Katie and Cisco made it to the doorway and she rolled outside on her back feeling the fresh air, the coolness of light rain on her face, and knew that she had faced her demons and won this time. She pushed herself up and continued to crawl away from the house.
The crackling flames continued to build with smoke expelling from every broken window and crack in the house. Was it too late?
Moments later, McGaven stumbled out the front door carrying the lifeless woman. Trying to control his coughing, he gently put her on the ground safely away from the house. She moved subtly and murmured incoherent words. He took off his jacket and covered her as she lay there.
“You okay?” he said to Katie, helping her to her feet.
She grimaced. “Yeah, we’re okay. You cut it a little close,” she said.
“I’ll work on that next time.”
The light from the fire lit up the entire street and cast an eerie red-orange glow around them.
As McGaven helped her up on her feet, she contorted from the pain, and he guided her out of harm’s way.
Cisco stayed right next to Katie and wouldn’t leave her side.
“Good boy, Cisco,” McGaven said, quickly checking him over.
“I tried to call it in…” she said.
“Don’t worry. I think I’ve dispatched every first responder—cops, ambulances, fire trucks, forensics. I think maybe the army too.” He held tightly to Katie. “Don’t move, okay? Let’s take a look at your side. We need to make sure the bleeding has stopped.”
“Just one question,” she said.
“Damn, that’s a nasty injury,” he said, ripping part of his shirt to press against the wound. “You might have a broken rib or two.”
“I have a question,” she insisted. “Hey! One question.”
“What’s that?”
“Is every cold case going to be as tough as this one?”
McGaven held her tight. “God help us.”
Looking for another nail-biting crime thriller that will keep you up all night? Katie returns in Flowers on Her Grave when a beloved member of her own family becomes a murder suspect. Order it now for another unputdownable roller coaster ride…
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Flowers on Her Grave
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On the floor, amongst the piles of freshly pressed laundry, lay the woman’s lifeless body, her pale yellow nightdress soaked in blood.
“I didn’t do it…” came a whisper from the corner of the room.
Detective Katie Scott has never seen two people more in love than her aunt and uncle as they danced together on the night of their wedding anniversary party. But the next morning, when Katie finds her aunt’s body sprawled across the floor, that perfect image is shattered forever.
All fingers point to Katie’s uncle, Pine Valley’s beloved sheriff and protector – after all, his prints are all over the antique knife found at the scene. Grieving, but certain of her uncle’s innocence, Katie is consigned to the cold case division after she’s discovered searching the house for clues. Does someone want to keep her as far away from this investigation as possible?
Ignoring warnings from her team, Katie digs into her uncle’s old case files and discovers photographs of the body of a young girl found tied to a tree after a hike in search of a rare flower. Her body is covered with the same unusual lacerations her aunt suffered. Katie knows it can’t be a coincidence, but every lead she follows takes her to a dead end.
Moments before the sheriff is arrested, Katie realizes that a single piece of thread she found at the crime scene could be the missing link that will stitch old crimes to new. But how can she prove her uncle’s innocence without throwing herself directly into the line of fire? She doesn’t have a choice, he’s the only family she has left…
A totally jaw-dropping crime thriller with an ending you will never see coming! Perfect for anyone who adores Lisa Regan, Rachel Caine and Melinda Leigh.
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Books by Jennifer Chase
Detective Katie Scott Series
Little Girls Sleeping
Her Last Whisper
Flowers on Her Grave
Emily Stone Series
Compulsion
Dead Game
Dark Mind
Dead Burn
Dark Pursuit
Dead Cold
Chip Palmer Series
Scene of the Crime
Body of the Crime
Standalones
Silent Partner
Short Stories
First Watch
Never Forgotten
Available in Audio
Little Girls Sleeping (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Last Whisper (Available in the UK and the US)
A Letter from Jennifer
I want to say a huge thank you for choosing to read Her Last Whisper. If you did enjoy it, and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, just sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Sign up here!
This is a special series for me, and I have enjoyed writing it. Forensics and criminal profiling have been something that I’ve studied considerably and to be able to incorporate aspects of them into a crime fiction novel has been a thrilling experience for me.
One of my favorite activities outside of writing has been various levels of dog training. I’m a dog lover—just in case you couldn’t tell by reading this book. I’ve loved creating a supporting canine character for my police detective.
I hope you loved Her Last Whisper and if you did I would be very grateful if you could write a review. I’d love to hear what you think, and it makes such a difference helping new readers to discover one of my books for the first time.
I love hearing from my readers—you can get in touch on my Facebook page, through Twitter, Goodreads, or my website.
Thanks,
Jennifer Chase
www.authorjenniferchase.com
Little Girls Sleeping
Order it now!
She looked at the smiling, eager face of the little girl in the photograph, with dark hair, bright-green eyes, a missing front tooth, and her entire life ahead of her. Chelsea was last seen walking back from a friend’s house one summer afternoon. She never made it home…
An eight-year-old girl, Chelsea Compton, is missing in Pine Valley, California and for Detective Katie Scott it’s a cruel reminder of the friend who disappeared from summer camp twenty years ago. Unable to shake the memories, Katie vows she won’t rest until she discovers what happened to Chelsea.
But as Katie starts to investigate – her PTSD flashbacks kept at bay with the help of her loyal ex-military dog, Cisco – the case reveals itself to be much bigger and more shocking than she feared. Deep in the forest, she unearths a makeshift cemetery: a row of graves, each with a brightly coloured teddy bear.
Tracing the silk lining the coffins, Katie links the graves to a stack of missing-persons cases involving young girls – finding a pattern no one else has managed to see. Someone in Pine Valley has been taking the town’s daughters for years, and Katie is the only one who can stop them.
And then another little girl goes missing, snatched from the park near her home…
Compulsive and gripping crime fiction for fans of Lisa Regan, Rachel Caine and Melinda Leigh. Katie Scott’s first case will have you on the edge of your seat and gasping with shock.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank my husband Mark for his steadfast support and for being my rock even when I had self-doubt. It’s not always easy living with a writer.
A very special thank you goes out to my law enforcement, police K9, forensic, and first-responder friends—there’s too many to list. Your friends
hips have meant the world to me. It has opened a whole new writing world and inspiration. I wouldn’t be able to bring my crime fiction stories to life if it wasn’t for all of you.
This continues to be a truly amazing writing experience. I would like to thank my publisher Bookouture and the fantastic staff for helping me to bring this book and the entire Detective Katie Scott series to life. A very special thank you to my editor Jessie Botterill—your unwavering support and amazing guidance has challenged me to become a better writer.
Published by Bookouture in 2019
An imprint of StoryFire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Jennifer Chase, 2019
Jennifer Chase has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-78681-831-7
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Her Last Whisper: An absolutely unputdownable crime thriller (Detective Katie Scott Book 2) Page 28