The Pharaoh Club: A Novel

By Xlibris US

This novel examines the dark side of love and its effect on the inhabitants of an upper middle-class town. The Pharaoh Club will capture the readers attention from the very first page.

Lou DeCaro has once again crafted a novel that is an absolute must read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524578350

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Lou DeCaro.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/23/2017

Xlibris

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Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Dedicated To

Christian Michael LeClerc

Chapter 1

My name is John Solomon. I am a private investigator. I’ve represented a lot of different kinds of people in the past, but the ones I feel for the most are the ones that are affected by the dark side of love.

Most people agree there is a fine line between love and hate. I believe everyone crosses that line at least once in their life. Most of the time, the consequences are very dramatic. Furthermore, these cases can be very complex, and often require the services of a special assistant. Fortunately, I have the best assistant in the business. Her name is Helen. She is stunningly beautiful and extremely intelligent. Helen could have easily gone into modeling or even acting but decided to become a special investigator. I don’t know what I would do without her.

One day a beautiful red-headed woman walked into my office. Her name was Julie West. She owned an upscale liquor store with her husband in an upper middle class community in Westchester County. She told me her husband was cheating on her but wasn’t sure who the woman was. In fact, she was suspicious of three customers that came into the liquor store. I was skeptical at first. Some of the women I’ve represented in the past thought their husband was sleeping with everyone in town. In most cases, the women were paranoid. They were looking for some drama in their lives.

I didn’t think Julie West was one of them. But I had to keep an open eye and ear on her just to play it safe. Her husband’s name was William West. Customers called him Billy. According to Mrs. West, Billy contributed very little to the business. She opened the liquor store seven years ago with her own money, and was now afraid Billy was skimming profits from the business to finance his affairs. Julie was quick to point out it wasn’t the first time she suspected her husband was doing that. The amount of money the liquor store netted varied from month to month despite the total sales being equal. That’s a sure sign that something was wrong.

I decided to call in Helen on this case. I felt there might be too many players to keep an eye on by myself. Helen had an uncanny ability to separate fantasy from reality. While I was waiting for Helen to arrive, I had Mrs. West write down the names and addresses of the three suspected paramours. Right away I saw some similarities with the three women. All three were housewives. In addition, the three suspects were married to either a doctor or a Wall Street executive. None of the husbands were home very much. This gave all of the women plenty of opportunities to be with Billy West.

Billy wasn’t exactly the most handsome man in town. But he did have a great personality and was reputed to be well endowed. That’s something most women can’t resist. Just before Helen arrived, I realized something else. The three alleged paramours belonged to the same social club in town. On one hand that seemed trivial. But on the other hand, it could turn out to be a key component in my investigation.

Chapter 2

The first woman Julie West told us about was Barbara Hart. She was married to Joseph Hart, an extremely wealthy investment adviser. Mr. Hart was recently named CEO of a prominent investment firm on Wall Street. He rarely left his office before midnight, and slept in his Upper East Side apartment at least three times a week. Consequently, Mrs. Hart was alone almost every night.

Julie did not like Barbara Hart. They had words several years ago, and never resolved the matter to this day. Julie said Mrs. Hart was very condescending and arrogant. Julie also did not like how Barbara spoke to her employees. Julie told her employees to ignore Mrs. Hart whenever she came into the store, but that strategy didn’t work. Dealing with Barbara Hart was simply unavoidable. Things got worse when her husband started waiting on Barbara whenever she came into the store. They started to act like they were the best of friends, and that made Julie very jealous.

Once Barbara realized she was making Julie jealous, she really started putting on an act when she came into the store. She even went so far as to keep track of what days Billy would be there. That really bothered Julie. But the worst part was how Barbara would invite Billy out for coffee or lunch behind Julie’s back. Billy would deny that was happening, but Julie knew better.

Julie recognized there was very little