Telepathic private investigator Quentin Q. Quasar and his partner Nate Braddock are back. They accidentally stumble on a series of kidnapping/murders, and begin to investigate. Eventually, the kidnappers snatch a young man from an Interstate rest area, and Quentin and Nate hear his telepathic cry for help. Armed with that information, they contact their friend George Martin at the sheriff’s office, and manage to catch the kidnappers before they’ve killed the victim. The intended victim was on his way to Orlando to join his boyfriend -- also a telepath -- who’d recently moved there to take a job.<br><br>Meanwhile, Nate’s grandparents fly into Jacksonville from Chattanooga, so Quentin and Nate can drive them to a hospital in Ocala. Nate’s mother has been in a state prison for women located near Ocala, and has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. At the end of a series of hospital visits they encounter and capture the leader of the cult that Nate’s mother and stepfather belonged to. The cult leader and his wife, both of whom had jumped bail before their trials, had just administered poison to Nate’s mother, to keep her from making any sort of deathbed confession about the cult and its activities.

Sleuth LLC: Bring Out Your Dead

“I don’t think I’m jaded, babe. But when you’ve done something for the thousandth time, it gets kind of old.”


Nate giggled at that. “I can think of at least one thing we’ve done at least a thousand times, and it certainly hasn’t gotten old—not in the least.”


Quentin chuckled at the thought. “No argument there.”


They rode in silence for quite a while, until Nate said, “You just passed the rest area.”


“I know. I’m betting they’ll use the southbound rest area.”


“Because they’ll be that much closer to their home base, and because they won’t have to carry a victim all the way into and out of another state.”


“I guess that makes sense. But what if you’re wrong?”


“Think about it, babe. If we’re sitting at the southbound welcome station, and they kidnap somebody at the northbound site. What will they have to do next?”


“Drive up to the first exit in Georgia and turn around.”


Chapter 18