The Key

Ed Fitzgerald was a good cop who did everything by the book. Discovering a burglary in progress he attempts to apprehend the criminals. As he approaches one of the burglars, the fellow throws an open bottle of acid at Ed, who drops to the ground in pain and fires a shot which hits the criminal as he and his cohort escape from the area. When the two burglars are arrested and go to court, Ed becomes not only a victim of the crime but of the court system because he wounded one of the teen criminals. As a result, the teens each being 16 years of age, the two cannot be incarcerated.

They are released to their parents. Ed loses the sight in one eye, so he can no longer operate in the position as a police officer. He loses his job. Finally, he is then sued by the family of the injured teenager and as a result, he loses all of his savings.

Having nothing left, Ed takes a job with an armored car company and plans the perfect crime. He steals millions and makes a successful getaway. When he is caught, he is virtually penniless. He refuses to utter a word in court and is sentenced to twenty years inn prison where he dies in a riot.

Art Booker, a prison guard, is the only man Ed trusts because he has not probed, as other prisoners and prison administrators have done, about the whereabouts of the money. As he is dying, Ed gives Art clues to the location of the missing millions. Their whispered conversation is overheard and the chase is on from New England to Florida and the Cayman Islands. Author and former police officer Peter Mars has been faithful to the details of the story as they have been relayed to him by the people involved.