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Amazon: Is It Safe?

For an electronic copy by Solstice Publishing, go to:  Books by Jerol Anderson
Select book or books you want, and click:  Add to Cart

For a signed copy: send request and $19.00 per book (includes taxes and shipping) to:
Jerol Anderson
PO Box 339
Cambridge, WI 53523

Questions on ordering?   Please contact me at: jerol.writer@gmail.com

IS IT SAFE? now available locally at these fine stores:

WI – Cambridge – Village Pharmacy & Gifts 109 W. Main St.
WI – Fort Atkinson – Hometown Pharmacy, 102 S. Main St.
WI – Fort Atkinson/Busseyville – Burdick’s Greenhouse, W9076 State Rd 106
WI – Janesville –  Book World of Janesville  2451 Milton Ave.
WI – Lake Mills – The Vintage Flip, 400 N. Main St.
WI – Watertown –    Literatus & Co. 401 E. Main St.
WI – Waukesha – Martha Merrell’s Books,  231 W Main St.
MI – Traverse City – Horizon Books 243 E. Front St.
MI – Petoskey – Horizon Books 319 E. Mitchell St.
IN – Lafayette – Second Flight Books, 2200 Elmwood Ave D7

REVIEWS – Coming Soon

EXCERPT:

A tuft of wool carpet tickled May’s nose. The scent of Carpet Fresh and something like flesh filled her nostrils. Everything hurt. Her naked body trembled at the wetness on her skin. Her right eye buried in the rug, she dared not move but opened her left eye. Red—all she could see was blood. Slowly she concentrated on the real pain. She took mental inventory of each body part. Only her left shoulder in pain.

Am I shot shot or just bruised from the fall from the bed?

“ What’s going on in here?”

A new voice. Strong, kind, and commanding.

May tried to concentrate on the voice. Aldo had taught her to read voices. For hours they would sit in a restaurant or airport, take turns closing their eyes and identifying by voice the type of person talking. Size, stature, even personality traits. They’d honed the voice reading to an art.

This new voice sounded self-assured, not filled with fear like the others.

“ U.S. Marshall Charles Durst. Get away from that body; get the coroner in here.”

“ Yes, sir, but I think this one’s alive, sir,” the frightened man who smelled like aftershave practically whimpered. “I’ll get the—”

“ You’ll get the coroner, like I said.”

The officer’s gun belt creaked as he rose beside her.

Brown loafers neared her face. A tan-clothed knee hit the floor.

“ Close those eyes and don’t move a muscle. Play dead or you will be,” the kind voice whispered near her ear.

She winced as his hand checked her pulse. He smeared away blood from her right arm and her left thigh as if checking for wounds.

But the officers were here. He said they were the police…

Her eyelids trembled as she tried not to squeeze them too tightly, tried not to move. Her whole body shuddered under her skin.

Her ears rang with the intensity of listening as he stood and walked to the foot of the bed. “What are you waiting for?” the gentle voice boomed across the room. “Go with your partner; I’ll watch the scene.”

No, no. It’s like the movie Buried Alive. He’s going to have me zipped into a body bag.

“ But what are you going to do with that blanket?” the other frightened voice protested.

“ I said, I’ll watch the crime scene, now go.”

A blanket, he’s going to cover my body so they won’t know I’m alive.

“ Up, up,” he commanded her.

May lay waiting—waiting to die.

“ I don’t think you’re hit. Can you walk? We’ll have to wrap you in this blanket. If you can’t walk, I’ll carry you.”

May rolled to a sitting position and tried to stand. A pool of blood on the bed. She caught a glimpse of a tuft of black curly hair sticking out from under the blood-soaked sheet.

“ Aldo,” she gasped, pulling in a deep breath that hurt to the pit of her stomach.

Before she could get the words out, the blanket wrapped around her body and she felt herself being thrown over his shoulder.

“ No, please, please, I’ll walk.” When he’d said carry, she envisioned being cradled in his arms. Hanging upside down like a sack of potatoes intensified the pain in her head.

“ That quilt. We have to take the quilt,” May demanded.

“ What quilt?”

“ The blue and white one on the bed.”

“ Forget it. It’s all bloody.” He turned to go.

“ No.” She struggled to get free. “The quilt.”

“ Will you cooperate, then?”

She feebly nodded. “We must take it.”

He grabbed the quilt from the bed and dragged it and her into the hall and around the corner before setting her to her feet. His strong arms held her firmly against his body. “You sure you can stand?”

“ Yes.”

“ Then run; there’s a service elevator around the next corner.”

Once in the elevator, he propped her up in a corner, handed her the quilt, and pushed a button labeled B. He pulled out his cell phone and punched a button.

May just watched his firm demeanor, trying to control her breathing, still amazed that she was alive and still standing—well practically.

Trust wasn’t in May’s vocabulary, but she had no choice. She could not escape a man of his strength and size. And every muscle and emotion lay open in pain…she wanted…no needed someone to take care of her.

“ I’m going to call my associate to meet us at the house. Just follow all my instructions to a T and we’ll be able to keep you alive. Hopefully there won’t be anyone around when we get to the parking garage.”

It seemed odd but comforting that he explained every move before he made it. She so needed to trust him.

“ Who are you?” Her voice quivered, almost afraid to know.

“ U.S. Marshall Charles Durst.” He pulled out his badge, like he was on automatic. “Durst to you, because if I can keep you alive for the next twenty-four hours, then we’re going to get to know one another very well.”

May didn’t feel too opposed to that at the moment. She’d liked his voice from the beginning and now had had a nice introduction to his strong arms. But keep her alive?

“ What do you mean? Keep me alive?”

“ I know who you are, May. I know some of what you know and who you’ve been hanging with. The Arcadia Group thinks you’re dead right now. If they suddenly realize you’re alive and kicking and witnessed Aldo Dante’s murder, you will be.”

“ Officer Cranston, please,” May heard through a fog minutes later that seemed like hours.

“ Rod, Rod, I’ve got May Johnson. Aldo Dante has been whacked, gangland style. Room 1042 in the Hilton Downtown. Get someone in there to seal it off pronto. The two rookie cops, first on the scene, think May died at the scene. But by now the coroner is on the way and the rookies are going bananas because May’s body disappeared. The news has to flash two bodies found. We’re headed for the house.

“ Yeah, I’ll call her next and have her meet us there.”

Feeling faint, May dropped into a squat position and rested her face in her hands. This man knew her? Knew Aldo? And the Arcadia Group?

“ You okay, May?”

“ Oh, I’m just fine,” she breathed out. “I’m sitting here totally naked, soaked in blood, with a blanket wrapped around me, in a cold steel elevator with a total stranger. No, I’m not okay. My head is splitting.” A trembling crept up her body.

“ Control, control, don’t go on me now.” He squatted next to her and his strong arm again wrapped around her waist and he pulled her to him. “Stand up and keep the blood flowing evenly. You’re about to go into shock and we have to get to the house first.”

The doors to the elevator rattled open into the parking garage. Cold air and the strong stench of auto exhaust hit her. He helped her hobble through the narrow distance between parked cars.

Pulling out his keys, he pressed the button to unlock the car. He opened the door behind the driver’s side and assisted her gently inside.

“ I should put you in the trunk, but I think we’ll be okay if you’ll stay down.”

“ Oh great,” May mumbled through the roaring in her head.

“ There’s a pillow there if you want to just try and relax.”

The blanket wrapped around her body didn’t offer much warmth. She still shuddered uncontrollably.

“ Here, move over.” He slid in next to her feet. She felt his strong hands massaging her thigh, her shoulder and all down her back. “You going to be okay?”

“ I think so.” She shivered.

“ I’m not so sure. Hold on. I’ve got another blanket in the trunk. Kind of scratchy, but it will offer warmth.”

She wanted the massage to return. The friction of his firm caress created heat.

Time waned for her now. She didn’t know that he had left her side when he returned with the blanket. It smelled like campfire, but the weight on top of the other blanket did afford warmth.

“ Could you just stay here a minute?”

What she meant was: could you continue the massage?

As if he read her mind, his muscular hand found its way up and down her legs and arms.

“ We gotta go, Lady.”

He slid out of the seat, and opening the driver’s side door, climbed in and started the engine.

“ Do not, under any circumstances, lift your head up. You stay lying down until I take you out of the car, understand?”

“ Why?”

“ We don’t want any drive-bys, okay? Besides, you’re dead, remember?”

He picked up his cell phone and punched a speed dial.

“ Bev, that you? I know, I know, it’s the middle of the night. Listen, I’ve got May Johnson. Aldo Dante has been slaughtered, gangland. May was in the room; I got her out alive.

“ Don’t ask a lot of questions, I just need your help. We’re on the way to the house and you know regulations won’t let me stay with her without a woman present. We can’t let the Arcadia find out she’s alive.

“ Just meet me there, would you? I owe you one.”

A moan left May’s heart and found its way out through her breath. Aldo slaughtered? Gangland? They were making love, he’d just returned from Holland. He had a wonderful surprise for her. He had the world by the balls. He’d closed the biggest deal ever. “The Arcadia,” he’d said, “no one will ever tell us what to do again. We’re free.”

* * * *

May faded in and out. The ride could have taken five to ten minutes, like Durst had told her, or five to ten hours. The only way she was certain of her stay on this earth was the occasional comforting voice poking her with, “You all right back there, Lady?”

Lady, Aldo had called her lady. She couldn’t think about that now. Again she faded out.

Suddenly the engine of the car halted. She awoke, alert.

“ I’m going to go and unlock the place and check it out. You stay low and I’ll fetch you in a few seconds.” And then in reassurance he reached back and patted her left thigh through the blankets.

The hollow click of the locks after he climbed out of the car created the last sound of safety she would know for a very long time.

She waited. It seemed too long and she lifted her head to peek out the side window. The white gabled house with porch surrounded by wrought iron stood out starkly in the moonlight. One by one, lights went on in the windows.

Suddenly car lights turned into the driveway behind her. She ducked down. The shadow of her blanketed head threw across the front seat.

Now I’ve done it. Now the drive-by.

A car door slammed and someone walked by her window, pausing to look in. May gritted her teeth, awaiting the bullet to crash through the window.

The person walked away. She heard voices, the deep, reassuring voice of Durst and a woman talking in the front yard next to the car.

“ I’ll get her out. She doesn’t know who you are and surely doesn’t need any more surprises.”

The door unlatched.

May broke into sobs. Uncontrollable sobs that jerked her body convulsively.

“ Oh, kiddo, you’ve been through a lot tonight,” Durst’s voice purred. “C’mon, it’s just a short walk and we’ll find you a nice warm bed. Do I need to carry you?”

May remembered the sack of potatoes experience. “No, no, I can walk.”

Becoming hazy again, and feeling protected by these two people, May felt nearly oblivious as the blanket slipped from around her, exposing her naked, blood-blotched body.

The woman came to the other side of her.

“ Here, let me fix that,” the woman offered, wrapping the quilt around May toga style and brusquely tucking it in over her breasts.

Although with each step the blanket fell open to her bare legs, May wrapped her arms across each of their shoulders and they helped her walk up the stoop and into the house.

As she stepped inside, the scent of Aunt Bess’s house wafted into May’s head–old wood cleaned with Lestoil. They led her over to an overstuffed red sofa, looking much like the one Aunt Bess had, only this one was not covered in plastic.

She collapsed onto the sofa and both Durst and the woman wrapped her like a cocoon in the blanket. Durst left the room and May could hear him stripping a bed. He returned with another blanket.

“ May, this is Beverly Boyes. She works for the San Francisco Police Department and will be here with us for the next couple of days. One of her many credentials is that she’s been trained as a nurse. You don’t need to worry about anything now. We’ll both take very good care of you during your stay.”

“ What you are feeling right now is the response to shock,” Beverly’s soothing voice crooned. “Your body is throwing you out of control and you will feel cold here for a few minutes; that’s why we have the extra blankets on you. As soon as your body starts to relax again, you can take a nice warm shower and we have a cozy robe for you to curl up in. Tonight, you must just relax. I’m sure after a warm shower your body is going to be so exhausted that you may want something to eat, but definitely will have to sleep.”

Durst stroked her blanket-wrapped shoulder. “We’re not going to have any more action here tonight. In the morning, however, there will be people here to question you. You must cooperate with them because we want to prove to them that you are capable and worthy of being put into a witness protection program where you’ll be safe.”

“ Protection from who?” The words came out in spurts as May’s body convulsed uncontrollably.

Bev and Durst shared a quizzical glance. “We are part of a task force that has been watching you and Aldo and the entire Arcadia Group very closely for the past couple of years. We will go to great extremes and we will keep you alive. We will also keep the story alive that you are not…that you are dead.”