Lyle - Sunshine State: a Jake Longly thriller

SUNSHINE
STATE

Also by D. P. Lyle

The Jake Longly Series

Deep Six

A-List

The Dub Walker Series

Stress Fracture

Hot Lights, Cold Steel

Run to Ground

The Samantha Cody Series

Original Sin

Devils Playground

Double Blind

The Royal Pains Media Tie-In Series

Royal Pains: First, Do No Harm

Royal Pains: Sick Rich

Nonfiction

Murder and Mayhem

Forensics For Dummies

Forensics and Fiction

Howdunit: Forensics; A Guide For Writers

More Forensics and Fiction

ABA Fundamentals: Forensic Science

Anthologies

Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads (contributor); Jules Verne, Mysterious

Island Thriller 3: Love Is Murder (contributor); Even Steven;

For the Sake of the Game (contributor); Bottom Line

SUNSHINE

STATE

A JAKE LONGLY THRILLER

D. P. LYLE

Copyright 2019 D. P. Lyle

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, and incidents either are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, businesses, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1-60809-336-6

Cover Design by Christian Fuenfhausen

Published in the United States of America by Oceanview Publishing

Sarasota, Florida

www.oceanviewpub.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my wonderful agent and friend Kimberley Cameron of Kimberley Cameron & Associates. KC, youre the best.

To Bob and Pat Gussin and all the wonderfully dedicated people at Oceanview Publishing. Thanks for your friendship and always spot-on insights, making my writing the best it can be.

To my writers group for helping make this story work. Thanks, Barbara, Terri, Craig, Donna, Sandy, and Laurie.

Thanks to Mary Sue Baker for her generous contribution to the Anaheim Public Library Foundation and for allowing me to use her name in this story.

Thanks to JoAn Pettite for her generous contribution to the Anaheim Public Library Foundation and for creating the name Erma Clemens and her dog Poochie for this story.

To Nan for everything.

SUNSHINE
STATE

CHAPTER ONE

HERES THE DEAL. Ray thinks Im a wimp. Has for years. The best I can remember it began around the time I left Major League Baseball. For several years, I pitched for the Texas Rangers. Could really bring the heat. A hundred miles an hour. Zip, pop. Loved that sound. Loved that the catcher would often shake his hand out after snagging one of my fastballs. That was me. Jake Longly, baseball stud. Everybody said so. Even the ESPN folks.

Not so Ray. He never actually used the word wimp. Pussy. Thats the one he preferred. Four weeks ago being his most recent assessment.

Nicole Jamison, my current girlfriend, love interest, whatever she was, I wasnt sure yet, had laughed. Rude, but she does love getting her shots in. Besides, she just mightve agreed with him. Mostly. Not in bed, mind you. Im freaking Godzilla in the sack. Really, I am. I think she would agree. In fact, just last night, if I remember correctly, there was tequila involved, and she invoked God a couple of times. Or it couldve been my echo. Lord knows I called on Him a couple of times.

Okay, I added the zilla part. So, sue me. No, wait, dont. The best attorney in town, Walter Horton, is married to my ex-wife, Tammy the insane. Hed already done a colonoscopy on my wallet. Probably wouldnt hesitate to encore that performance.

So, lets just say Nicole and I have fun.

Regardless, she and Ray conspired to enroll us in martial arts classes. Actually, some craziness based on Krav Maga and several other disciplines mixed into a soup of pain, mayhem, and considerable bodily harm. Taught by an ex-Mossad guy that Ray knew from back in the day. Ben Levitsky. Six-two, lean and muscular, the body fat of a distance runner, and no nonsense. No wonder he and Ray got along.

Ray Longly. My father. Owner of Longly Investigations. An outfit that, depending on your definition, employs Nicole. Speaking of employing, Ray has used every trick in his considerable bag of mischief to drag me into his business. But I prefer Captain Rockys, my just dive-y enough bar/restaurant on the sand in Gulf Shores. Id much rather hang out there with Pancake, who really does work for Ray. He also thinks I should sign on with Ray. Not going to happen. At least, not officially.

Seems like, despite this resolve, I repeatedly get dragged into Rays world. And end up throwing baseballs at hit men, or whacking alligators with baseball bats, stuff like that.

Captain Rockys is much safer.

Back to Krav Maga. Its a system of combat that is aggressive and can be lethal in the right handsand feetor whatever might be handy. Ben Levitsky ended his career with Mossad nearly ten years ago. I suspected he had done things that werent nice, or legal, or even kosher. Now, he owned a studio in Orange Beach where he dispensed his knowledge to folks of all ages and skill levels. Nicole and I had already taken a gazillion lessons. Actually, three a week for four weeks, but my hands felt like a gazillion. They ached and making a fist was a process not an event. No way this was a healthy pursuit. I mean, I could hardly wrap my fist around a beer.

Nicole felt otherwise. She loved it. Her hands were fine. Fact is, all of her was fine. But thats another story.

We had completed our morning session of bag punching and kicking and spinning and thrusting and had downed a couple of breakfast burritos my cooks had whipped up for us, when I sat down at an umbrella-shaded table on the deck at Captain Rockys with Carla Martinez, my manager. The one who really runs the joint. She had a stack of stuff for me to go over, checks and papers to sign, invoices and orders to review, inventory lists that blurred my vision. Paperwork is not my thing.

It was August and the daily temp, which was projected to reach well into the nineties, had begun to climb. I had already downed two glasses of sweet tea and was working on a third.

Nicole opted for a walk on the beach. In a red string bikini. Not enough material to wad a shotgun. An exhibitionists dream. Which was another of her outstanding qualities. All that exposed flesh garnered a lot of attention. As she disappeared up the beach, every male head turned in her direction. Most of the women, too. She even brought a touch football game to a halt. Now, as she walked back our way, I saw she had attracted a couple of followers. Two old dudes with metal detectors. I dont think their focus was on finding coins any longer. Pervs.