Benjamin E Lacy

Shattered Diary Benjamin E Lacy

Thomas (Tom) Barton, therapist, forensic psychiatrist, and widower, aged 64, is on the verge of selling his psychiatric medical practice to his young associate, Gabriel Daniels, and moving to a quiet beach somewhere on the coast of South Carolina. But Barton's plans are interrupted when Gabe practically begs for help in deciphering the horrific and cryptic writings in a diary he receives from his patient, Jose Navarro. Reluctantly, Barton agrees and soon reaches out to his god-daughter Sandra Davis, the day-shift manager of the Richland County Mental Health Department where Navarro was previously a patient. Since his wife's passing, Sandra has been somewhat of a surrogate daughter to Barton, and a very important presence in his life. Barton learns from Sandra that Jose Navarro's high school counselor, Judy Doddsen, may have kept records that could help him in his research, except that Judy has been the victim of a terrible murder committed by her husband, Dr. Taylor Strickland, several years before. In an attempt to gain access to Dr. Strickland, Barton meets with Sergeant Cynthia Wainwright, but returns home to find very fresh blood-stained evidence in his house. Almost immediately, Barton learns from Captain Michael Deltonno, his closest friend, that the home of Gabe Daniels has been defiled in a grotesque display of violence and blood, and that Gabe is missing. His home now a crime scene, Barton stays with Sandra, but the killer follows him. Barton is attacked and hospitalized, and Sandra is violently abducted in the midst of the worst killing spree the Richland County Sheriff's Department has ever had to face. Captain Deltonno, Sergeant Wainwright, and their team of investigators and Deputy Sheriffs, frantically search for the missing Sandra, trying to stop the unseen murderer, while Barton struggles to decipher the hidden meanings in the Shattered Diary.