American Crime Story: Book II: American Crime Story: A Thriller Series, #2

By Vincent Zandri

BOOK II

WHEN THE AMERICAN DREAM DIES, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO TURN TO AMERICAN CRIMES!

A lower middle-class couple, a mailman and a housewife, living in the suburbs suddenly find themselves caught up in the middle of a Mexican Cartel drug war. In Book II, the Jones' transition from mild-mannered, middle class, do-no-wrong suburbanites, to something entirely different. Guns, bullets, cremations, money laundering, and a new scheme to create their own new street drug which will rival anything the cartel can deliver, are suddenly in the works.

Brand new, hot-off-the-press material by New York Times Thriller Award winning author Vincent Zandri. For readers of Charlie Houston, Don Winslow, Lawrence Block, and watchers of Ozark, Breaking Bad, and more.

Grab your pulse-pounding thriller now!

Praise for Vincent Zandri:

"The story of Vincent Zandri is the story of our times."

 

--Business Insider

"Vincent Zandri hails from the future."

 

--The New York Times

"Sensational . . . masterful . . . brilliant."

 

--New York Post

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vincent Zandri
• Release date: Oct 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798224899968

Vincent Zandri

"Vincent Zandri hails from the future." --The New York Times “Sensational . . . masterful . . . brilliant.” --New York Post "Gritty, fast-paced, lyrical and haunting." --Harlan Coben, New York Times bestselling author of Six Years "Tough, stylish, heartbreaking." --Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of Savages and Cartel. Winner of the 2015 PWA Shamus Award and the 2015 ITW Thriller Award for Best Original Paperback Novel for MOONLIGHT WEEPS, Vincent Zandri is the NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and AMAZON KINDLE OVERALL NO.1 bestselling author of more than 60 novels and novellas including THE REMAINS, EVERYTHING BURNS, ORCHARD GROVE, THE SHROUD KEY and THE GIRL WHO WASN'T THERE. His list of domestic publishers include Delacorte, Dell, Down & Out Books, Thomas & Mercer, Polis Books, Suspense Publishing, Blackstone Audio, and Oceanview Publishing. An MFA in Writing graduate of Vermont College, his work is translated in the Dutch, Russian, French, Italian, and Japanese. Having sold close to 1 million editions of his books, Zandri has been the subject of major features by the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Business Insider. He has also made appearances on Bloomberg TV and the FOX News network. In December 2014, Suspense Magazine named Zandri's, THE SHROUD KEY, as one of the "Best Books of 2014." Suspense Magazine selected WHEN SHADOWS COME as one of the "Best Books of 2016". He was also a finalist for the 2019 Derringer Award for Best Novelette. A freelance photojournalist, freelance writer, and the author of the popular "lit blog," The Vincent Zandri Vox, Zandri has written for Living Ready Magazine, RT, New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, The Times Union (Albany), Game & Fish Magazine, CrimeReads, Altcoin Magazine, The Jerusalem Post, Market Business News, Duke University, Colgate University, and many more. He also writes for Scalefluence. An Active Member of MWA and ITW, he lives in New York and Florence, Italy. For more go to VINZANDRI.COM

Book preview

Begin your Moonlight journey today with a FREE copy of MOONLIGHT FALLS, the first novel in the Thriller and Shamus Award-winning series.

Or visit WWW.VINZANDRI.COM to join ’Vincent’s For your eyes only newsletter today.

PRAISE FOR VINCENT ZANDRI

SENSATIONAL . . . MASTERFUL . . . brilliant.

—New York Post

(A) CHILLING TALE OF obsessive love from Thriller Award–winner Zandri (Moonlight Weeps) . . . Riveting.

—Publishers Weekly

. . . OH, WHAT A STORY it is . . . Riveting . . . A terrific old school thriller.

—Booklist Starred Review

"ZANDRI DOES A FANTASTIC job with this story. Not only does he scare the reader, but the horror 

Show he presents also scares the man who is the definition of the word tough.

—Suspense Magazine

I VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book . . . It’s a great crime drama that is full of action and intense suspense, along with some great twists . . . Vincent Zandri has become a huge name and just keeps pouring out one best seller after another.

—Life in Review

(THE INNOCENT) IS A thriller that has depth and substance, wickedness and compassion.

—The Times-Union (Albany)

THE ACTION NEVER WANES.

—Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

GRITTY, FAST-PACED, lyrical and haunting.

—Harlan Coben, New York Times bestselling author of Six Years

TOUGH, STYLISH, HEARTBREAKING.

—Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of Savages and Cartel.

A TIGHTLY CRAFTED, smart, disturbing, elegantly crafted complex thriller . . . I dare you to start it and not keep reading.

—MJ Rose, New York Times bestselling author of Halo Effect and Closure

A CLASSIC SLICE OF raw pulp noir...

—William Landay, New York Times bestselling author of Defending Jacob

ZANDRI (IS) A VETERAN wordsmith who executes quality and quantity at superlative levels.

—Book Reporter

American Crime Story

A Thriller Series: Book II

Vincent Zandri

When the devil comes, he comes on angel’s wings.

—Don Winslow, The Cartel

BOOK II

1

One week later

From the Channel 9 Spectrum 24-Hour Radio News Network:

"...Juan Perez, older brother of the recently slain gang members, Hector and Julio Perez, was spotted yesterday afternoon outside the alleged Jalisco New Generation Cartel kingpin’s downtown mansion on Lark Street. Sources who choose to remain anonymous confirm what’s already been suspected—that the Perez gang is said to be hoarding weapons, including both short and long guns, that is, judging from the armed security guards who surround the four-story, brick downtown fortress.

"Perez, who is still mourning the loss of his two younger brothers and the fact that their bodies were never found, is said to have vowed a swift and powerful revenge for the rival gangsters responsible for their deaths. The Albany Police Department, in cooperation with the FBI and Homeland Security, are rumored to be closely monitoring the potentially volatile situation. Said APD Homicide Detective David Danish, ‘We’ve managed to grab a couple of leads and even minute pieces of physical evidence related to the deaths of the two brothers. But thus far the physical evidence remains scant, while evidence from our leads is circumstantial at best...

"Danish went on to suggest the responsible parties are, in fact, members of the rival Sinaloa Cartel, which was run by El Chapo and famous for moving tons of Chinese manufactured fentanyl, methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin, and crystal meth into major and minor communities all across the U.S., including Albany. He also stressed that his theory has not yet been established as fact. ‘It is something we, the police, are taking very seriously however,’ he said. It should be noted that Juan Perez adamantly denies having any connection to a Mexican drug cartel, referring to himself as a legitimate, green card holding, tax paying, licensed businessman who’s made his fortune as an importer/exporter.

...In other news...

I turn the radio off.

If the police know where Juan Perez resides and that he’s no legitimate businessman, I ask myself aloud, why don’t they just arrest him now?

I stare out the window of my mail truck and do my best to conjure up a logical answer to my own question. 

Because maybe, just maybe, the police can’t officially get him on anything. Armed security guards aren’t illegal. And from what I’m told, he runs several legitimate Mexican food trucks, a Mexican grocery store and wine shop. Legitimate on the surface anyway, just like our funeral home is going to be. Still, the police and the FBI have to know he sells tons of drugs to innocent kids. Yet they can’t do jack about it. Maybe they can get him on IRS fraud like they did Al Capone in the 1930s. Who the hell knows?

I pull the mail truck into an apartment complex down the road a little from where Joanne killed Hector and Julio.

You’re talking to yourself again, Bradley. You know it’s no good when you start talking to yourself incessantly. It means you’re anxious. Nervous. Maybe even crazy. Is it only a matter of time until the police and Hector Perez find out their enemy is not a El Chapo’s rival cartel, but instead a husband and wife who live in a middle class neighborhood of North Albany? Maybe...

Time to concentrate on the job of delivering the mail to the great citizens of this community, come rain, come shine, come sleet or snow. Truth is, this run-in in particular drives me a little cray cray. Unlike your average house owned by your average family that might have a couple of bills and some circulars with their name printed on them, apartment buildings contain maybe eight or ten units that have any number of bills, circulars, and packages coming their way. It not only gets confusing who gets what some days, but it can also be backbreaking work for an older guy who’s not in the best of shape.

Pulling up to Apartment Building One, I throw the truck in park and allow it to idle. I go into the back and grab the big plastic bin off the rack that contains the mail and packages that’ve been pre-sorted for the building and drop it by the truck’s rear rollup door. Exiting the truck, I go around it to the rear, pull-up door, and open it. Taking hold of the bin, I thrust it up on my shoulder like a native African carrying a water jar from the river through the dense jungle. It’s a nice, sunny, eighty something late summer day, with a pleasant little breeze blowing from out of the north. Yet my armpits are soaked with sweat, staining my light blue uniform blouse. My muscles ache and so does my lower back. Even my ass crack is sweaty.

When the hell can I retire? I ask myself as I approach the apartment building door and drop the bin to the concrete landing. Patience, Bradley. Soon you’ll be rich. That is, everything goes as planned. But that’s what worries me...everything going as planned. I give my head a good shake. You’re doing it again. Talking to yourself. Only nut cases talk to themselves.

The Extenda-Key retractable key chain attached to my belt makes me look like a key master, there’s so many keys attached to it. Despite all those dozens of keys, I know precisely where to find the key to this building. I grab hold of it and unlock the door. Picking up the bin yet again, I drop it one final time onto the vestibule floor where I use a different key to unlock the mailbox cover. Opening the metal cover, I expose all ten mailboxes, and proceed to fill each one of them mostly with bills from everything from the cellphone company to the Policeman’s Benevolent Association. Don’t get me started with the boxed packages which I simply drop to the floor under the mailboxes.

By the time I’m done with the last box, I’m practically crushing the mail in my haste to get the hell out of there and onto the next building. Grabbing up the now very light, empty bin, I put my hand on the doorknob and notice something tacked to the small bulletin board mounted to the wall beside the door. 

It’s an FBI Wanted poster with a computerized rendering of two people. The words above the rendering say Wanted by the FBI. Printed below the rendering are some physical details. Height, weight, skin color, and approximate age of both people. Below that it says, Suspected in the homicide of two gang members, this male/female duo are currently at large somewhere in the greater Northeast. If you come into contact with them both or one of them individually, do not attempt to engage. They are considered armed and very dangerous. Instead contact 888-545-9090 immediately.

My mouth goes dry, and a pit lodges itself in my stomach. Why? The renderings on the FBI Wanted poster very much resemble my wife and myself.

Grabbing my now empty bin, I quickly exit the apartment building and go to my truck. I toss the bin in back and pull the overhead door down. I go around to the driver’s side (which is on the right where the passenger seat is in a normal truck), hop up into the bucket seat and close the door. Only then do I breathe. I have three more apartment buildings to go before I can leave the complex. But right now, my heart is beating so fast, I just want to drive out of here and get lost.

But that’s not right either. Something occurs to me then. What if Joanne and I left behind some physical evidence the cops haven’t yet picked up on? We were quick and careless about hiding the bodies and unloading the money and the drugs. We might have left behind some hair follicles or a used Kleenex or even a pair of reading glasses. Joanne has like two dozen pairs of readers and she’s always leaving them behind at a restaurant or just plain misplacing them. It’s not like they’re valuable. She gets them for ten bucks a piece at the Walmart.

Throwing the truck in drive, I proceed to the first of the last three buildings. I distribute the mail