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

The electronic lock clicked, and Julia turned the handle. She pushed past the holding cell. Outside, she took in deep, gulping breaths, desperate for air.

Luis placed his hand on her back. His touch was light. “What happened in there?”

Julia leaned on the truck. “To be completely honest,” she said, “I don’t know.” Staring at the window, she saw her own face superimposed on the reflection of the endless plains. It was then that the memory flashed, like a sliver of glass from a broken mirror.

In the bunker, Julia had spoken to Darcy while trying to negotiate a peaceful surrender. You don’t look fine. In fact, you look like crap. Do you need a doctor? I can help with that.

Then today, Darcy had repeated those same words.

It had been a triggering event. Julia wasn’t as strong as she thought...or hoped.

“In the bunker, I offered to help Darcy. Told her that she needed a doctor. Then today, she said exactly the same thing to me...in my own words. It just, I don’t know, pushed me over the edge.”

“It happens,” said Luis.

Sure, it happened to other people—but not Julia.

Luis’s phone began to ring. He checked the screen. “It’s Katarina.”

“Let’s talk to her in the truck,” she said, hoping that she could put the incident with Darcy behind her.

After unlocking the doors, both Julia and Luis slid inside the truck. He answered the call and turned on the phone’s speaker function. “Katarina,” he said. “I’ve got Julia with me.”

“I just finished reviewing all of the video sent from the inn.”

“I hope you have some good news,” said Julia. “Because we are fresh out of leads.”

“Sadly, I don’t have news at all. The woman knew enough to keep her face down. We never caught her on camera.”

Julia asked, “What about a car? Did you get a license plate when she left?”

“She and the victim walked away from the hotel and she never returned for a car, either.”

“What about when she arrived?” It was Luis who asked the question.

“That’s what’s most troubling,” said Katarina. “She never did arrive.”

“What?” asked Julia, even though she’d heard Katarina perfectly.

“Just what I said. The woman is never on video arriving at the bar. The first time she appears is when she leaves the pub with Tom Dolan.”

“She’s not a magician. She didn’t simply appear,” said Luis. “Is she an employee of the hotel? Could she have been working in the pub or the kitchen?”

“I’m way ahead of you,” said Katarina. “There isn’t any employee now who matches the description of this woman.”

“Can you do me another favor?” Julia asked, the wheels of her mind spinning “Can you search the video and see if you can find Robert Carpenter’s car near the inn on Saturday night? I don’t have any particulars, so you’ll have to find those yourself, as well.”

“I’ll check with the DMV and then search all the license plates that were in the parking lot.”

“Thanks for everything,” said Luis. He ended the call. “Robert Carpenter? What’s that all about?”

“From the beginning, we’ve had a short list of those who might be responsible for the crime. Bethany Edwards and Robert Carpenter.”

“But the person who was with Tom Dolan on the night he died was a woman, not a man.”

“Was it? We don’t have any clear video of her face. We have to find Robert Carpenter,” she said.

“Agreed. Are you going to send out an APB on him?”

Julia started the engine and put the gearshift into Drive. “As soon as I get back to Pleasant Pines, I’ll have the entire state of Wyoming looking for that man.”

And what would happen to Julia after she made the call?

She hadn’t given much thought to the conversation she’d had with her mother on Sunday night. God, it seemed like a decade had passed, not just a few days. But now, the more she sat with the idea of life in Connecticut—boring but predictable—the more she liked it. Was now the time to leave Wyoming? Not give up, exactly—she refused to think of it as quitting—but regroup and make a new life plan?

CHAPTER 14

The NWCF was only a dot in the rearview mirror when Julia’s cell phone began to ring. It was nestled in the console that held the controls to the lights, siren and public address system. She glanced at the screen. The call originated from a Wyoming area code, but she didn’t recognize the number.

After pulling to the side of road, she answered the call. “Sheriff McCloud.”

“Sheriff, my name is Anna Carpenter. I found your card wedged into the front door yesterday.”

Holding out the phone, Julia activated the speaker function. She mouthed the words Robert Carpenter’s wife to Luis.

“Mrs. Carpenter, yes. I left the card because I’m looking for your husband, Robert. Is he around?”

“Robert? No.” Even over the phone, Julia could tell that the woman was distressed. “I was hoping you knew something about where he went. I haven’t seen him for days.”

“Days?” Julia repeated. “When did you see your husband last?”

“Saturday afternoon,” she said, before her voice trailed off.

Julia could well imagine the reason for Anna Carpenter’s hesitation. Despite the fact that her husband was gone, she was still loyal to him—at least to a degree. “I can help you find Robert, but you need to help me. Where was he going?”

There was a long pause. “He left to run some errands, but never came back. To be honest, I knew he was lying to me, even before he left.”

“Lying about what?”

“About where he was going. What he was doing.”

“Which was?”

“Sheriff, my husband hasn’t been the same since that woman was arrested. Darcy Owens, that killer.”

Julia looked up and met Luis’s gaze. “Oh?”

“Robert has always been easily distracted. But when we saw that Darcy Owens had been arrested it was like something shifted in him completely. The man I knew was gone—I just don’t know how else to put it. Do you understand what I’m saying?” She looked distraught.

Julia thought she might. Still, she didn’t want to make