Legerdemain — M. Stephen Lukac

Lt. Philip Ducalion would never say he had it all, but rather, that what he had was sufficient. A family. A career. A life.

Until he didn't have it any more.

Now, as a Segment Producer for the TV series Whodunit, he hunts the man who took it all away, in order to get a piece of it back. Some might call his motivation justice, others see it as vengeance, but Ducalion isn't concerned with definitions and labels.
Payback will do.

As one cold case ends, three new ones vie for Ducalion's attention, but his decision is easy. Pennsylvanian Michael Cressman lost his wife and son in an orgy of violence. A year later, the police are still stymied. Reminded of his own tragedy, Ducalion hijacks the investigation, hoping to resolve for the Cressmans what he cannot resolve for himself.

As Ducalion is hampered by a powerful family and local authorities too intimidated to act, similarities to his past accumulate as the body count rises. Every revelation leads him to a conclusion he will not accept; every answer detours him back to the past, and a connection that can not exist.

Philip Ducalion used to have it all? Perhaps.

Now, he's had enough.