Bad Boy

It begins on a rainy Monday morning. Detective Sergeant Beverly Trotwood is on her way to work at the Cop Shop when a shiny pickup truck begins to play bumper tag with her Jeep Cherokee. The driver is wearing an over-the-head Bill Clinton mask. The explosion comes next. Residents at the marina where Bev lives are startled when a bomb goes off in the galley oven of a sailboat. The owners are out on the dock at the time, but what happens to their sleeping cat is far from pretty. Soon, anonymous letters arrive in Bev’s in a basket at the office. Printed in black marker pen and “signed” with a Bad Boy sticker, each is a list of names. Unpleasant things happen to the people on the lists. A loan shark is beaten within an inch of his life; a trigger-happy cop is found dead in the New River. Bev investigates the Bad Boy case. Her sidekick, Ivory Jones, helps; so does Radar Thompson in forensics. For aggravation, they’re dealt Wally Finster, a big ex-marine with a potbelly and a crush on Bev. Bev and Ivory go on stakeout in the ’burbs; there is a rousing rodeo, and the Bad Boy is captured. And Bev still hasn’t decided whether or not to marry Art Ardsbarger.