The Pattern Killings

Did you ever hear of the Salami Technique? No? Then perhaps you have never spent any time in jail for using it. Ira Sanderson did. With it, he ripped off a bank for $100,000. The irony is that he could have taken more. But now Ira has been caught, tried, and sent to Susanville Prison for a decade.

Hiram Sanderson, Ira's twin, visits his incarcerated brother faithfully, generally combining it with a family trip to a California recreational vehicle park with his converted Greyhound bus.

The two concoct a means of escape for Ira. In the process a man is killed and Ira returns to the scene of the crime that put him in jail, the City of Bellson, intent on settling the score with six women who had a hand in putting him away.

One of those women is Carole Price, the wife of the Bellson Chief of Police. Carole was the court-supplied counsellor at Ira's trial and had a strong hand in sending Ira to Jail.

But she isn't the only one. There's the Mayor's secretary, the accountant who discovered the theft, the girlfriend of the bank's president, and a couple more women who learned not to walk without looking over their shoulders.

But there's a kink. It starts with an announcement in the paper of the number of people to be killed, and as each is killed, a message is written on her forehead and a code is inscribed on another part of her anatomy. That code must be deciphered to identify the final victim, the Chief's wife.

A few other people are killed. Ira is no respecter of persons. Even his brother's wife and children are imprisoned by a pair of heavies as a guarantee that the breakout will be successful.

There are people in this story who implore God's mercy. You'll want to meet them and perhaps listen to their message.