Dark Ride (Kingfisher P.I. Book 2)

By James Reasoner and Livia J. Washburn

Hired to find out who’s been threatening a Texas state senator’s granddaughter, the two triplet sleuths Callista and Joseph Kingfisher find themselves in more trouble than they bargained for as Callie goes undercover at a therapeutic riding center and becomes involved in a dangerous conspiracy with roots on the other side of the world.

Between international criminals who want them dead, an enigmatic former Special Forces operator who can’t be trusted, federal agents who would like to make the Kingfishers disappear in some black site prison, and the shadowy menace who started the whole thing, Callie and Joseph will have their work cut out just trying to survive this case!

KINGFISHER P.I.: DARK RIDE is the second in a new series of thrilling mystery novels from New York Times bestselling author James Reasoner and the creator of the popular Fresh Baked Mystery series Livia J. Washburn. Mount up for these exciting and entertaining tales from two of today’s best storytellers!

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Reasoner
• Release date: Jan 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9798215071090

James Reasoner

A lifelong Texan, James Reasoner has been a professional writer for more than thirty years. In that time, he has authored several hundred novels and short stories in numerous genres. James is best known for his Westerns, historical novels, and war novels, he is also the author of two mystery novels that have achieved cult classic status, TEXAS WIND and DUST DEVILS. Writing under his own name and various pseudonyms, his novels have garnered praise from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as appearing on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.

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KINGFISHER P.I. #2:

DARK RIDE

James Reasoner

and

Livia J. Washburn

Kingfisher P.I.#2 Dark Ride

by James Reasoner and Livia J. Washburn

Copyright © 2024 by James Reasoner and

Livia J. Washburn

The Book Place

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 13-9798215071090

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Kingfisher P.I. Book 2: Dark Ride is a work of fiction.

Though actual locations may be mentioned, they are used in a fictitious manner and the events and occurrences were invented in the mind and imagination of the author except for the inclusion of actual historical facts. Similarities of characters or names used within to any person – past, present, or future – are coincidental except where actual historical characters are purposely interwoven.

Chapter 1

Callista Kingfisher leaned back on the bench, enjoyed the warm feeling of the sun on her bare legs and belly and arms and shoulders, studied the man coming toward her on the sidewalk, and said without moving her lips any more than possible, Here he comes.

You’re sure it’s him?

The voice in Callie’s ear belonged to her brother Joseph. His habitual caution annoyed her, but only for a moment. She knew by now how Joseph was. She ought to. They had been siblings for more than thirty years. He didn’t like to do anything without being certain about it.

Callie couldn’t comprehend that. Sometimes you had to take that proverbial leap of faith…

Of course, sometimes that leap landed you in the hospital. She knew that, too. All too well.

But right now she wasn’t going to think about that. She looked at the target through the dark glasses she wore and said, Yes, it’s definitely him. He looks just like the picture you showed me on your computer.

George Bishop was only about thirty feet away now. Callie saw him glance at her. The glance lingered. Callie wasn’t surprised or annoyed. She knew she looked pretty good in sandals, white shorts, and a bikini top. She might not be as skinny as most of the women she had doubled for when she was still doing stunt work out in Hollywood, but what she had was put together well.

Bishop evidently thought so, because he was still eyeing her as he passed the bench.

The beach was at Callie’s back, with the waves rolling gently in from the Gulf of Mexico. McCaughan Park was across Shoreline Boulevard. The T-Heads and the marina were back to her right. This was one of the most popular areas in Corpus Christi. Tourists converged on the area from the hotels and motels along Shoreline, Ocean Drive, and Water Street. On this early summer day, the beach was crowded and laughter and happy cries from kids on vacation filled the air.

The sidewalk was busy, too. Bishop weaved around a young mother and three kids, all in sun hats, and kept moving. Callie stood up and followed him.

As she closed in behind him, she slipped the document, folded in thirds, from inside a pocket in the shorts. When she and Bishop were in a fairly open area without a bunch of people around them, she said in a loud, clear voice, Excuse me, sir, you dropped this.

He stopped, half-turned to look around as if to make sure she was talking to him, and automatically lifted his hand to take the paper she held out to him. She laid the document against his palm.

Then he cried out and jerked back before closing his hand around it, acting like she had just tried to get him to grab a rattlesnake.

Callie let go of the paper. It fluttered to the sidewalk between them. She smiled and said, George Bishop, you’ve been served notice of the legal proceeding against you.

His mouth opened and closed and opened again. You… you… you can’t…

He stopped denying it and began cursing her instead.

Callie ignored that as best she could. Smiled, nodded, said, You have a nice day, sir, and started to turn away.

Bishop charged her.

Callie wasn’t surprised. Joseph had warned her that serving process could be dangerous, that sometimes people got upset enough to attack the messenger, so to speak. In fact, the first time Callie had seen her brother after her return to Corpus Christi a few months earlier, he had been in a tussle with some friends of a man he had just served.

Callie had been helping him out with his private investigator business since then and had served papers several times, but nobody had gotten violent about it until today. She was prepared for trouble, though, and as Bishop charged her, she stepped aside nimbly so that his groping hands missed.

She put up her hands, palms out, and said, You don’t want to do this, sir. No harm, no foul. Just take the paper and go on about your business.

I don’t have any business because of that damned lawsuit, Bishop said. His mouth twisted in a snarl. Everybody thinks I’m a crook.

Well, you did embezzle several hundred thousand dollars—

The company couldn’t prove it! That’s why the charges were dropped. That’s why they filed a civil suit.

Callie didn’t know nearly as much about the law as her brother; Joseph had gone to Harvard and practiced law for a while before giving it up and becoming a private investigator. But she knew that the standard of proof was a lot lower in civil proceedings than in criminal ones. To convince a jury, all the lawyers for Bishop’s former employers had to do was show by a preponderance of the evidence that he had ripped them off.

Backing away with her hands still up, Callie said, I don’t know anything about that, sir. My job is just to give you that document, which I’ve done. You’ve been served, and—

Bishop yelled incoherently and lunged at her again.

By now Joseph would have seen what was going on from the car where he’d been observing in the parking lot across the boulevard. He would be on his way to help her. Callie figured she could avoid Bishop’s clumsy attacks until her brother came galloping up to save the day.

But then when it was over, he’d complain about how he shouldn’t have allowed her to handle this job alone. The thought of that annoyed her.

So Callie reached up, grabbed Bishop’s right arm, jerked him toward her so he was off-balance, twisted to her left at the waist, threw her right hip into him, and tossed him to the sidewalk. He hit ten feet away and rolled over several times. A large family group with four adults and eight or ten kids stopped short and stared at the man who had just crashed to the sidewalk in front of them.

Callie made a little face. She could have injured some innocent bystander, she told herself sternly. She had been reasonably confident that the sidewalk behind her was empty at the moment, but she hadn’t been absolutely sure.

Bishop pushed himself up on hands and knees, shook his head groggily, then climbed to his feet.

Stay there, Callie told him, again extending a hand with the palm out. I don’t want to hurt you.

Bishop spewed some more curses at her, some of them specifically addressing her being female, others more gender-neutral if not less offensive. His voice was loud enough that several pedestrians heard him and stopped to stare at the confrontation.

Well, if nothing else, she had witnesses that she had tried to avoid trouble, Callie thought.

Bishop came at her swinging this time.

Callie ducked the first wild punch, brought the heel of her right hand up under his chin, and rocked his head back, then sunk a hard left into his belly. His eyes bugged out and he bent forward. She could have put her hands on the back of his head, driven it down into her rising knee, and broken several bones in his face, but Joseph would freak out if she did that much damage to somebody, even an obnoxious jerk like Bishop.

She settled for hooking her right foot behind his left ankle and yanking that leg out from under him. That dumped him on his butt and probably sent shock waves up his spine to go with the ball of sickness in his gut. He rolled onto his side, pulled his knees up, and groaned. Callie had ended enough battles back in her MMA days to know that all the fight was knocked out of him.

She retrieved the folded summons, bent over him, and slid the document into his shirt pocket.

There you go, she said, patting it lightly. Consider yourself served again. And because I’m feeling generous, I won’t call the cops and report how you attacked me.

Truth of the matter was, she felt more than generous. She felt pretty darned good. She worked out frequently, not just as part of her rehabilitation from the injuries that had brought her home to Corpus Christi from Hollywood but also because she enjoyed it.

No matter how much you worked out, though, there was nothing like having a living, breathing opponent against whom to match your skills.

Even if he was just a slow, soft-bodied computer nerd/embezzler like George Bishop.

I hope you’re proud of this spectacle you put on.

The voice with its unmistakable note of disapproval came from her brother, who stood nearby on the sidewalk, frowning. The crowd that had gathered briefly to watch the fight was breaking up now, people moving aside to walk around Bishop, who still lay there trying to catch his breath.

Callie looked at her brother and shrugged. Not particularly, she said. He didn’t really put up much of a fight. And you must have seen for yourself how I tried to talk him out of it. I didn’t do a thing except defend myself.

I did see that, Joseph admitted. I warned you that sometimes the people we deal with can be violent.

You didn’t say anything about Bishop being that way.

Well, he has no history of it. And his crime… alleged crime… was of the white collar variety. But sometimes they’re the worst.

I’ll remember that, Callie said.

They left Bishop lying there and headed along the sidewalk to return to Joseph’s car in the lot at the far end of the park across the boulevard. An unexpected twinge jabbed into Callie’s right leg as she walked and made her catch her breath and break stride for an instant before recovering.

Not quickly enough to keep Joseph from noticing, though. He said, You’re hurt, aren’t you? You aggravated those old injuries scuffling with Bishop.

I’m fine, Callie said with a touch of impatience in her voice. When I twisted to do that hip throw, I may have tweaked the leg just a little. But it’s nothing. You know how long it’s been since I even had to use my cane?

Maybe you should use it more than you do. You fell five stories in that accident, Callie. You were badly hurt.

Yeah, I was there. I remember. But I’m fine now.

Good enough that she could have called this trip home over and done with and gone back to Hollywood. She was confident that this time she could convince the shrink the studio sent her to that she had recovered mentally, as well, and was capable of going back to work.

But she enjoyed spending time with her brother and helping him out with his cases, and it felt good to be home again, and… Damn it, she just wasn’t ready to go back to the grind of making movies. The business wasn’t nearly as glamorous as it looked from the outside.

She went on, If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll take it easy for a few days. Just don’t get the idea that I can’t take care of myself and start trying to protect me all the time.

He raised an eyebrow and said, I don’t think I’d be foolish enough to do that.

They reached an intersection, crossed the street with the light, and entered the parking lot. Callie spotted something ahead of them that allowed her to change the subject, and she was grateful for the excuse.

She didn’t want to admit it, but her leg actually did ache more than she wanted to let on.

So she said, Don’t look now, Joey, but there’s quite an attractive woman waiting by your car, and she doesn’t look happy to see you.

Chapter 2

It was Joseph’s turn to break stride for a second, but not from any injury. He was just surprised to see Laura Bailey obviously waiting for him.

Not that he was unhappy to see her. As Callie had said, Laura was a very attractive woman, slender but nicely curved. Her thick chestnut hair had sun-lightened streaks in it that weren’t as obvious when it was pulled back and tied behind her head in a more professional style as it was now. When her hair was loose and falling around her face, she was stunning, in Joseph’s opinion.

She was dressed professionally, too, in a short-sleeved white shirt and gray slacks. She would have a matching jacket in the car she had parked a couple of spaces away from his, but it was too warm today to be wearing it.

The lack of a jacket made the holstered black 9mm semi-automatic pistol clipped at her waist very obvious.

Quietly from beside him, Callie said, I’ll bet that’s Laura, isn’t it?

Yes, Joseph said. Yes, it is.

Why in the world haven’t you introduced me to her before now? She looks really nice. You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about. Callie laughed. In fact, I’d say if anybody’s batting out of their league—

Never mind that, Joseph said. I haven’t been avoiding introducing the two of you. It just hasn’t worked out so far. Laura has a very busy schedule.

She’s a homicide detective, right?

They were so close now that Joseph ignored his sister’s question. Instead, he smiled and raised his voice slightly to say, Hello, Laura. I didn’t expect to see you today.

I didn’t expect to be sent out looking for you, either, Laura Bailey replied. Her naturally serious expression eased a bit as she looked at Callie. She even smiled a little as she said, You must be Callista.

That’s right, Callie said as she opened the back door of Joseph’s car and took out the lightweight sleeveless floral print shirt she had left there. She put it on over the bikini top. And you’re Laura.

Both women reached out to shake hands.

My friends call me Callie, though.

Laura smiled. It’s good to meet you, Callie. I hope we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. She looked at Joseph. Someone seems to be trying to prevent that—

Joseph held up his hands in either self-defense or surrender. He wasn’t sure which.

There’s no need to gang up on me. I haven’t deliberately avoided introducing the two of you, it’s just that—

That’s the way it’s worked out, Callie and Laura said at the same time. Callie laughed at their identical response. Laura just smiled again.

Then she grew serious and went on, You’re not in any trouble, if that’s what you’re worried about, Joseph.

I’m not worried. I haven’t done anything to be worried about.

As if he hadn’t said anything, Laura continued, I’m not even here officially. I’m just doing a favor for someone by looking you up.

How did you know where to find me, for that matter?

I called Bucko Corcoran and he said you weren’t trying to track down any bail jumpers for him. He suggested I try a few of the other bondsmen, but I didn’t have any better luck with them. Then I remembered that you do quite a bit of process server work for Belton, Belton & Mendez, so I called Andy Belton and he told me I might be able to find you somewhere along the beach. He said you were going to be serving papers on a subject who likes to hang around in this area.

Yeah, the guy seemed to take a keen interest in bikinis, Callie said.

Wait a minute, Joseph said. Why would Andy Belton tell you that? He shouldn’t be talking about his firm’s business to any outsider, especially a cop.

Laura shrugged. What can I say? Andy’s asked me out a dozen times over the years, and he still hasn’t given up.

Can’t blame him for that, Callie said. What I don’t understand is why somebody as smart and beautiful as you sees anything in this goofball of a brother of mine.

What did I say about ganging up on me? And you still haven’t told me what this is about, Joseph reminded Laura.

Like I said, it’s a favor. For a friend of a friend. Can you go to a meeting with Peggy Gonzalez in… Laura checked the fitness tracker on her wrist, which doubled as a watch. An hour?

Peggy Gonzalez? Joseph repeated. The district attorney?

That’s right. This involves two district attorneys and the Texas Rangers.

Joseph frowned, knowing that he probably looked as confused as he felt. I don’t know what this is, but I don’t see how it could possibly have anything to do with me.

You can find out. Go meet with Ms. Gonzalez.

In an hour.

Callie said, I’m not sure he can get cleaned up sufficiently for an important meeting in that time.

Joseph glared at her for a second, more out of habit than anything else, then said, All right, fine, I’ll be there. Her office in the courthouse?

That’s right.

Thank you. I’m sorry if this… whatever it is… took you away from other things you should be doing.

It’s all right, Laura said. I wasn’t chasing down anything hot right now.

That’s the truth, Callie said. You were looking for my brother.

That got an actual laugh from Laura. We need to get together sometime.

Dinner tonight?

Laura thought for a second, said, Give me your number and I’ll text you later.

I don’t know if I can make it, Joseph said. I suppose it all depends on this meeting—

Nobody said you were invited, Callie interrupted him.

We’re just teasing you, Laura said. I’ll be in touch. Good luck with the… whatever it is.

She gave a little wave that included both of them and went back to her car. Joseph and Callie got in his car.

She seems nice, Callie said.

You don’t have to say that.

No, I mean it. She really does. The way I’m dressed didn’t seem to bother her.

Why would it?

Well, the outfit’s a little slutty, especially before I put the shirt on. She could have been judgy, but she wasn’t, not even a little bit. Callie switched gears. You said she’s a single mom, right?

That’s right. She has a nine-year-old son named Ryan.

Do you know her ex?

Joseph shook his head. "No ex. He’s never been