Prologue to Murder

Takkies Spencer was a charming TV host. A daily segment of his show was a "Man on the Street" quiz. After one particular episode, Takkies and three contestants were murdered. Henry Atkinson, a retired patent attorney, saw one man, Justin Upsom, fall out of a luggage carrier as dead people are wont to do. His lovely wife, Carolyn, wanted to write the story, but Henry distracted her when he fell on the tarmac. It took Cousin Shelley, and a mythical dog named Frankie, to bring them all together on the banks of the French Broad.

"Takkies last video" attracted little attention until long after Takkies' death. By then, three other men had died violently, and the other people from the video were missing. Henry Atkinson was waiting on a flight when he saw one victim fall out of a luggage carrier. Even at a busy airport, this attracted attention. Henry was a retired lawyer and a baseball devotee, but when he and his cousin Shelley, a former hitman, heard about another victim, the chase was on. Why were these men being murdered? It couldn't just be due to their answers to the quiz. Who was killing the cast of "Takkies last video?" With the help of a non-existent dog and an alcoholic former cop, Henry and his family learn more about the French Broad than they knew to ask.

When Dr. Toppell graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1963 with a degree in History and Political Science, he obviously went straight to the Emory University School of Medicine. Then to paraphrase an old saying, he scratched GTT in the front of their duplex. The Toppell's had Gone to Texas. After his Internal medicine training at Baylor College of Medicine, he spent five years in the Army, where he trained in pulmonary diseases and Critical Care Medicine. He and Loretta and their children returned to Houston where Loretta raised Scott, Brenna, and Ken. With some time out for lectures on American History, he practiced medicine for forty-seven years. They now live in Plano, TX. where he reads, writes, and enjoys life with his wife of fifty-seven years.