Dry Heat
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Sergeant Kyle Murphy had just parked his car and was in an elevator heading up to the 22nd floor, where his new assignment was about to begin. A suicide had been reported earlier that morning and the Chief felt this was as good a starting point as any. He leisurely wiped the sweat off his forehead as he watched the numbers light up as the elevator ascended.
Kyle worked for the Phoenix Police Department in the Homicide division, but had been demoted a short time ago. After serving a suspension and working behind a desk for the last year it was great to get outdoors again. Kyle was happy that he had at last gotten a chance to go back to what he did best, detective work.
Part of his new assignment was also to work with a new partner. Kyle was supposed to inform him of the new assignment, but not only did he not like the guy Kyle also preferred to work alone. That was for sure going to piss off the Chief. He knew his cocky attitude could get him in trouble again. Kyle had been around long enough that the Chief would probably only give him a slap on the wrist this time.
As the elevator came to a stop, the doors opened and Kyle headed down the hall towards the yellow lines of police tape. It was Saturday, so no employees were around. It seemed that an early morning cleaning crew found the corpse and called 911. He walked towards the large office nodding acknowledgements to his peers. The office was a typical executive office loaded with all the bells and whistles. Kyle knew who Jack Kiltman was because he read the paper. He was by far the most successful developer in Arizona.
Kiltman was slumped over in his office chair with lifeless remains splattered all over the back office window. Why this man would take his own life, Kyle couldn’t understand. The pressures couldn’t have been that great.
As Kyle approached the body to have a look, he found Charlie Gaines, a police computer guru, hacking away at Jack Kiltman’s personal computer.
“Find anything interesting, Charlie?” Kyle asked smugly. He didn’t like Charlie very much and he also hated computers. The combination of the two was enough that he stayed away from Charlie as much as possible.
“Nothing that would seem very relevant to his death. This looks like it is just another poor, rich business man that had enough of the elaborate lifestyle and took his own life.” Charlie said smiling.
“Let’s show a little more respect for the dead, okay, Charlie!”
“Hey, I have plenty respect for the guy, until he goes and does something like this. Of course, now I have a chance to go out with his beautiful wife.”
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
The intense heat in the summer of 2002 finds Jack Kiltman, businessman, staring out of his high-rise window for the last time. A depression that has grown ever since Jack’s first shady business deal finally overwhelms him, devouring his life with a single gun shot.
Now, the same circumstances that helped to drive Jack to suicide have descended upon his favorite nephew, Shane Kiltman, in the form of an encrypted gold CD.
Shane Kiltman, a computer programmer, has recently left the dating scene and found what he feels is the love of his life. He blindly gets into a situation that he knows nothing about while trying to find answers about his Uncle’s suicide. Not knowing who is involved, Shane quickly learns that he is not dealing with ordinary people. He enlists the help of a private detective, Guy Whyte, who has a personal vendetta of his own. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Shane, a detective named Kyle Murphy is investigating his Uncle’s suicide as well. Kyle has just finished up a 12-month suspension, and is very eager to find out why such a successful businessman would want to take his own life.
When everything falls apart, and Shane discovers just who is behind the kidnapping and even the death of his uncle, there is nothing he can do.
Follow Shane’s adventures in DRY HEAT through a kidnapping, the discovery of the CD-Rom, and how he is able to outwit the bad guys for an ending that will be full of surprises.
About the Author
Sean M Lee was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1969, a place in which he makes reference to throughout his book. He began his adulthood in the 80’s, Rockin’-N-Rollin’ in a locally formed band called Sypres. As a result, Sean lived through the 80’s in a different view, enjoying every minute.
After the 80’s image died down, Sean decided to take on a ‘real’ job and pursue a field in computers for Bank of America (his parents quite relieved). This is also about the time a friend challenged Sean to work on a book as part of a bet. As Sean began his novice-writing career, he found a passion he didn’t realize he had.
While writing the novel on the side, his career kept him very busy and in Arizona. He received a B.S. degree in Computer Science from University of Phoenix in 2000. Sean decided this degree wasn’t enough and went on to achieve an MBA at Regis University in Colorado.
Sean is now a software consultant and hopes to move into a management position in the near future (unless of course his book takes off, then he can write full-time). He is living just outside of Phoenix in Chandler, Arizona and has 3 beautiful children Jacob, Alexis and Danielle.