SIN
by
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When Brick Jones told his girlfriend Gretchen Miller that it was over, he did not suspect that she would attempt suicide. Hell, he had told her she could stay at the apartment rent-free for as long as she wanted, he would stay at his house in Fort Washington, Maryland. He even promised that they would get together every once in a while. He could not fathom why a girl with everything to live for would take the Nestea plunge from the fourth floor of an apartment building just because he broke up with her. Of course, he knew she liked him, Christ, everybody did--that was his gift, his curse--but what she had done because of her "love" for him was...crazy. The whole idea of her being in love, supposedly, with a man who did not exist seemed incredible to him. The doctors had informed him that Gretchen had sustained severe injuries to her internal organs and a few broken bones as the result of the fall, but that she would recover physically. Her mental state was another matter entirely. Regardless, Brick would see to it that she got back on her feet and set her up in a new place afterwards. Aside from that, the two of them were definitely finished. He would tell her so, when the time was right. Looking at her now, lying in a hospital bed in the Intensive Care Unit, broken and sedated, Officer Jacob "Doc" Holloway knew he should feel something...guilt, sorrow, pity...something...but, he didn't. Frankly, he had not allowed himself to feel anything for Gretchen, ever...right from the start. Why should he? She was just a stripper and a hooker. Certainly no one to take home to mother. Officer Holloway could not, would not put a decent woman in danger so that his non-existent alter ego Rick "The Brick" Jones could love and be loved in return. Therefore, he avoided respectable women. For the duration of this mad masquerade, there could be no love for Jacob Holloway but that was okay. He could live without love but not without sex. Strippers and hookers not only fit the bill, but also lent authenticity to his alter ego. That was no excuse for his behavior, however. The plain, ugly truth, he admitted to himself, was that he did not care for her at all, that she had merely satisfied a physical need, nothing more. Shameful, yes...but he could not feel shame, either. Doc Holloway wondered when his feelings had run out on him. His emotions were intact when Delante and Devonte Williams were sent to early graves. He had certainly felt futility and hopelessness when he looked down at their bodies, one in the street, the other in a hospital bed. He had definitely felt compassion, anger, righteous indignation, and an overwhelming desire to be an agent of change in a world where children sell drugs and live and die by the gun; their deaths had compelled him to become involved with the federal government's Special Investigations Network. When had he become completely numb? Was it the instant Huckabuck Franks fell from the roof...or was it before? How long ago? Did it matter? If he was, in fact, responsible for Huckabuck Franks' death and for Gretchen's fall, he did not care. He wanted to, but he couldn't. Apparently, his partner Jack Tilden was right, at least partially. It seemed Doc did know how to turn off his emotions. The trouble was, he did not know how to turn them back on. Perhaps this was the price of deceiving people on a regular basis, the price of pretending to be something you are not, the price of performing this peculiar kind of police work. Perhaps losing touch with one's emotions was merely an occupational hazard...or maybe it was just what was called for to be a successful undercover operative. Perhaps Jack was right, Doc thought. I am some kind of monster. So be it. No matter what the price, he was going to take down drug lord Santos Tudor and his crew...even if it cost him his soul.
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About the Book
Prompted by the brutal gang-related murder of his aide, Senator Roger Grumwald pulls some strings, appropriates funding, and enlists the assistance of federal law enforcement agencies’ entire Special Investigations Network (SIN) to interrupt the street-level distribution of narcotics in Washington, D.C. This ambitious Metropolitan Police Department/multi-federal-law-enforcement-agency undercover operation is dubbed the Janus Project. Officers recruited for this extremely hazardous assignment are provided with new identities by the U.S. Marshals Service’s Witness Protection program. Even fingerprint records for these undercover operatives are altered to identify them as their alter egos. Officer Holloway is transformed into convicted felon Rick "The Brick" Jones. Doc Holloway believes the federal assistance will afford him the opportunity to make a difference, to improve the quality of life in our nation’s capital. He also thinks that the cloak- and-dagger aspect of the assignment, as well as the danger, will make for great fun. He is wrong.
About the Author
Quintin Peterson is the author of several plays and screenplays. He resides in Washington, D.C., and is a native Washingtonian. As a junior high school student, he attended the Corcoran School of Art on a scholarship. While still in high school, he was honored with the University of Wisconsin's Science Fiction Writing Award and the National Council of Teachers of English Writing Award. Upon receiving the Wisconsin Junior Academy's Writing Achievement Award, his name was included in Who's Who Among American High School Students of 1975. As an undergraduate communications major at the University of Wisconsin, he wrote and performed in two plays for stage and videotape and received a Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation grant for his play project CHANGE. A National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship and a play writing grant from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities followed. Subsequently, two of his radio plays were aired on WPFW-FM Pacifica Radio as productions of the Minority Arts Ensemble's Radio Drama Workshop '79. Mr. Peterson is an eighteen-year-veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department. He is currently assigned to its Office of Public Information. He has written and narrated numerous police training films and is a liaison between the department and members of the news media. He is also a contact for the motion picture and television industries, acting as a script consultant and as a technical advisor. SIN is his first novel.