Here’s another excerpt from my first ever book, only completely new. It’s a soft-boiled detective book narrated by my younger, smarter, more talented alter ego, Harry Shalan Private Eye. Hope you’ll let me know what you think!

Stultz was there but not all there when I got to his room in the ER, trailed by two women in blue scrubs shouting something or other about how I couldn’t go in there. He apparently knew who I was. He shot me three times in the chest the instant I walked through the door. Luckily, he was only packing a finger, though, so the damage was minimal. After he stowed his weapon, he pulled out an imaginary phone and made a call. “Tell Chonny it’s done, finally.”

I grabbed him by the front of his gown and shook him.  “What have you done with Johnny Tuttle, you slimeball?”

“Leave him alone!” One of the two people who’d been chasing me grabbed me forcefully by the shoulder and yanked me back.

I flinched her hand off me, but I let go. He just looked through me, his eyes glazed and detached. He seemed to try for a few seconds to focus on my face, but it didn’t work—the fog was just too thick. I could see that trying to beat anything out of him, as fun as that sounded, would do no good.

I was on my way out the door, scrolling through my contacts and hitting send, as Otis got there. He did a one-eighty and followed me. The phone rang ten, eleven, twelve times before I finally gave up and put it away.

“Still can’t get Dee?”

“I haven’t tried since the apartment. Calling Johnny Tuttle.”

“Okay, I’ll ask again—who is Johnny Tuttle? He’s got to be more to you than just an old professor.”

I stopped at the automatic door, hitting the button. I realized I was clinching my fists, so I loosened them. “My mentor. Well, my first mentor, before I met Lucas.”

“Your mentor? In what?”

I looked at him, trying to describe what I had never really put into words. Eventually, all I could come up with was one word. “Life.”

He stared at me, a quizzical look on his face. I thought about it for a few seconds as we passed through the waiting room past security.

“Hey, Fletch.” Otis nodded at the guard.

“Otis.” The guard nodded back. He gave me a hard look.

I waved. “Sorry.”

I sat down on a bench outside the ER. “He was a professor at my college.”

Otis sat beside me. “Wait a minute, now I remember.” He turned toward me. “I met him once when I visited you. Him and his whole family. Man, that was the best chicken salad I ever ate.

I laughed. “Figures that’s what you’d remember. Yeah, I’d forgotten about that. He taught literature, and it was a small school, so I had him for like six classes before I graduated. You remember how I was chronically homesick, so he and his wife kind of took me in. I was at their house for dinner three, four nights a week. I even babysat their kids.”

Otis was my best friend. We talked about almost everything. But there are some things that were too hard to put in words. I wasn’t sure how to even begin explaining what Johnny Tuttle meant to me. “ Johnny and I stayed close after I graduated and moved to Louisville. I especially missed my dad.” A city bus went by. My eyes followed it as it rounded the curve to go uptown. “You know I was the youngest of our family by several years. Aside from you, my dad was basically my best friend. Johnny kind of filled that hole when I was away from home.” I was surprised to feel my eyes stinging. I cleared my throat. “He didn’t just teach me about school stuff—he, along with my real dad, taught me everything that’s important. He taught me about honor, ethics, chivalry—the importance of doing the right thing and what it means to be a good man.”

Otis grunted. “You always seemed like the best man I knew, even back in high school.

I shook my head and smiled. I lowered my head and spoke to my knees. “If I’m any kind of man at all, I have four men to thank for it. My dad, you, Lucas, and Johnny Tuttle.”

We were quiet. Otis, like most cops, was somehow gifted at being still. He seemed to be studying his shoes, when he surprised me by speaking. “Thank you brother.”

How do you like it? Please let me know.