Excerpt of A Witness Above by Andy Straka

Thirteen years ago, Frank Pavlicek left the NYPD under less than ideal circumstances. Now, the divorced father of a teenage daughter, he works as a private investigator in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he indulges his passion for falconry – and tries to live outside the shadow of his past.

Frank is hunting with his red-tailed hawk, Armistead, when he finds it. A teenage boy's body – barely concealed behind a pile of brush in a part of the forest Frank recently visited with his daughter, Nicole. It's a truly gruesome crime scene – one of the many things Frank doesn't miss about working homicide in the big city.

But what Frank finds in the dead boy's wallet is even more disturbing: Nicole's phone number, scribbled in ink on the edge of a bill. He pockets the evidence and flees. Days later, his daughter is in jail. His past is coming back to haunt him. And his reputation – and life – are on the line...