SERVED COLD

 

 

SERVED COLD

by James L'Etoile

July 15 - August 9, 2024 Virtual Book Tour

 

Synopsis:

Detective Nathan Parker

When a cargo trailer packed with dead undocumented migrants is found abandoned at a freeway rest stop, Detective Nathan Parker soon discovers the dead wore identical clothing, were the same age, and weren’t destined for the fields. Parker uncovers a diabolical connection between the migrants and a high-tech computer firm handling sensitive government information—information that could jeopardize the lives of thousands if it got into the wrong hands. Hands like the gang assassin who killed Parker’s partner, who surfaces drawing them together for a final showdown.

Parker promised his partner revenge as he bled out in Parker’s arms—revenge is a dish best served cold.

Book Details:

Genre: Thriller, Procedural
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: July 16, 2024
Number of Pages: 320
Series: Detective Nathan Parker Novels, Book 3 | Each is a stand-alone novel
Book Links: Amazon | Goodreads

Enjoy an Excerpt:

Chapter 1

State Trooper Chris Yarrow took his patrol assignment on the graveyard shift on Interstate 10 as a kick to the crotch. The desolate stretch of asphalt from Quartzite to Tonopah was as straight as a preacher's spine and as exciting as a Sunday sermon.

Six months. He was given six months on this worthless chunk of highway as punishment. His sergeant warned if he didn’t adjust his attitude and become a team player, Yarrow would be on the outside looking in. Halfway through a shift cruising down the empty westbound lanes of I-10 Yarrow hadn’t pulled over a single speeding motorist. Not because he didn’t want to. There was no one out on this God-forsaken patch of asphalt. Not so much as a headlight in the distance.

He backed off the accelerator at the exit for the Devil’s Well rest stop. Yarrow cruised through the freeway rest stop to ensure the truckers who pulled off for the night didn’t have paid female company from Buckeye. Last week Yarrow turned a van full of young women away as they drove up, much to the disappointment of the lonely truck drivers.

Four eighteen-wheelers parked in diagonal slots. Yarrow’s eye went to a cargo container strapped on a flatbed trailer. The tractor and driver were nowhere to be found.

Yarrow stopped behind the trailer and shown his spotlight on the boxy cargo container. No company markings or brand names adorned the side. The trooper pulled his computer console over preparing to run the trailer’s plates. His light found the empty place where the registration should have been.

Yarrow stepped from his SUV and approached the trailer mounted cargo box, casting his flashlight under and around the steel frame.

“If it ain’t officer buzzkill,” a voice sounded from a truck window to the left.

Yarrow swung his light to the truck cab and recognized the driver as one of the frustrated truckers after the ladies of the night were turned away. His faded and frayed Dodger’s ball cap, more grey than blue, was tucked on his head over a ring of red curls.

“You happen to see who left this trailer?”

“It was here when I pulled in,” he checked his watch, “about four hours ago.”

Yarrow strode to the front of the container, shone his flashlight at the end of the brown steel container. “Something leaking.”

The trucker stepped from his cab hitched his pants up and joined Yarrow.

“Looks like the A/C unit bit the big one.”

Yarrow avoided stepping in the puddle of refrigerant. “I’m gonna have to call the DOT crew out and get this cleaned up before it runs off in the desert.”

“God forbid a coyote gets an upset tummy. Tree huggers like them woke DOT weenies is what makes everything we do more expensive.”

“Why would a driver take the plates and leave his load,” Yarrow asked.

The driver shrugged. “If he saw his A/C was busted, he knew his load got spoiled in this heat. If he’s not a company driver, he could drop and run. Especially if he already got paid for the trip.”

Yarrow circled around the trailer to the rear. The heavy steel hasp was secured with a heavy gauge padlock and a foil seal on the door.

“A customs inspection sticker,” the driver said, pointing at the foil.

“This came over the border? All this way and the driver just drops it?”

The trucker leaned in, an ear close to the container. “Hear that?”

“What?”

“Listen.”

Yarrow leaned closer to the container. “I don’t hear anything.”

Another voice from behind startled Yarrow. “What ya got going on, Buck?”

Buck, the driver in his Dodger’s hat, glanced at the other trucker, “Might be an abandoned load.”

“Saw a guy in a white Kenworth tractor with no trailer burning outta here about five o’clock. Coulda been running into Phoenix to get a mechanic for his A/C.”

“Phoenix? We’re in the westbound lanes.”

“Like I said, the guy was in a hurry, he crossed the center median and headed back east, toward Phoenix.”

“I think he’s hauling bees,” Buck said, straightening his ball cap. “I don’t like bees. I keep me an epi-pen in my glove box.”

The other driver drew close and put an ear against the metal cargo box. “I hear them. I heard about bee rustlers stealing hives. Think deputy Do-Right here broke the case?”

“Would you guys back away. Quit touching the lock, Buck.”

Buck turned the lock loose and put his hands up in surrender.

“It might be evidence.”

“How you gonna know unless you look inside,” Buck said.

Yarrow pondered his options. If he called it in to his supervisor and it turned out to be dead grandma’s patio furniture from Sun City, Yarrow was done. The thin foil customs seal hinted at something more. Smuggled drugs maybe. If Yarrow could break a major drug trafficking case he’d earn his way out of this nighttime purgatory of an assignment.

Sensing Yarrow’s leaning, Buck said, “I got a pair of cutters in my truck.”

Buck trotted over to his rig and opened a tool box and withdrew a pair of heavy bolt cutters with two-foot-long handles.

Yarrow held them, surprised at the weight and forced the lock off the cargo door. He handed the bolt cutters back to Buck. When Yarrow slid the bolt a metallic clang echoed from within.

“You don’t mind, I’ma gonna take a step back. I don’t need no bee stings.”

The buzzing sound increased and Yarrow began to second guess his decision to open the container. He pulled the heavy door aside and a swarm of insects flew from the crack.

Buck screamed and waved his arms against the winged attackers. “I need my epi-pen!”

Yarrow ducked behind the door as the insects flew from their prison. When they lessened, he leaned around and clicked his flashlight inside. He dropped the light on the blacktop and staggered back. The smell was overpowering.

No stolen beehives and no cache of smuggled heroin or fentanyl were waiting for Yarrow. Inside the darkened cargo container, dozens of dead men lay in a heap on the steel floor.

***

Excerpt from Served Cold by James L'Etoile. Copyright 2024 by James L'Etoile. Reproduced with permission from James L'Etoile. All rights reserved.

 

 

About the Author:

James L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence in his award-winning novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is a former associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, and director of California’s state parole system. His novels have been shortlisted or awarded the Lefty, Anthony, Silver Falchion, and the Public Safety Writers Award. Face of Greed is his most recent novel and up for an Anthony Award for Best Novel. Served Cold is part of the Lefty and Anthony nominated Nathan Parker series. Look for River of Lies, coming in 2025.

 

Q&A With the Author:

Who is your favorite author and why?

This is a tough question to answer because I have so many favorites. That’s one of the benefits of being part of the crime fiction community, you get to meet so many fantastic authors and they turn out to be great people, too. For me, I suppose some of my favorites are Karin Slaughter, the Queen of Darkness, who is so good about creating these incredibly flawed characters and having them come alive on the page. Elmore Leonard was a master at dialogue, using only what was needed to get his point across. Megan Abbott and Laura Lippman put ordinary people into a chilling setting and have them do extraordinary things. I think I’ve learned a great deal from these icons and only hope some of their extraordinary talent has rubbed off.

What is something unique/quirky about you?

I guess one unique thing about me is that in spite of working in California’s most dangerous prisons for twenty-nine years, I don’t write dark, noir prison stories. That background is certainly helpful and the stories I write are much less dark than the real life I experienced. It could be that I’ve had enough of that world, having lived it and I want to spend my time writing something a little different. The characters I create are influenced by the people I encountered on both sides of the bars. But in my fictional world, justice always comes for the evil doers—something that doesn't always happen in real life. I guess that’s kind of a quirky view through my lens.

What was your inspiration for writing this book?

Served Cold is the third book in the Detective Nathan Parker series, which began with Dead Drop. Served Cold was sparked by the news reports of over fifty migrants dying in the back of a tractor trailer during the 2022 record heat wave in Texas. My twist on that tragic story is to figure out why they were in the cargo container in the first place. It might not be for the reasons you'd think.

Dead Drop kicked off this series and I knew there was more to explore, not only in the character's story, but with the complex issue of immigration. I didn't plan it coincide with the furor and national debate over immigration policy, but it highlights there is no easy solution. Wherever you land on the issue, lives are at risk--that's a story worth talking about.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I enjoy working with the characters I’ve created in this series. Detective Nathan Parker is the central character, but don’t tell Billie Carson that. She believes she’s the one this series is about. We know she has a past. Early in Dead Drop we learn Billie was a coyote, smuggling migrants over the border. She was one of the few who rescued them from the cartels who would force the undocumented to smuggle drugs over the border. Billie went into Witness Protection as she prepared to testify against the cartel. She’s been living off the radar, eking a living collecting scrap metal and anything she could recycle for a buck. In spite of her rough exterior, Parker recognizes she has a big heart. In Served Cold we learn a little more about Billie and her secret threatens to drive a wedge between her and Parker.

 

Do you have any other books you are working on that you can tell us about?

I do have a few projects in progress. In January 2025, River of Lies (the sequel to Face of Greed) will hit the shelves featuring Detective Emily Hunter. Emily is pulled into the investigation after Sacramento’s homeless camps are burned, leaving the occupants injured and displaced. She soon learns that even the homeless have something that someone wants. Something worth killing for.

Anything more you would like to say to your readers and fans?

Thank you, thank you to all my readers. Because of your support I’m happy to announce that Nathan Parker, Billie Carson and company will be back. The series has been picked up for another three books. That wouldn’t have happened without you. I hope you keep coming back and please let me know what you think of Nathan, or Emily’s stories.

You can find out more at:
www.jamesletoile.com
Goodreads
BookBub - @crimewriter
Instagram - @authorjamesletoile
Threads - @authorjamesletoile
Twitter/X - @JamesLEtoile
Facebook - @AuthorJamesLetoile

 

 

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