by Gregg Olsen
I get up and pull a kitchen chair to the front door. I lock the door and wedge the chair back under the doorknob. I go to my office and open the desk drawer. Hayden’s right. The bottle is empty. He left the cap on top of my desk. I flick it into the trash can.
There’s part of a box of wine in the refrigerator. I get it and an empty jelly jar that I use for a cup and bring it back into the office. I twist the knob on the wine box and fill the jar with Zinfandel. “Zinfandel” rhymes with “Infidel,” sort of. And that’s how Hayden, fresh back from Afghanistan, makes me feel.
One minute I’m walking on air, realizing that Dan cares about me. The next I’m treated like I have an infectious disease by my brother.
I open the drawer where I keep the tape player and box of tapes. It doesn’t look disturbed, but I’ll have to buy a safe that I can bolt to the floor. Too many people know too much about me as it is.
I take the tape player out, slide a cassette into the slot, and hit “play.” While the tape reel catches up, I lean back and sip the wine.
Dr. A: You felt betrayed by Monique?
Me: Yes. Monique was the only real connection I had to a normal world. I’d lied to Hayden when I promised I’d be back for him and left him with my aunt Ginger. I was still on the run. The police in Port Orchard were still looking for me to ask about my stepfather’s murder. When I called Monique for help, it was because she was the only person I could turn to. When she told me she couldn’t help me anymore, I took it to mean she didn’t want to. And when I found out she gave away all the evidence we needed to prove Alex Rader was a serial killer, I think I hated her. She told me Michael Rader had threatened her and her children, but I was in a pinch myself. I wasn’t thinking about her safety.
Dr. A: But now you are?
Me: Yeah. I know she was scared. I don’t know what I would have done if someone threatened to hurt or kill Hayden. I guess I would have done the same thing. But at the time I couldn’t believe she was letting me down. To me it felt like a betrayal. My whole life was like that. Everyone I looked up to betrayed me in some way or other.
Dr. A: How are you dealing with it?
Me: I’m not. I’m just eating it like every other bad thing. Monique is a good woman. I can’t hate her. I can’t be mad at her. I can only be mad at myself for putting faith in her. In anyone.
I turn the tape off. I remember that session with Dr. Albright. I was still a little miffed at Monique back then for giving Michael Rader the evidence. I knew Dr. Albright expected me to be a grown-up about it, but I resented Monique offering to help me and then abandoning me. What I resented even more was that I could never talk to her again. Maybe I was fooling myself, but I thought we had become friends. I didn’t have any friends back then. Losing one was a slap in the face. Now I’ve lost her for good. Monique was a casualty of war. Collateral damage in the war that I have started with killers, evil people, monsters.
On the positive side, Ronnie is showing some promise. She took the psycho woman out without hesitation. I just hope she won’t start enjoying it.
And I think “Wallace,” my stalker, has been put to rest. I put my gun in the safe in my closet. I don’t feel the need to keep it next to me anymore. I put the tape player in the desk drawer and flop down on my bed. I’m drifting off to sleep when I hear my computer ding, indicating I have email. I ignore it. Tomorrow is another day. It’ll wait.
I’ll go see Rowena Perkins in the morning. I promised to tell her what happened. Maybe I’ll have some of her “special tea” and work on the fireman puzzle with her. And then I’ll spend the day with Dan. He’s given me a second chance and I have a feeling he’s better than a fireman puzzle.
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Books by Gregg Olsen
Detective Megan Carpenter series
Snow Creek
Water’s Edge
Silent Ridge
Lying Next to Me
The Last Thing She Ever Did
The Sound of Rain (Nicola Foster Thriller Book 1)
The Weight of Silence (Nicola Foster Thriller Book 2)
Available in audio
Detective Megan Carpenter series
Snow Creek (Available in the UK and the US)
Water’s Edge (Available in the UK and the US)
A Letter from Gregg
Dear reader,
I want to say a ginormous thank you for choosing to read Silent Ridge, the third book in the Detective Megan Carpenter series. If you did enjoy it and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, take a moment to sign up at the following link. Here’s a promise: Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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Detective Megan Carpenter is a rule breaker and a woman with a past. That combination propels her forward, while keeping a wary eye over her shoulder. She’s smart. She’s broken. She’s awesome. I’m thrilled to let you know that Megan will back for three more books. And with each one, the layers of this complex woman will be revealed. So hang on. Keep reading.
Keep rooting for Det. Carpenter.
I am.
I hope you loved Silent Ridge, 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,
Gregg
Snow Creek
Detective Megan Carpenter Book 1
Footprints were scattered about like fallen leaves. She looked down into the ravine, and once more her lungs filled with fear. A body, blackened and motionless lay splayed out in the bushes.
When Ruth Turner walks into the Sheriff’s office in Jefferson County’s Port Townsend claiming her sister Ida Watson has been missing for over a month, Detective Megan Carpenter’s instincts tell her that she needs to do more than just file a report.
Racing over to Ida’s secluded farmhouse in the hills above Snow Creek, Megan finds Ida’s teenage children alone and frightened. She can’t help but notice there’s no TV. No video games. Nothing of the outside world. Something about the Watson family doesn’t add up.
Then the body of a woman is discovered in an abandoned pickup truck close to the Watsons’ home and Megan’s convinced the cases are connected.
If she has any chance of catching the killer, Megan must first unravel the secrets of the isolated Snow Creek community.
But Megan has dark secrets of her own too. Hidden in the back of her closet is a box of tapes containing every single recording of her therapy sessions over thirteen years ago. Can she finally confront the past she’s spent years trying to block out? And will reliving her own painful story help her solve the complex case before another innocent life is lost?
From the Number One New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon Charts bestselling author, comes an absolutely heart-stopping and completely unputdownable crime series, introducing Detective Megan Carpenter.
Get it here!
Water’s Edge
Detective Megan Carpenter Book 2
The young woman’s body is lying with her arms stretched out to each side. Her lips slightly parted. Her face untouched by injury and her hair spread around her head like a fan. A redhead. Just like the others.
When the body of Leann Truitt is found in a secluded cove in Mystery Bay, Detective Megan Carpenter is one of the first on the scene. The victim has tell-tale marks on her wrists, ankles and neck where she has been bound. But that’s not all. Next to Leann’s body lies a p
uzzling clue—an unusual symbol scratched into a rock.
With rookie Deputy Ronnie Marsh under her wing and the investigation underway, Megan starts to receive disturbing messages. Someone knows about her traumatic past. They know what she did.
Determined to stay focused, Megan soon makes a chilling link between Leann’s brutal killing and the unsolved murder cases of two other women—all redheads with the same marks on their bodies, the same symbol carvings found at the crime scenes, and most shockingly, all had been pregnant.
The killer stalks his prey, kidnapping and torturing them in a very exact and methodical pattern. And he is not finished yet…
When the body of another woman is found bearing a striking resemblance to the other victims, Megan must crack the clues fast if she is to catch the twisted soul before they strike again.
Megan might be closing in on the killer, but someone is watching her every move. Can Megan hide the secrets of her past threatening to destroy her future? And can she protect herself and Ronnie before they both find themselves in terrible danger?
An addictive, gripping and completely unputdownable crime thriller from the Number One New York Times and Amazon Chart bestselling author.
Get it here!
We – both author and publisher – hope you enjoyed this book. We believe that you can become a reader at any time in your life, but we’d love your help to give the next generation a head start.
Did you know that 9% of children don’t have a book of their own in their home, rising to 13% in disadvantaged families*? We’d like to try to change that by asking you to consider the role you could play in helping to build readers of the future.
We’d love you to get involved by sharing, borrowing, reading, buying or talking about a book with a child in your life and spreading the love of reading. We want to make sure the next generation continues to have access to books, wherever they come from.
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*As reported by the National Literacy Trust
Published by Bookouture in 2020
An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Gregg Olsen, 2020
Gregg Olsen has asserted his 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: 978-1-80019-311-6
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.