The Fatality Game

The residents of Barksdale Terrace live in an exclusive neighborhood of multimillion dollar houses where crime is something that happens to other people. But within a seven-day period, the bedrooms in two of the seven houses on the Terrace are ransacked while the occupants are away. Both crimes are very bizarre and strikingly similar: There is a balled-up sheet jammed into an open window; in the middle of the balled-up sheet is a copy of Playboy magazine; all the panties of the woman who slept in the bedroom have been stolen; and there is a peculiar message written above the bed in the room. SORRY YOU WEREN'T HERE. EVEN SO, YOU SHOULD CONSIDER BUYING TICKETS FOR YOUR OWN FUNERAL BECAUSE THE FATALITY GAME WILL SOON BE CLAIMING ITS FIRST VICTIM. Detective Cody Barnes is initially inclined to believe that the crimes are pranks that were committed by the owner of a strip club who lives on the Terrace, but a week after the second break-in, a woman who lives on the Terrace is shot to death in her bed. As before, there are the balled-up sheets in the window, the Playboy magazine inside the sheets, and the theft of the woman's panties. But this time, the message on the wall reads: THE FATALITY GAME CLAIMS ITS FIRST VICTIM. MORE WILL BE COMING. STAY TUNED. REMEMBER: YOU MAY BE NEXT. As the case unfolds, Cody's personal life takes an unexpected turn. He's engaged to be married, but his fiancé is a thousand miles away as she tends to her mother, who is dying of cancer. Meanwhile, he begins to become attracted to the victim of the second break-in on the Terrace—the ultra-beautiful Lucinda Kane who recently lost her husband in a car accident. Sparks flicker, and then one night, the sparks turn into a bonfire that complicates his life and threatens to compromise both his engagement and reputation. His involvement with Lucinda will become intertwined with the investigation and lead to extremely serious and far-ranging consequences. Also complicating the investigation is Jonas Pickett, who lives at the far end of the Terrace with his mother. Now forty-two, Jonas is obviously suffering from some kind of mental disorder. He claims that at least three people on the Terrace are aliens and admits to walking around late at night and looking into the windows of those who live on the Terrace. He also claims to have been inside the victim's house on the night she was murdered, but supposedly, his reason for being there was not to murder anyone but only to steal some food from the refrigerator. Suddenly, there is a major break in the case—the victim's computer is accessed, and a number of emails point to a person who lives on the Terrace. He is arrested and interrogated by Cody, and after his interrogation, he is charged with murder. But then, two days later, a very key figure in the case disappears, and within twenty-four hours, his body is found in his car with two bullet wounds to his head. From here, everything unravels in a cascading torrent of violence that will leave two more people dead by cyanide poisoning, but it isn't long before a number of clues begin to point towards a person that no one had ever suspected.