The Kizazi Murders: Alex Landon Crime Series, #7

By Gavin Reese

The next generation always has something to prove.

 

From the moment Detective Alex Landon stepped into a horrific murder scene, he knows they're chasing a depraved serial killer. Fifteen hours later, a second murder reveals the killer's motive and, more importantly, identifies the next six potential victims. With time running out before the next scheduled killing, Alex and his team risk their lives to outwit a brilliant killer who spent years planning to succeed and escape. Before the sun rises again, Alex will have to choose between saving his own life and everyone he holds dear.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gavin Reese Publications, LLC
• Release date: Apr 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201649692

Book preview

Praise for Gavin’s works:

‘Enemies Domestic’ hums like a live wire with action, authenticity, and suspense to spare.

– NYT & USA Today Bestseller Michael Lister

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‘The Absolver’ is a short, jabbing novella that hits you like a throat punch. It will leave you thinking about the hard realities of the temporal and the eternal, and that's the best kind of fiction there is.

— Mike Maden, international bestselling author of the Drone Series and Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Jr., novels

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Written with a rare authenticity, Gavin Reese’s ‘The Absolver’ hits hard and leaves an impression on both gut and heart. These pages also hold the promise of much more to come from this author. I know I'll be first in line to see where this story and character go next.

— James Rollins, New York Times and international bestseller of the Sigma Force series

Investigate the Alex Landon Crime Series:

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Works by Gavin Reese:

Alex Landon Crime Series

The Glass Cook

Enemies Domestic

Room #3

Enemies Foreign

The Debt Collectors

The Misery Merchant

The Kizazi Murders

Saint Michael Thriller Series

The Absolver

The Absolver: Rome

The Absolver: Vienna

The Absolver: Paris

The Absolver: London (Coming Soon!)

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Copyright © 2020 by Gavin Reese Publications LLC.

All rights reserved. Copyright promotes and rewards creativity, encourages diverse points of view, protects free speech, and helps create and foster a vibrant, artistic culture. By purchasing an authorized copy of this publication, and complying with copyright laws that protect intellectual property by not reproducing, digitizing, or redistributing any part of this text in any form without permission, you support authors, their original stories, and make creative fiction possible. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Although based on some portions of true events, this is a work of creative fiction. The characters and their names, along with the events, plots, and motives are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Gavin Reese Publications LLC donates a portion of its sales to non-profit organizations that benefit law enforcement professionals and veterans, their families, and the heirs, survivors, and memories of our Fallen Heroes. A portion of The Debt Collectors proceeds helps fund law enforcement organizations that specifically counter narcoterrorism. A portion of The Misery Merchant proceeds aids organizations that work to improve the rescue, rehab, and recovery of sex trafficking victims. A portion of The Kizazi Murders proceeds benefits Cold Case investigations in Maryland.

More information is at gavinreese.com

Acknowledgements

To Mrs. Reese, I’m grateful for your perseverance and boundless support. This has been a year of gratitude, a constant reminder of what we have. I remain most grateful for you. Mo Anam Cara. You have always been and will always be my everything.

L&T, words cannot express the depth of my gratitude.

My advance reading team devoted substantial time and effort to this project, and I remain perpetually indebted to you all. Thank you!

To my readers: I humbly appreciate the time and treasure you’ve traded for a few hours’ enjoyment. I strive to ensure you always come out ahead in our transaction, and I hope you always feel I’ve succeeded in that. Thank you for your support and reviews, and for telling your friends about me and my characters.

Be safe out there.

—*Gavin

Foreword

The Kizazi Murders deals with a number of topics common to the everyday lives of cops and criminals alike, as told by the experiences of police detectives on the hunt for a very active serial killer. Police departments leave a lot out of their recruiting videos, and I hope to leave you with a better understanding of what it might be like to hunt killers of men.

Like all my novels, this story is based on pieces of my training, experience, and real-life cases while working as a patrol cop, detective, and police supervisor. Although I strive to authentically portray realities of cop life and the criminal underbelly, I won’t sacrifice my readers’ experience for absolute realism. This is a fictional story, after all, not a police report.

In honor of the murder victims whose stories inspired this narrative, a portion of The Kizazi Murders proceeds will benefit Cold Case investigations in Howard and Baltimore Counties.

Cast of Characters

Dry Creek Police Department Officials

Alex Landon: Detective, Criminal Investigations Division

Michelle Lindsey: Detective, Criminal Investigations Division

Mike Wall: Detective, Criminal Investigations Division

Kent Dobbins: Lieutenant, Criminal Investigations Division

David Templeton: Sergeant, Patrol Division

Scott James: Officer, Patrol Division

Bradley Johnson: Officer, Patrol Division

Jaime Castile: Officer-in-Training, Patrol Division

Francis Seamus McNulty: Chief of Police

Daniel Herrmann: Lieutenant, Patrol Division & SWAT Commander

Sean Rudiger: Sergeant, Criminal Investigations Division

Bernie Jones: Sergeant, Criminal Investigations Division

Doug Melner: Detective, Criminal Investigations Division

Mike Hansen: Detective, Criminal Investigations Division

Other Investigators and Officials

Katherine Maguire: Maricopa County Medical Examiner

Katie Russo: Maricopa County Medicolegal Death Investigator

Catherine Lebsack: Maricopa County Forensic Pathologist

Chase Hollowell: Assistant District Attorney, Maricopa County

The Public They Serve

Genevieve Landon: wife to Alex

Damian Jaykub Cruze: Convicted serial killer

Nalla Cruze: Damian’s daughter

Hector Harmon: Dry Creek resident

Jahmal Wilkins: Dry Creek resident

Justine Wilkins: Dry Creek resident

Nina Dorado: Dry Creek resident

Dr. James Wilson: Church Pastor, Dry Creek resident

Dr. John Love: Clinical psychiatrist & trauma counselor

One

March 14th, 8:15 pm

Museum of the American Frontier. Dry Creek, Arizona.

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Her pulse quickened, and nervous energy filled her chest when the museum finally and predictably fell dark. 8:15, right on schedule. Lifting powerful binoculars to her eyes, Nalla grinned at the magnified image of Hector Harmon as he locked up the building across the street. Even in the faint light cast down from overhead lighting in the parking lot, her gleaming white teeth contrasted with her dark black skin.

She had watched Harmon every day of the previous four months, and the extreme routine of his life now drastically limited the decreasing number of breaths left in it. He alone closed up the museum every weeknight, always stepping out between 8:12 and 8:19pm. Always alone, and always out the door to his right as though he had to stay in line with the nonexistent foot traffic. Never in the previous four months had Harmon scanned the area around him for threats. His world apparently held no danger, and he behaved as though the safety of his past would continue indefinitely through all his tomorrows. Nalla planned to end that trend with the worst possible lesson a naïve man could learn.

Nalla lowered the binoculars and watched Harmon continue out to the parking lot and the predictably tan four-door sedan that awaited his return. Sunday is fried chicken night, so, the K-F-C drive-through and home to his shitty little studio apartment. She grinned in the faint lighting. I’ll bet his life on it. The doctoral candidate’s university colleagues and coworkers at the Museum of the American Frontier would soon miss him, but that didn’t matter. She wanted Hector found, at least the new-and-improved version she intended to leave behind. Even if this isn’t your most memorable night on Earth, Mister Harmon, it is certain to be your last. Tomorrow, you get the privilege of announcing me to the world.

Two

March 15th, 03:12am

Hassayampa River Bottom. Dry Creek, Arizona.

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Acting as a terra firma lighthouse, a distant, unseen Dry Creek PD patrol cruiser flashed red and blue emergency lights that sliced through the overnight darkness and identified danger ahead. Sporadic illumination danced off the Sonoran Desert plants and cast their shadows across a rough, single-lane dirt road that Detective Alex Landon attempted to navigate. The low ground clearance of his Arctic white, unmarked Chevy Camaro demanded low speeds, sudden braking, and frequent, sharp swerves to minimize the road’s worst ruts and potholes. The department had purchased the custom undercover police car with seized drug money, but Chevy’s custom shop hadn’t designed it with this road in mind. The bottom of its frame frequently rubbed the ground, and the suspension system squeaked in recurring protest. This pavement queen’s damned-near useless off the asphalt.

Each swerve brought him closer to the red-and-blue beacon just beyond the next rise. A hard veer right spewed steaming coffee up through a plastic-topped to-go cup in his center console and onto Alex’s right pants leg. He cleared the rise with another curse. A Dry Creek PD cruiser materialized only a few dozen yards ahead and blocked his path. As he approached and slowed further, Officer Scott James stepped from the patrol car and approached Alex’s Camaro. The graveyard cop slapped his neck hard and waved at a minor swarm of attacking mosquitos.

Alex rolled his window halfway down and nodded. Hey, Scott, it’s been a while. How’d you get the shit detail?

"Sarge wanted the rookie to work the initial scene. We