Harlequin Romantic Suspense April 2021 by Karen Whiddon (interesting books to read for teens TXT) 📕

“Was he one of the mountain bikers who were there yesterday?” Liam asked. “He looks familiar.”

Luis nodded. “He was.” On the screen, Tom stood, swaying slightly. “And this,” he continued, “is an unknown blonde female, who Tom’s friend described as ‘friendly.’” He hooked air quotes around the last word. “Kissing him. Running his hands over his chest.”

“Damn,” Wyatt whispered. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that was Darcy Owens.”

“We noticed the similarities, too.” Julia opened and closed her injured hand as the couple staggered down the hallway. The vantage point on the screen changed. Tom and his companion stood in front of the door to his room. “Our victim goes into the room with the blonde. I don’t want to assume anything—perhaps there’s another reason that Tom had half of a two-dollar bill in his wallet. But this time would give the woman an opportunity to plant the bill, if she wanted.” The door opened a moment later. “Tom and his lady friend then leave the hotel and Tom isn’t seen again until this morning, when he’s a corpse.”

“And never once do we see the woman’s face,” said Marcus.

“Correct,” said Julia. “Katarina, can you look through the video, see if you can catch a reflection? Can you check the footage from the other email, as well?”

“I’ll look through it all and see what I can find.”

“I have my guys searching Tom’s room right now,” Julia continued, moving the meeting along. “I hope we can get the woman’s prints off of something. Then again, she avoided all security cameras in the hotel, so I’m not hopeful that she accidentally touched a surface.” Her phone began to vibrate with an incoming call. She glanced at her phone. Caller ID read Mom.

Damn. She hadn’t gotten a chance to return her mother’s call. After sending the call to voice mail, Julia turned back to the meeting. “I’ll coordinate all parts of the investigation, and right now we aren’t going to presume anything about this case. We don’t even have a cause of death yet,” Julia continued.

“I’m a tracker, not a cop,” said Liam. “And I get that if we make assumptions, then we find clues that fit our narrative. But how many more clues do we need? Even without finding the two-dollar bill, ripped in half—the same damn thing Darcy left with each of her victims—I’d say there were a lot of links between her victims and this one.”

“I agree,” said Wyatt.

Julia knew Wyatt’s story well. When Wyatt Thornton had been an FBI agent, working on finding an unknown serial killer in Las Vegas, his career had been ruined when the wrong person was charged. After leaving the Bureau, he moved to Pleasant Pines. Even if Wyatt was done with law enforcement, the killer wasn’t through with him. A body had been found on his property, and Wyatt was drawn into the investigation. That killer was Darcy Owens. She’d taken the life of the long-time town sheriff, and damn near killed Wyatt’s girlfriend, Everly Baker. “Is it a copycat? Or the accessory who helped her get the job at the White Wind?”

Julia didn’t like either option, yet she knew that Wyatt and Liam were most likely right. Turning to Chloe, she said, “Darcy’s in jail, waiting for trial. You’ve had her interviewed by a psychologist. What has your office learned?”

“Not much,” she said. “She’s admitted to killing William Dawson. But that’s it.”

“Could Darcy have shared the facts about the two-dollar bill with someone else?” Julia asked. “Maybe someone who’s visited her?”

“Beyond her attorney and psychologist, she hasn’t had any visitors. Whatever she says to her attorney is privileged, but we have audio from all her interviews with the psychologist. Nothing’s been mentioned about the bills or getting a message to anyone else.”

“The attorney?”

“He’s a straight shooter,” said Chloe. “He’d never enter into a conspiracy to commit murder.”

“Internet access?” Wyatt asked. “Could she be sending emails?”

“None at all,” said Chloe. “She’s never around other inmates, either. So it’d be impossible for her to pass a message to one of them.”

After a beat, Marcus asked, “What do you want from RMJ, Julia?”

“I need everyone in Tom’s group interviewed,” said Julia. “Hell, I need to find everyone who was in that pub last night.”

Marcus said, “RMJ can handle the interviews. Liam. Wyatt. Me. We’re on it.”

“And Luis?” she asked.

“Luis will stay with you. He’ll be RMJ’s lead.”

The last thing Julia wanted was for Luis to be her partner on the case. It had nothing to do with his investigative skills. In fact, his years as a detective in Denver made him the perfect investigator for the murder case.

But both Luis and Julia knew she was injured—maimed for life. She also knew she needed help with the investigation, just like she might need help with her job. It was just that she loathed the idea of Luis seeing her as weak...or needy. In fact, knowing that Luis pitied her might cause the biggest wound of them all.

CHAPTER 5

Peter Knowles sat at his desk, a phone to his ear. On the other end of the call was the local funeral director, Cheryl Sams.

“I’m working on the next issue of the paper,” he said. “And am wondering if you’ve got an obit ready for me?”

“An obituary?” Her voice rose with the question. “Why would I have one of those? Who died?”

Peter wasn’t surprised that Cheryl knew nothing of the body. But his lack of shock left his stomach and chest burning. He reached for a bottle of antacids at the back of his desk and popped two in his mouth. Chewing, he said, “The coroner’s van was at the gazebo first thing this morning.”

“Nobody called me to pick up a body. I wonder who it is? And what happened?”

What happened, indeed. “Let me know if you get the call. I’ll save space in the section.” Then he hung up.

Peter had been honest with Cheryl...and he hadn’t. He was working on the