An Empty Grave

With two sons and two ex-wives, PI Andy Hayes is desperate for money, so he takes on a 40-year-old case. In 1979, Preston Campbell’s father, a cop in Columbus, was shot apprehending a robber. The robber (later ID’d as John Ebersole) was himself shot by another cop, but then he seemed to walk right out of the hospital. Now, after his father’s suicide, Preston wants Hayes to look for Ebersole. Ebersole’s reported to have died in a fire, but Andy promises to give it at least a few days. His search takes him to a private college where he connects with PI Hillary Quinne, who’s working a different angle on the Ebersole case, for a trustee who wants to run for senate. What could the trustee, an East German professor emeritus, have to do with Ebersole? A murder and a break-in at Andy’s house hint that he’s on the right track, but he’s having a hard time tying together the threads from the college, the robber, and records that have gone missing from the precinct.