Dead End

COLD CASE INVESTIGATION

Nina Holmes won’t rest until she finds her mother’s killer—and proves that her father was wrongly convicted. And now that she’s left the CIA, she finally has time to pursue the case that shattered her childhood. But someone realizes that Nina’s digging into the past, and soon it’s her own life that’s in jeopardy. Deputy US marshal Wyatt Ames is just as determined to keep Nina safe as he is to keep investigating. But as he helps her with the case, they discover that this killer may be even more dangerous than anyone expected. And to capture him, Wyatt and Nina must be willing to do whatever it takes—even use themselves as bait.

“Wyatt!” She screamed his name at the top of her lungs.

Mr. Thomas’s steps faltered. He tossed her, and she landed on the grass on her behind with a grunt. Where was her weapon? She had nothing. He was going to kill her now, and there was no way she could fight him off.

But someone did have a gun. “Wyatt!”

The glint of a knife flashed in the moonlight. She couldn’t see his face, but did that matter? In a minute she would take her last breath, a statistic. A memory.

His hand gripped her hair and pulled her face back to his. “What did you just say?”

“Wyatt,” Nina breathed.

“Well. This just got a lot more interesting. I suppose that was the man in your condo? Did you tell him all about me?”

“So what if I did?” she gasped.

“Then he must die, too.”

“No—”

Mr. Thomas slammed her head on the ground, and everything went black.

LISA PHILLIPS is a British-born, tea-drinking, guitar-playing wife and mom of two. She and her husband lead worship together at their local church. Lisa pens high-stakes stories of mayhem and disaster where you can find made-for-each-other love that always ends in happily-ever-after. She understands that faith is a work in progress more exciting than any story she can dream up. Lisa blogs monthly at teamloveontherun.com, and you can find out more about her books at authorlisaphillips.com.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

—2 Corinthians 5:17

This year I lost my Granny, Ivy Clayton.

She was 97 years old when she went to rest in the arms of Jesus.

Contents

COVER

BACK COVER TEXT

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TITLE PAGE

BIBLE VERSE

DEDICATION

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

EPILOGUE

DEAR READER

EXTRACT

COPYRIGHT

ONE

Nina Holmes squeezed her hands into fists and resisted the urge to slam them down on the counter. “Ma’am, with all due respect. I’m not leaving until you tell me what I want to know.”

Probably not proper decorum for the federal courthouse, but what else was she supposed to do? This woman was her last option. Nina had to get this information.

The name tag read “SONDRA,” and it jiggled as she huffed. “Be that as it may, I am only a federal employee. I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

Nina pushed the creased and worn paper closer to Sondra. “I just need you to contact this person at the other federal courthouse, the one in Baltimore, where these records are kept. They can have the file transferred here. It’s so old it’s paper, but only an employee of the courthouse can request the file.”

Now that Nina was a retired CIA agent, she had zero clout.

Sondra looked at the paper with one penciled eyebrow raised. Nina took a deep breath and launched in. “You see, I’m looking into an old case. It was an FBI investigation into the murder of a congresswoman that took place nearly thirty years ago—my mother. I need this file, Sondra.”

It was the one thing she’d never been able to let go of, even in all her years at the CIA running covert missions. Her best friend had been there for her since third grade all the way through their time with the CIA. But now Sienna had gotten married, and they were no longer secret agents for the US government.

Sienna had a new life, and Nina had...nothing but the will to find the truth. That was why she had to look into her mom’s death, and maybe even discover the real killer once and for all, so her father—wrongly convicted of the crime—could finally have peace. So that she could have peace. Otherwise she was never going to be able to move on with her life.

Sondra fingered the paper.

Nina sighed. “Please, help me.”

The woman took the name and phone number of the person Nina had been in contact with in Baltimore—where the murder and trial had taken place. But she didn’t pick up the phone. She moved her fingers over the keyboard. The clicking of keys took on a rapid pace, and soon Sondra sat back.

“This person, whoever it is, doesn’t show up in my system as working for that particular courthouse.” She pointed to the paper. “And that phone number is for the Baltimore public library.”

Nina flinched. “What? How is that possible? I called the federal courthouse. I was transferred to that person. He knew about my mother’s case. He said he remembered it from the news reports, since the husband killed his congresswoman-wife.” Nina swallowed against the bad taste of those words. Her father had been innocent. “He said he would process my request.”