Daredevils

By TK Eldridge

In the prologue to the Hughes Investigations Series, Caela and Ian discover a pattern.
Cases that seem solitary and random, may well not be.
Still relatively new at the PI job, Caela takes risks she might later regret.

This is the free novella that starts the Hughes Investigations series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TK Eldridge
• Release date: Aug 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005702601

TK Eldridge

TK Eldridge retired from a career in Intelligence for the US Gov't to write. The experiences from then are now being used to feed the muse for paranormal romance, mysteries, supernatural, and urban fantasy stories. When they’re not writing, they are enjoying life in the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina. Two dogs, a garden, a craft hobby and a love of Celtic Traditional music keep them from spending too much time at the computer.

Book preview

Daredevils

TK Eldridge

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Graffridge Publishing

(Previously published under the Preston Holt Wilder penname)

First published by Graffridge Publishing 2020

Copyright © 2020 by TK Eldridge

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

TK Eldridge asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

TK Eldridge has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

Cover by Lizzie Dunlap of PixieCovers.com

Editing by Donna A. Martz of MartzProofing.com

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Contents

1. Chapter One

2. Chapter Two

3. Chapter Three

4. Chapter Four

5. Chapter Five

6. Chapter Six

7. Chapter Seven

8. Chapter Eight

9. Also by TK Eldridge

10. Sample of The Devil Inside

About the Author

Chapter one

The coffee shop was packed, but it also sat between Caela’s new office and her best friend Ian’s place. Ian loved the coffee shop and considered it his office away from home. It worked out since Caela needed about six gallons of coffee a day to function. No, not really, but it seemed like it.

She finally spotted the tousled curls and lean, dark frame as it bent over a laptop.

Caela dropped into the seat next to him, then leaned over and kissed his cheek. Tell me you got me a latte and a sandwich? she asked.

Huh? Oh, yeah, Ian replied and lifted a hand to signal one of the servers. Within moments, a sandwich and latte were set in front of her, and Ian’s cup was refilled.

Bless you, Caela mumbled around a mouthful of food. Starved. Whatcha working on?

A database project. It goes out and pulls articles from newspapers all over the world that are done in English and dumps them into the database categories for murder, theft, suicide, accidents, and so on. The idea is to see the patterns in the data and help stop outbreaks, Ian said.

Just English, though? Caela asked.

For now. The translator program I was using kept spitting out too many false positives. I’ll need to work on that for the next phase.

So, why did you need me to rush down here? Caela took another bite of her sandwich. She wanted to at least finish the food before she had to leave again. Coffee traveled, sandwiches? Not this big, nope. She’d have it all down the front