DETECTIVE JAKE WAYDE’s task is to stop the killing spree caused by the late, vengeful DR. FREDRICK RHINEMAN, who, after his death, had pieces of a puzzle that reveals the whereabouts of a deadly, world-changing chemical formula and ten million in cash, mailed to sixteen people.
In his semi-retirement, Dr. Fredrick Rhineman was working on a deadly formula. He was researching evolution, DNA and the bloodlines of nationalities. One of his main interests was bacteria and pathogens – anything that could cause disease and death. The doctor’s aim was to be able to pinpoint a nationality and eliminate them.
He composed a letter and made sixteen copies. Each of the letters contained a small piece of red paper cut in the jagged form of a puzzle piece. The doctor had written a letter of the alphabet or a number on each piece of red paper. When all the pieces were collected and assembled, they’d reveal the location of ten million dollars in cash and the deadly formula. He instructed his secretary to mail the letters immediately upon his unexpected demise.
Dr. Rhineman was zealous about puzzle solving and was known in wider circles as peerless. One afternoon at his private club, he was engaged in an exciting puzzle solving match with his friend SENATOR LOUIS KNOWLES. Suddenly, he grabbed his chest and instantly died from a massive heart attack. The following day his secretary mailed the sixteen letters. Four were addressed to the ambassadors of Russia, Saudi Arabia, China and Iran. Twelve were mailed to the people he most hated, which included ex-marine private detective JAKE WAYDE. As the letters are received the inevitable malice begins. The quest to retrieve the sixteen red pieces of the puzzle followed the pattern that Dr. Rhineman had envisioned. Four women are the prime suspects in the killing spree. Some are motivated by the money, others representing their countries, by the chemical formula.
The ugly head of HATE, POWER, DOMINATION and GREED reared up in those receiving a piece of the deadly puzzle.
Which of the twelve people he abhorred and which of the four heads of foreign countries will die a brutal death? Who among them is the killer or killers? Who survives the malice the doctor envisioned? Was there ever a formula or a fortune in cash? Does Dr. Rhineman get his revenge from the grave?
