Tedmund and the Murdered Cheerleader

Book excerpt: TEDMUND AND THE MURDERED CHEERLEADER Arriving in Tiryns, Tessa “Tess” O’Neil is on a mission to make amends for wrongs she committed as a teenager. In recovery from years of drug dependency, she decides to contact her former high school friends, the once cool kids of Aaron Burr High. She feels compelled to reveal the truth about the mysterious disappearance of a student, Walter Krol, which happened six years earlier. On a trip to Tiryns for the Thanksgiving weekend, Ted Strickland and his boss Andrew Hunter discover the body of a slain woman on the side of a country road. She is dressed in a high school cheerleading uniform. Later, Ted realizes the body is that of Tessa “Tess” O’Neil, a former classmate of his. She was said to be the prettiest cheerleader in the history of Aaron Burr High. Ted finds himself an unwitting player in the investigation of Tessa’s unfortunate demise. The once cool kids of Aaron Burr High, who had bullied and belittled him, now as adults are eerily friendly and, stranger still, eager to talk to him about old times. “The past doesn’t stay in the past. It’s about to impale itself on the present,” Detective Ramirez observed after he and Lieutenant Paton were called in to assist the Tiryns PD on Tessa’s murder case. Ted comes into conflict with his boss Andrew Hunter and takes a stand with Detective Ramirez. Old secrets slowly leak out, and Ted finds himself not knowing whom he can trust. Spoiler Alert: This book references events from Book One: Tedmund and the Murdered Heiress.