friends and Hollywood mobsters. Was it a single event or will the killer strike again?
Book 2, The Dan Alsop Series
Murder Mystery
Date Published: March 28, 2025
His mentor lies dead at his feet. Detective Dan Alsop is stretched thin with only the notion of an ancient casino robbery to guide him. His search for the elusive killer takes him to cemeteries and silver mines until he strikes again.
Excerpt:
The captain had ridden his tail all day about the homicide south of the city and his dismal lack of results. Lt. Dan Alsop received a phone call from his ex-wife on the way home. Crap. Let’s just pile on more abuse.
“Yes, I know I missed Davey’s parent-teacher meeting, but I was pursuing a suspect.”
“That’s the way it’s always been with you, Dan,” she sneered. “Your job comes first.”
“You do like those child support payments that I send you every month, right?” He knew the comment wouldn’t put out the fire and indeed it didn’t.
“That’s your answer to everything. I can’t believe I married a cop in the first place!” She screamed in the phone with a tone close to the temperature of a raging fire.
“Then why did you?” he yelled back.
The line buzzed with an angry dial tone. She’d hung up on him…again. Second time this month. Dealing with his family was becoming an anxious job. And he knew he was making a mess of it.
His squad car was still making that pinging sound. Why hadn’t the guys in the shop repaired it? Winter was already here and his heater wasn’t working either. His captain could rant about budget cuts all he wanted, but that didn’t help the cops in the field trying to get around the chilly city. Mail on the passenger seat caught his eye. An ominous letter from the IRS tied his stomach in knots. He had to pay back taxes for last year because his tax accountant put a decimal point in the wrong place. Wasn’t that the man’s job? To make sure all figures were correct? And he misplaces a decimal?
Damn, damn, damn. He wrapped his coat more snuggly across his chest to block out the cold inside and out. He needed a vacation on a sunny island with a fruity drink in one hand and sunscreen in the other. Dan ran a hand through his wavy hair…a secretary in the office today had commented on his disheveled look. Who had time to use a comb? In the mornings, he limped out of bed—thanks to being kicked by a suspect two weeks ago—hit the shower, threw on his clothes and grabbed a cup of instant coffee to greet the worrisome day. Sometimes he ran his fingers through his hair to smooth out his look. Sometimes.
He pulled into the driveway and grabbed the bag of groceries he’d picked up on the way. He noticed this morning that his refrigerator was as barren as his love life. Ha. That was a good one. How could he have a love life when he had no life outside of work?
From the driveway, Dan could tell that one of his porch lights was out. The front yard wasn’t as illuminated as usual and he sighed. Something else he had to do. His to-do list was long and getting longer, especially when he wasn’t home enough to get any chores done.
He took a cautious step on the slippery sidewalk and stopped full stop at the sight before him. What the bloody hell? There was the body of a man lying close to his front porch.
Stunned, he dropped his bag of groceries and neither saw nor cared as tomatoes and oranges fell from the bag and rolled into the yard. The beer he looked forward to drinking tonight rolled after the oranges. Toilet paper, paper towels and a few TV dinners plopped where they fell and would stay there for the time being. Dan couldn’t take his eyes off the body.
The man had been shot at least twice, once in the leg and once in the chest. Not touching the body, Dan guessed about a third shot in the back. It seemed likely with the amount of blood underneath. Worn jeans, a flannel shirt and sleeveless quilted vest rounded out the clothing details, but the face looked familiar. Dan stepped closer for a better look and his hand snapped to his heart. His pulse began to beat wildly and his mouth went bone dry.
Cap Miller.
My God! It couldn’t be!
Cap Miller had been the detective in charge of training when Dan first made detective in the Investigations Division of the Carson City Sheriff’s Office. That was many years ago. Cap had mentored him with patience and diligence. No question was ever considered silly or superfluous. He never made Dan feel stupid when he botched those first interviews. Pointing out clues that Dan missed was never sneered at by Cap. The man went out of his way to make Dan, the new guy on the block, feel like an equal. He owed him a debt he could never repay. Certainly not now.
A big man, Cap topped over six feet. He was married to a little slip of a woman named Lolly who held the man gently yet firmly in her capable hands. A loving couple, they generally spent winter months in Florida where Cap caught his share of red snapper, which was happily fried up by a beaming Lolly. She’d taken a photo of Cap and a huge fish last year and sent it to Dan. He laughed when he saw it because he knew how much the couple was enjoying their life on the Gulf coast. Dan had never seen Cap so happy.
The memory dissolved abruptly when Dan focused on the face before him. He reached down to close Cap’s blank eyes and felt for a pulse on the man’s neck. Dan polluted the crime scene when several tears fell on Cap’s immobile face. Dan straightened, wiped his eyes and pulled out his cell phone. After calling it in, he stepped back to await the emergency guys and the ambulance. They would be here in mere minutes, but they wouldn’t have much to do. Cap was obviously gone from this earth, from his beloved Lolly and from Lt. Dan Alsop.
Dan’s first thought had been for Lolly. He would call on her as soon as he could.
His second thought was about Cap. What in the world was he doing here lying dead on Dan’s front sidewalk? Why had someone wanted to shoot him?
Good questions that Dan very much wanted to get to the bottom of and soon. Lolly and his captain would demand answers, but Dan wanted to know what happened even more than they did. Cap had been a good cop and was well liked by others on the force. He’d paid his dues and put in his time. He seemed to be enjoying the heck out of retirement, so what had gone so wrong with the former lead detective of the Carson City Sheriff’s Investigations Division that he was dead on his protégé’s sidewalk? And equally important, why had Cap sought out Dan at this eleventh hour?
After the emergency team loaded the body into an ambulance, Dan followed behind en route to the hospital and subsequently, the morgue. With shaking hands, Dan took out his cell phone and sought privacy in a hospital corridor. He wiped his moist forehead.
“Hello?” The sleepy voice of an older woman answered the call after several rings. Dan’s stomach tightened.
“Lolly? This is Dan Alsop.”
“Why Danny! How lovely to hear from you. Cap and I were talking about you just last night over dinner and he mentioned he was thinking about looking you up.”
“Why aren’t you in Florida, Lolly? You always go this time of year.”
“That’s true, we do, but Cap got a bee in his bonnet about talking to you. I told him we could leave tomorrow. We drive, you know, and it’s such a lovely drive this time of year. Oh, my, yes, we…”
“Lolly. Sorry to interrupt but I called you for a reason.”
“All right. You must need Cap. Let me wake him. I wandered downstairs for some warm milk and he’s upstairs, so let me go get him.”
“Lolly, you might want to sit down.”
“Oh goodness me, Dan,” she chuckled. “I’m not that elderly yet. My muscles are strong enough that I can stand for a few minutes to talk on the phone.”
“I have some news for you and I think you might take the news better if you were sitting down.”
He heard a pause on the line until…
“All right, Dan. What is it?”
Dan swallowed hard. “Lolly, I need you to come to the hospital. There’s been an accident,” he lied.
Lolly began to laugh. “Oh, don’t be so silly, Danny. It’s the dead of night. Let me find Cap. I’ll send him if this is an emergency.”
“Lolly?”
But she had already put down the phone. Dan heard her holler as she went through the house, “Cap? Where are you? Danny’s on the line. You said you wanted to talk to him.”
After what seemed like an eternity, she picked up the phone. “I don’t know where he is, but I’ll have him call you when I find him.”
“No, Lolly. I’m serious.” Dan sucked in breath to keep his composure. “Let’s do this. Stay home and put on a pot of coffee. I’ll be right over.”
“At this time of night?” She clucked her tongue. “Tsk. All right. Sounds serious. Maybe Cap is in the garage, although I can’t for the life of me think what he would still be doing in there. He went in earlier to work on his fishing rods. You’re welcome to stop by and wait with me until he shows up.”
“Okay, Lolly. Thank you. I’ll do that.”
He hung up his phone wondering how he would convince a woman that her husband of fifty plus years was dead. Not only dead, but murdered since it was highly unlikely he had shot himself multiple times. The stone flung into a pool of water tonight would create waves affecting many people before all the shouting was done.
Dealing with Lolly was traumatic since Dan hadn’t gotten a handle on his own emotions. His composure was shot. Some big tough cop. He’d nearly lost it in front of the person he was trying to comfort. Any death notification was difficult, but with people he cared about? No amount of training or experience could help when he felt this low. After he took Lolly to the hospital and she made a positive identification, Dan was able to get ahold of her sister who luckily lived close in Reno and could come down to be with her. The couple had a son but he was in the military and it would take time to contact him.
The sun was coming up when Dan finally made it back to his house, bone weary in body and spirit. He had stayed with Lolly until her sister showed up. It was all he could do to keep himself together. Lolly didn’t even try. No amount of back patting and cups of coffee could cure what ailed her.
He managed to pick up a few of his wayward groceries in the front yard, those clear of the crime scene tape, and grabbed a quick shower. He couldn’t find many clean clothes so he dug a shirt out of the dryer. He buttoned his suit jacket hoping the wrinkled shirt wouldn’t show. After chugging a cup of instant coffee that looked much better on the jar than in his cup, Dan lurched out of the house. His energy tank was empty. He stopped at Starbuck’s for a muffin and a real cup of coffee before heading to the police station.
This day was going to be the shits.
About the Author
SJ SLAGLE started her career as a language arts teacher. When she began writing, her initial interest was children’s stories, but then she moved on to Western Romance, Mysteries and Historical Fiction. She has published over 30 novels and her website is www.sjslagle.com.
SJ has written several Western Romance series including the THESE NEVADA BOYS, RANCHER, and THE WESTERNERS, as well as Mystery series: FLOYD SISTERS MYSTERIES and SHERLOCK AND ME. All her books are distributed in digital, paper and audiobook formats.
Her first historical fiction novel, LONDON SPIES, was awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion in 2018. She was given the Silver Award with the International Independent Film Awards for her screenplay called REDEMPTION. She conducts writing/publishing symposiums in her local area.
S.J. Slagle lives and works in Reno, Nevada.
Contact Links
Twitter: @SindaSlagle
Purchase Links
https://mybook.to/TheDanAlsopSeries
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