September Surgeon Shamed: A Xara Smith Mystery

By Bill McGrath

A male doctor meets a young male prostitute at a gay bar and pays him for his service. The next day the young boy is killed by a mob, and a video of his death is posted on the internet. A few days later a young female lesbian is kidnapped by what appears to be the same mob. The doctor hires Xara Smith to investigate the two crimes. Xara confronts her own lifestyle choice as she plods along unraveling clue after clue until the mob members have been found and apprehended.
Jill goes undercover to infiltrate the mob. Xara has a bit of trouble with her girlfriend Jana.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill McGrath
• Release date: May 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476412788

Bill McGrath

Bill McGrath has lived in the north Texas since 1989. He is married and has raised three daughters and a son. He has had several careers including; Computer Programmer, Cab Driver, Factory Worker, Volunteer Coordinator, and Customer Service Representative. Now that you have bought this book he will also claim that he is an Author.

Book preview

SEPTEMBER SURGEON SHAMED

A Xara Smith Mystery by Bill McGrath

Copyright 2012 Bill McGrath

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

Other Books by Bill McGrath available on Smashwords:

The Xara Smith Mystery Series, including;

January Juggling The Jentons

February At Feldman's On Fifth

March Of The Mustangs

April At The Antique Alley

May Might Mean Murder

June Jumping The Jaguar

July Jill's Justice

August Avenging Arlene

September Surgeon Shamed

October Octagon Occult

November Naughty Nurse

December Deadly Dolls

Also by Bill McGrath:

Virika - Maiden

Bill McGrath Web Site:

WWW.WIX.COM/WGJM53/BILLMCGRATH

To contact author please send email to [e-mail]

CHAPTER-01.

The video, perhaps, should have started with a close-up of the young man when he first realized he was in desperate trouble and his face registered the first notion that he might die this day, but it did not start there. The video did not show the young man's desperate sprint through the dim park trying to outrun the wild mob chasing him and shouting cursed insults at him like queer, and fag, and worse, courser things I simply will not type in this report. The video also did not show the one boy from the mob finally tackling the young man at the end of the chase, and it further did not show the first dozen or so vicious kicks the young man received from the crazed mob. All of these things had occurred, and to one watching the video it seems curious that the video did not start until after they had happened. Perhaps the cameraman was simply late starting his camera.

The video actually started as two from the mob each grabbed an arm of the young man and hauled him to a standing position while retaining their holds on his arms so that he could not escape even though he tried desperately to do so. The two holding the unfortunate young man were simply too strong. The video continued as a third from the ugly mob stepped in front of the trapped young man and viciously punched him in the face three times. Blood could easily be seen in the video dripping from the young man's mouth and nose. The young mans struggles to escape ended then.

The video continued as the third from the mob stepped out of the way so that a fourth from the mob, this one a young girl, could step in front of the poor young man and kick him really hard in the groin. I am female, so I have no dangling parts, but even I could feel the young man's horrendous pain from the kick. The video continued with a lot of taunting and spitting and an occasional punch or kick, and then one other from the crowd was seen pulling out of his back pocket a long sharp hunting knife and he then approached the young man who was still being held in place by his arms. I wondered what the poor young man was thinking as the man with the knife approached. Did he even see the knife? Was he even still conscious?

At that point the video went still and the news caster came back on my television to report that police had found the body of the young man in the Dallas park early this morning, and then later this day the video was found out on the internet where it had already received more than a quarter of a million hits. No group had claimed credit for the crime so the police were not even sure why it had been posted on Youtube.

It was the third day of September, and the news anchor went on with the story letting us all know that the gay pride parade would be held in Dallas in just two weeks, and a statement by police was that the unfortunate young man had probably just gone into the wrong bar. Of course they would search the video for clues, but the news anchor continued by saying that the men and women in the video had never faced the camera so they were not sure how much evidence they could get from it. The news anchor continued with the story by apologizing for the stations insistence that they stop broadcasting the video where they had, but also promised that the full video could still be seen on the internet. The news anchor then read the web address one would type into one's computer to see the original video but also promised the viewing public that a link would be put on the stations own web page for the easy use of any interested viewers.

My name is Xara Smith. I am a thirty-one year old, female, tall, strong, healthy, blond, private investigator in north Texas, and I run my detective agency from my house/office here in Irving, which is a suburb between Dallas and Forth Worth. And I may as well tell you right now that I am a lesbian. I am quite sure that I was not so horribly effected by the video because I am gay. I am sure any caring person, straight or otherwise, would have been horrified.

I felt sick. It would take a while for the horrible image to fade from my internal vision. I would not, at this time, search for the full video on the internet. If I had been a religious person, I am sure I would have offered a prayer for the poor young man and his family.

I suppose the easiest way to start this report would be to tell you why I was even watching the television in the first place. I really do not watch much television. Partly out of habit, but mostly out of lack of convenience. Several years ago, when I was first starting my detective agency, I had bought this old house specifically because it had been used as a business in the past so most of the renovations had already been done. It is a two story house with a nice bathroom and three bedrooms on the top floor. On the first floor there was once a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, family room, a small room where the laundry machines are, and a nice enclosed back porch. A previous owner who used the house for business had removed the wall between the living room and the dining room leaving one very large room one walks into from the front door. I use that large room as the office for my business, and the rest of the house serves as my living space.

Therefore, the only place on the first floor for a television is in the tiny family room and I do, indeed, have a couch and a T.V. in that room, but it is just not really a comfortable couch, so I just don't spend much time in there, and thus, not much time watching shows on the television. On the few occasions I do spend time in there, it is usually when I rent a movie and play it on the DVD player, but recently, even those sessions have been done using the DVD player on my computer in the office.

Today had started a little different than normal. While I was sitting at my desk on my computer, I had gotten a call from a potential client. The man on the phone introduced himself as Dr. Elston Cooke and immediately told me he needed to hire a discrete investigator for a very important matter. He would not go over any details on the phone but requested that I meet with him later this day at his home, after his rounds. I agreed to the meet and he gave me the address. Then just before he hung up he requested that I watch the news about the gay boy being killed in the park. So based on Dr. Cooke's suggestion, I had carried my coffee mug into the uncomfortable little room and started flipping through the channels until I found one broadcasting local news. The station I had found broadcasting the story was currently doing news local to the north Texas area where I live. I tried a couple of other local stations and they too were running the story. I looked at some of the network stations and their news programs were not running the story. I guess it was of interest here because it was in our own back yard as it were. At any rate, and due to my potential client's insistence, I had switched back to one of the local news stations and seen the television version of the murder in the park.

The meeting with the doctor was scheduled for six in the evening, and I had watched the video just before ten A.M. therefore I had quite a few hours to kill in between. I tried doing a few chores on my computer, but could not get into it. I tried doing some housework. The cleaning got done but the images from the disturbing video haunted me as I worked. I tried to convince myself that I would find out in just a couple of hours, but my curiosity would not stop asking me what Dr. Cooke had to do with the poor young man murdered by the mob in the park. I found myself the rest of the day desperately hoping that Dr. Cooke was not about to confess to me that he had been a part of the mob.

On this hot September afternoon, I finally mounted my five year old Taurus and pointed it east. The highway that runs right in front of my home/office is Highway 183 which runs east until it blends into Route 35E. Just before that blend I took the Mockingbird exit and continued east. There was a lot of traffic so it went pretty slow until I passed Love Field, then it eased up. Another two miles east I was at the southern end of the Dallas neighborhood called Highland Park which had been the best neighborhood (translated to mean most expensive) in Dallas for years.

Dressed professionally, holding a briefcase, not really knowing what to expect, and at exactly one minute before six, I rang the doorbell of a two-million dollar house. To me the echoing gongs sounded more like church bells than a simple door bell, but what do I know? Church gongs may be standard for rich people.

As always, the first thing I registered was the surprise in his eyes when he got a look at me. It is pretty annoying. I can not help it that I am six feet three inches tall, and I can not help that most men prefer their women a bit shorter. For his part, Dr Elston Cooke was a six footer himself, trim and healthy looking, handsome, perhaps forty years old, and dressed still in scrubs, but they were nice clean scrubs with no visible blood stains. He was white but tan, friendly looking, but in a very serious way. He shook my hand vigorously then led me into his mansion.

It is a good thing I was wearing comfortable shoes. The entryway was the size of my bedroom. It led us to the formal living room which was about the size of my entire house, and the living room led us finally to what the doctor called his study. It was, for sure, his version of a man cave. As one enters the study one can not help seeing the mounted deer head. It was a buck. I did not count the forked horns but there must have been thirty points. The far wall was all window giving one a perfect view of his half-acre, meticulously trimmed back yard. Another wall had a quite large flat screen mounted amongst wall to wall and floor to ceiling shelves that were loaded down with DVDs, CDs, but mostly hard bound books. At one end of the room was a big desk with modern computer, behind the desk a gun safe that was closed. Scattered across the desk a couple of hunting magazines with the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition right on top. He led me towards the wall of windows where there were two very comfortable leather chairs set up facing each other with a small round table between them. The table screamed out for a fancy chess board left in the middle of a game, but instead there was a silver tray holding a pitcher of ice-water and two glasses. The only other item on the table was a framed picture of a happy family. Obviously the good doctor, a gorgeous wife, and two pretty little offspring posed in what was probably their past years Christmas card photo. The picture itself was in a frame that would be hung on a wall so it was quite obvious that it had been placed on the table with some purpose.

The doctor took one of the leather chairs and I seated myself in the chair opposite placing my briefcase on the floor beside me. Without asking he poured two glasses full of the water and took a sip from his.

Once we were seated, the first words out of Elston Cooke's mouth were Your not wearing a wire or using any other voice recording device are you?

I assured the good doctor I was not recording the conversation, but in the back of my mind I certainly filed away a note about the strange start to our conversation.

Cooke: I am sure that in your line of work people ask for discretion all the time.

Smith: Yes doctor, they always do. I can assure you that what ever matter you need investigated, I will handle it with your personal privacy as my primary duty.

Cooke: I could have come to your office, or I could have asked you to meet me at the hospital where I do my rounds, but I specifically wanted to meet you first here so that I can show you what I have. Perhaps if you know what I have you will be better able to grasp what I risk loosing by hiring you at all.

I picked up the photo of his family. I looked at it silently for ten seconds or more. He would think I was