Eighty trunks, filled with Nikola Tesla’s experiments and notes, disappeared when the famous inventor died during the New York winter of 1943. His assistant, BOSKO CVITO disappeared too, quietly re-located to Salt Lake City by the FBI. A few years later JACK HAMMER returned home from World War II, establishing himself among the Mormons as a finder of lost dogs and errant husbands—a self-confessed bad business plan that annoys his waitress girlfriend, SADIE, and requires him to hold down a part-time job guarding mannequins at a local department store.
Their lives tragically intersect when Jack is hired by YASA CVITO, an immigrant seeking her missing uncle, Bosko, who has now vanished a second time. Jack’s first day on the job turns up Yasa dead in her bathtub, a stranger in her house, and bullets fired at him from the cellar.
The FBI and local police pressure Jack to abandon the case, and with his client dead, Jack backs off until he receives a threatening message: Bring me CVITO DEVICE, or lady will end up like Yasa. Saturday, No police! Events quickly convince him that Sadie is the lady, and that he can’t sidestep the letter’s demands and still keep her safe. But what is a Cvito device? Where could he find it, and what should he do with it if he ever does find it? Bosko is his only lead.
Copyright 2021 Steven R. Burt All Rights Reserved
HINT OF COPPER is a work of fiction.
Mormon Detective 