Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.

I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you at the heart of mystery, murder, and mayhem. Some episodes will be my own stories, others will be classics that helped shape the mystery genre we know today. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes (unless it's really bad)

This is Season 1. This season comes from my book Widow’s Run, which was published in 2019 by Down & Out Books. If you love clever, sharp-edged mysteries and thrillers, check out Down & Out on the web. www.downandoutbooks.com

Today’s episode builds from the previous. You have to listen in order for the story to make sense. Start with the episode called “What a Lovely Corpse you Have” and catch up to us from there. We’ll be here for you. We’ve listed a cast of characters in the show notes to help keep track of the players.

To recap, our hero, Diamond, has faked her death, burying the mainstream, suburban professional she was to resurrect her CIA cover. Why? She needs to do what the police won’t, investigate her husband’s death. Diamond has run out of suspects. Someone paid Hugo Franzetti to poison Gavriil’s drink, then killed him. Someone tried to kidnap Gavriil’s successor, Dr. Quili Liu. It wasn’t Buford Winston. Sam Irish complicated matters by putting out a recovery order for Diamond, a dead woman. She drops in on Irish, collecting the bounty herself, but this is not class reunion. A drink at a bar has Diamond and Irish diving for cover. The high speed chase ends with the Saturn Ion cross ways with railroad tracks and Diamond and Irish asking the questions.

Today’s story is about keeping you eye on the ball. This is Episode 13: Bad Cop, Badder Cop

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Characters with episode of introduction

Diamond, our hero. Recently widowed. Recently (fake) killed herself. On a mission. (E1)

Gavriil Rubchinsky. Russian-born, nerd scientist specializing in quinoa. Diamond’s husband. Died May 14, 2018. The reason for Diamond. (E1)

Ian Black. Average, ordinary, white man. Extraordinary purveyor of anything, anywhere, anytime. (E1)

Sam Irish. British agent. Formerly worked with Diamond. Pissed she died without him. (E1)

Andrew Dixon. Seventeen-year-old genius delinquent currently surfing Diamond’s couch (E4)

Enrique Torres. CIA agent who trained and worked with Diamond. Can’t believe a candle took her out. (E1)

Alexei Rubchinsky. Russian-born, nerd scientist specializing in the body. Diamond’s brother-in-law. (E2)

Dr. Quili Liu. Gavriil Rubchinsky’s successor, a Chinese-born, nerd-scientist who also loves quinoa. (E2)

Buford Winston. Blow hard leader of the super-lobby Ag Now! who is funding the quinoa research. (E2)

Montgomery Rand. Minor league con man. Reported genius who doesn’t have the brains to use what God gave him. (E3)

Celina Matta. Insurance investor. Diamond’s alias in Italy (E5)

Carlo Giancarlo. Diamond’s Italian translator and partner in crime. (E5)

Francisco Thelan. Another nerd-scientist specializing in food. Also dead. Died same night as Gavriil. (E5)

Ilsa Duma-whatever. Russian-born Italian bookseller. Totally did not seduce Gavriil. (E6)

Mama Franzetti. A good woman with a piece of shit for a grandson. (E7)

Hugo Franzetti. The piece of shit that ran Gavriil over, but he’s dead, too, so there’s that. (E7)

Valentina...