Harlequin Romantic Suspense April 2021 Karen Whiddon (best fiction books to read TXT) 📖

and resecured the home. They took a few minutes more to clean and bandage the cut to Luis’s leg. The rest of the injuries he left to heal on their own.

“Didn’t Robert Carpenter say something about the homecoming dance and a prank that Bethany played?” said Julia, flipping through the pages of the yearbook.

“Yeah, that Bethany cut off all of Darcy’s hair. And then today, Bethany denied it all. We decided that either Robert or Bethany is lying.”

“Here’s an easy way to find out which one,” said Julia. She opened the yearbook to the section that covered the homecoming festivities. Pep rally. Football game. Parade. “Ah, the dance.”

Luis looked over her shoulder as they scoured the pictures. Second page, bottom left corner. There was a picture of two kids, holding hands and awkwardly dancing. He read the caption. “‘Senior Robert Carpenter with his date, Darcy Owens.’”

“Looks like Darcy attended the dance after all,” said Julia.

“It also looks like Robert lied to us,” he replied. “I think we need to pay him a visit.”

“This morning, Robert Carpenter told us that he grew up near Darcy,” said Julia as she slid behind the steering wheel of the truck. “I wonder if his parents still own the house? It’ll be an easy drive and who knows what they might say.”

Luis nodded, but his mind was elsewhere. If Tom Dolan’s killer was really stalking Julia, then for Luis, learning the killer’s identity had gone from a professional priority to a personal one.

* * *

Finding Robert Carpenter’s home hadn’t been difficult. Exactly as he told Julia and Luis earlier in the day, he did live down the road from Darcy.

The house sat atop a rise. At the bottom of a gravel drive that led to the home there was a mailbox with the name Robert Carpenter.

“You think he bought his parents’ house?” Luis asked as Julia let her truck idle on the empty road. “Or is he a Junior?”

“I think this might be his house,” said Julia. “He gave me his card.” She fished it from her pocket and held it out for Luis to see. “It says Robert E. Carpenter. I think a guy like that would include his full name.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” he said as Julia parked on the road’s shoulder.

There were no cars parked near the front door. A metal swing set and aboveground pool—covered with a tarp for the coming winter—filled a side yard. Several newspapers, rolled and tucked into plastic sleeves, sat on the stoop.

Walking up the drive with Luis at her side, Julia took time to study the property. It was a split-entry home, covered with vinyl siding and brick. Curtains were open at almost every window. Not a light could be seen, and she didn’t notice any movement.

From where she stood, Julia would swear that nobody was home.

Yet, looks could be deceiving.

She knocked on the door. “Mr. Carpenter. It’s Julia McCloud. I’d like to have a word with you.”

Nothing.

She knocked again, louder this time. The door’s frame rattled.

“Mr. Carpenter. Sheriff McCloud. I have some questions.”

She waited and knocked once more.

She’d been right—nobody was home.

“Tuck a card into the door. Hopefully, when he gets home, he’ll call,” said Luis.

Julia did as he suggested and added her cell-phone number on the back, along with a note that he should call ASAP.

“There might be one more place where we should check before going back to Pleasant Pines.” She removed Robert E. Carpenter’s card and held it out. “He works at an auto-parts store nearby.”

“Then let’s go and check it out,” said Luis.

The trip to Robert Carpenter’s work proved as fruitless as stopping by his house. He wasn’t scheduled to work until the following day and his employees couldn’t reach him on his cell phone.

Luis offered to drive back to Pleasant Pines and Julia let him. She needed a little time to think about what had happened over the last day and half. More than the stalker invading her home, she wondered why Robert Carpenter would come to her office and tell a story that could easily be proven to be a lie.

It made no sense...unless, he had something to hide.

And she intended to find out what it was.

* * *

Luis pulled onto Main Street in Pleasant Pines just as the dashboard clock changed to 5:05 p.m. Sure, they’d been chasing down leads for several hours. Yet it seemed like they’d been gone for days, or even months. Pulling to a stop in an empty spot behind the county office building, he killed the engine.

Turning his attention to the matter of the investigation, he lifted the evidence bag. “Let’s see if Chloe’s in her office.”

“Agreed,” said Julia.

The district attorney’s office was located on the ground floor in the county office building. They entered the office without knocking. The space was a mirror image of the sheriff’s department, which was one floor up. There was a large outer office with several desks and a single inner office.

From the doorway, Luis spied Chloe sitting behind her desk. “Gotta minute?” he asked as he approached. He’d tucked the evidence bag into the yearbook and was holding both in a loose grip.

“Sure thing,” said Chloe as she stood. “What can I help you with?”

Luis moved into the office and Julia followed. She pulled the door shut.

“A closed door?” Chloe asked with a lifted eyebrow. “This seems serious.”

“It is,” said Martinez. He set the note on Chloe’s desk.

Placing her palms on each side of the bag, she read and her eyes widened. “Where did you get this?”

“It was hidden under the cushion of a vanity stool at Darcy Owens’s childhood home.”

“In her bedroom,” Julia added.

“You think this came from what? A diary belonging to Darcy Owens?” Chloe asked as she studied the document.

“You don’t?” Julia replied.

Chloe sighed. “It might. Then again, it might not. Did you find the rest of the diary?”

“What does it matter?” Julia asked. “You can tell from the context of the letter that it’s from Darcy, and that