After the Petals Go
About this ebook
Ryland never should have been in his office that beautiful Saturday morning in May when Will Jennings approached him with something black and shriveled clutched in his right hand, and the weight of the world on his shoulders. The something that Will carries is Mike Mannings wallet that Will found in the Forty Acre Woods earlier that morning. Mike Manning has been missing from Oakalla for seven and a half years and is presumed dead by all who knew him best, including Will Jennings, his hired hand; Darrell Williamson, his best friend and drinking buddy, and Samantha Manning, his wife and Rylands wouldve, couldve, shouldve been lover.
As Rylands search takes him from the Forty Acre Woods to the old Manning place, where Mike Manning was last seen, he discovers what appears to be Mikes Silverado pickup hidden in the barn along with an ammonia wagon, missing from Central Co-op. There Ryland also discovers a barn cat with an attitude, a milk house with its windows blacked out, and just as night starts to fall, a body upside down in a water tank. But before Ryland can begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together, he is attacked and nearly killed by an antagonist who is as ruthless and relentless as he is cunning.
Neither does his tormentor stop there, but pursues Ryland and his household even as Ryland slowly but surely closes in on him. Or her. Samantha Manning has a past, as Ruth Krammes, Rylands housekeeper and trusted confidant, says to him, although she is reluctant to reveal just what that past is. So does Mike Manning have a past, one littered with bad debts, broken promises, deceit, and innuendo. As Ryland sorts through it on his way to the truth, he finds himself at odds with Ruth, his friends and fellow citizens, and worst of all, himself. Shaken by the events swirling around him, his near death, and the death of his hero, he steps outside of himself into an unfamiliar world of loose talk and hasty actions that are as dangerous in their own way as the killer who stalks him.
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About the author
John R. Riggs is the son of Samuel H. Riggs (1913-2002) and Lucille Ruff Riggs (1918-2000) and the brother of C. A. Riggs, Prescott, Arizona. John was born February 27, 1945 in Beech Grove, Indiana, and in 1949 he and his family moved to Mulberry, Indiana, where they owned and operated Riggs Dairy Bar for a number of years. John attended Mulberry Schools (1951-1961) and graduated from Clinton Prairie High School in 1963. He credits his teachers at Mulberry and Clinton Prairie for their direction and inspiration and for grounding him in the fundamentals of thought and action so necessary for meeting the challenges of life. John then entered Indiana University, Bloomington, where he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and rode in the Little 500. While there he earned a BS in social studies and an MA in creative writing. He later attended the University of Michigan, studying conservation and environmental communications. On September 2, 1967, John married Cynthia Perkins (1945-2002), and their children are Heidi Zimmerman, Mansfield, Ohio and Shawn Riggs, Hastings, Nebraska. On July 1, 1988, he married Carole Gossett Anderson and their children are Flint Anderson, Coatesville and Susan Shorter, Spencer. Since 1971, John has lived in Putnam County, Indiana, currently on a small farm southeast of Greencastle. While there, he has worked as an English teacher, football coach, quality control foreman, carpenter, and wood-splitter. From 1979-1997 he assisted James R. Gammon of DePauw University with Gammon’s landmark research on the Wabash River. Presently, he works as a researcher for DePauw University Archives and mixes chemicals for Co-Alliance, Bainbridge. John is the author of 14 published books in the Garth Ryland mystery series, and the Bicentennial History bulletins for the Indiana United Methodist Church. He has also written River Rat, a coming of age novel, Me, Garth, and Alley Oop, a travel odyssey, numerous essays, and two more books in the Garth Ryland series, one of which, After the Petals Go, will be published by AuthorHouse in 2012.
