Lawman-in-Charge
Former crime-scene investigator Megan O'Ryan helped convict the St. Patrick's Strangler, who killed Megan's sister. Now she's trying to heal in a small Wisconsin town. But a copycat killer is at work in Crystal Lake, and Sheriff Luke Torretti needs Megan's help…on the case and at home, where the widower's troubled teenage son has become a suspect. The boy claims he's innocent–and Megan believes him. Because the more she and Luke investigate, the more Megan becomes convinced that her own past has brought the killer to Crystal Lake. And without Luke's help, the next victim will be her.
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Seeing the figure dressed in black
disappearing through her motel room window had shaken Megan badly. But the evidence he’d left behind was almost worse.
The killer was taunting her. Mocking her. Daring her to find him.
He’d turned the murder of a young girl into something personal.
When Luke pulled up in his squad car, she was relieved. “Are you all right, Megan?” he said. “Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head, breathing deep to control her emotions. “No, I’m not hurt.” She turned and gestured to the interior of the motel room. “You’d better take a look, the intruder left evidence behind.”
“So that leaves one question,” Luke said slowly.
She tensed, knowing he’d come to the exact same theory she had.
“Why has Liza’s killer targeted you?”
LAURA SCOTT
grew up reading faith-based romance books by Grace Livingston Hill, but as much as she loved the stories, she longed for a bit more mystery and suspense. She is honored to write for the Love Inspired Suspense line, where a reader can find a heartwarming journey of faith amid the thrilling danger.
Laura lives with her husband of twenty-five years and has two children, a daughter and a son, who are both in college. She works as a critical-care nurse during the day at a large level-one trauma center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and spends her spare time writing romance.
Please visit Laura at www.laurascottbooks.com, as she loves to hear from her readers.
The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom
shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom should I be afraid?
—Psalms 27:1
This book is dedicated to my daughter, Nicole,
who has been reading my books long before I sold my first manuscript. Nicole, I love you and am very proud of you.
CONTENTS
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
EPILOGUE
LETTER TO READER
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
ONE
Megan O’Ryan kept a wary eye on the black sedan staying two cars behind her. She’d noticed the sedan the moment she’d hit the highway, and the driver had kept pace with her all the way into the small town of Crystal Lake.
A nagging itch settled between her shoulder blades. She’d felt the same sensation of being followed just two days ago. Was someone really tailing her?
With an abrupt move, she cranked the steering wheel to the right and pulled into the first vacant parking space on Main Street.
Moments later, the black car passed her by. Wrenching her neck to peer after it, she noticed the driver kept his head averted, but not before she saw the usual dark T-shirt and baseball cap. The tag number was nothing but a blur by the time she switched her attention from the driver to the license plate.
Megan climbed out of her car and stood for a moment, pretending to debate where she should go but really tracking the black car out of the corner of her eye as it pulled into the Gas N Go station located a few blocks north on Main Street.
No way could this be a coincidence. Not again. Not after experiencing the same thing for the third time in the past week. The cars weren’t always the same make or color, but the guy behind the wheel invariably wore dark clothing and a baseball cap tugged low over his eyes.
Megan stifled a surge of alarm as she turned toward Rose’s Café. She wasn’t hungry, but Rose’s was always packed with people, especially in the summer with tourists aplenty, and she could at least get a cup of coffee while she tried to figure out why on earth anyone in Crystal Lake would want to follow her. Three months wasn’t long enough to have made enemies. Especially considering she’d been holed up in her cabin most of the time, leaving only to go to work and back. She’d spoken to just a handful of people.
“Megan! Wait up!”
Katie? The young voice was so much like her sister’s that she spun toward the sound, her heart hammering wildly in her chest. She blinked against the brightness of the sun to see a lithe young woman with long, silky blond hair walking toward her. Her heart stopped. She couldn’t breathe. Hoarsely she called, “Katie? Is that you?”
“Teagan, wait up. Didn’t you hear me?” The blond-haired girl changed directions, moving toward another girl, this one a petite redhead. The blonde caught up and gave the red-haired girl’s shoulder a playful shove. “There’s no rush. It’s not like the guys are going to leave without us.”
Not Katie. Her vision blurred as the loss hit with the force of a tsunami, sucking every bit of oxygen from her lungs. Katie hadn’t been calling her name because Katie was gone.
Megan blinked, forcing her vision to clear, and watched the girls cross the street heading toward a group of boys who stood waiting on the grassy bank of Crystal Lake. She focused on a scowling boy who held himself aloof, dressed head to toe in black with long dark hair that could have used a comb. He looked like trouble with a capital T. Someone she was tempted to warn the young girls about. Except he wasn’t her problem.
