As we neared the canal the neighborhood gradually changed, not for the better, from mixed small businesses and shops at street level with residential units above them to residential mixed with low end manufacturing units under them.  At the narrow canal itself, visible through gaps between structures, the waterway was crowded with all sorts of floating crafts.  Most were being used as houseboats moored to the shore of the narrow canal on either side of, and directly under, a narrow pedestrian and bicycle bridge.

Simon and Garfunkel were singing about a bridge over troubled waters in one part of my brain while the frontal lobe was chatting with the back of my neck about impending danger as we approached a dimly lit alley just before we’d reach the bridge.

I whispered to Shasta. “This could be it. I’ll walk into the alley while you cover my back.  I’d expect one of them to be lying in wait in the darkest part of the alley while the other one will spring the trap from right behind us on the street.”

I turned into the alley.  Nothing happened, but I could hear the sound of a pair of running feet deeper in the darkness of the alley and another runner going across the bridge spanning the canal.

So much for our attempted ambush.  I quietly ran after the person who was running away from me via the alley and followed the sounds of their running feet through the old town and its network of canals and bridges.  Finally, the sounds led me to a dimly lit old  shop backing up on the canal.   

I slowly snuck up to a closed window and very cautiously peeked in.

The author is a Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) at the University of California’s Medical School at Davis, near Sacramento in Northern California.  Jerry writes fast-paced mystery books (tough and sometimes violent thrillers that follow the cozy conventions of no graphic sex and no bad words), all published on Amazon Kindle.  He and his wife Elaine lived previously in Salta, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay, which provide the settings for several of the earlier Roger and Suzanne mysteries.  Jerry selects the most interesting places for Roger and Suzanne to solve miscellaneous murders, including the current novel, that he has lived in or visited.  He and Elaine also breed prize-winning German shorthaired pointer dogs.  Elaine provides technical advice for Jerry’s dog-related novels as well as editing for all of the books.

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