The Murder of Tobias Wheat

CHAFF LUNDERGAN’S life was an enigma of intellect huddled beneath a garment of crud. That’s what the priest said upon his death. TOBIAS WHEAT is Chaff’s best friend, fourteen when they met at St. Joseph’s Academy for boys.  Their lives should not have been so connected having been born in different corners of the universe: Chaff, a Chicago street urchin and Tobias, a home schooled Catholic boy.  Chaff’s earlier secret life comes back to haunt them both ten-years later when Tobias finds out he stole six million in diamonds from an African smuggling cartel when he was twelve.

 It’s no secret, the cartel wants them back. Vicious people! They never stop coming. A high velocity bullet hits Chaff and explodes into Tobias—a one-in-a-million shot! Chaff is dead and Tobias is close to death. In the hospital, DETECTIVE HARRIGAN, secretly working with the bad guys, interrogates Tobias for days hoping for an unwitting lead to the lost diamonds. FBI Special Agents, SPRIGGS and RYAN have been shadowing the whole time waiting for the truth to be exposed, while Chaff Lundergan makes a miraculous recovery, his death, an exaggeration not shared with the cartel goons. Heroic efforts to solve the case fail multiple times until one lucky self-less act plays out in the nick of time.