Vertical

by Eric Christopherson

Brody Wilson is a window washer with a terminal illness and no life insurance to leave his wife and two children, including a daughter with Down Syndrome. His solution: he plans to fake an accident from his work platform and fall hundreds of feet to his death to earn worker's comp death benefits.

Just before dawn, he takes a last look at his unsuspecting, sleeping loved ones and sets out for work with a self-sabotaged safety harness stowed in his backpack.

He squeegees a few windows to make his scam-suicide look good, peers down at the street 50 stories below, and then—just as he's about to spill over the side of the platform—a light comes on in the office directly across from where he faces, and inside a woman in business attire is in the process of being strangled from behind by a man in a business suit.

Brody attempts to halt the murder in progress by banging on the sealed window with his squeegee. The strangler hears him, sees him, drops his victim (who falls to the floor, inert), then steps to the window to confront Brody with a menacing glare.

Now there's someone else besides himself who wants Brody dead. Only now Brody doesn't plan to go until he brings a murderer to justice ...

61 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2016

About the author

Eric is a former police officer and federal government consultant. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Texas at Tyler, and he has a graduate degree from Duke University. He was born in California, grew up in New England, and has since lived throughout the USA and a bit in Asia. He now lives in semi-rural Ohio with his wife, Seiko, and their children, Keith and Annabel.