Sunday - Day of Unrest

By Scott Grueninger

Mitch Kessler's world changes drastically in the span of thirty-six hours when he accidentally grabs the wrong piece of luggage at the airport. Sunday - Day of Unrest includes an armored car robbery, two murders, a kidnapping, a mentally unstable ex-wife, and a love story. Mitch must trust the efforts of the Rocky River Police and the FBI to locate and rescue his kidnapped son.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scott Grueninger
• Release date: Jun 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9798887224633

Scott Grueninger

Scott Grueninger is a retired technical writer residing in Mt Pleasant South Carolina with his wife Joan. This is the author's second published work. He published the cyber mystery novel Net Stalker in 2001. 

Book preview

Chapter 1 – An Unwelcome Visitor

Damnit, what’s that racket? What’s going on out there?

48-year-old Mitch Kessler hears his front doorknob being rattled. He also hears an angry, loud male voice, and the continuous drumbeat of pounding on his front door. Sampson, Mitch’s Black Labrador Retriever, hears the commotion too and begins to growl and bark. Sampson has the personality of a big puppy, but he weighs 80 pounds and when he barks, it can scare the hell out of you. Mitch peeked out the living room window and saw a hulk of a man standing at the door. Mitch is no small guy. He’s stands 5’11 and weighs 190. However, the stranger at the door was huge. He looked to be at least 6’3 and well over 250 pounds. While continuing to pound on the door, the unwelcome intruder at the front door yelled,

OPEN THIS DOOR ASSHOLE! I WANT MY FUCKING BAG!

Without hesitation, Mitch walked over to the alarm system control panel on his foyer wall and pushed the emergency alert button. This sent a distress signal to the alarm company. Almost immediately, Mitch’s cell phone rang. He answered excitedly,

H-Hello, this is Mitch Kessler.

A representative from the alarm company responded,

Mr. Kessler, we just received an alert signal from your alarm system. Is there a problem at your house?

You bet there is! There’s a guy at my front door and he’s trying to force his way inside.

Mr. Kessler, whatever you do, DO NOT open the front door; we are sending the police to your house right away.

Mitch made his way over to the front door and yelled at his unwanted visitor,

Hey you out there! Get the hell out of here right now! I just called the police and they’re on the way.

In the distance, Mitch can hear the faint sound of an approaching police siren. The intruder hears the siren too; then he runs from the porch to his car, and speeds away before the police arrive. Knowing the police will be asking questions about the intruder, Mitch makes a mental note of his visitor’s physical appearance and tries to remember the make and model of car he was driving.

About a minute later, there was a knock at Mitch’s front door. Mitch grabbed Sampson by the collar and stashed him in the mud room. He walked over and peered through the front door’s peephole. Then, he slowly opened the door. Two uniformed police officers were standing in the doorway. One of the officers, who appeared to be the senior of the two, spoke up,

Mr. Kessler, I’m Officer Gomez from the Rocky River Police Department and this is my partner, Officer Danforth.

Officer Gomez was a clean-cut man in his late 30s. His partner, Officer Danforth had a rookie look and was probably at least ten years Gomez’s junior.

Officer Gomez continued,

Your alarm company contacted us and said you were having a problem with an intruder. Is that correct, Sir?

Mitch took a deep breath, composed himself, and replied,

Yes officer, that’s right. I arrived home from the airport and there was a stranger pounding on my front door and trying to get in by yanking on the doorknob. He was also yelling at the top of his lungs.

Mr. Kessler, what did the man yell?

You’re going to have to excuse my French, but he yelled OPEN THIS DOOR ASSHOLE! I WANT MY FUCKING BAG!

Sir, what did he mean when he said he wanted his bag? Does that make sense to you?

Chapter 2 – How It All Began

Mitch looked directly at Officer Gomez and said,

Yes it does; now it makes perfect sense to me. Let me start at the beginning. Earlier tonight, I was on my way home from Las Vegas. I’m the Director of User Training for iTech, a software company here in Charlotte. As part of my job, I was in Las Vegas to work my company’s annual user conference. Well, this past week was full of 12- to 14-hour days for me and I was completely exhausted and anxious to get home. After my plane landed in Charlotte, I made my way to the baggage claim area. Like I said before, I was dead-tired. All I wanted to do was grab my bag and head for home. When I got to the baggage carousel, I spotted my suitcase, grabbed it, and headed out of the terminal to long-term parking.

Officer Gomez said,

Mr. Kessler, would you please fast forward to the part about having the intruder’s bag?

I’m getting there. I left the terminal and walked to long-term parking where I spotted my pickup truck. I got in my truck and headed to the airport exit to pay for parking. I took the airport exit and got on I-85 North toward Rocky River. About a mile into my drive, I noticed a dark sedan following closely behind me. I changed lanes and slowed my speed to let the car pass, but the car stayed right behind me. The driver was really making me nervous. But, after a couple minutes, there was no sign of the car, so I relaxed and continued my drive home.

The two police officers exchange glances of impatience, clearly frustrated with Mitch’s inability to get to the point. The younger policeman, Officer Danforth, chimed in,

Mr. Kessler, I’m still not making a connection between your intruder and his bag.

I’ll try to make the connection for you. I took the Rocky River exit and headed home. I pulled into my driveway, parked in the garage, and went inside the house. I went to my bedroom and threw my bag onto the bed. When I opened the bag, I didn’t recognize any of the contents. I also noticed my ID tag was missing. Inside the bag, I could see something underneath a pile of clothes. When I brushed the clothes to the side, I discovered a couple dozen stacks of one-hundred-dollar bills. The bills looked like they were brand new. Each stack was held together by an elastic band labeled 10K.

Officer Gomez interjected,

Ok, the guy demanding the bag makes more sense to me now. Mr. Kessler, we really need to see that bag.

As they walked toward the bedroom, Mitch continued his explanation,

I must have been so tired when I landed, I didn’t think to check for the ID tag. I guess I grabbed somebody else’s bag by mistake. Hey, wait a minute. If I have someone else’s suitcase, maybe they picked up my bag. And, maybe they turned it in at the airport. And, now that I think about it, maybe the guy tailing me on the highway is the same person who was pounding on my door. When I heard the pounding and yelling at my door, my dog started to growl and bark. I didn’t want to confront the guy, so I pressed the emergency alert button on my alarm system. That’s my story.

Mr. Kessler, I can see now why the guy wanted the bag. Let’s take a look at the bag and the cash inside. Just so you know, we’re going to take the bag with us to the station and we’ll be turning it over to our forensics team. We also want you to follow us to the station for a follow-up interview with our detective sergeant. We’ll contact the airport to see if anyone turned in your missing bag. One more thing; before we look at the bag, tell us if you touched anything inside. We know your prints will be on the outside, because you handled it. The bag should also contain the owner’s prints. Those might help us identify the person, who we assume to be the man that showed up at your door. When we get to the station, we’ll take your fingerprints for elimination purposes. If we don’t get anywhere with prints, the bag’s contents might reveal something about the owner.

Mitch responded,

I didn’t touch anything inside the bag except one of the stacks of bills. I’m sorry, I guess curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to handle it. I should have known better. I had no idea the bag’s contents might be considered evidence.

The two police officers followed Mitch into his bedroom, and he pointed to a black suitcase sitting on the bed. Before touching anything, both officers put on a pair of gloves. Officer Gomez carefully reached inside the bag and moved some clothing to the side to have a look underneath. He spotted the stacks of bills, did a quick count, zipped the bag shut, and said,

"I counted twenty-five stacks of bills in the bag. If each stack contains 10,000 dollars, we are looking at $250,000 in cash. When we get to the station, we’ll have our techs examine the contents. Mr. Kessler, after we finish here, we want you to follow us down to the station. Now, can you tell us a little bit