The Jumper

By Brian H Groover

A sudden bizzare death, and a lost love. Does life ever come together?

An old man dies in a very public and very strange suicide–or was it murder? Jeff Cramer has to figure out which, and quickly. Nothing about this case appears normal, and it could get very dangerous, very quickly.

Featured story on Wattpad, ranked as #4 story in both Science Fiction and Mystery in 2014, out of over 80 million stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Taproot Technologies LLC
• Release date: Mar 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310606403

Book preview

Prologue

Jumper! a man yelled. A woman screamed, and a crowd began to gather. In less than a minute, a hundred or more were pointing, shouting, and watching from the street below.

Eight floors above them, a man stood on a ledge in front of a window, looking down. His snowy hair blew about in the cool Pacific air.

Those on the far side of the street could see that the window behind him was partly open. The glass in the lower half was visible, but not the top.

The crowd gasped as a pair of arms reached through the open upper half of the window. They pulled the man back against the sash, and held him there. Don’t let him go! shouted a man in the crowd.

The man on the ledge did not seem to be struggling, and the crowd held its breath. He stood that way for a minute or so, held back by a pair of arms around his shoulders. A few on the edge of the crowd could see a face to go with the arms, next to the head of the old man. In a moment, the man would be pulled back inside, and the little drama would be over. Some of the tension in the crowd began to ease, and a few began to look around, thinking about getting home to dinner.

The still life on the eighth floor ended as quickly as it began. The second face vanished back into the window, and the arms and hands followed. The old man appeared to stand still for several seconds, then slowly leaned forward and pitched off the ledge.

He dropped him, said the man who had shouted earlier, just before a second person screamed. The man tumbled silently to the street below, as the crowd watched in fascinated horror. Several more people screamed when he hit the sidewalk, but the man himself did not scream as he fell, nor did he flail his arms.

1 Carol

Just let me get my wrap, and I’ll be ready. Carol beamed at him.

Jeff Cramer could not help her with her shawl; he was busy trying to work his jacket over the cast. After a week, it was really only a problem taking showers and when the San Francisco temperature changes made it itch. Three more weeks before he could take it off.

Carol pouted at seeing his holster under the jacket, but she didn’t say anything. She knew he had to wear it. They had hashed that out too many times for it to be an issue now.

As Jeff looked at his girlfriend, his heart began to thump. She was a study in carefully prepared beauty. Her hair was up in ringlets, and the long dress clung to her slender form. She has really worked hard for tonight. I wonder if she knows tonight is the night. After tonight, I won’t call her my girlfriend any more. He swallowed. I hope.

He finished getting his jacket settled, and surreptitiously patted the jacket pocket to be sure the little box hadn’t gotten lost in the last five minutes. Six months since she moved in, and he was ready to take The Big Step. They were celebrating their six-month anniversary as a couple–at least, that’s what he had told her. Everything was all set.

Then again, everything had been all set with Jane, two years ago. Don’t think about that, he told himself. This is different.

As they began to move to the door, Jeff’s cell phone went off.

Don’t answer it!

Jeff lifted the phone far enough from his pocket to see who was calling. Oh, no. "Honey, it’s the precinct. I have to take this." This can’t be happening again!

"Don’t you ‘Honey’ me, Jeff Cramer! You are off duty. They can get someone else. If you answer that phone, we are through!" Carol’s brown eyes blazed up at him, as the phone chimed a second time.

I– He grimaced and looked at her in anguish, as the phone continued to ring. Why wouldn’t she understand?

He sighed over his guilt. Carol, you know they can’t. I’m the only one available, and they wouldn’t be calling me on leave if it weren’t important. He pressed a button, lifted the phone to his ear, and said, Cramer. He did his best to ignore the twisting in his gut.

Carol stood perfectly still, watching him. Tears welled up and began to spill out over her cheeks. As Jeff said hold on, and set down the phone, her eyes opened a little wider, but he just used his good hand to open a drawer and pull out a sheet of paper and a pencil. When he did that, her mouth