C.R.I.M.E. Science: Book 1: The Beginning

By Sue Perry

A misfit group of scientists and tech whizzes form a detective agency in order to solve crimes and right wrongs. In this, the first book of a series, they investigate the death of a renowned volcano scientist. He dies in a volcanic eruption in what everyone considers a terrible accident. Everyone except his widow, who insists he was murdered.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sue Perry
• Release date: Dec 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301006144

Sue Perry

... Concert stage, dark except for a deep blue spotlight. Singer drops to one knee and his narration evolves from murmur to rant. "This is the story of a man who got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got –" ...It goes on forever. It's mesmerizing. Uncomfortable. Confessional.Pretty sure this memory is from the time I saw James Brown, decades ago, but the lost identity of the singer isn't the point.I've spent my life gazing across some fence or other, admiring greener grass over yonder. I've acted on so many impulses to jump the fence. No complaints, but it has sure taken me a long time to appreciate where I'm standing right now. And nowadays that blue spotlight chant fills my head whenever I contemplate a new jump.Sometimes I jump back.I was a low–budget television producer until I wrote a psychological thriller, "Was It A Rat I Saw", which Bantam–Doubleday–Dell published in hardcover in 1992. Soon after that I became the mother of twins, jumped into graduate school, and became a disaster scientist. I dabbled in academia, government research, and consulting.I stopped writing fiction for nearly two decades, until I noticed how much I missed it. I resumed writing novels with the literary fiction "Scar Jewelry" about a family with secrets that started in the era of Los Angeles punk and persist for decades. I'm in the midst of a speculative detective series FRAMES, with "Nica of Los Angeles", "Nica of the New Yorks", and "Boredom Fighter" so far. I've just completed a nine-novella series, the young adult paranormal horror romance, "DDsE".Funny. Back in the day, I had a single book idea at a time. Now I'm flooded with them, can't keep up with them, though I write just about every day.I live in southern California. I had to leave for five years to confirm this is where I belong. I live with multiple cats, comfortably close to my twins and granddaughter. Like my life paths, my friends and family are all over the damn place. I like to visit them, spend time at the ocean, explore cities, and go out to hear live music.

Book preview

C.R.I.M.E. Science

Book 1: The Beginning

By

Sue Perry

Copyright 2012 Sue Perry

Smashwords Edition

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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 are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your personal use only, then please purchase your own copy from Smashwords.com. Thank you for respecting and supporting this author and ebook publishing.

For official legalese, here is the Creative Commons license.

This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is mostly coincidental.

Cover art by Lars Huston.

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Table of Contents

Author's Foreward

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

About the Author

Connect with the Author On-Line

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Author's Foreward

I wrote this in 1998 - back when everybody still used pay phones and hardly anybody had a laptop computer (and those computers were far less powerful than today's cell phones). This was to be the first installment in a detective series, but at that time I was the mother of toddler twins and I had just gone back to (graduate) school. Why I thought I could also juggle a writing career, I couldn't tell you. Some kind of deep denial! I did muster the time and attention span to write this novella - but not to make any effort to get it published. Life continued to pull me in other directions and it was many years before I wrote another line of fiction, much less a series. But now I'm writing again, and looking forward to catching up with these neglected yet beloved characters.

P.S. Book 2 of C.R.I.M.E. Science will jump ahead to the present day.

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Chapter One

I don't like getting treated like a lower life form. That's why I went into business for myself. You pull pecking order here and sorry but our caseload is overbooked. Catching would-be peckers is one reason I work at our receptionist's desk. The other reason, of course, is that the agency can't afford a receptionist. Nobody here has much business sense. My associates get more excited by a challenging puzzle than a consistent paycheck. And me, I guess I'm just a sucker for a tragic soul.

That's why, when Mrs. Wife of Doctor Henton walked in, it was inevitable we'd try to help her.

She opened the door just as my phone rang. Hello, I - she looked at the blinking phone light. Do you need to get that?

I nodded, while answering, Good morning, Causal Relationships Investigated, Mysteries Elucidated... He just got back, hold on. I put Stan on, but listened in to take notes. I'd never known Stan to forget anything work-related, but one keeps one's rear clad.

It was the lab, with the results of the Douglass septic tank analysis... Diazanene, none detected, benzene, none detected, 3,3,3, Trichlorethene, 10 ppm -

Stan interrupted, Parts per billion, you mean. The lab reiterated ppm, parts per million, and Stan whistled. No wonder the poor guy -

Stan, I warned. Confidentiality means not even trusting the lab.

What about the arsenic residue? Was it native or introduced? Stan resumed.

I can take notes without looking at my pen or really listening to the speaker; it's a skill I learned in grad school. So while the lab droned on, I studied our visitor. When she caught me staring at her I put my hand over the receiver. I'll be a few more minutes.

I don't mind waiting. She had cat green eyes and an inclusive smile. Being a polite person, she looked away to resume waiting. Now I understood what was odd. She was completely still. No fidgeting, no nervous mannerisms. And this was not the smoothing of antidepressants. She was truly calm.

She was also in great pain, a sorrow too deep for tears. Perhaps that was what drove her to seek us out - few clients visited our offices. It was particularly surprising to see someone so, well, respectable. Rent on our downtown office remained a real deal, much to the dismay of Eugene's city powers, which had struggled and finagled and shelled out mightily for over a decade, trying to renovate the district. But unless they paid all those homeless street kids to hang elsewhere, all resurgences would be short-lived.

The lab call concluded just as Bill arrived, looking vague. Morning, he mumbled, dropping print-out on my desk, e.e. worked on names last night. So he'd been up until all hours, playing on the Internet. He tried to hide the dark circles under his eyes, averted his gaze and got it stuck on the lovely stranger sitting by our door. She wasn't a looker; her beauty came from the grace she brought with her. The room itself felt lovelier now that she was in it.

The coffee maker finished its first pot of the morning and a low whistle blew in every room of our complex. Bill grabbed the pot, attention on our

Reviews for C.R.I.M.E. Science

[leesalogic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this as part of Library Thing's Member Giveaways.This was a short story about a unique and eclectic group of detectives, each individual having their own talent to bring to the case. There's a lot of evasion going on here, even with how the main character answers the phone and it's always a wrong number, so we don't learn a whole lot about the group or their motivations.I liked the concept, I liked the group, so I'd like to continue on with the story. I'd like more details though. Also, I thought the end was a little anticlimactic.

[kykim-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In C.R.I.M.E. Science - Book 1: The Beginning by Sue Perry - a group of young scientist and tech whizzes form a detective agency.Mrs. Elizabeth Henton comes to them to solve the case of the murder of her husband, Dr. Etheridge Henton. Dr. Henton's body was cremated after he died in a Volcano explosion. The police nor anyone else suspected foul play. The group then move in a fast-paced backtrack to see what happened to Dr. Henton. Fast-paced Mystery Novella - an excellent afternoon or evening read. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review, rather it be good or bad.

[cmbohn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

**I received this free in return for a review from Library Thing. The opinions expressed are my own.**A leading vulcanologist is killed in an eruption, but his wife is convinced it was murder. Was she right? A group of scientists who run a sort of detective agency agree to find out what happened. This one is set in the 90s and it shows, but it doesn't really hurt the story. What did make it less enjoyable for me was that I didn't really connect with the main character. The author gives her a back story, but it doesn't explain why she does this kind of work. She's a linguist or something. How does that translate into a private eye? And there's a lot of jargon in here that put me off the story. It reminded me a little of the show Bones, but without a lay character to ask them to explain what the heck they were talking about and why they were doing what they were doing. Don't know if I'll read more or not, but I am curious to see how the author brought them into the present day.

[hydrografie_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Received this through LT member giveawayBack in the 80's the idea of using computers and other stuff to solve crimes was (probably) fairly new. Now it isn't anymore, but still the story is a good read if you manage to pull yourself back to the 80's (in other words if you are nearing your 40's at least). Otherwise you will never understand the issues from back then. The plot however is from all of times. A vulcanologist turns up dead and a private detective agency investigates the situation. For the investigation they use a combination of psychoogy and technology. All in all a nice, short cross over between NCS style investigation and Dick Tracy (without the blazing pistols...). The characters could have been developed a bit better, but for a first attempt from long ago it is an interesting read.

[kimberlygscott · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In C.R.I.M.E. Science - Book 1: The Beginning by Sue Perry - a group of young scientist and tech whizzes form a detective agency.Mrs. Elizabeth Henton comes to them to solve the case of the murder of her husband, Dr. Etheridge Henton. Dr. Henton's body was cremated after he died in a Volcano explosion. The police nor anyone else suspected foul play. The group then move in a fast-paced backtrack to see what happened to Dr. Henton. Fast-paced Mystery Novella - an excellent afternoon or evening read. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review, rather it be good or bad.

[rhonda1111 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3 STARSYou can tell that this book was written in the past. So many changes in phones & computers. I would be interested in what the next book in the series will be like.I had a problem of connecting to the characters and caring about what happens to them.The story was good but a lot of science that made it hard for me to be interested.Its a clean read. A short story or novella.This is a different detective agency with a bunch of scientists and tech whizzes that solve cases.Thier client wants them to prove that her husband a famous volcano scientist was murdered. The police did not question his death was anything but a accident. A lot of volcano scientists die in explosions or eruptions. She had the body cremated before she thought it through.They take the case and try to back track and see who might have wanted him dead and why.I was given this ebook to read and asked to give a honest review of it when I had read it by Librarything.Published: Dec. 24, 2012 File Size: 209 KB ASIN: B00AZNXLH6