Category: Action/Thriller Publisher: Elaine E. Deyo
Type: Fiction
Pages: 123
Copyright: Jan 1, 2008
The Kansas City Marvels are used to directing their own lives. Their leader, Samuel B. Jenkins, takes his band of scruffy young detectives on wave after wave of dangerous and exciting night time excursions into Mob territory to spy for the FBI
The Kansas City Marvels, the best baseball team around, is made up of nine fatherless kids who live along The Old Dirt Road, west of Kansas City Airport.
In this second book of the Kansas City Marvels mystery and adventure series, the kids once more become deeplly entangled in business between the FBI and the Mob.
While honoring their loyalty to each other is never in any real danger, natrual competition between them often gets in their way.
The FBI doesn't let the ages of their young spies deter them when forcing them to spy for them on the Mob.
Will the kids again get the best of the FBI and the Mob? And will Sam maintain his leadership role of his beloved baseball team? Or have the Kansas City Marvels had enough of Sam Jenkins and refuse to put up with his heavy-handed attitude?
Excerpt
“I found some clothes for the class skit at the Salvation Army store today,” I say.
“What do they look like? Did you get some good stuff?”
“Yeah, really good. Major Hardwicke didn’t make me pay for them because they’re so old nobody would want them. And I got some good stuff for Mom and Sondra for Christmas. I can wrap their stuff tomorrow, otherwise Sondra will be snooping around and find them. Once they’re wrapped I can give them to Mom to hide so Sondra can’t get at them”.
“Show me what you got for the skit.”
“Okay, you can see what I’ll look like as a hobo!”
I put on an old bright green shirt first, then slip an orange tie that already has the knot tied in it over my head, and leave it hang loose. Then I put some old stained pants on, the color is questionable; gray, I think. Last, I put on the old sport coat with the worn-through elbow patches. It’s miles too big for me and it’s just right for my hobo look.
“Look, Bobby! This is my future if I don’t graduate from high school!”
Bobby’s eyes get big and he laughs out loud. “Somehow, that’s really you, Sam. I love the colors!”
“I know. It’s just right for the skit,” I say, beginning to take the coat off. As I grab the lapels to pull the coat open I can feel something inside the left one. Lumpy, like.
“What’s inside here? Feels like gravel and stones.”
“Let me see,” Bobby says, inspecting the lapel. “You can just cut the lining on the inside and take that out. Where are the scissors, kitchen drawer?”
Bobby cuts a little slit at the edge of the lining where the lapel begins.
I reach inside to pull the lumpy stuff out. It’s actually a small, flat, paper packet. Checking it closer I see that it’s been sealed with a gummed flap. I lift it. The inside of the packet is lined with plastic. Like a baggie. I dump the stuff onto the coffee table. It looks like a bunch of clear shiny stones. If I believed in things like that happening I’d almost think I’ve found about three dozen, different size diamonds.
That is, if I believed in things like that happening.
Retired! New start! Murder!
Todd, detective lieutenant, has retired from St. Louis, Missouri and has moved to Ford Valley, Arizona. When Todd’s ex-wife is killed in a car accident, Todd fights for custody of his teenage daughter. She has bee
