Fool Me Twice (A Mike Stoneman Short Story‪)‬

Fool Me Twice is the short story where NYPD homicide detective Mike Stoneman first appeared in print. The story was written as an entry for a short story competition in 2012, where it won first prize. Later, Mike Stoneman became the primary protagonist in the Mike Stoneman Thriller series of novels, beginning with Righteous Assassin: A Mike Stoneman Thriller in 2018. In the short story, Mike investigates the death of a wealthy businessman, who is found dead in his swimming pool. Mike gets the story from his teenage debutante daughter, who explains that her father was chasing her and beating her after an argument. It was an accident that he fell into the pool and hit his head. Mike believes the story. Years later, the same woman calls the police to the same swimming pool, where her abusive boyfriend is dead. Mike has to decide whether the second death is just a coincidence – or is murder. Can Mike separate his sympathetic memories of the battered teenager from the facts? And can he resist the feminine wiles of this beautiful woman?