Ghost Squad 5 - Haunted Asylum: A Rest in Peace Crime Story, #5

By Bob Moats

Detroit Police Detective Russ Baker is in charge of Cold Cases and with his partner, Mary, and their ghostly friend and partner, Wes Loomis, they have to solve murders to be able to send the victim’s spirits to the hereafter. They are asked by their captain to help his brother-in-law, once again. It seems the company has a job to clean out an abandoned mental asylum in northern Michigan under restoration. The workers won’t go in the buildings, fearing for their lives of the ghost inhabiting four buildings. Russ, Mary and Wes travel to see what they can find in over sixty years of murders in the hospital and bring the killer to justice. Murder, mayhem, humor, ghosts galore, and lots of fun are in store in this paranormal ghost crime story by Bob Moats.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Moats
• Release date: Mar 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524293895

Bob Moats

Detroit area resident, Bob Moats, has been writing short stories and plays for as long as he can remember. He has lost most of his original stories, typed or handwritten, in the numerous moves he has made from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan to Northern Michigan, to Las Vegas and back to Fraser, where he now lives. Moats became one of the causalities of unemployment a year ago, and had time on his hands to finally pursue a life long dream of writing a full blown crime novel. Thus was born the first book, "Classmate Murders".What followed was a series of seven books starting with "The Classmate Murders" which introduces the main character, Jim Richards, who has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, one day, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for his help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into numerous murders of women from his high school who he hasn't seen in forty years. Along with a friend of his, Buck, a big, mustached biker, they go off to track down the killer before he can get to one former classmate, Penny Wickens, a TV talk show host who Jim has just fallen for while protecting her. The killer is also murdering the women right out from under police protection, driving homicide detective Will Trapper crazy, and he slowly depends on Jim to help. There's humor, suspense, wild chases across suburban Detroit with cops, classic cars and motorcycle clubs; murder, mayhem, a good amount of romance and a twist ending.Jim and his crime fighters, continue in the other books, traveling to Las Vegas twice, back to Detroit and out to New York to solve murders involving dominatrix; mistresses; Bridezillas; magic and strip clubs.Book titles: Classmate Murders; Vegas Showgirl Murders; Dominatrix Murders; Mistress Murders; Bridezilla Murders; Magic Murders; Strip Club Murders and Made-for-TV Murders.

Book preview

This book is licensed for your personal use only. This book 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, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

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This is a work of pure fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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For information and address:

Magic 1 Productions

P.O. Box 524, Fraser MI 48026-0524

Website: http://murdernovels.com

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Cover design by Bob Moats

Stock photo from Fotosearch.com

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Extra special thanks to:

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To Susan Haughton, for editing my chapters.

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To the proof readers, Amy Morningstar, Cindy Valstad, and Al Norris for proofing the final copy and hopefully catching all those annoying little errors that slip through.

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To Russ Holthaus, a police officer, who made sure my characters didn't violate any laws.

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To my ARC readers for their comments, Beth Rosen, Pamela Cooke Malone-O'Brien, Carolyn Linington,  Lisa Keller, and Debbie Carter. I thank you.

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Thank you to all the people who purchased this book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it for my faithful readers.

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The Bob Moats Family of Readers is listed in the back of the book.

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Chapter 1

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Mary, Wes and I spent the next two weeks trying to solve as many cold cases as we could to send ghosts on to the hereafter. It was a marathon for Wes, who never tired. Mary and I would tire a number of times and we would let Wes work on his own. I got to the point where I would trust his decisions on cases, so it wasn't a problem.

Morning came early for me and we were in the Cold Case office when the door opened and the captain walked in. Normally I would welcome him, but he had a scowl on his face that warned me to keep my mouth shut.

Russ, Mary, is Wes around? he started off.

He's in the file room preparing the next ghost so we can investigate his murder.

Okay, a small problem. My big mouth brother-in-law, you know him from the train station case, has been speculating about how you cleaned out the station of the ghosts. He talked to the foreman and they concluded that you have a ghost working for you. This is not a real problem, I mean how many people would actually believe them. But he's asking to have you help with another project his company is working on. It's a partially abandoned mental hospital that has problems of recent hauntings. His company has been hired to clean the place of trash, graffiti, and debris, like the station. But the men refuse to go in some of the buildings. Same story as the train station.

So you want us to clear out the hospital? I asked.

I can't order you to, since it's not in our jurisdiction, and I'm asking for my brother-in-law. You'd have to travel to Traverse City to find the mental hospital that needs help. It's not like the train station in that parts of the building have already been renovated into shopping, dining, and living areas. Unfortunately, the rest of the buildings are still under renovation and the parts that haven't been cleaned out are still in bad shape. They have tours of the old mental facility and lately they have been bothered by what they say are ghosts. They don't want to get a reputation for hauntings because that would keep businesses away from the new areas of revenue.

Other than the weird people who believe in ghosts would show up, I said, with a grin. But we do know they exist.

Yes, we do. So would you like a trip up North to God's Country? My brother-in-law said he'd foot the bill for your stay and any other needs. This is a big deal contract for his business and he needs it. So, are you in?

I looked at Mary and she smiled. I've been to Traverse City. It's a nice place to visit. What would Wes have to say?

I'd love it, Wes said appearing behind us. I laughed and told the captain that Wes was for it.

As I said, I can't force you, but it would be a nice trip, the captain said, almost pleading.

Well, if Wes is good to go and Mary is for it, I guess I can't say no. Tell your brother-in-law that we'll talk to him and get the details.

Thank you Russ. If I don't keep my brother-in-law happy, my wife makes my life miserable, he said, looking happier now. I'll give you the address of his office and you can go talk to him.

The captain wrote down the address and handed it to me. I looked at it and said, We'll get on this today.

Thank you, he said, then left our office.

After he was gone I said, This should be interesting. I haven't been up North in a couple years. I used to go to Traverse City for the Cherry Festival and I always had good times.

A mental hospital haunting. That's interesting, Wes said, appearing next to my desk.

Mary was looking through her laptop for the hospital. "This is interesting, Wes. The place has been shut down as a hospital but through