A Reagan Keeter Box Set: Three page-turning thrillers that will leave you wondering who you can trus Reagan Keeter (most difficult books to read TXT) 📖

David had assured her once her ex was caught he’d be able to talk Liam into selling his share of the business and under the terms of their divorce she was obligated to receive a portion of that sale. The money would go far enough in Chicago, but in Mississippi, it would go even further.

When the doorbell rang, Catherine expected it to be Jehovah’s Witnesses or a door-to-door salesman. (She was surprised they still existed but had seen several even in the last year or two.) She ignored it. It rang again, followed by several loud knocks.

She went to the door with the intention of shooing her unwanted visitor away, only to find Bash on the other side, flanked by uniformed officers.

“Well, this is unexpected,” she said. “Liam isn’t here, you know.”

Bash entered the home without waiting to be asked. “We’re not here about him.”

When he tried to tell her she was under arrest, she began to scream and curse so loud she couldn’t hear him. He shouted for the officers to restrain her, pushing her to the wall and wrestling her arms behind her back.

She didn’t stop fighting until the cuffs locked into place.

Liam Parker

The Tesla had survived the impound lot with little more than a scratch.

Liam took it to pick up the kids after school, but found only Tommy where he was supposed to be.

“Where’s Mom?” Tommy asked as he climbed into the back seat.

“You’re staying with me tonight,” Liam said, opting for a simple explanation for now. Then he called Alice. He worried that she wouldn’t answer, that something new had happened to her and it wasn’t really over. But she did.

“I just needed a little time by myself,” she said.

Liam understood. She’d probably need a lot more than that in the coming months to get over what Rick had done to her.

“Dad, are you . . . ?”

Liam wasn’t sure exactly where the unfinished question would have led, but he got the gist. “It’s all okay now.”

“I’m glad.”

He picked her up at a McDonald’s and took both kids home. Elise’s Pomeranian, Chloe, was already there; Bash had worked out getting the dog from David’s condo. Happy as could be, she waddled out when Liam opened the door and sniffed first his shoes, then the kids, and looked up at all three of them, panting. Liam felt a small pang in his heart thinking about all the times she’d done that when he’d gone to see Elise.

“Say welcome to the newest addition to our family,” Liam said.

Both kids dropped to the floor with oohs and ahhs, petting the dog, scratching her behind the ears.

“What’s her name?” Tommy asked.

Liam smiled. “Chloe.”

Alice picked up Chloe and kissed her on the nose. It looked to Liam as if having the dog in her arms made her feel a little better.

The doorman was right—the kids were going to love Chloe.

And Elise, if she was looking down, would love seeing Chloe in their care.

That night, Liam sat both kids down and told them they would be living with him from then on. There were a lot of questions. Most answers he gave were vague. Some details he clarified for Alice after Tommy had gone to bed.

One thing he didn’t tell her about, though, was what had happened when he went to confront David and exactly how he had proven his innocence.

Liam had called Anita as he left Ava’s. He gave her the rundown and asked if she could skip out of work. She said she could find a way. Then he asked her to reach out to Ryan Reyes. Liam knew that if David admitted to anything at all he wouldn’t do it with anyone else around, certainly not a cop. He wanted her to find out if the PI had a way to record the conversation. Something better than the built-in voice recorder on most phones. (His TracFone didn’t even have a basic one.) Liam wanted to make sure the audio wouldn’t be lost if, say, David found out what he was up to and dropped Liam’s phone out the window.

It took Anita a little while to get Ryan to come to the door, but he eventually did. Liam had expected to be outfitted with a mike taped to his chest. However, Ryan directed her to a publicly available app that would stream the audio to cloud storage in real-time as long as he had a decent cell signal.

Liam liked the simplicity of that solution. He also liked not having a wire on him. If David found a mike taped to Liam’s chest, who knew what he’d do. If Rick was right, if David had killed Elise, that would be more than enough motivation to kill again. When he met Anita to get her cellphone, he returned the gun for the same reason. Liam would never fire it, and not only might finding the gun be enough for David to kill, it would also provide a means.

The quality of the recording was, unfortunately, not very good. Rustling fabric had distorted the conversation, often to the point of being inaudible. It was enough, though, to clear Liam’s name, get a judge to issue arrest warrants, and send Bash in search of additional proof.

Over the next several months, Alice saw a psychiatrist once a week to work through the trauma of the abduction and Liam took the stand in trials against Catherine, David, and Rick.

At Catherine’s trial, the DA entered into evidence cellphone records that tracked her to Elise’s building the night of the murder and testimony from the neighbor who now admitted to seeing her. And when Liam testified, he was shown the letters Catherine had written Elise in jail and confirmed that, yes, some of Catherine’s friends called her Kate.

At David’s trial, Catherine, too, told her story in exchange for a lighter sentence.

And at Rick’s, the DA presented the notepad Liam had found in Rick’s