Equality of Mercy — Roy A. Teel Jr.

"Secrets are only kept by the dead.''

CHP Officer Eric Fox has been put on desk duty after an officer involved shooting when a routine traffic stop escalated into a battle for his life and the lives of others. Within milliseconds, his life was changed, and an unarmed man was dead. After being cleared of any wrongdoing, Fox begins psychiatric treatment with Doctor Karen Faber and appears to be improving until his body is found hanging in the station bathroom with a note up the sleeve. Sheriff Jim O'Brian and Sheriff-Elect Samantha Pritchard enlist FBI Special Agents John Swenson and Chris Mantel, who are shocked to learn this simple suicide is but the first in a series of upcoming deaths intended to keep some disturbing secrets under wraps.

Inside Flap:

Doctor Elton Evers, a world renowned psychologist and a virtual rock star in the field, has just released a new book on psychoanalysis. He's a tenured professor of psychology at California State University Los Angeles and a well-respected doctor with an up and coming publicist, Ellie Watts, making all the right moves. In a shocking turn of events, in the midst of the success she attributes to Dr. Evers, Ellie finds herself standing on the ledge of his office building. As the sun breaks the horizon, she runs off the roof and plummets fifty-five stories to her death, but Los Angeles County Coroner's Jade Morgan and Jessica Holmes don't believe it's a suicide and call in the Sheriff's Department and the FBI. What is found at the scene leads Swenson, Mantel, O'Brian, and Pritchard into a psychological puzzle of practices that straddle the line of human abuse ... and an arena where even the Iron Eagle, if not careful, could lose his mind.