Express Malice A Dan Ballantine Mystery

Private Investigator Dan Ballantine, driving in the California desert before dawn, spots a body draped over the roadside berm. He finds a naked, badly beaten young woman bound at ankles and wrists. Mindy Weller begs Dan to hide her from angry Russians. Dan postpones his fishing trip and pulls his travel trailer into the desert where he cares for the young woman. Mindy tells the story of stolen stamps and Russian mobsters who kidnapped her and boyfriend, Gene. They killed Gene and left Mindy for dead. She awakened and crawled a mile to the highway. Viktor Vladimirov, a major player in the Russian Mafia, sends three ?soldiers? after the Gene and Mindy. They locate Dan and Mindy, but the prepared ex-cop kills two of them and sends the third back to Viktor with the bodies. As revenge, Vladimirov's men kidnap Dan's autistic son from his residential care school and demand a million dollars. Dan pays the ransom then stalks the Russian with intent to snipe him. When he has the man in his telescopic sights, he finds he cannot pull the trigger. Instead, he kidnaps one of Vladimirov's soldiers and convinces him to turn on his boss. When the soldier tells of an upcoming drug deal, Dan calls the FBI, and agents arrest Vladimirov who is charged with Gene's and Mindy's murders. Vladimirov knows a conviction requires Dan's testimony, and he hires Mako Fazan, a professional assassin who charges $2 million per hit, to murder Dan. Fazan pursues Dan from California to Oregon and to Texas as the investigator searches for a missing rancher. As Dan closes on his quarry, Fazan closes on him.