William Charles Hatounian

Causal Connection William Charles Hatounian

Detective Milo Necalli, an energetic veteran investigator with the Phoenix Police Department's Violent Crime Bureau, is secretly delighted when he is assigned to investigate the death of a man who was found asphyxiated, shrink-wrapped inside an empty waterbed mattress. Since the man, Andy Montana, is holding the extension cord to the vacuum cleaner that killed him, it could conceivably be a suicide. But Milo suspects that anyone depressed enough to commit suicide would be too depressed to get that creative about it. And when he autopsy reveals Andy engaged in sex just before he died, Milo starts his hunt for the killer. After discovering that Montana had a number of lovers, many of whom he met as a driver for a trucking company, Milo zeros in on one of them, Mary Banks. Banks has a record of violent crime in another state and a larger income than her job at Wal-Mart would suggest. But when Banks is found dead of an apparent suicide, Milo's investigation comes to a dead end. Then the estranged wife of a state senator, and the sister of Andy's boss at the trucking firm, is found dead in the Attorney General's parking lot, also an apparent suicide. Milo recognizes the connection between the three deaths and slowly unravels the senator's involvement with drug smuggling and corruption. Milo eventually realizes that his killer is running an extortion scheme on the state senator and eliminating anyone who gets in the way. Through his DEA contact he learns the location to where the off shore bank mails the extortion checks. Along with an arrest team he arrives at the address only to discover someone ahead of him in the shadows. It's the state senator, who has also tracked down his extortionist. Milo, caught between the need to make an arrest and the possibility of an uncoerced confession by a wanton killer, decides to wait before raiding the extortionist's apartment. When confronted by the dark clad state senator, The apartments occupant confesses all within earshot of Milo and his team. In fear of her life, she attacks the senator and they struggle for his gun. The police quickly move into the apartment and subdue both her and the senator. CAUSAL CONNECTION follows a routine, if somewhat bizarre, death investigation that grows into a case filled with complexities and exposes corruption at the highest levels of local governments. It forces Milo and his team to draw on every bit of experience and talent they possess to bring all those responsible to justice.