Devil's Workshop: The Ultimate True Crime Tale

Section 7: THE BIG ROTTEN APPLE DOES NOT FALL FAR FROM THE TREE

SECTION 7: THE BIG ROTTEN APPLE DOES NOT FALL FAR FROM THE TREE

CHAPTER 35

  Amy was ushered into the office where Hargman was. They shook hands and sat down. "Your secretary mentioned something about finding one of your authors whose gone missing."

  "Yes. I don't know how you feel about me telling you this, but the author is none other than Alan Kohall himself."

  Marter's eyes raised with suspicious curiosity. "Alan Kohall?! The world's most popular true crime author?!"

  "I know it sounds all strange, but we need him."

  "Sure, he's your cash cow!"

   "I guess you could say that. But no one has seen or heard from him over the past few days. He hasn't replied to any of our calls or texts or emails. And when the police went to his houses, he wasn't in any of them. Nor had any of his neighbors seen him there lately."

  "How many houses does he own?"

  "About 10, at least the ones that we know of."

  "If he can afford 10 houses, then he can afford to have more than surely from outselling Ann Rule of all people."

  "But it's much more urgent than that. He was working on his new book when he vanished. Kelly, his editor, is worried about him, and so are all of us. Since he writes about truly horrific things, he's received death threats and threats of legal action from lots of people, whether it be those whom he has cast suspicion on, or victims or victims' families themselves who've claimed that he has exploited their trauma."

  "And they have good reason to, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and everyone deserves their privacy."

  "Regardless of how you personally feel about Alan, we need him, and we're worried."

"Worried about what? That he's in danger, or that you're in danger of losing your gold mine?"

  "Both, of course."

  Amy thought for a moment. "I'll take the case."

  Hargman smiled. "Good."

  "Would you have any idea who might want to do harm to Kohall?"

  "Lots of people. In fact, he was in the middle of one or two lawsuits at the time he disappeared. One of those people he was involved was Jon Bo-Low, the former owner of this publishing house. Alan wrote a book about."

  "Well then, I guess we have our first lead."

  "Yes, well, if Bo-Low is behind this, perhaps you can start by reading Alan's book With a Friend Like This. Bo-Low was really pissed off at the book coming out. I suggest you read it. There might be a clue there."

  Amy and Hargman shook hands. Amy walked out of the office. She took out her recorder and began another episode.

  "So the publishing head of Crime's Pay Publishing has asked me to help find Alan Kohall who has gone missing in the middle of a couple of lawsuits. Kohall has made a lot of enemies, one of which is a man named Jon Bo-Low, the former owner of Crime's Pay and one of the people Kohall locked horns with in court. Kohall apparently wrote a book about his relationship with his former pimp, so I will get a hold of that book and see what clues I can unearth about this Bo-Low guy.

  "But wait! What if this is all a hoax? What if there is no foul play involved? Perhaps this Kohall guy and his publisher have used their enemies as an opportunity to create a publicity stunt to sell more copies of Kohall's new book. Yes, that could be it, just a plain old publicity campaign to cash in on Kohall's notoriety. If that's what it is, then my job has become easier than I thought. Perhaps this is why I of all people was hired for this job. This is all a way to discredit me and my campaign against true crime. Yes, yes, that makes sense now. But what is the truth? Stay tuned as I chronicle what could be the one case in my private detective career that will make or break me.