by T. L. Haddix
Streetlight Graphics Publishing
A division of Streetlight Graphics
Copyright 2010 by Tabatha L. Haddix
Manufactured in the United States of America
ISBN-13: 978-0-9845281-3-4
ISBN-10: 0-9845281-3-X
Revised Edition released: January 2012
Cover Layout and Design: Streetlight Graphics
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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“Under the moon’s shadow,
all creatures hide their indiscretions.
The truth grows impatient, waiting for the sun’s rays
to expose the skeletons revealed in the dark
the night before.”
- Anonymous -
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Cast of Characters
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty One
Chapter Thirty Two
Chapter Thirty Three
Chapter Thirty Four
Chapter Thirty Five
Chapter Thirty Six
Chapter Thirty Seven
Chapter Thirty Eight
Chapter Thirty Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty One
Chapter Forty Two
Chapter Forty Three
Chapter Forty Four
Chapter Forty Five
Chapter Forty Six
Chapter Forty Seven
Chapter Forty Eight
Chapter Forty Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty One
Chapter Fifty Two
Chapter Fifty Three
Chapter Fifty Four
Chapter Fifty Five
Chapter Fifty Six
Chapter Fifty Seven
Chapter Fifty Eight
Chapter Fifty Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty One
Chapter Sixty Two
Chapter Sixty Three
Chapter Sixty Four
Other books by T. L. Haddix
Acknowledgments
Cast of Characters
Beth Hudson—Intrepid reporter for the Olman County Journal, the newspaper owned by her grandfather, Sampson Olman. Younger sister of Chase and Jason Hudson.
Ethan Moore—Detective with the Olman County Sheriff’s Department. Best friend of Chase and Jason Hudson.
Jason Hudson—Deputy Sheriff. Brother of Beth Hudson.
Chase Hudson—Attorney. Brother of Beth Hudson.
Joely Hudson—Student. Sister of Beth Hudson.
Richard and Jackie Hudson—Dr. and Mrs. Hudson, parents of Chase, Jason, Beth and Joely.
Sampson Olman—Jackie’s father, owner of the newspaper.
Stella and James Moore—Ethan Moore’s mother and stepfather.
Annie Jameson Tucker—Owns Annie’s Arbor, flower shop. Best friends with Beth and with Lauren Clark. Half-sister of Charlie Clark.
Lauren Grant Clark—Owns the Brown Bag Café. Married to Charlie Clark.
Charlie Clark—Owns Clark Consulting, an internet-based security company.
Chad Ormsby—Doctor, fairly new to Leroy.
Stacy Kirchner—Detective with the Olman County Sheriff’s Department.
Galen Gordon—Mysterious man who suddenly appears in Beth Hudson’s life.
Wyatt Dixon – Sheriff of Olman County, Indiana.
Marshall Smith—Editor of the Olman County Journal.
Prologue
Beth Hudson opened her eyes to see a tiny, still-green leaf float past her face. It was moving slowly, that leaf, as though it had all the time in the world. She followed its movements, turning her head to watch when it caught on a tall, spiky stalk of grass.
There was a sudden pressure on her abdomen, accompanied by a pain like nothing she had ever felt before. The sharp burn left her gasping, her hand going to her belly. When a warm hand curled around hers, she looked up and saw Cullen Jarvis leaning over her, his face tense with worry. He was speaking, but she couldn’t make sense of the words through the roar in her ears. She tried to lift an arm toward him, but when a second pain spiked its way through her shoulder, she dropped her arm back down to her side. He moved her legs, bending them at the knees, and some of the pain in her abdomen dissipated. She tried to thank him, but everything faded around her, and just that quickly, the world went black.
The next time she opened her eyes, her brother Jason hovered above her where Cullen had been before. To her surprise, his cheeks were wet with tears.
“Why are you crying?” He didn’t answer, and she realized that she hadn’t asked the question aloud.
Suddenly, two EMTs appeared. They surrounded her, and as one shined a light in her eyes, her sluggish mind started putting the puzzle pieces together. Obviously, she was hurt, and from Jason’s reaction, the injury was serious. She tried to remember what she had been doing earlier.
Maybe if I close my eyes, she thought. The quick flashback to the floor of a dirty van startled her. She remembered hearing the sound of mean laughter, and then the memory of facing the wrong end of a rifle barrel. The truth settled in around her with painful clarity. Her injuries weren’t the result of a car wreck or an accident on the farm. The pains in her shoulder and her abdomen had not been caused by a fall or some other benign mishap. She had been shot.
Chapter One
A few weeks earlier…
The Monday-morning staff meeting at the Olman County Journal had ended, and Beth was heading back down to her desk after a quick, private meeting with her editor.
“The mayor’s upset,” Marshall told her. “I got an early wake-up call this morning. The article on the budget kickbacks for the animal shelter? It stirred up the hornet’s nest we predicted it would.”
“Well, we prepared for that eventuality,” she said. “Let them do their worst. Like you said last week, it’ll be good for pu
blicity.”
Marshall laughed. “True. So tell me about this Cullen Jarvis thing – I know you don’t want to believe he’s hallucinating.”
Early that morning, Beth had been called out to Randy and Cullen Jarvis’s farm, just outside Leroy. For several weeks now Cullen, along with several other local farmers, had been reporting mysterious lights in their fields at night. The next day when the scenes were investigated, evidence of trespassers would usually be found. Most of the damage was minimal, a few rows of flattened corn or beans, but some was more sinister. Three farmers had found remnants of what looked like Satanic altars.
Cullen, however, had yet to produce any evidence his sightings were more than the hallucinations of a paranoid schizophrenic.
“No, I don’t. If he was the only one reporting these incidents, I could see it all being in his head, maybe. But with all these other farmers experiencing similar occurrences? I don’t believe in coincidence.”
Leaning back in his chair, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Me either. Look, you usually have good instincts about these things. I can’t authorize you to focus only on Cullen, but if you get any spare time, run with it. See where it leads.”
“Okay. Thanks, Marshall.”
His willingness to let his reporters follow leads that might not result in anything more than an anecdotal story to share over drinks was one of the qualities Beth respected most about Marshall. It made her job as one of the newspaper’s senior reporters that much easier.
As she reached her desk, she was surprised to find a large bouquet of fully-bloomed red roses sitting on its surface. When she removed the card, she bent to sniff the velvety petals, despite knowing their perfume was probably gone after exposure to the florist’s coolers. The card was blank, but the flowers had come from Annie’s Arbor, the local flower shop owned by one of Beth’s best friends, Annie Jameson Tucker.
“Who’re they from?” Alicia asked. The newsroom assistant came over to smell the arrangement much as Beth had.
“I don’t know.” She turned the card around and showed Alicia the blank interior. “They’re from Annie’s shop, but the card isn’t signed.”
“Ooh, a secret admirer. How romantic,” she teased. Beth stuck her tongue out at the young woman and smiled back. When Alicia’s phone rang and she excused herself to answer it, Beth sat down, picked up her own phone and dialed.
“Annie’s Arbor,” her friend answered, sounding distracted.
“It’s me. Who sent these roses? The card’s blank.”
“Oh, hey,” Annie said. “I don’t know. The order came in last night over the website, and it was paid through an anonymous Internet account. Don’t you know who sent them?”
“Well, no. Not really.” She frowned, puzzled. There were at least two dozen blooms in the arrangement, so it hadn’t been cheap.
“What about Dr. Smooth?” Annie asked. Chad Ormsby, one of Leroy’s newest doctors, had been pursuing Beth somewhat relentlessly in recent weeks. “Think they could be from him?”
“I doubt it,” she replied dryly. “His style is more direct, more ‘let me drag you off to my elegant and expensive penthouse cave.’”
Annie snorted, not bothering to hide her laughter, and Beth found herself laughing, as well. “Anyhow, I suppose I’ll find out eventually who sent them. Shoot, I wouldn’t put it past Jason to have done it just for kicks and giggles.”
Her friend sobered. “I don’t know, Beth. That’s an expensive bouquet for a prank. Besides, your brother would be more likely to send beheaded daisies or horse weed. Think maybe Ethan sent them?”
“Not even on a bet. I’ll figure it out sooner or later, I suppose.” Changing the subject, she asked if there were any loose ends they needed to tie up before the bridal shower that evening. Their best friend, Lauren Grant, was getting married to Annie’s half-brother, Charlie Clark, on Saturday.
“As far as I know, everything is on schedule. We’re supposed to be at Molly and Win’s by five thirty, so make sure you watch the time.”
“I’ll be there, don’t worry. I wouldn’t miss this for anything.” After going over a few last-minute details, she finished the call and hung up, but not before Annie asked her one last time about the flowers.
“You going to keep them?”
She hesitated, eyeing the arrangement. “They are awfully pretty, but I don’t know. They just creep me out for some reason. I think I’ll take them up to Vanessa and let everyone enjoy them.”
Once she hung up, Alicia came back over. She reached out and gently touched a petal. “So who sent the roses?”
“I have no idea, and neither does Annie. To tell you the truth, they give me the heebie jeebies. Would you mind taking them? They’re too pretty to just throw out, but I swear I don’t think I can stand to keep them on my desk.”
“Seriously?” Alicia asked, her eyes widening. Beth nodded and waved her hand toward the arrangement. The other woman’s face lit up as she picked up the vase and cradled it close. “Thank you. I love flowers,” the girl told her as she headed back to her own desk.
The phone rang and Beth answered it. It was the school board source she had been waiting to hear from. She gave the roses another brief thought as she reached for her notebook, and then put them out of her mind. There would be plenty time later to ponder the mysterious flower delivery, but right now she had work to get to.
Chapter Two
When she went through the door into the sheriff’s department on Thursday afternoon, Beth was feeling somewhat wilted. The temperatures had heated up to nearly unbearable levels, along with the humidity, and the whole town was suffering from the heat wave. She greeted the older woman seated at the reception desk.
“Neva, how are you?”
“I’m doing just fine, young lady. You? Is it still miserably hot out there?”
Neva Brewer had been a fixture in the department for over forty years, working through more than four administrations. Wyatt Dixon, the current sheriff, swore that if Neva ever left, the department would come to a screeching halt. Though different men had worn the badge of sheriff through the years, Neva was really the one in charge and they all knew it.
“It’s awful. If it gets much hotter, I’m running away from home for a while. Thank God summer is almost over,” Beth said, using the paper she held in her hand as a fan.
“I hear you, honey. Our poor deputies have really suffered this year. So are you here to see your brother?”
“No, I’m meeting Stacy. Do you mind letting her know I’m here?”
“Of course not.” She picked up her phone and relayed the message. “She’ll be right out,” she told Beth.
Within a few seconds, the door to the bullpen opened and Stacy came out, followed by Detective Ethan Moore. When the tall, dark-haired man saw Beth standing beside Neva’s desk, he frowned.
“What are you doing here?”
Her chin lifted. “I’m here to see Stacy. Is that a problem, Detective?”
Ethan moved to stand in front of her, not stopping until less than one foot of space separated their bodies. “Well, you’ll forgive me for wondering, since I seem to trip over you every time I turn around lately.”
Hands on hips, Beth moved even closer. “Then maybe you should watch where you’re stepping.”
Outraged, he laughed. “Me? I’m not the one who -.”
Neva quickly stood and came to push them apart, not letting him finish. “Let’s give each other some room, now,” she said, facing Ethan. “And not say something we’re going to regret later, when common sense kicks in.”
With a low growl, he gave Beth another dirty look and brushed past her on his way out the door. “I’ll be out at Frazier’s Grove if anyone needs me.”
Beth snorted. Hearing that, he turned to come back in, causing Neva to have to step between them again.
“Neva, we might have to make them kiss and make up,” Stacy said. “Isn’t that what you do with children who won’t behave?”
Ethan shot the other detective an appalled look. “What? Hell, no. Are you crazy? I’m not kissing her.”
Beth gasped, hurt and more than angry enough to draw blood, but before she could respond, Ethan stalked out the door. He narrowly avoided a collision with Jason Hudson as he went. Jason stood staring after his friend for a minute and shook his head.
“What was that all about?” Seeing his sister’s fierce scowl, he sighed. “You really have to stop baiting him. He’s getting downright intolerable these days. I had to go out on a run with him yesterday, and he just about bit my head off when your name came up in conversation.”
“Why do you always assume I’m the one who upset him?” Beth demanded, fighting tears as her anger faded into hurt.
Jason held his hands up in a conciliatory manner. “I’m sorry. You’re right. So what set him off this time?”
“He jumped all over me because I happened to be standing here when he came out with Stacy.”
Stacy sighed. “That last bit was my fault, and I’m sorry,” she told Beth, the regret obvious on her face. “I didn’t think he’d go over the top like that because I joked that we might have to make you kiss and make up.”