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

“So, where’s the fallen tree you remember seeing, Q?” Nate said.


“There it is, just about two car-lengths into the woods.”


Quentin parked the car and pulled the emergency brake but he left the motor running, and the headlights on.


“Okay, babe. We need to pull as much of that dead tree as we can across the ruts.”


“It’s not much of a tree, is it, Q?”


“I think it was a young pine tree that died, or got struck by lightning, or something—who knows? In any case, there are enough branches left on the tree to discourage our guys from driving over it.”


It took a great deal of effort, but they finally got the bulk of the tree pulled squarely across the ruts.


Quentin stood looking at their handiwork. “That’ll do, I think.”


“Now, we back the car across the road and park in the same spot we did before.”


Chapter 24