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Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: Platinum Paw Press
Type: Fiction
Pages: 256
Copyright: Feb 17, 2026
ISBN-13: 9781733197274
Price: $5.99 (eBook)
Rain opens with gunshots cutting through the night, shattering the calm and launching a case that
refuses to reveal why. Detective Connor Maxwell is called to the scene, where the evidence points
in too many directions and none of them make sense.
Rain, A Connor Maxwell Mystery Book 5
Rain opens with gunshots cutting through the night, shattering the calm and launching a case that
refuses to reveal why. Detective Connor Maxwell is called to the scene, where the evidence points
in too many directions and none of them make sense. As Connor teams up with fellow detective, Kate Stroup, and his trusted K9 partner, Sundae, what begins as a search for the shooter quickly becomes something far more dangerous.
Also, a trail of missing money suggests a carefully hidden embezzlement scheme, while the sudden disappearance of a woman raises the stakes from deadly to desperate. With every lead they chase, new secrets surface—and so do new suspects. Lies pile up, motives blur, and the clock keeps ticking. As the investigation tightens, Lakewood Police must untangle who committed the murder, who took the stolen money, and a missing person before the trail goes cold.
https://youtube.com/shorts/8s40nCLasWY?si=K9w5UnXqMSCLOhg8
Excerpt
Chapter 1
The .357 Magnum echoed through the
alley, followed by another shot from a 9mm Glock
that ricocheted like a pinball off the walls of the
nearby buildings. Lakewood Police Officer Peter
McKelly, married for thirteen years and father of
three children, lay in a puddle of his own blood.
The red liquid spread beneath his body and spilled
out on the asphalt under his left arm.
“72, PD, officer down, shots fired, 933, ah
… Washington Street,” Officer Dan Walsh
frantically yelled into his mic as he holstered his
Glock and knelt next to his partner. Before the
dispatcher could respond, every unit within close
proximity of Washington Street switched on its
sirens and lights, running code in the direction of
the call’s location.
“Hang in there, buddy,” Walsh begged as
tears began spilling from his eyes.
He grabbed a handkerchief from his back
pocket and applied pressure to the wound in an
attempt to stop the bleeding. The bullet had entered
just below Pete’s armpit but above where his
bulletproof vest ended, leaving the officer
unprotected.
“Don’t do this to me, Pete, you got to hang
in there … for Amy and the kids,” Dan said,
hearing the approaching sirens.
Pete’s eyelids flickered for a nanosecond as
blood seeped from the corners of his mouth and his
nose. The blood turned a deeper hue as the alley
grew dim and shadows lengthened due to the setting
sun in the western skies over Lakewood. The rise
and fall of Pete’s chest stopped.
“Dammit! Don’t you do this to me!” Dan
screamed as he began CPR.
Pete’s open eyes stared blankly into the sky.
Dan knew in his heart that Pete was gone, but he
refused to stop until someone, he wasn’t sure who,
pulled him from Pete’s body.
“Dan, he’s gone,” a voice said.
Dan refused to listen. He scrambled back to
Pete. “No, he can’t be.” Dan fought to continue
CPR.
“Dan.” Detective Kate Stroup, a veteran of
the Lakewood Police Department’s Detective
Division, pulled him over to the unmarked car. Dan
looked up into the beautiful face of the detective.
Any other time, he would have loved looking into
that face, but not today.
“Connor and Sundae have gone after the
perp.”
Dan knew that Connor was Kate’s partner
and Sundae was the Lakewood Police Department’s
K-9. He looked around at the crime scene that had
unfolded before him. Minutes before, he and Pete
had been dispatched to a possible break-in. Prior to
the call, the most pressing things on their minds
were where they would grab a bite for dinner and
how Pete’s oldest daughter was spending too much
time on social media. Now uniformed cops and
flashing lights were everywhere. Dan felt as if he
was watching all this on TV. That was until his eyes
rested on the sheet-covered body of his partner,
Pete McKelly. ‘Please let this just be a bad
nightmare,’ he pleaded to himself.
“How can I ever explain this to Amy and
the kids?” Dan asked. His legs no longer supported
his weight and his body slid down next to the
unmarked car. Rocking back and forth, he held his
head, trying to hide the tears spilling down his
cheeks.
Kate motioned for a female uniformed
officer to come over. “Stay with him. I need to back
up Connor and Sundae.”
***
“49, PD,” Kate said, “be advised I’m
clearing the area to go back up Detective Maxwell
and K-9 Sundae.”
Kate ran down the alley where she had last
seen Connor and Sundae. “Also, be advised we’ll
need the police chaplain dispatched.”
“10-4, 49, already done … Kate, stay safe.”
The dispatcher’s voice cracked as the radio
transmission ended.
Kate knew that one of the uniformed officers
must have relayed the message to the dispatcher,
Sandy Curtis. Sandy had been with the department
and had been head dispatcher since Kate had made
a lateral transfer to Lakewood PD. Sandy was like a
mother hen when it came to her officers. She knew
all too well that a fallen officer cut to the very core
of every man and woman in the department.
Dispatchers were no exceptions. Nonetheless, they
all had a job to do right now and that was to find
the perp who had killed Pete.
It was at times like this that Kate regretted
ever becoming a cop. She had excelled in math and
science in high school. While she was at Purdue
University, her father had wanted her to become a
doctor like her mother or an attorney like him.
Nevertheless, as with everything in life, a turn in
life’s journey pointed her toward studying
psychology, which then led her to study criminal
justice at Purdue. The rest was history, as they say.
Kate felt they should all be allowed to stop
what they were doing and go home to grieve, like
employees would in any other workplace. However,
their jobs did not allow that luxury, nor would they
ever. As she ran down the alley, she couldn’t get the
vision of Pete’s body or his blank stare out of her
mind. She had investigated many homicides, but
Pete was one of their own. She’d talked with him at
the police department not more than an hour
before. Her mind drifted to his wife, Amy, and their
three kids. Sometimes she hated what she did for a
living.
Still, she knew she had to focus on what she
was doing. Up ahead, at the base of a dense forest
area, she saw her partner, Detective Connor
Maxwell. He was talking to a uniformed officer as
K-9 Sundae sat by his left side. Connor turned as
Kate approached. He looked at Kate. Without
saying a word, she knew what he wanted to know.
“He didn’t make it,” Kate said. “I requested
our crime scene team.”
“Uniforms tell me Dan was the only witness.
We need Dan to meet with Harper Huckabee,”
Connor said.
Harper was the Lakewood Police
Department’s sketch artist. Connor could hold his
own in drawing but nothing like Harper. If a victim
could give the details of the subject, Harper could
truly bring him or her to life on the page. Kate
wondered how much Dan would be able to help
after witnessing his partner being gunned down.
“Can you have your radio cars start
canvassing businesses in the area for cameras? The
subject fled on foot, maybe to a nearby car. See if
any of these businesses have someone running from
the scene. We really have nothing to go on until we
get the sketch or a video,” Connor said.
“We’ll get right on it,” the uniformed officer
said as Connor, Kate, and Sundae walked back to
their unmarked car.
As they neared the body of Pete McKelly,
Sundae separated from Connor and Kate. She went
to the fallen officer, sat down beside him, and, with
a gentle touch of her tongue, kissed his face before
returning to the open back door of the car. Kate
brushed a tear from her eye.
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