by D. K. Hood
Whisper in the Night
An absolutely heart-stopping serial killer thriller
D.K. Hood
Books by D.K. Hood
Don’t Tell A Soul
Bring Me Flowers
Follow Me Home
The Crying Season
Where Angels Fear
Whisper in the Night
AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
Don’t Tell A Soul (UK listeners | US listeners)
Bring Me Flowers (UK listeners | US listeners)
Follow Me Home (UK listeners | US listeners)
The Crying Season (UK listeners | US listeners)
Where Angels Fear (UK listeners | US listeners)
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Epilogue
Hear More From D.K. Hood
Books by D.K. Hood
A Letter from D.K. Hood
Don’t Tell a Soul
Bring Me Flowers
Follow Me Home
The Crying Season
Where Angels Fear
Acknowledgements
For my wonderful husband, who makes every day a new adventure.
Prologue
Sunday Night
“Daddy, there’s a man in my room.” Fear closed Lindy Rosen’s throat and her voice came out in a croak.
The soft chuckling from the gloom sent shivers down her spine. The figure floated toward her, cloaked in shadows like the Grim Reaper. She dragged leaden legs from the bed and, tripping over blankets, staggered to the door. The sinister figure by her window terrified her. Grasping the doorknob with trembling fingers, she threw open the door and fell into the dark passage, forcing out a cry. “Daddy, help me!”
Heart pounding, she stumbled along the hallway and fumbled for the light switch. “Daddy! He’s really here this time, I heard him.” She waved frantically behind her. “He’s laughing at me.”
“Calm down, you’ll wake your sisters.” Josh Rosen slipped from her parents’ bedroom and blinked into the light. “It’s just a nightmare, Lindy. No one can get inside, they’d trigger the alarm.” He squeezed her shoulder and walked into her room, turning on the light. “Come and see. Look – no one is here and no one can stand outside your window, it’s too high up.” He gave the room a quick scan then yawned. “If this keeps up I’m going to get you counseling. It’s not normal to be having recurring dreams all the time.”
Horrified he’d refused to believe her, she gripped his arm. “He was there this time. I heard him.”
“I used to dream about snakes eating me alive when I was a kid, so I know it seems real enough.” Her father rubbed his eyes. “Get back into bed and I’ll get the light. I’ve an early start in the morning.”
With reluctance, Lindy climbed back into bed, peering all around, expecting someone to appear out of the wall like magic. She’d turn fifteen in two weeks and wanted her parents to treat her like an adult. Waking her father over the past five nights hadn’t made her the most popular person in the house. She sighed. “Okay, I’m sorry to disturb you again. Night.”
“Night. Think of something nice. It will help.” Her father closed the door behind him.
As the room fell into darkness, Lindy pulled the blankets up to her neck and screwed her eyes shut. She forced her mind to concentrate on planning her birthday party. Sleep came so close she could almost grasp it. The warm bed surrounded her and she burrowed into the soft pillows, drifting into sleep. It was just a stupid dream.
Rustling close by woke her and the hairs rose on the back of her neck at the sound of soft chuckling. Shaking with terror, she opened her eyes wide and peeped over the blankets at the window, where the shadow of the man usually lurked. The moon shone through the drapes, spilling across her rug and landing on her backpack overflowing with schoolbooks. The room was empty. She must have been dreaming again. With a long sigh, she closed her eyes.
A heavy weight landed on her, pinning her beneath the blankets. Air rushed from her lungs and she stared into a horrific ski mask, unable to move. She took a breath to scream but a smelly cloth clamped over her nose and mouth so hard it hurt her teeth. Arms trapped, she tried to buck but couldn’t get the weight of him off her. Her mouth filled with something horrid and the strange flavor coated her tongue, burning her lungs as she fought for one tiny breath of air.
The backs of her eyes hurt and the faceless man holding her down seemed to melt into ripples. The laughter had stopped but now the man hummed the lullaby ‘Rock-a-bye Baby’. Head throbbing in time to the pulse in her eyes, she gasped in more of the foul odor. Using her last ounce of strength, she tried to fight him but her heavy limbs refused to move and her head filled with cotton. The sensation of floating away crept over her, as if sleep was calling her. She forced open her eyes but the man was a fuzzy blur, then the room faded away to black. Daddy, help me.
One
Monday
It was a few minutes before lunch, when Sheriff Jenna Alton slid from her cruiser and looked up into a cloudless blue sky. From her position, she could see the vast pine forest, fresh from the recent melt, spreading out in endless miles of various shades of green, and higher still a magnificent eagle circled high above the black mountain peaks. She inhaled the crisp clean air and smiled. Life was good in Black Rock Falls as sheriff and she didn’t regret leaving her old life as DEA Agent Avril Parker way behind. Her past life had become an unpleasant memory and her new identity close to ideal.
A big black unmarked SUV slid into the space beside her and she glanced at her second-in-command, Deputy David Kane, an off-the-grid Special Forces agent and profiler, like her living a new life under a different name. The powers that be had placed them and Kane’s controller, ME Shane Wolfe, together in the same backwoods town to watch each other’s backs. Jenna leaned against her vehicle, surrounded by the picturesque town she had grown to love, and smiled. “It’s been so wonderfully quiet since Christmas it
makes me happy to be here.”
“Shh.” Kane grinned at her over the hood of his vehicle. “You’re tempting fate.” He shut his door, and then headed up the steps to the sheriff’s department.
With reluctance, Jenna pushed away from her cruiser and followed him inside. She gave the receptionist, Magnolia (Maggie) Brewster, a smile and taken two steps toward her office door when Maggie held up a hand to stop her, then continued speaking into the phone. She leaned on the counter. “Is something wrong, Maggie?”
“I’ll put you straight through to the sheriff, Mr. Rosen.” Maggie covered the mouthpiece and her worried brown eyes moved to Jenna. “Mr. Rosen’s daughter’s gone missing.”
“Okay, I’ll take the call in my office.” Jenna waved at Kane to get his attention, and then pointed to her door. “Grab Rowley.”
Jenna had hired Jake Rowley as a rookie when she first arrived in Black Rock Falls. In the last couple of years, he had proven to be skilled and trustworthy. Not having a family herself, she valued the close-knit relationship she enjoyed with him, Kane, and Wolfe and his three daughters.
Seated behind her desk, she took a deep breath, opened her notebook and found a pen that worked before lifting the receiver and placing the phone on speaker. “Mr. Rosen, this is Sheriff Alton.”
“My daughter Lindy wasn’t in her room this morning and the front door was wide open. We’ve searched everywhere and can’t find her.”
“What time was this?”
“Seven.” He gave a distraught sob. “It’s my fault; she said someone was in her room last night. I didn’t believe her. I figure someone kidnapped her.”
Jenna took down notes. “How old is your daughter?”
“Fourteen.”
A too-familiar rush of dread hit Jenna. She took a breath and forced herself to concentrate. There was nothing worse than hearing a child had gone missing. “What time did she wake you and did you go check her room?”
“Of course I did. She’s been having the same dream for a week but there’s never anyone there. It was late, around midnight, I guess, I’m not sure.”
“Have you checked to make sure she isn’t at a friend’s house?” Jenna exchanged a glance with Kane. “Did she have any reason to want to run away?”
“No, she has no reason to run away. Look, Sheriff, someone’s taken her. We’ve called everyone and searched the ranch and she isn’t here or with any of her friends. I’m certain someone has abducted her. Lindy wouldn’t leave home without her cellphone. It’s never out of her hand. Her bed is a mess and the blankets are in a trail to the door, like someone dragged her out of bed. She’s only wearing her PJs and all her clothes are here. It was freezing last night and we’re miles from her friends.” He took a breath. “You have to listen to me. We can’t wait and see if she turns up, you have to do something now.”
The man was frantic and speaking fast to get his point across. Jenna frowned. “Okay, we’ll start a search immediately. Give me your contact information and a description of Lindy so I can get the ball rolling. What was she wearing?”
“Bright pink PJs with white bunnies on them.”
She made notes. “If you could email me a recent photograph of her, I’ll organize an AMBER Alert and search and rescue immediately. Don’t touch anything in her room. We’ll be right there to see if there’s any evidence of a break-in.” She gave him the sheriff’s department email address and her cellphone number.
“I’ll send her photograph right away.”
She disconnected and turned her attention to Rowley. “I’m leaving you in charge while I go with Kane to the Rosens’ residence. Take down what I need you to do.”
“Fire away, ma’am.” Rowley had his notebook open and pen raised.
Nerves rattled with the urgency required for a missing child, Jenna took a deep breath. If someone had abducted Lindy from her home as her father thought, then every second she delayed in searching was crucial. “Right now this is a missing girl, who’s likely a victim of a crime. Set up an AMBER Alert and a BOLO, then send out a media release. Contact search and rescue – they’ll be able to cover more ground. Register Lindy Rosen on the National Crime Information Center’s Missing Persons File. As soon as this story hits the media, you’ll have a flood of volunteers; call in Webber to assist you in organizing a ground search of a two-mile radius of her home. See if you can get a couple of forest wardens to assist.” She waited for him to stop writing. “Any questions?”
“Nope.” Rowley stood and hurried from the room.
Sorting priorities in her mind, Jenna picked up the phone. “Maggie, call the Blackwater and Louan sheriff’s departments and inform them we need assistance on a missing child case – we’ll need roadblocks set up north and south of the highway. Rowley has all the details.”
A missing child needed all the resources she could muster. She ran a hand through her hair, going down a mental list of things she needed to do. The first twenty-four hours were crucial. She called Wolfe to explain. “If it’s a kidnapping as Mr. Rosen suggests, we’ll need a phone tap or at least a phone to record calls and someone to stay with the parents. I’ll need Webber and I’ll pull in some deputies from Blackwater.”
“I’ll supply everything you need for the phone tap. Send me the coordinates and I’ll meet you at the Rosens’ to do a forensic sweep.” She could hear Wolfe throwing things into a bag. “Make sure the parents don’t touch anything.”
“Already done.” Jenna chewed on her bottom lip. “I’ll call in Walters to handle the phone tap.” Her semi-retired kindly deputy would be a good choice to remain with the family and monitor the calls. He’d also keep a record of everyone moving in and out of the house. “We’re leaving now.” She disconnected and frowned at Kane. “Remind me never to tempt fate again.”
* * *
On the drive to the Rosens’ ranch, Jenna received an update from Rowley. In the short time since they’d left the sheriff’s department, the local media’s broadcast of the missing girl had volunteers flocking into town to help search.
They took the sweeping driveway to the Rosens’ ranch-style house and Jenna scrutinized the surroundings. The house was part of Glacial Heights, a new spacious residential area on the outskirts of town opposite Stanton Forest. The houses, surrounded by landscaped gardens of over ten acres or more, were set far apart. The new development on this side of town was popular with the influx of people moving to Black Rock Falls. Mayor Petersham had cashed in on the flood of tourists following the town’s serial killer notoriety and announced contracts in his last budget for a ski resort, a whitewater rapids retreat, mountain bike adventures and a stack of new residential building projects.
Jenna glanced at Kane. “It’s hard to believe the upmarket side of town has spread this far north in such a short time.” She shook her head. “I wonder if the Rosens have security.”
“I can’t see any signs of a CCTV set-up on the perimeter and the gate is open.” Kane slowed his vehicle and scanned the area. “Not that surveillance would help. The expanse of trees surrounding the house would conceal an intruder moving in and out of the property.”
Jenna peered ahead. “The tire tracks overlap in the driveway as well. They must’ve had quite a few visitors recently. They’ll all make our list of suspects.”
“If the front door was open and the alarm deactivated, I’d say Lindy knew her kidnapper.” Kane pulled the truck to a halt and slid from the vehicle, then opened the back door and unclipped his bloodhound, Duke, from his harness. “Duke might be able to track her.”
Jenna bent to pat Duke on the head. “I’m sure he will.”
She glanced down the long driveway as a white van turned through the gate. “Ah good, Wolfe is here. I figured another set of eyes would help and Rowley told me he’s bringing Atohi Blackhawk with him as well.”
Jenna had known Atohi Blackhawk for some time. The Native American often came down from the res to work for Wolfe as a tracker and his knowledge of the local area was outs
tanding.
“How did he drag him down from the res so fast?” Kane slowed and parked on a gravel area close to the house.
“Sheer luck. Atohi pulled up as Wolfe was heading to his van. He’d heard about Lindy on his car radio and offered to help.” Jenna slid from the passenger seat. She had only just reached the steps when a man rushed out the door. She took in the man’s haggard appearance. “Mr. Rosen?” When the man nodded, she squeezed his arm. “We’re here to help find Lindy. May we speak inside?”
“Have you any news?” Rosen turned his grief-stricken expression to the vehicles in his driveway.
Jenna moved up the steps, keeping a comforting hand on Rosen’s arm. “Not yet but we’re here to help. This is Deputy Kane and our medical examiner, Shane Wolfe. Atohi Blackhawk has offered to take a look around too and see if he can pick up a trail where Lindy might have gone.”