Less Than Equals (Pamela Williams Mysteries Book 2)

Less Than Equals

Private Investigator Pamela Williams has grown her agency into an international company, but her latest case may be one of her most disturbing yet.

A woman is found wandering alone in the desert, badly injured and unable to remember what happened. The trail leads to a secluded cabin, where she and another victim were abandoned after being kidnapped and tortured. With few clues and no clear motive, Pamela must uncover the truth behind a crime designed to stay hidden.

In Less Than Equals, the second book in Daniel Maldonado’s Pamela Williams series, a chilling mystery unfolds through danger, memory, and the search for justice.

Start reading Less Than Equals today.

Excerpt from the book

Marina Bay, Singapore

Present Day

Pamela Williams sat on a wooden, oval chair in the neo-futurist atrium of the Regal Wisteria Resort at Marina Bay, Singapore. The atrium was twenty stories tall and fan-shaped with soaring views of the hotel’s interior. She curiously watched the various hotel guests, visitors, and resort employees walking back and forth to reach their destinations for the upcoming day. The hotel was bustling due to a popular scientific conference held there annually. During the online mission briefing, she was told the name of the conference and the name of their target, who was apparently a conference attendee. But she had unexpectedly forgotten both names due to fatigue from enduring a last-minute twenty-plus-hour flight from Phoenix via San Francisco.

Normally, she was sharp as a tack when it came to mission details. She would memorize every detail from the height, weight, gender, and skin tone of the target, even the contours of the target’s face. She would know the layout of the facility backwards and forwards, with a mental list of all of the exits and secret passageways. After every training, she would replay every second of the mission in her mind multiple times to evaluate any flaws and to anticipate any unexpected contingencies. The muscle memory from training for an upcoming mission was invaluable. She would rely upon it and her prior experience in the special forces to ensure the mission was accomplished without a hitch. If she hadn’t already had a call sign, which she never revealed to others, some would call her Surefire or possibly even Fail Safe. But today she may not have lived up to her expectations.

This time, she had barely arrived at Changi Airport when she was taken straight to the resort in a company vehicle. She had no time to practice with the other team members or to see the mission location in person before it happened. Why? Because she decided to stay an extra few days at home to finish one of her work assignments with her private investigator agency. Her boss and secondary father figure, Gerald Ravan, had implored her to have her employees work on the project, come a week early for the mission, and spend some personal time together instead. But something was gnawing at her about this latest assignment. Rather than take the trip to Singapore, she used every excuse under the sun to delay her arrival.

At one point, Gerald suspected she wasn’t going to participate in the mission despite her repeated assurances. He even offered to fly her in the corporate jet to Singapore as a way to entice her to come. He tried to persuade her by agreeing to take her to touristy sights like a garden or the museum, although he knew she wasn’t one to enjoy such activities. When she inevitably sensed his disappointment, she booked the next commercial flight to Singapore. To his dismay, she declined Gerald’s offer of the private jet. Based on the flight schedule, she arrived just an hour before the go-time; that is, when the mission started.