Dead on the Money:
Venita Louise takes us back to the thirties for “
Dead on the Money.”
Detective
Tom Trask gets an early morning phone call and immediately heads out the door through a rain soaked street toward the local library. When he arrives at the front steps of the place he finds a cluster of people holding umbrellas surrounding and covering a dead body.
Tom Trask asks his questions and takes some notes.
Curious citizens, officers and reporters clutter up the scene. The primary witness is a five foot three female and she carries a paisley umbrella, has liquid cobalt eyes and dark lashes. The witness is the librarian in charge of children’s literature. Trask likes what he sees as he follows the petite lady out of the rain and into the library for questioning. The answer to his first question regarding her name brings a smile to the detectives face. He has a hobby of reducing names to first initials, and in this case, Hortense Olivia Tully works out to be H.O.T.
Following a few routine questions of interest the detective returns to his
investigation and determines that the dead man on the library steps is Doctor John Matlan. Further inquiry reveals that the deceased doctor has an attractive, if indifferent, young wife. A possible suspect?
Tom Trask is smitten by H.O.T Olivia Tully and he manages to find a reason to return to the library as he probes further into the death of Dr. Matlan.
The story unfolds through a series of misadventures, mistakes and nights of dancing at the Palladium and lesser venues. Everything points toward a routine caper spiced with 1930’s jargon and a cast of characters showing both innocence and ignorance all coupled with the odd personalities of Aunt Floretta and Uncle Charlie.
Suddenly someone is stalking Olivia, but no one knows if it’s tied to her discovery of the dead doctor on something of a more sinister nature.
But before the plot thickens further H.O.T Olivia Tully accepts Tom Task’s advances and answers his proposition with a resounding yes. Then in a flurry of events Uncle Charlie and Aunt Floretta get married and are off to Half-Moon Bay on their honeymoon.
An affable dancehall entertainer named George Sloan seems to slither between good guy and bad guy status until Olivia pegs him as a heavy and believes he’s following Uncle Charlie and Aunt Floretta to Half-Moon Bay. Olivia tells Tom Trask of her suspicions and Tom is off like a shot following George Sloan, following Uncle Charlie and Aunt Floretta.
But I won’t attempt to lead you through all the twists and turns of this opus although I will say that the name George Sloan crops up too frequently to be ignored. And for good reason, it seems that there are two sets of look a likes in this yarn. George Sloan is a part of one set and Olivia Tully one half of the other. Not exactly the doppelganger verity but close enough to give one pause.
Better pick up a copy of “Dead on the Money” and have some laughs in the bargain as you follow this wacky investigation from start to finish.
Tom Barnes Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
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The Goring Collection and
Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non
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