Rene Natan

The Bricklayer Rene Natan

Underneath the usual activities of a successful construction company, The Werkstein, lurk fraud, deception and murder. This all starts when Frederick Elliot Dalton, the owner of The Werkstein hires Moira Johnson, a female engineer in his otherwise all-male company. Fred knows that her presence can create problems, but he never expects it to trigger a chain of seemingly accidental deaths. Slowly, Fred becomes a blip on the police?s radar as anonymous calls accuse him of having been involved in his wife?s death and befriending people of dubious repute. There is Nicholas Falcone who accidentally steals from the mob; Theresa Wilson who would lie and cheat to marry recently-widowed Fred; Alain Alstein, a price estimator who rigs the bids and Moira Johnson who was once a suspect in a murder case. Fred takes veiled accusations and interviews in stride, practicing, in his free time, trap shooting. However, in the eyes of Detective Gordon Stevenson of the London Police Service (London, Ontario), Fred?s poised demeanor reinforces his suspicion instead of appeasing it. Stevenson can?t get concrete results and his frustration reaches peaks when Fred takes lessons on trap shooting from Constable Peggy O?Brian of his own Investigative Unit. Fred doesn?t stop there; he openly romances Peggy, a fact that Stevenson interprets as a challenge. When another death occurs?this time clearly a homicide?Stevenson has to act quickly, ignoring all consequences.