Northern Escape

A story of crime and betrayal...obsession and loss. From the first day of the robbery at the Bellagio by Max Jessee and Roy Biers, Detective Ben Thomas is obsessed with finding Biers youthful partner. This fixation ultimately costs Ben his marriage, leaving him with a six-year-old daughter. For eleven years Ben keeps the case simmering until Biers is released from prison. Finally, Ben gets a break, and when Biers unexpectedly heads to Alaska, the young detective is only a few days behind him. During the eleven years that Ben is stymied, Max Jessee has invented a new and prosperous life for himself. Now going under the name of Mack Jessup, he is living with Chloe Littlebird, an Alaska State Trooper assigned to the fish and game division, in Craig, Alaska. Chloe has a sense that Mack is hiding something, but she has no idea that the man she has fallen in love with is wanted for armed robbery. Things begin to fall apart, however, when Roy Biers appears without warning on Mack s fishing vessel. Roy demands his share of the money, and Mack knows instinctively that the life he has built with Chloe is about to end. During this fateful day, Detective Ben Thomas arrives in Craig, meets Chloe Littlebird, and explains his errand. Chloe and her associate agree to help Ben, and so she unknowingly joins in the hunt for her lover. The friendship between Ben and Chloe has an edge of excitement and interest to it that neither of them can explain nor wants to admit. Upon Mack s unexpected return to Craig, Ben takes one look at him and knows he has found the elusive Max Jessee. In an eye to eye stare-down, Mack knows he has been discovered, and he flees on his boat. The chase is on across the waters of S.E. Alaska. Mack is befriended by Nemo, an old fishing buddy who aids him in making an escape. Ben is always just a day or phone call behind, but after a failed, intensive manhunt, Ben must depart for Las Vegas. On his outbound flight, Ben looks below to see a s

R.L. Coffield is an award winning freelance writer born and reared in Oregon but currently residing in the southwest. Coffield has garnered awards for works in nonfiction as well as fiction, and the author's works have appeared in both regional and national publications. Married with two grown sons, Coffield is an accomplished sailor, having made several ocean passages, and enjoys horseback riding, fishing, hiking, and riding motorcycles.