Hit and Run Murders: Jim Richards Murder Novels, #46

By Bob Moats

A woman is discovered ran into a wall by a hit and run car. Police suspect the woman's recently ex-boyfriend for the crime. Jim Richards gets involved in helping track down the killer along with Penny. They both help Detective Greg Warren to catch a suspect and more suspects become involved, confusing the crime. Another hit and run victim turns out to be a friend of the first victim, so Jim has his new bodyguard part of his firm to watch the other four frineds from being murdered. Twists and plot turns abound in this novella, shorter than a novel but longer that a short story. This is the 46th book in the Jim Richards series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Moats
• Release date: Feb 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201722975

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

Extra special thanks to:

To Amy Morningstar for doing edits. To the Beta readers and Al Norris for reading the final copy and hopefully catching all those annoying little errors that slip through.

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

Chapter 1

Marilyn was walking down the main road leaving the bar behind. She turned down a side street next to the building that was deserted. It was going to the parking lot where her car was parked, she stayed on the sidewalk. She was feeling woozy from the drinks she had consumed, losing count of how many. Somewhere in her mind she knew she shouldn’t have drank so much, but she was trying to drown out her pain of breaking up with her boyfriend, Josh. She was upset that Josh was seeing other women behind her back and it didn’t set well with her. She was going to confront the other women about Josh having relations with them.

She stumbled along when she heard a car coming up behind her. She moved closer to the wall of the building when the car drove up on the sidewalk and crushed her against the wall. It moved back and then crushed her again a couple times until she was dead.

Shortly after a man and a woman turned around the corner to go to the parking lot when they stumbled upon the dead woman. The man pulled his cellphone and called 911. They were told to wait until the police arrived minutes later.

They had the side street all police taped off and the ME was checking the woman on the ground. The police were talking to the couple who found the body, but they didn’t have much to say. Detective Greg Warren was taking names and numbers for the couple and then let them go. Greg went to the ME, Joe Lang, and asked, What’s your opinion?

She was crushed against the wall a number of times. This wasn’t a random hit and run case. It was murder, Joe said. The CSI team was examining the area and agreed with the ME. Greg turned to the opening of the side street and saw me. He came down to the tape and said, Jim, what are you doing here? He let me come in the crime scene.

I was in the bar having a drink with an old friend that I haven’t seen in a number of years. I saw all the flashers and the morgue van, so I came out to see what was going on.

"At first it looked like a hit and run, but Joe Lang said it was murder. The woman was crushed against the