The Elephants Graveyard

Book excerpt: The Elephants Graveyard is like an epitaph without a tombstone.--Officer Kevin Martin, SFPD The Elephants Graveyard is the city's skid row--the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. It's a purgatory for the junkies and shadowy characters that frequent the dark alleys, bars, and fleabag hotels on the dark side of the city by the bay. But to some, it's a sacred place to hide out, to fall off the face of God's green earth, and never be found. And like the old African elephants who journeyed to a secret place to die, Rooster journeyed into the Tenderloin, and his bones will never be found. Sean Patrick Murphy walked into the Mill Valley Police Department for the first time back in 1971. Things were different back then, and had he known what he knows now, he would have turned around and walked right back out the door. Mill Valley was the best-kept secret in Marin County. White powder cocaine, marijuana, hot-tub orgies, and rock 'n' roll were all part of the scene. It was all fun and games until the Colombians moved in and ruined everything. The Sweetwater Bar took over as the West Coast cocaine connection, and the Medellín cartel started murdering anyone who stood in their way, including police officers. The twisting tale of corruption and greed took Murphy into the seedy underworld of a life he came to loathe. It was the drugs, extortion, philandering, and a ruined relationship that turned his life into a living hell. But somewhere along the way, Rooster snapped out of the slump he had fallen into. By the late seventies, the Colombians had been driven out of Mill Valley and into hiding. The Sweetwater Bar had been shut down, and top-ranking police officials had become the target of a federal RICO investigation. A special task force led by Officer Sean Murphy, dubbed "Rooster" by his peers, and the FBI went after the bad guys with a vengeance. And the dirty cops on the MVPD were on the top of list. By 1980, the United States attorney had indicted all of the players in the RICO investigation--Colombians and cops. But the Colombians and the owner of the Sweetwater, Lance Larkin, had fled to Bogotá and into the arms of the feared drug lord, Pablo Valencia. Finally, in 1982, extradition warrants were issued, charging Javier Valencia (son of Pablo Valencia) and Lance Larkin with racketeering, drug dealing, and murder. But the Colombians reacted violently, beheading a Supreme Court justice and vowing to kill everyone connected to the investigation. It was trouble all right. But when the Colombians crossed the line and kidnapped Rooster's four-year-old daughter, everything changed. All bets were off. And it didn't take long for the Colombians to become the victims. The Elephants Graveyard is the sequel to Rooster: A Badge, Gun, and Heartache.