Paul Gillcrist

Deadly Windfall Paul Gillcrist

A retired U. S. Navy captain becomes an inadvertent witness to the hasty hiding of a cache of drug cartel money by felons being pursued by the police in Los Angeles. The captain is a recent widower who has just lost his retirement job with a defense contractor and is, at the moment, without purpose and motivation. As a consequence, he makes an impulsive decision to keep the money; and goes on the run. The drug cartel is searching for him and are hot on his heels. Without any options, and with the assistance of a former shipmate, he stages his own suicide, undergoes an identity change and extensive plastic surgery. Armed with his new identity he escapes in his sailboat and makes the long solo journey across the Pacific Ocean to a small atoll near Tahiti where he finds romance and redemption. The journey becomes a voyage of discovery, self-realization, adventure and beauty. There he is tracked down by members of the drug cartel and, in a searing confrontation at sea, his bride-to-be manages to save him by taking on the cartel in a fiercely uncharacteristic show of determination. The peculiar circumstances surrounding the mysterious, unexplained disappearance of all but one of the cartel team sent to apprehend him and recover the money; coupled with a macabre package sent anonymously to the cartel leadership, convince them to end their search.