Crime Cafe

Debbi Mack reads Chapter 7 of her New York Times bestselling hardboiled mystery, Identity Crisis, on the Crime Cafe podcast. Here's the text of the reading: CHAPTER SEVEN By the time I recovered my wind, they’d gagged me and tied my hands behind my back. The rope was tight, making my wrists hurt. Having my arms stretched back was awkward, forcing me to use muscles I’d not used in ages. The car’s air conditioning was on full blast. I was freezing and sweating like a pig. On the whole, it was not an ideal arrangement. They took me somewhere. I can’t tell you where. I can’t even tell you how long it took. A blindfold takes away all sense of place and time. Being terrified doesn’t make things much better. When we finally got to wherever the hell we went, they guided me out of the car with hands gripping both my arms. We marched a few yards, then stopped. I heard the jingle of keys. No one spoke. A door opened and we went inside. The floor was hard and the only sound was the faint echo of our footsteps. We wa