Bad Bugs (Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer Book 1) Psychological Thriller by Timothy Freriks Book Tour with Guest Post and Giveaway
This is a psychological thriller.
And a love story.
And it might be disturbing.
Bad Bugs
Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer Book 1
by Timothy Freriks
Genre: Psychological Thriller
This book is told through the twisted but rational mind of Michael Stammons, a serial killer. Stammons tells the story in a somewhat off-handed style, which might be creepy to some. But it is his story, justifications for his actions. He wants you to believe.
This is a psychological thriller.
And a love story.
And it might be disturbing.
Excerpts from Bad bugs
by Timothy freriks © 2024 (850 words)
NARRATIVE FROM MICHAEL STAMMONS
(Using his father’s old typewriter)
Current time
(Excerpt 1)
YOU COULD CALL ME INSANE. Many people have, and I suppose I deserve
that if you’re looking at the last six or so years—-or maybe just the last
fourteen months-—through the eyes of Utah's ‘normal’ citizen. But it’s really,
in my mind, like I’m the normal one. People have called me ‘twisted’, but,
again, in my mind, I’m straight and narrow, just like the path I finally choose
chose to follow. Anyway, I’m sitting here. Waiting for the inevitable. Typing.
flashback
Whatever made me come back here to watch from the top of
the dumpster frightened me a little. I lay flat, invisible in the almost pitch
black, the high-powered binoculars already raised. I focused on my victim, who
lay on the asphalt between his car and the gigantic F-250 occupying the space
next to his. I guess it was my demon, one of them at least, who made me bring
the binocs in the first place. I didn’t consciously think about it.
Anyway, the parking lot was dimly lit by a single security
light at the back of the bar. I couldn’t actually see my victim’s head because
it was underneath the truck, in front of the enormous rear dual tires. I knew
it was there because I had visualized and planned the event carefully; it is
where I had laid him.
I waited.
(Excerpt 2)
So, to set the record straight, I decided to write this
book. Sorry for the errors. It’s an old typewriter.
Anyway, like I said, you could call me insane, but as you’ll
see, I don’t think that was an accurate representation. When you take a
reasonable action, that’s an act of sanity. Right? It’s all about
justification. And everything I did was sane, justified… holy, even.
Until…
Until that last one.
Until I changed.
Until I met a ‘need to’ that might have turned into a ‘want
to’.
There’s a difference between ‘need to’ (or ‘have to’) and a ‘want to’. That’s where the line had
always been drawn for me.
Maybe it was a straight fine line, but that’s the line
I crossed. I’m afraid, in retrospect, that I had mistaken a ‘need to’ for a
‘want to’.
FBI AGENT PAUL NEWSOME
The tall but stooped man pulled his coat tighter around him
as he walked down the dead black sidewalk. The thin New York overcoat was no
match for the darkest hours of a sharp, cold Utah morning.
His nerves wouldn’t let him sleep. Paul had never met the man,
but he knew him well. From what he had uncovered from research, Michael
Stammons had two minds: one, a complex, twisty but linear mind, capable of cold
and highly calculated acts of murder, but the other—at least in Michael’s
opinion—was straight and clear, woven with the threads of justification.
He turned and headed back toward the Salt Lake City Hilton,
through the islands of light from street lights that looked like amber stepping
stones on the concrete. It indeed was a path, each a chapter of a story he
would have to write. Chapter One would begin in the morning.
Part of Newsome’s anxiety was pure curiosity; how could a
monster like Michael exist? But there were two more profound questions:
Was he the right person?
Would he
do it?
(Excerpt 3)
NARRATIVE FROM MICHAEL STAMMONS
Here’s something you need to know—-it was one of the first
things he taught me when I was about five or six years old: there are good insects and bad insects. Just
like people, he would say.
The one thing he liked about his job, which he took very
seriously, was the freedom… it was actually more like responsibility… to kill
whatever insects he had deemed to be bad.
‘Roaches, Mikey,’ he would tell me, ‘roaches are bad insects.
Bad bugs. Not only do they deserve to be killed, but they welcome death.’
‘Why?’ I would ask.
‘Because they know
they’re bad, and they don’t like it any more than we like being bad. They’re trapped, and we provide an escape.’
Looking back, what broke me was a simple statement from my
dad: ‘James Killam is a bad bug.’
All the endless supply of shrinks agreed on one thing: I was
highly intelligent. I guess I am because when I started to plan Killam’s
murder, all the pieces fell into place very quickly. I had absorbed every bit
of knowledge from CSI, Law and Order, and every other crime show I could find.
NARRATIVE BY FBI AGENT PAUL NEWSOME
I SAT, LISTENING, TRANSFIXED by the story the young man
was unfolding. If I hadn’t known Michael Stammons, what he was capable of, what
he did—allegedly did—I would have been more enthralled. It was, however, a
struggle; the story and delivery were close to hypnotizing. The narrator’s
voice was unlikely, given the sinister appearance of its owner; it was both
soothing and rich. But the hard reality was that behind that dark, heavily
featured face and easy voice lived something both tortured and fascinating. At
least, I assumed so.
Profile
Mr. Freriks is a multiple award-winning novelist now living
in Nashville after 40 years in Tampa, Florida. An architect, a life-long
entrepreneur, businessman, inventor, open-water sailor, pilot, and writer, he
has authored twenty novels, mainly conspiracy and crime thrillers. However,
some of his award-winning books are in the genres of historical fiction,
science fiction, dystopian, and... well, hard to describe.
He is also the author of The Strong Startup, a clear and
functional road map to starting a business from just an idea. It is a guide for
early-stage entrepreneurs to make sure they have a salable product before they
build a business.
BACK STORY – BAD BUGS
Timothy Freriks
Several decades ago, when I was just starting out in my first
career, real estate, I hired a man whose full name I’d rather not share. I’ll
call him Robert. In those days, researching someone’s background was not easy;
I didn’t think to consult the police department. He had the right attitude and
history (I thought), was charismatic, seemed eager to learn and perform, and
seemed trustworthy.
Robert’s version of his past experience, I would find, was
total fiction. It didn’t matter at the time because he did have a considerable
ability to gain the trust of prospective tenants.
For two years, we worked together. Although quirks—mainly of
a sexual conquest nature—popped up, I ignored them. He appeared to be as normal
as anyone else.
Then, he was gone for a month. When he came back, he was
different, odd, and distracted. Coincidentally, or so I thought, a murder case
was under investigation in Cleveland. I don’t know how it came about, but we
got to talking about what it felt like to kill someone. Robert brightened oddly
and became engaged. He then focused on how he would kill someone—and why.
To him, killing someone who, in his opinion, deserved death
was an ‘act of love for the community’. To him, he was justified to believe
that philosophy and act on it. Again, in his words: ‘A murderer might be called
insane, but in his mind, he’s normal. Weird, right?’. The clear inference was
that taking the life of an evil person was honorable and justified, and it was
okay even though most people wouldn’t understand that.
I became quite disturbed, obviously. My partner and I decided
to fire him, but we were afraid to do so. It didn’t matter: shortly after that,
he was arrested for the murder I referenced above. And he was linked to another
murder a year before we met.
He was found innocent by reason of insanity. The last I
heard, he was still in a mental institution. But I never forgot—and never will forget—his chilling words. I have
always wondered what being inside his mind must have been like.
Timothy Freriks, author
Bad Bugs
Mr. Freriks is a multiple award-winning novelist now living in Nashville after 40 years in Tampa, Florida. An architect, a life-long entrepreneur, businessman, inventor, open-water sailor, pilot, and writer, he has authored twenty novels, mostly conspiracy and crime thrillers. However, some of his award-winning books are in the genres of historical fiction, science fiction, dystopian, and... well, hard to describe.
He is also the author of The Strong Startup, a clear and functional road map to starting a business from just an idea. It is a guide for early-stage entrepreneurs to make sure they have a salable product before they build a business.
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This looks like a thrilling read. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very intriguing read.
ReplyDeleteThe excerpt sounds really interesting. I like the cover and title.
ReplyDelete