Three Strikes and You're Dead

Baseball goes on strike. As following baseball is the main avocation of many people, there is a great deal of discontent.

A chat group is formed, "Friends against the baseball strike."

One member is a terrorist wannabe and he is able to manipulate a gullible man who has no life to obey his wishes. He tells the man, who takes on the name "The Vindicator," he should strike back against the sport. Baseball used to be the sport of the common man but now with the multimillion-dollar contracts, regular people can't afford the price of admission. It can cost hundreds of dollars for a man and wife to bring their children to a baseball game and get some food.

The gullible man uses the name "The Vindicator" on the chat site. The other man uses the name "The Advocate." No one has paid much attention to him (The Vindicator) in the past so he wants to please The Advocate. He decides to take action and kill the highest paid player on each team. Each killing will be in a different way and there will be a message to "end the strike."

After the first killing, the FBI becomes involved and the Baseball Commissioner's Office hires a group of private investigators to show they are proactive. This group consists of a young woman and two men who are in training by a retired state trooper.

As more ball players are killed, the trio of private investigators decides to challenge the killer using social media. They put a notice on Facebook to see if they can get the killer to go after one of them, who will be armed.

The private investigators are working with the FBI and able to get video surveillance tape from the hotel where the first killing took place. Together with tape from an airport car rental, there is enough for facial recognition but it's hazy. The photo is placed in the newspapers and the private investigators get a lead.

There is a major confrontation at the Union Station in Washington. This is between the killer, the man who manipulated him, a man with a bomb, and the FBI and private investigators.

Michael Draper graduated from St. Michael's College in Vermont and has a Master's Degree in teaching. He was in ROTC and spent four years in the Air Force. Thereafter, he was a finacial planner for over forty years, selling retirement plans to state and municipal workers. Among his markets were the Connecticut State Police and numerous municipal police departments. Many of the scenes in the story were used after consulting with his CT State Police clients. Mike is the author of "Splattered Blood" which has many of the same characters appearing in this story. He is an avid book reviewer and is among the top Amazon book reviewers. He and Diana married in 1966, have a son Kevin, daughter-in-law Claire, and two grandchildren, Madison and Molly