Barbicas pleads his case for returning to Chicago. He also gets the bad news about Professor Everett Crenshaw. “Know a man’s passion and you own him. I am not sure even you know what you want. And that, my son, makes you a very dangerous man.” -Sinn Re

Herman Jeffries comes clean, sort of, to Torsha Lofton about the extend of his gambling debt. And more.

The Radio Murders: The Collectors is committed to completing the Audiobook Podcast and would like to thank all those who have supported us, especially Texas!

The chief visits the most dangerous acre in Chicago, and receives some startling news about Lani Janich, the killer with more secrets than body count.

We are heading into the big push for The Radio Murders: The Collectors. And I have a small request. 

Captain Stacy Crenshaw is facing a serious surgery, but what happens before she goes under the knife is nothing she was prepared for. 

Chief Herman Jeffries looked at his watch. It was 1:30 a.m. The involuntary gesture was also a sign that he was nearly tapped out for the night. Never look at your watch; sends the wrong message. He was beyond caring. This wasn’t a game. It was handing his money over to the five people at the table, and he made a mental note never to play with them again. It was easy to keep such a promise in the high-stakes poker rooms of the three area casinos, and he doubted he would see any of the players in the private, after-hours games he frequented. The chief’s run of bad luck was getting uglier by the night.

There was a charge in the air at the KCI studios. Word had spread fast that the evening show was the first from the Chicago talk station to attain national status. Many on the air hoped it was the start of a trend, that would broaden their audience and influence—and renegotiate their contracts by bouncing off the satellite and going on the air in cities around the country. Bill Kradich was the first at KCI to do it, and he and Dani Drabek were not shy about their very public deal.

The banquet room of the Main Collection was a museum of art and artifacts from the modern age. Myth and history mingled in an array that was at once tasteful and decadent. Viewed in the context of the rest of the compound, there was comfort in the arrangement.

Vaulted ceilings were alive with the movement of the Palos Verde blues, Thaos swallowtails, and checkerspots—names he remembered from many days of school spent in this very room—and other extremely rare butterflies. On the landing walls of the grand staircase hung faint photographs from George Barnard, Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and—rarest of all—a vaguely distinguishable mosaic of French rooftops captured by Joseph Nicephore Niepce and thought to be the first photograph. The small image was carefully housed in a sealed box and shaded from all but the softest diffused light.

The plight of importer Howard Murad is central to The Radio Murders: The Collectors. Now Chief Jeffries and soon all the players will learn what's so important about this broken man. 

Suddenly Jeffries felt as though he were intruding on the dead. He made his way to the spacious mezzanine, trying to notice anything out of place. Jeffries felt his feet sink into the luxurious carpeting. Then he saw it: