by L V Gaudet
I can’t tell him, Beth thinks. He will completely lose it. He already lost it over finding out Michael played him; that his partner, Michael Underwood, is a fictitious identity; a clever con.
“Beth, don’t hide it from me. There is more. What is it?”
“Jim,” her voice is hesitant, her mouth open to make herself keep breathing, and her eyes anxious.
“Marjory McAllister vanished.”
“What do you mean she vanished?”
“She is missing from the nursing home.”
“How? What happened?”
“There was a commotion at the nursing home. One of the patients got up and pressed the emergency release on a fire exit in the lockdown wing for Alzheimer patients. When the alarm sounded it was chaos. The alarm sent an automatic signal to emergency and fire trucks were dispatched. There were fire crews coming in and out of every door clearing the building. When they finally sorted the patients all out and put them back to bed two patients were missing.”
“Marjory.” Jim’s voice is definitive. He pauses. It’s probably irrelevant, he thinks. “Who else?”
“A Mrs. Rose Bheals. She has no relation to the McAllisters.”
“Probably an accident or a diversion,” Jim decides.
“You don’t think Marjory vanishing is an accident, do you?” Beth asks.
“No. William visited his wife very day. He is not going to vanish without taking her with him.”
“He kidnapped his wife.” Beth’s voice still holds the strain of the shock she felt when everything fell in her lap.
She taps her gnawed on red-painted fingernails on a thin closed file on her desk.
“He broke her out,” Jim says.
Jim remembers the care home with its very un-charming attempted false Southern charm. The frightening Miss Krueger, Director of the Bayburry Street Geriatric Home, and the cold mental ward hospital feel of the lockdown ward with the moaning and wailing patients wandering in states of confusion and distress.
“Beth, remind me to never get old.”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
“Jim,” Beth’s voice is hesitant again, unsure.
“What is it?”
“There is something else.”
The line goes silent. Jim is just about to speak when Beth’s voice comes back. She speaks quickly, in a hurry to get the words out before she changes her mind.
“I ran the DNA through some database searches with other departments in other jurisdictions.”
I don’t like where this is going, Jim thinks.
“Jim, I got multiple hits.”
Other books by L.V. Gaudet:
The McAllister Series:
Where the Bodies Are
Are you ready to step into the twisted mind of a killer? What kind of dark secret pushes a man to commit the unimaginable, even as he is sickened by his own actions?
A young woman is found discarded with the trash, left for dead. More bodies begin to appear, left where they are sure to be found and cause a media frenzy.
The killer's reality blurs between past and present with a compulsion driven by a dark secret locked in a fractured mind. Overcome by a blind rage that leaves him wallowing in remorse with the bodies of victim after victim, he is desperate to stop killing.
The search for the killer will lead to his dark secret buried in the past, something larger than a man on a killing spree.
The McAllister Farm
Take a step back into time to meet the boy who will create the killer and learn the secret behind the bodies in Where the Bodies Are.
William McAllister is a private and reclusive man who does not like to have attention drawn on his family. His family history is as dark as the secret hiding in the woods.
Just as he begins to bring his troubled son into the family business, a serial killer starts preying on local young women. The McAllisters quickly find themselves drawn into the spotlight when the town decides William McAllister is the killer.
The attention is a threat to both William McAllister's profession and his family. He has no choice but to find the killer himself.
He might not like what he learns.
Hunting Michael Underwood
Hunting Michael Underwood follows on the heels of book one, Where the Bodies Are, bringing the first two stories and their characters together as the search for the killer continues.
Step deeper into the twisted mind of a killer as he slips further into madness.
Michael Underwood has vanished and everyone is searching for him. Detective Jim McNelly is determined to not stop until he finds him. Working with the detective, Lawrence Hawkworth is still chasing the bigger story he knows is behind the bodies. Jason McAllister knows he must stop the killer he created before he goes too far. He may be the only one who can stop him.
Unable to let go of his barely remembered past and the search for his sister, the killer goes looking for Jason McAllister’s past and his family.
Killing David McAllister
Sometimes the only way to stop a monster is to kill it. He has gone by many names, but he was raised as David McAllister, and finding what he is looking for is not enough to quiet the darkness inside him.
Other Books:
Garden Grove
Who wants to stop construction at the new Garden Grove residential development? Everyone, it seems. Garden Grove is a hotbed of complications from costly mistakes and petty vandalism to sabotage and the poisoning of the work crew.
While the construction crew struggles to stay on schedule, they face growing problems and, with them, an increasing sense of unease.
A group of local housewives drawn into the growing mystery uncover a secret that brings Garden Grove deeper into a new mystery connecting all the suspects.
When all attempts to have the site shut down permanently fail, two long time local elderly residents step up their own efforts. Each with their own family secrets, the pair of quirky old birds are pitted against each other and their longstanding family feud is brought to the boiling point.
The mystery deepens with the discovery of old human remains that have their own dark past recently planted at the jobsite.
The Gypsy Queen
(1952)
When a young man with an enthusiasm for get rich quick schemes discovers an old abandoned paddle wheel river steam boat, he has dreams of the riches and glamour she will bring.
His best friend and unwilling business partner sees only rot, decay, and their ruination in the old boat.
Struggling to rebuild her, they are pitted against everyone from the Shipbuilders’ Union to the local casino boss. Meanwhile, strange accidents and a sense of dread falls on those who enter the boat as she awakens with a hunger for her ounce of blood.
The Gypsy Queen's dark past will not be forgotten.
About the Author
L.V. Gaudet is a Canadian author, a member of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild since 1993, the Horror Writers Association, and Authors of Manitoba.
L.V. grew up with a love of the darker side; sneaking down to the basement at night to watch the old horror B movies, Vincent Price being a favourite; devouring books by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and other horror authors; and has had a passion for books and the idea of creating stories and worlds a person can get lost in since reading that first novel.
This love of storytelling has this author working writing and editing into a busy life that includes a full time job, family, and doing the little things to help the writing community including offering encouragement to others in the online writing community and volunteering time helping with the Manitoba Writers’ Guild Facebook presence, proofreading for the HWA newsletter, and visiting schools for I Love to Read month.
L.V. Gaudet currently lives in Winnipeg with two rescue dogs, spouse, and kids.
Hunting Michael Underwood
The McAllister Series Book 3
Detective Jim McNelly is furious. Detective Michael Underwood disappeared wit
hout a trace with the only living witness to the McAllister murders. Worse, Michael is not who he pretended to be. And then the other shoe fell.
Jason T. McAllister, tried and convicted of the kidnapping and murders of multiple women and the prime suspect behind the bodies discovered in the woods behind the McAllister farm, is being inexplicably set free. He will not spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jim is determined to find Michael Underwood, bring him down, and discover the truth about who he really is and what his connection to Jason McAllister is.
Working with his long time friend, the notoriously unscrupulous investigative reporter Lawrence Hawkworth, Jim will not stop until he finds Michael and the answers to the bodies found in the mass graveyard in the woods behind the McAllister Farm.
Jason McAllister knows he must stop the real killer behind the murders he was convicted for. As the killer spirals further into madness, Jason is the only one who can stop him. But, he needs help. He is going to have to talk to his father, William McAllister, the man who taught him how to hide the bodies.
Michael Underwood and Katherine Kingslow are on the run. A victim of domestic abuse and only known survivor of the McAllister Farm killer, Kathy has lapsed into Stockholm syndrome. Now she is torn between her need to be with her captor and fear of his escalating psychotic episodes.
Everyone is hunting for Michael Underwood.