Dead in the Water (A Cal Murphy Thriller Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

number. In less than three seconds, his phone was ringing.
    “Tell me the good news,” Raymond said as he answered. “Is Dixon going to join us next year?”
    “Not sure about that yet, Coach,” Sanders said. “But there’s one thing Dixon is sure of.”
    “Oh, what’s that?”
    “That someone murdered Tre’vell Baker—and he thinks he knows who did it.”

CHAPTER 4
    FRANK JOHNSON LOOKED UP from his newspaper and watched Hugh Sanders exit Lagniappe Café. Properly positioned, the paper hid Johnson’s presence well enough that neither Dixon nor Sanders noticed him. It was a trick he learned from several spies after getting burned in a corporate espionage scandal.
    Johnson folded the paper and began nursing his tepid coffee. He motioned to the waitress to come over and top off his drink. He added a shot of cream before he processed the conversation he just overheard.
    “Having a good day, Mr. Johnson?” the waitress asked.
    “I’m alive—and Alabama lost yesterday and Bryant didn’t. I don’t have much to complain about,” he said.
    While developing several innovative software designs for a private tech company in Hunstville, Johnson nearly quit after one of his ideas was stolen. A mole inside the company ratted out the secret behind one of Johnson’s groundbreaking projects and helped a rival company secure the patent first. It cost Johnson a small fortune in stock options and a promotion. Following the incident, he took extra precautions to ensure that his designs were hidden and secure. He worked on a computer that wasn’t connected to the Internet, making it nearly impossible to hack. His state-of-the-art home security system presented a formidable challenge to any thief hoping to steal his computer. To test the system, he hired three of the most widely regarded corporate thieves to break into his own home. They all failed. He resumed developing with confidence that his secrets would remain safe.
    While a pivotal event in his professional life, it was also the same event that spurred Johnson’s hatred for all things Alabama. Though he was never prosecuted for his crime due to lack of evidence, the mole, Harry Williams, was the most obnoxious Alabama fan on the planet—at least he was in Johnson’s world. The rumor was that Harry sold the information to a tech firm run by an Alabama graduate in exchange for lifetime box seats at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Johnson had never engaged much in the tussle between Alabama and Bryant’s football fans. Though he’d read shocking stories—stories about Alabama fans poisoning trees used to celebrate wins at a rival school or stories about rival fans killing the grass on Alabama’s field—he preferred to stay above the fray. As a graduate of Cal Tech, football had no impact on his college experience and he liked it that way. College was about getting an education. But his view changed after Harry stole what was most precious to him. Johnson decided to do his part in stealing what Alabama fans treasured most: winning.
    Without much of an idea of where to start, Johnson joined the Bryant University booster club. He bought season tickets and found a few friends to tailgate with on Saturdays in the fall. Over several years, he went from a guy who didn’t much like football to a guy who painted his face black and gold for every game. Behind software development, Bryant University football had become his passion.
    The longer Johnson lived in Alabama, the more he transformed from a techie nerd from California to a techie nerd who fell in love with all things related to the South. His tailgating friends—none of whom held jobs that required college degrees—introduced him to fishing and hunting. It wasn’t long before Johnson was driving a truck with the windows rolled down and singing “Sweet Home Alabama” without any inhibitions. It truly felt like home.
    While Johnson transformed outside the office, he transformed inside it, too. He went from being one of the