Remembering Dresden (Jack Turner Suspense Series Book 2) (33 page)

Needless to say, it had the desired effect. Wagner had immediately agreed to resign his state senate seat that day and was begging for a plea deal. The other story, the big cold case file Jack and Rachel had uncovered involving the Senator’s father?

It hadn’t even made the news yet.

Jack was headed down the hallway right now toward Boyd’s office for a briefing about that, and to hear some other news Boyd wanted to share with him in person. Jack had some news of his own he wanted to share.

When he walked through Boyd’s doorway, Boyd was already there at his desk. Hank Jensen sat in the other office chair. Both rose to their feet to shake his hand. Jack had noticed Hank’s overall attitude toward him change dramatically since that night at the cabin.

“You’re looking pretty spiffy,” Boyd said to Jack, as he and Hank sat down again. “I’m sure that’s not on account of me.”

“No, right after this I’m picking Rachel up for a special dinner at River Bend restaurant.”

“Yeah, well, those clothes are just about right then,” Boyd said. “River Bend’s Kate’s favorite place. We went there one night with the whole family on our vacation about ten days ago.”

“I’m glad this thing didn’t mess that up.”

“Me, too,” Boyd said. “Though, it almost did.”

“Did you find a decent cabin to rent on the lake?”

“We finally did. Way on the other side, far away from the cabin you were staying at. Had a great time. Did some fishing with the kids and swimming. Some nice fires at night. Guess it goes without saying you aren’t going to buy that one from Wagner.”

They all laughed. “Hardly,” Jack said. “Already got my month’s rent back from the realtor.”

“You still looking for one?” Hank asked.

“Honestly? No. Rachel and I talked about it. I still like the idea, but I’m narrowing down my search to some decent lakefront property. After my last two cabin experiences, I don’t think I’m open to buying anyone else’s place. We’re going to get one of those cute little cabin kits and put one up from scratch. A place where all the stories will be ones we make ourselves.”

Hank laughed. “Now this relationship is sounding serious.”

Jack smiled.

“I can perfectly understand that,” Boyd said. “How’s Rachel doing these days? How’s she coping with the trauma now that all the hoopla has started to settle down?”

“She’s doing a little better. She spent the last week with her folks in Charlotte. They’re great people, so that helped. Her dad suggested something to her that we’ve talked about before. She’s much more willing to consider it now.”

“What’s that?”

“Buying a handgun and taking classes for a carry permit. She’s ready to do that, so I told her I’d go through it again with her.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Boyd said.

“Give her some peace of mind,” Hank added.

“How are things with you and the college? How did they react to all this publicity you’ve been getting? I know you said you were getting a little concerned about it.”

“I was but, fortunately, the publicity has been mostly positive. Some of it very positive. So they’re doing okay with me.”

“Well, that’s good. Because you’re about to get some more positive publicity. This should all be local stuff. That’s one of the reasons I asked you to come in. The mayor wanted me to tell you about it in person.”

“The mayor?”

Boyd nodded. The city council took a vote and it was unanimous. They’re pretty proud of what you did that night at the cabin. We’re all pretty proud of you, Jack. Me more than anyone. So, they’re going to give you the Culpepper Brave Citizen’s Award. Comes with a nice little check too. Though I don’t know how much. All the city and county bigwigs will be there. Chief of Police. Mayor’s going to give it to you himself. Hank and I will be there.”

“Really? Wow. Well, what can I say? It’s not really my cup of tea, doing things like that. But you’re right. Definitely can’t hurt things between me and the University. It should definitely soften the blow when I tell them I didn’t get very far with my doctoral dissertation research. Although I did get some great new ideas about which direction to go. Which reminds me…you ever hear back from your FBI friend?”

“Oh, yeah,” Boyd said. “Almost forgot. That’s the other reason I wanted to see you. I told you I ran the whole thing by him right after it happened, sent him copies of everything. He called me yesterday saying he heard back from some people in their Cold Case Division. There’s definitely some interest in this. He thinks they’re going to pick the case up and run with it.”

“That’s great,” Jack said. “I was hoping so. That’ll really help me with this new direction I’m planning for my dissertation on Dresden. And for the book I’m working on. Might be how I write the final chapter.” Jack thought of something else he had been wondering about. “By the way, did you ever figure out who the mole was here? Somebody had to be tipping off Vandergraf and the Senator about our conversations.”

Boyd shook his head. “Never did. But I have a hunch I know who it is.”

“Of course,” Hank added, “Not that it matters much anymore. That side job of his ended when we put Wagner in handcuffs.” Hank stood and walked around Jack. “Well, gentlemen, I’ve got some place I have to be.” He stopped at the doorway and looked at Jack. “Before I leave, something I need to say. I’m sorry, Jack, for doubting you like I did when you first came in here with all this. Anything else comes up down the road, I promise, I won’t give you a hard time.” He smiled, held out his hand.

Jack shook it and he left.

No one said anything for a moment. “Well, is that all?” Jack said.

“That’s all I had,” Boyd said.

Jack stood and pulled something out of his pocket. “Okay, how about I share some news with you before I go.” He held out a little black velvet box and opened the lid.

“Whoa, Jack,” Boyd said. “Tonight’s the night?”

“Going to ask her at River Bend, between dinner and dessert.”

“What’s that, a half-carat?”

“A whole one,” Jack said. “Think she’ll say yes?”

Boyd laughed. “No mystery there, Jack. Congratulations, my friend.”

Later that evening, Jack couldn’t take his eyes off Rachel as they walked through the doors of the River Bend restaurant. She looked absolutely gorgeous. After pulling out her chair and just before taking his own seat, he reached into his pocket and felt the little velvety box. How was he ever going to keep it together through dinner?

“What?” she said, catching him staring at her yet again.

“You look amazing,” he said. “And by the way, order whatever you want for dinner…but let me pick out the dessert.”

Remembering Dresden
is actually the 2
^nd
book in the
Jack Turner Suspense Series
. If you’ve read it first, no harm done. I wrote it so that it would work just fine as a stand-alone book. But I think you’d really enjoy reading the first book,
When Night Comes
. What happened in that book is referred to throughout this story by Jack, Rachel and Sergeant Boyd.

Here’s the link for
When Night Comes
. You can download it now and start reading it within minutes:

I’ve already begun developing Book 3 in this series.

If I’m a new author to you and you haven’t yet read any of my other novels (besides this one, there are over 15 others in print), let me start off by saying thanks for reading
Remembering Dresden
. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed it.

The
Jack Turner Suspense Series
opens up something of a new door for my writing. I’m more known for writing inspirational novels that include strong emotional and/or spiritual themes (think Nicholas Sparks-type books with better endings). But I’ve always enjoyed reading suspense novels and decided to see if I could write both. The great response from readers to
When Night Comes
made that possible.

For those of you who’ve read and enjoyed my other more inspirational novels, you are familiar with my character-driven storylines, strong romantic threads and, still, lots of page-turning suspense. You’ll find all of that in my
Jack Turner Suspense
novels
.

To make it easier to tell the difference between the genres, my suspense novels will have a totally different kind of cover than my other books. I decided to do things this way rather than to write under a different name.

If you enjoyed reading this book, the best thing you can do to help Dan is very simple―
tell others about it
. Word-of-mouth is the most powerful marketing tool there is. Better than expensive TV commercials or full-page ads in magazines.

Dan would greatly appreciate you rating his book and leaving a brief review at any of the popular online stores, wherever books are sold. Even a sentence or two will help.

Here’s the Amazon link for Remembering Dresden. Scroll down a little and find the area that says “
Customer Reviews
” (write beside the graphic that shows the number of stars is a Box that says: “
Write a Customer Review
”.

If you’d like to get an email alert whenever Dan has a new book coming out, or when a special deal is being offered on any of Dan’s books, click on his website link below and sign up for his newsletter.

From his homepage, you can also contact Dan or follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads.

Suspense Novels

The Discovery (stand alone - looks like Inspirational novel)

What Follows After (stand alone - looks like Inspirational novel)

When Night Comes (Jack Turner Series – Book 1)

Remembering Dresden (Jack Turner Series – Book 2)

Inspirational Novels

The Unfinished Gift (Homefront Series Book 1 – Christmas story)

The Homecoming (Homefront Series Book 2)

The Deepest Waters (stand alone)

Remembering Christmas (stand alone – Christmas story)

The Discovery (stand alone)

The Reunion (stand alone – set during the Christmas season)

Keeping Christmas (stand alone – Christmas story)

Restoration Series with Gary Smalley (Inspirational)

The Dance

The Promise

The Desire

The Legacy

To get a sneak peek at Dan’s other novels or see what others are saying about them, click on this link, then click the book cover you’re curious about:

If you’d like to write Dan, feel free to email him at
[email protected]
. He loves to get reader emails and reads all of them himself.

There are a few people I absolutely must thank for helping to get
Remembering Dresden
into print. Starting with my wife, Cindi. Not just for her encouragement and support. Over the years, her editing skills grew to where the editors at my publishing house requested I not send in a manuscript until she’s gone through it. Once again on this novel, I promoted Cindi to senior editor. She provided excellent help on edits with the storyline and characters.

I want to also thank my great team of Beta readers, who caught many things Cindi and I missed, even after several passes. Thank you Terry Giordano and Jann W. Martin

I also must absolutely thank my friend and fellow author John M. Wills for all his help on the police details in the novels. John spent the better part of his life protecting and serving fellow Americans as a police officer in Chicago then with the FBI. Besides his books, John also writes book reviews for the
New York Journal of Books
, and he writes monthly articles on
Officer.com
. Check out his books at any online bookstore.

Dan Walsh was born in Philadelphia in 1957. His family moved down to Daytona Beach, Florida in 1965, when his dad began to work with GE on the Apollo space program. That’s where Dan grew up.

He married Cindi, the love of his life in 1976. They have two grown children and three grandchildren. Dan served as a pastor for 25 years, then began writing fiction full-time in 2010. His bestselling novels have won many awards, including 3 ACFW Carol Awards (Book-of-the-Year) and 2 Selah Awards. Three of Dan’s novels were finalists for RT Reviews Inspirational Book of the Year.

Remembering Dresden

Copyright © 2016 Dan Walsh

ASIN: B00O2G0D50

All rights reserved

Published by Bainbridge Press

Cover Design by DanWalshBooks

Cover Photos –

Alexy Kokoulin @123rf.com

Emil Jovanov @stock.adobe.com

Author photo by Cindi Walsh

Formatting by Polgarus Studio