Hunting Sweetie Rose — Jack Fredrickson

IN HARM'S WAY

He's not an ex-cop or private investigator. Still, Dek Elstrom has a knack for solving Chicago's most oddball cases. They help him forget his shattered life and many losses…at least for a little while. But now an anonymous client wants to know why an innocent clown fell to his death doing a promo stunt. When Dek figures out wealthy socialite Sweetie Fairbairn is his employer, his attempt to get answers results in her bodyguard being murdered. Then Sweetie vanishes and Dek is on the hook for both crimes.

The only way to clear his name is to locate Sweetie. But Dek soon finds the murky trail of her past entangling him in a decades-old unsolved crime, a twisted family tree, and a grim legacy of abuse and hatred. And as the body count and number of suspects snowball, Dek must risk his darkest secrets to crack the case -- even as he puts his life and future on the line….