Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Classmate Murders: Jim Richards Murder Novels, #1
    Classmate Murders: Jim Richards Murder Novels, #1
    Classmate Murders: Jim Richards Murder Novels, #1
    Ebook207 pages2 hours

    Classmate Murders: Jim Richards Murder Novels, #1

    By Bob Moats

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Authors Note: This book was first written in 2009 and I had no real editor to go through it. But in the last five years this book has gone through a number of professional editors and various Beta readers. If you find any grammatical errors, please send what you find in an email to me at murdernovels@bobmoats.com rather than pointing them out in a review. I can correct them. This book was revised and re-edited by December 2014, and if you have a copy of the book prior to that, it won’t be revised or updated.

    The Story: Jim Richards, has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into the murders of women from his high school who he hasn't seen in forty years. A killer is now stalking and killing his old female classmates (while they are under police protection) for unknown reasons and Jim, along with his only friend Buck, a big, mustachioed biker, are trying to stop the killer before he gets to one woman Jim has rekindled a high school crush with and before the class of '67 has lost any more of it's female alumni.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBob Moats
    Release dateNov 8, 2013
    ISBN9781497771260
    Classmate Murders: Jim Richards Murder Novels, #1
    Author

    Bob Moats

    Detroit area resident, Bob Moats, has been writing short stories and plays for as long as he can remember. He has lost most of his original stories, typed or handwritten, in the numerous moves he has made from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan to Northern Michigan, to Las Vegas and back to Fraser, where he now lives. Moats became one of the causalities of unemployment a year ago, and had time on his hands to finally pursue a life long dream of writing a full blown crime novel. Thus was born the first book, "Classmate Murders".What followed was a series of seven books starting with "The Classmate Murders" which introduces the main character, Jim Richards, who has to admit he has become a senior citizen, reluctantly. Richards, one day, receives an email from a childhood sweetheart asking for his help, but by the time he reaches her, she has been murdered. His life turns around and he is pulled into numerous murders of women from his high school who he hasn't seen in forty years. Along with a friend of his, Buck, a big, mustached biker, they go off to track down the killer before he can get to one former classmate, Penny Wickens, a TV talk show host who Jim has just fallen for while protecting her. The killer is also murdering the women right out from under police protection, driving homicide detective Will Trapper crazy, and he slowly depends on Jim to help. There's humor, suspense, wild chases across suburban Detroit with cops, classic cars and motorcycle clubs; murder, mayhem, a good amount of romance and a twist ending.Jim and his crime fighters, continue in the other books, traveling to Las Vegas twice, back to Detroit and out to New York to solve murders involving dominatrix; mistresses; Bridezillas; magic and strip clubs.Book titles: Classmate Murders; Vegas Showgirl Murders; Dominatrix Murders; Mistress Murders; Bridezilla Murders; Magic Murders; Strip Club Murders and Made-for-TV Murders.

    Read more from Bob Moats

    Related authors

    Related to Classmate Murders

    Titles in the series (42)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Suspense For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Salvaged & Renewed

      Jan 4, 2022

      Salvaged & Renewed
      1 min read

    • Article

      Lauren + Chris

      Dec 23, 2019

      Lauren + Chris
      1 min read

    • Article

      After the Storm

      Nov 25, 2023

      After the Storm
      6 min read

    • Article

      Man In The Middle

      Jan 22, 2019

      Man In The Middle
      11 min read

    • Article

      London’s Frost Fairs

      Nov 6, 2020

      London’s Frost Fairs
      2 min read

    • Article

      Following His Nose

      Feb 21, 2023

      Following His Nose
      3 min read

    • Article

      Asleep At The Gap

      May 7, 2019

      Asleep At The Gap
      16 min read

    • Article

      Happy Trails

      Jun 8, 2021

      LARRY MCMURTRY often said he was surprised by the passionate response to Lonesome Dove — both his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 novel, and the epic 1989 miniseries adaptation starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. Indeed, during a 2006 interview w

      3 min read

    • Article

      Sweeping Sorrow

      Mar 29, 2022

      Sweeping Sorrow
      15 min read

    • Article

      Take a Writer Like Him: My Complicated Love Affair with Kingsley Amis

      Aug 24, 2018

      1. As much as I may rack my brain, there are 15 minutes or so in the dark that I can’t account for and that I’ll never get back—15 minutes during which, I have to think, that creep’s hands were touching my body. It’s a weird thing to think about all

      12 min read

    • Article

      Boree Creek Hotel

      Feb 16, 2022

      Boree Creek Hotel
      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Mar 1, 2019

      It’s 1 AM on the east coast and midnight in Iowawhen the Russian lawyer with a house in Newarkand an office in the city sends me an e-mail:“Your writing is so emotional yet so detached.It’s wonderful.” I respond without delay:“Dear Oleg, I don’t know

      3 min read

    • Article

      Roz Watkins

      Jul 6, 2023

      My latest book is The Red House. It’s mainly written from the point of view of a young woman, Eve, who survived (and witnessed) a family annihilation when she was just five years old. She saw her fifteen-year-old brother, who she adored, murder her m

      5 min read

    • Article

      Year in Reading: Hannah Gersen

      Dec 12, 2020

      There was a moment when I was convinced that I was going to spend the rest of 2020 reading Ripley novels. The post Year in Reading: Hannah Gersen appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Classmate Murders

    3.5/5

    22 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      The Classmate Murders is a fun and clever mystery. The story is written mostly in narration style, which works perfectly with this main character. You can almost hear the character’s voice as he tells the story and adds his own brand of humor. Jim Richards is a regular guy, who is mature, divorced, and living with his parents to help take care of his dad. When he finds his long-ago high school classmates are being murdered, he and his friends step in to try to find the killer and protect Penny, his new-found love. I have read many books with female civilians getting caught up in a murder mystery, but this time it is a man who noses his way into the action. The cops don’t like it – until he comes up with some interesting clues. I enjoyed the variety and personality differences in the characters. It is also fun to read about people closer to my age.It is a reminder to younger people that love can bloom at any age, but I thought the romantic antics started to get in the way of the mystery. Eventually it got back on track and came through with a satisfying wrap up to the case. I especially enjoyed the last part of the book that sets the stage for the following books.This is an enjoyable and distinctive kind of mystery.
    • 5/5
      This was a great murder mystery - I will be adding Bob Moats as new mystery author to my collection!
    • 4/5
      The Classmate Murders is a fun and clever mystery. The story is written mostly in narration style, which works perfectly with this main character. You can almost hear the character’s voice as he tells the story and adds his own brand of humor. Jim Richards is a regular guy, who is mature, divorced, and living with his parents to help take care of his dad. When he finds his long-ago high school classmates are being murdered, he and his friends step in to try to find the killer and protect Penny, his new-found love. I have read many books with female civilians getting caught up in a murder mystery, but this time it is a man who noses his way into the action. The cops don’t like it – until he comes up with some interesting clues. I enjoyed the variety and personality differences in the characters. It is also fun to read about people closer to my age.It is a reminder to younger people that love can bloom at any age, but I thought the romantic antics started to get in the way of the mystery. Eventually it got back on track and came through with a satisfying wrap up to the case. I especially enjoyed the last part of the book that sets the stage for the following books.This is an enjoyable and distinctive kind of mystery.
    • 5/5
      Book Title: The Classmate MurdersAuthor: Bob MoatsPublisher: Magic1 ProductionASIN: B002D48NBOReviewed by Michele Tater for The Coach Tater ReviewMiddle age is when your old classmates are so gray and wrinkled and bald they don't recognize you. ~Bennett CerfJim Richards a sixty year old who lives with his parents and recently has lost his job as a security guard for a car dealership. He is an avid reader of reading and watching anything related to mystery; books, movies and television series. The book “The Classmate Murders” follows this older in body than mind, gentleman who leads a simple and somewhat boring life until he receives a disturbing e-mail from a high school classmate. She was actually an ex-girlfriend of his who was now afraid that someone wanted to take her life. Unfortunately, he receives that message too late and she is found dead with the message that there will be more murders to come. With his good friend Buck, Jim decides to use his learned investigation skills, no matter how limited, to try to solve the mystery before others are found dead. With team works so well together that the police seem to be one step behind them. Jim becomes an important part of the case, even with small matter he knows a little too much about the woman involved. He comes the conclusion that the women being threatened are cheerleaders from his high school. Who would want these women dead after forty years later and why.I must admit I didn't think that a story about a senior citizen wanna-be private investigator was going to be so entertaining, but was I wrong. This book proves that even an old dog can have a sharp mind to look at details and figure out leads to solve a difficult case. With its humor, and friendly banter between characters and with some steamy sexy scenes, this book packs a lot between its covers. Adults of any age would find the characters likable, the plot integrating, and will find it a great mystery. I liken it to a cup of tea brewed, not too hot and not too cold, sweet with a little honey with no need for the cream.

    Book preview

    Classmate Murders - Bob Moats

    Extra special thanks to:

    To all the editors who under took the task of going through the most recent copy of this book and giving it the revisions and edits it has been needing. Hopefully now it is better.

    TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO read the first couple versions of this book and enjoyed it enough to overlook the mistakes in grammar. To all the great people who read this book and sent comments to me about it.

    THANK YOU TO ALL THE people who purchased this book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it for my faithful readers.

    The Jim Richards Family of Readers is listed in the back of the book.

    Authors Note: This book was first written in 2009 and I had no real editor to go through it. But in the last five years this book has gone through a number of professional editors and various Beta readers. If you find any grammatical errors, please send what you find in an email to me at murdernovels@bobmoats.com rather than pointing them out in a review. I can correct them. This book was revised and re-edited by December 2014, and if you have a copy of the book prior to that, it won’t be quite as good.

    The Classmate Murders

    by Bob Moats

    Chapter One

    THE WOMAN HUNG HER towel on a hook in the wall in preparation of the welcoming shower. She reached in the stall and turned on the water, playing with it until it felt just right. She entered and pulled the curtain back in place. She was lathering up and washed her body, so she never heard the man slip through the open window as she hummed and rinsed the lavender-scented shampoo from her hair. The apartment was on the fifth floor, so there had never been any concern about leaving the window open. The heat from the day lingered into the night, and the breeze from the window brought a little comfort. Unfortunately, it also brought an unwelcomed intruder.

    The man moved stealthily to the wall on the side of the shower and waited. The water shut off and a hand reached out for the towel, the man watched it vanish into the stall. The woman finished drying and stepped out onto the bathmat.

    The figure came up behind her and put his hand over her mouth, then wrapped his other arm around her neck in a choke hold. He tightened up and held her until she lost her last breath. She slumped and the man set her carefully on the floor checking to be sure she was dead. He went to the door and listened. The voices from the other side were laughing and joking. They had no idea of what just happened. The man quietly went back out the window and disappeared up the side of the building.

    TURNING 40 AND THEN 50 years old didn't really bother me, but turning 60 was something I just couldn't accept. I ignored it the day it happened, or tried my best to do so despite my family and friend's attempts to make sure I didn't forget. Damn them.

    I was now one month past 60, and it still bothered me. The only good thing about it, I was one year and eleven months closer to social security.

    I grumbled around my tiny room tapping the keyboard on my computer, bringing it out of sleep mode, and wishing I had something better to do with my life.

    I had recently quit my job due to the stupidity of my former employers. I had spent the last two years as a security guard, driving my car around a large, suburban Detroit Cadillac dealership on the overnight shift from 7 P.M. until 6 A.M. Basically, I guarded car tires because addicts and those hard up for money could sell them on the street for quick cash. They would steal them right off the cars. I was a good little trooper and managed to stop two theft attempts, being told by my employer that I would get a whole twenty dollars as a reward, which I never did receive. Not the first lie they told.

    My computer finally winked to life and I hooked the laptop to the internet dial-up connection. I checked my email, which usually consisted of spam, a number of forwarded jokes or chain letters, and dirty pictures from Buck, a former co-worker and the only close friend I had. I would delete the spam and the chain letters, then read the jokes, and admire the nubile, naked bodies of the women in the pictures from Buck, reminding me that the last time I had sex was about 12 years ago. The encounter was fading from my memory banks, now a wistful image that I could no longer enjoy.

    Buck was another guard that I worked with, and he was not a person that thieves would want to have facing them down. Buck was a big, mustachioed biker who carried a nickel-plated .38 in his belt. We weren’t supposed to carry, but he'd rather be caught with it than without. Me, I just refused to get out of my car if confronted by criminals. So, I'm a coward. Eight dollars an hour wasn't worth getting beat up for.

    He may have looked intimidating, but Buck was a big teddy bear with a soft spot for others. He cared, a rare commodity in people nowadays. Buck was the best friend I had other than my computer.

    I looked up at the wall clock. It was about 7:45 in the evening, and all was quiet in the house. My parents were in bed as usual, since they tucked in by 6:30 each night. My dad was a stroke victim and my mom was his caregiver. I helped Mom with things she couldn't handle like getting my dad into bed, doing the shopping and odd jobs around the house. It was an arrangement that suited my mom and she wanted me in the house to help her. I didn’t have much privacy and wanted my own place, but I knew mom needed me more here. So I stayed, putting up with the stupid comments about a grown man living with his parents. The next time I looked at the clock, the hands had reached 8:00 P.M., and I checked my email.

    Tonight, my email contained the usual crap along with Buck's stuff, but one letter caught my eye. The sender was DWittenfield@gomail.com and the subject said in big letters: JAMES, PLEASE HELP! I knew a Dee Wittenfield through elementary and high school, and she always called me James. Actually, I had a huge crush on Dee, and we even went steady for about a month before the school district broke into smaller divisions and she was sent to a different school. I went to the download on my mail program and recovered the letter. It read:

    "James, I know it’s been years since we've seen each other, but I talked to Joyce Harper and she said she heard you were working for a detective agency. I got your email address off the alumni website, and I don't know who to turn to, but I'm afraid for my life. I can't call the police, and I thought you might help me. If you could call me, I'm at 555-3682. I can't even go out of my apartment. Please call, Dee."

    I printed out the letter and read it again.

    I pulled my trusty Palm Treo cell phone out of my pocket and dialed the number. It rang about four times, then a male voice answered.

    Hello?

    May I speak with Dee, please?

    Who's calling?

    I'm a friend of hers from high school. Can I talk to her please?

    I'm afraid she can't come to the phone. He paused. She was murdered earlier today.

    Hearing those words sent a shuddering chill through my body.

    The voice on the phone asked, Who are you again?

    I didn't know what to say. I'm a friend from high school, I blurted out.

    You said that already, but who are you? he demanded.

    Well, who's asking? I demanded back.

    Detective Sergeant Will Trapper, Clinton Township Police. Now, you wanna answer my question?

    Oh. My mind was blank. Uh, my name is Jim Richards. I knew Dee from high school.

    Yeah, I got that much already. When was the last time you saw Miss Wittenfield?

    I guess it's been over 45 years. My brain tried to do the math, but I just rounded it off.

    You called now, after 45 years? Why?

    She sent me an email today to call her.

    There was a silence for a beat, then he asked, What did the email say?

    I read it to him from the printout. He was silent again.

    That's all she said?

    I assured him that was it. What happened to her, may I ask?

    We're investigating, that's all I can say right now. Wittenfield said in her email that you were with a detective agency. Who do you work for?

    Oh, it's actually a security company. I was a guard. They had a contract with Dooley Cadillac on Eight Mile, and I worked there 4 nights a week watching the cars. I'm not working for them at the moment. I quit.

    Why'd you quit?

    Long story, be happy to tell you about it sometime, unless you got about 20 minutes now to hear me rant about my former employers. He let it go.

    He asked how I could be reached, I told him and he said I'd probably be called in to answer some more questions. I don't know what more I could have told him, other than Dee and I went steady for about a month 40 years ago. I hoped that wasn't grounds for suspicion.

    I hung up the phone in a daze. A girl I had a super crush on years ago had been murdered, and she wanted me to help her. I sat there for a long while, my mind just numb.

    I knew Buck was working the midnight shift tonight at the dealership, so I called him. He and I spoke to each other just about every night on the phone, but since I quit working there our calls only happened when he was working. I didn't want to bother him at home.

    Hey, Jimmy, wass up? His voice was smooth with a touch of southern in it. I never did ask him about that.

    Well, I've got a mystery on my hands.

    Talk to me, man, I'm intrigued. I could hear his smile through the phone.

    I told him about the email and the phone call. I read the letter to him, and he was quiet for a bit.

    Wow, a murder mystery. When you gonna start investigating? The smile came again.

    Buck, she was a long ago love in my life, and now her life is gone. I'm at a loss as to how to feel or what I should do about it.

    Well, she thought you could help her, maybe you should. Buck has this outlook on life to seize the day and damn the torpedoes.

    I loved good crime/mystery stories, and I own over a hundred e-books that I read on my Palm TX PDA when I had some free time. I read just about every Alex Cross book by James Patterson, and I was up to my 20th in Death book by Nora Roberts writing as J. D. Robb about the futuristic police detective, Eve Dallas. My other crime heroes were Spenser, Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone in separate books by Robert B. Parker, and lately Travis McGee by John D. MacDonald. The thought of being a P.I. intrigued me.

    Ok, so where do we start? I posed the question.

    Whoa, you offering me a job as junior detective? he kidded.

    I ignored him and studied the email printout.

    You know, she mentions a mutual friend, Joyce Harper, in her email. Maybe she would know what Dee was afraid of, I commented.

    Buck was excited. When do we start, Kemosabe?

    I'm not the Lone Ranger, Buck. I'd rather be Spenser. Buck had no idea who I was talking about. Remember 'Spenser for Hire,' 80's TV show with the late Robert Urich?

    Oh yeah, and the Hawk was his sidekick, one big mean mother fricker. Spen-sahh.

    Yeah, that one. I had to relate Hawk with Buck, now my sidekick in crime solving. I smiled at the Spen-sahh reference which was the name Hawk often had called Spenser on the show.

    Ok, so how do you find this Harper woman? Buck queried.

    Well, for the last 5 years I have been doing the website for my high school alumni club, and I’ve seen her name on the alumni board. I could go there, get her email address, and contact her that way. Or do a Google search for her. Either way, this town is small enough I can locate her.

    So, go look her up and talk to her, man. Caught up in the flow, his excitement came through the phone.

    I'll see what I can do tomorrow to locate her. But tonight, I have to get through the fact I lost an old girlfriend, and not to old age.

    Hey, buddy, I understand. I've lost a few friends over the years, he said quietly. Buck was a biker, and I knew he lost some friends he knew due to careless and often, drunk drivers on the roads. People in cars don't watch out for those smaller vehicles on two wheels.

    Yeah, I know. Well, I'll call you tomorrow night and let you know what happens.

    Well, good night, buddy. You need me, just call! Don't get yourself murdered. He grinned through the phone.

    Not about to. Take care.

    I hung up and sat back in my rickety desk chair. It made its annoying squeal that I often worried would wake my parents. I probably could oil the damn thing, but that would have meant doing physical labor. I wasn't up to it anymore.

    I went to my computer's keyboard, brought up Google, and typed in Dee Wittenfield. It came up with a little less than a million hits, which was a bit of a lie since Google looks for every instance of the name Dee and every instance of Wittenfield. That can cover every Dee online, from Dee Wallace-Stone to Dee Dee Myers. My Dee Wittenfield was not to be found even after I searched through about ten pages. I knew then she wasn't a person to be found on the web. I tried Joyce Harper, and she came up on the first page with her real estate agency. I added the address and phone number to my cell phone and put my computers back to sleep for the night. I wasn't in any mood now to be looking for more free software to download and pack into my already bloated computer.

    I turned off the desk lamp and was left with all the tiny LED lights from numerous computer accessories that made my room look like the starry night sky. I sat still in my aging chair and just took in the lights.

    My mind wandered back to a day on the school bus when I passed Dee a note asking if she wanted to go steady with me. I watched her reading the note, and she looked up and smiled, nodding a yes to my note. I was in heaven, but fate took us apart when she was bussed off to a new school in the district just a few weeks later. We lost touch, and then when we all joined back into the big high school, I was afraid to approach her, so I lost her again though she was still close by. She

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1