Barker III Preview

Homeless sleuth Barker is a character shrouded in mystery.He doesn’t remember his past, he doesn’t even remember his first name. Most know him only as Barker, the man who runs with a pack of wild dogs in the Monterey Peninsula. Some also know him as an adventurer with a knack for figuring things out, a rugged, handsome creature as fierce as he is intelligent. Those with a mind for mayhem give Barker a wide berth.But there are others who wish to see the vagrant dead. One man in particular, known as Sleepy Redbone, also knows a thing or two about Barker’s cloudy past, and the role Barker played in sending him to Soledad Prison years ago.            Redbone intends to revenge himself upon the homeless man. From the fog-shrouded California coast to the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, he'll will do whatever it takes to see Barker turned to ash and make a few bucks while he’s at it. There are others, after all, who don’t mind paying for a little old-fashioned revenge.Beginning with “Monterey Noir” and then “Monterey Pulp,” Barker’s adventures continue in author Patrick Whitehurst’s first stand-alone entry in the Barker Mysteries, tentatively titled “Monterey Confidential.”
Read an advanced sneak peek below:
News of the missing teenagers spread to every newspaper in the Monterey Peninsula. It was also carried nationally, albeit in a smaller form. For the residents of Carmel it was big, frightening news. Three teens had vanished in the last week. Charly and Lynne were the latest to vanish from the face of the earth. The other was a girl named Marie. Everyone thought, simply enough, Marie had run away from home and expected her to turn up, begging dad for money, within the week. When Charly and Lynne went missing as well, two rebellious kids, but on good terms with their parents and not the type to vanish without a trace, people began to rethink Marie’s disappearance. Speculation spread like a brush fire across the Peninsula. Most agreed there was a serial kidnapper nestled in their neighborhood. All three missing teens were from roughly the same part of Carmel and had last been seen within blocks of each other.            Most homeless people don’t bother paying attention to stories of these kind. In fact, most tend to leave the area in which the incidents occur, as they are more often than not placed on a list of some kind, if not held for questioning. One man in particular, who bathed in the ocean on a regular basis, washed his clothes in the sea, and gathered most of his food from dumpsters or friendly contributions, paid special attention to the articles. His name was Barker.            He was rarely seen without his large blue parka with the fur-lined hood. Nor was he without his faithful traveling companions most of the time. Their names were Dangler, Destiny, Griz, Connor and Zero. The latter, being a Shih-Tzu, was the smallest. His ego gave even the biggest dog a run for his money. Dangler, a Rottweiller, was the largest among the dogs. He proffered food and naps over pretty much anything else. Destiny was a young Mastiff, who was only waiting for another growth spurt before he took his place as the biggest. Griz was the most restless of the bunch, often leaving for weeks on end to do his own thing. Being part Coyote and part Collie, he had an affinity for exploring.  Connor, the border collie, served as the tracker of the group. She could sniff out a cheeseburger from a mile away.            Barker lived with his companions under the planks and asphalt of Old Fisherman’s Wharf. Built beneath the bustling tourist mecca was a small room called Bernie’s Camelot, named after the small shanty’s prior tenant. Upon his death, the room became Barker’s. It hung over the dark, greenish sea that lapped against the pillars beneath the wharf. Orange and red starfish clung tenaciously to the old supports, surrounded by white and gray barnacles. The room was built from old planks and boards and was accessible by traversing a myriad path of slick wood and two-by-fours. If anyone looked under Old Fisherman’s Wharf, they would never see the place.