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

“We go to the station, pump a couple gallons of gas, then go inside. Typically, we wander around a bit snooping, make a small purchase, and leave. You’d be surprised how much two very observant men with extra-sharp hearing can spot in a short period of time, and we’ve uncovered several instances of employee theft and/or other problems during our visits. In fact, we’ve been so successful that the man we report to recently asked us if we could expand our operation to another region.


“During the course of one of our late-night visitations, we stopped at an interstate rest area for the usual reasons, and while we were there, we spotted something suspicious.”


Chapter 30