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The Janitor and the Spy by S.W. Ellenwood - Book Tour

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 The Janitor and the Spy


Baby wipes are not the best at cleaning up blood or what happened to Thornhill in Amsterdam.
They told Thornhill it would be a simple spy mission that he was more than eager to take on, but of course, it wasn't.
It didn't take long after meeting the contact for Thornhill to question if he or anyone else connected to him was going to be able to make it out of Amsterdam alive. Passing strangers on the streets became potential hitmen and dinner with criminals became safe heavens as Thornhill seeks to find answers from an old man named Golay.

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Excerpt
4. Thornhill walked down to the parking garage, got the BMW, and left for the Japanese steakhouse Fredrick owned, on Prins Hendrikkade near the canal. As he drove, he called Mallory and reported Golay’s story for her to check out.
          “So, Jones is going over what Golay has while I meet up with Fredrick,” Thornhill said as he turned onto the highway.
          “You don’t believe him?” asked Mallory.
          “No. His story had a lot of personal details, which I think he used to make it sound authentic. Though the people trying to kill us does show that there is something here. Does any of his story check out?”
          “Some of it,” said Mallory. “His mother, however, died in a house fire, and there’s no company that did the janitorial work for all the major banks. They each hired their own, for security reasons. Also, there’s no evidence of him traveling around Europe. Did he tell you the alias he used?”
“No.” Thornhill stopped at a stoplight. Watching tourists and natives of Amsterdam crossing the street a couple of cars ahead of him, he wondered about the Russians. “I don’t think he trusts me. Did his story about the Russians check out?”
Mallory was silent for a time before saying, “Maybe. A Russian major general, Dmitriy Kirillovsky, traveled from Moscow to Amsterdam. A week after the revolt, he was promoted to colonel general.”
          “Was there mention of a source?”
          “No. Golay did open up a Swiss bank account a month before he left, and closed it within a week after the pier meeting. However, there are no records of any transactions made with it.”
Thornhill pulled over in front of a beauty shop within sight of the restaurant, called Higashi-bi, which is Japanese for East Sun. He could see Fredrick in a triple-large black suit with a light-brown striped tie. He was showing his goons, probably for the tenth time, how to act when Thornhill arrived. One looked annoyed, checking his mobile phone every two seconds, waiting for a text from a girl, Thornhill assumed. The other was pulling at his collar as if he had a noose around his neck, though it was just a ten-euro bow tie.
Thornhill decided to wait until it looked like Fredrick had everything under control before he drove up. He stroked his chin as if he had a beard. He enjoyed growing his beard out during his vacation, though Mallory didn’t like it that much.
          “So, what we have is an old NSA agent who may have found a Swiss bank laundering money, a Russian general buying secrets, and a dead girlfriend, and the same people may be behind it all,” he said to himself out loud. “In any other setting, I would say this is just a wild goose chase, but he knew Crumwell. Yet he didn’t mention him at all in his story. And someone is trying to kill him. But why?”
          “I don’t know,” responded Mallory. “I just have a bad feeling about this whole mission.”
Thornhill snickered. “The same bad feeling you had on that hike?”
          “That dead tree looked a lot like a bear with the sun setting behind it!” Mallory sounded irritated but she couldn’t keep herself from chuckling as Thornhill laughed out loud.
          As the laughing died down they both set in silence for a moment. Mallory hung up after saying, “Just be careful.”
Thornhill leaned on the steering wheel, contemplating Fredrick, who was checking his cell phone. Thornhill took a deep breath, getting ready to play his part, and asked himself under his breath, “Who’s your boss Fredrick?”
 

 
Author Bio –
S. W. Ellenwood is thankful to have a close-knit family of two parents, a brother, and two sisters. A homeschooler who graduated college from the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, Ellenwood loves all forms and genres of stories and was inspired by  The Lord of the Rings films and his parents to write. You can find Ellenwood writing his next novel at the local coffee shops or playing table top games with his best friends. 

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