In a race against time
Can they defeat an unseen foe?
Officer Liam Andrews knows trouble when he sees it, and trouble should be Harper Catlett’s middle name. Especially considering the mysterious goings-on in the home where Harper’s sister died decades before. Secretly working undercover, Liam is soon roped into Harper’s amateur detective work as she probes Baysville’s sordid secrets. But together, can the pair solve these long-buried crimes...before they both wind up dead?
“Where are you going?”
She scrambled after him, only to trip halfway down the stairs. One moment she was stepping on solid ground, and the next her feet flailed into emptiness. Before she could scream, strong arms grasped her beneath her legs and back.
“I’ve got you,” Liam said.
She buried her head against his broad chest; the crisp linen of his dress shirt smelled detergent clean and Harper relaxed against him until the wild beating of her heart mellowed.
Liam picked up several tiny metal objects from the steps. “What’s this?”
It couldn’t be—yet she couldn’t deny the solid proof in front of her. “Jacks.”
“Like, in the kid’s game?”
She retrieved the jack from his hand and closed her fist around the six-pointed metallic piece, with enough pressure that the sharp nubs indented her flesh. This child’s game piece was real—nothing ghostly about its solid substance.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Presley and I used to play jacks together all the time.”
“That doesn’t explain how they got here.”
UNMASKING THE SHADOW MAN
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Debbie Herbert
USA TODAY bestselling author Debbie Herbert writes paranormal romance novels reflecting her belief that love, like magic, casts its own spell of enchantment. She’s always been fascinated by magic, romance and gothic stories. Married and living in Alabama, she roots for the Crimson Tide football team. Her eldest son, like many of her characters, has autism. Her youngest son is in the US Army. A past Maggie Award finalist in both young adult and paranormal romance, she’s a member of the Georgia Romance Writers of America.
Books by Debbie Herbert
Harlequin Intrigue
Appalachian Prey
Appalachian Abduction
Unmasking the Shadow Man
Harlequin Nocturne
Bayou Magic
Bayou Shadow Hunter
Bayou Shadow Protector
Bayou Wolf
Dark Seas
Siren’s Secret
Siren’s Treasure
Siren’s Call
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CAST OF CHARACTERS
Harper Catlett—Haunted by the strange circumstances of her sister’s death, Harper can never forget awakening as a child and finding her sister motionless at the foot of the stairs. She momentarily glimpsed what appeared to be a monster hovering over the body. Nobody takes her story seriously, and when strange things reoccur decades later, only one man is willing to help her solve the mystery of her past.
Liam Andrews—Posing as a new cop, Liam is actually an undercover FBI agent investigating a string of unsolved murders. He’s been ordered to look into possible police incompetence, negligence or even the possibility that one of the local officers might be a serial killer. Secretly, he has his own agenda in accepting this assignment.
Bryce Fairfax—Baysville’s current police chief and a close friend of Harper’s murdered sister.
Theodore—Liam’s missing uncle, who left the family as a teenager to ride the railroads and travel the country. He was never heard from again.
The Shadow Man—A figure of legend, described as a filthy, emaciated creature that vanishes the instant he’s spotted. When items go missing—a jacket, a pecan pie—locals laughingly blame the Shadow Man. Adults dismiss this story.
This book is dedicated to Karen Groce; thanks for being such a great beta reader!
And, as always, to my husband, Tim; my dad, J. W. Gainey; and my sons, Byron and Jacob.
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
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Excerpt from Driving Force by Elle James
Chapter One
The scratching began again. Skreek. A heartbeat of silence. Skreek. Skreek.
She could sleep through the blare of traffic in Atlanta, but this teeny noise in her mom’s old house in rural Virginia had roused her from deep sleep in a mere nanosecond.
It was the sound of her nightmares. The ominous scratching that had preceded the worst moment of her life and hounded Harper to this day. It was inexorably tied to the image of her sister Presley’s body lying on the kitchen floor as smoke swirled and fire licked the darkness. Harper sat up in bed and waited for the scratching to resume. But this time, the only noise was a faint swish of something soft brushing against a wall.
Probably just a mouse scampering behind the old Sheetrock, or so she hoped. Disgusting as that was, she’d welcome the prospect of mice infiltration over creepier alternatives. As a child, she’d wondered if the house was haunted by a ghost—or an even scarier type of supernatural horror.
Harper pictured the wraithlike, filthy creature she’d glimpsed the night Presley died. The thing—she wasn’t sure if it was a person or some remnant from a dream—had loomed over her sister’s lifeless body. She’d screamed, and the pale figure had vanished into the shadows. Never to be seen again.
Nobody had believed her. There’d been no signs of forced entry, and a search of the old Victorian had revealed nothing unusual. Presley’s death had been ruled accidental.
But even now, the skin at the nape of her neck prickled at the memory.
This wouldn’t do. After all, she’d returned to Baysville in order to settle her mom’s estate and make peace with her own disturbing past. Time to discover what was real and what was imaginary. Over the years, she’d pushed that night’s events to the back of her mind.
Of course, she wasn’t always successful. At unexpected moments, a vivid image of pale skin draped on a frail, gaunt figure would crystallize from the hazy memories of the night Presley died.
Sleep was no longer possible, so Harper climbed out of bed and turned on the bedside lamp. The light reassuringly spotlighted the familiar and mercifully vacant room. All was in order. The peach-colored walls cast a comforting warm glow. Her white French provincial bed and dresser were old but classic and had served her since childhood. She could have taken the larger master bedroom across the hall, but it still felt like Mom’s room. Probably always would, no matter how many years passed after her death.
Harper donned her comfy, though tattered, pink robe and opened the bedroom door, flipping on the hall lights. The recently polished oak floo
rs gleamed golden and reflected the bright sheen of her red hair. She gripped the iron railing of the staircase, surveyed the stairs, and then her eyes darted involuntarily to the kitchen. After all these years, she still checked to make sure no flames or smoke billowed from the room. Grimly, Harper made her way down the steps. Would she ever descend them without remembering that night?
At the bottom of the stairs, she stopped abruptly. Heat spread from her bare feet and then up her spine, tingling like an electrical shock. Someone was here. Watching. Swiftly, she turned and surveyed the empty staircase behind her. Nothing was there except for the same old portraits that lined the stairwell wall. Generations of grim Catletts stared back at her, as if in silent rebuke of her foolishness.
Skreek.
The scratching started up again. And had she heard an echo of a footfall? Harper’s ears strained, but she detected nothing else. The old house had gone eerily quiet.
Stop creeping yourself out. Nothing’s here but you and the rodents.
Harper strode to the den, flipping on every light switch along the way. She turned on the TV, and the reassuring voice of a morning news show filled the house’s quiet void. Then she marched to the kitchen and started coffee. Familiar sounds and smells eased the niggling worry in her gut.
See? You did it. Spent another entire night by yourself here. A couple more weeks, and you won’t think anything of it. Easy peasy. Onward and upward until she’d satisfied every speck of uncertainty about what had happened that night.
In the meantime... “Exterminators,” she said aloud, with a determined nod. Coffee mug in hand, Harper sat at the kitchen table and fired up her laptop. This wouldn’t be just any old routine extermination. No, she was booking the full Monty—the entire house wrapped in a toxic bubble by men dressed in hazmat suits. She pulled up a list of local companies and dutifully scribbled down a couple of numbers to call when their businesses opened this morning.
Taking that action, however small, made her feel more in control. One step at a time, as her mom would say. And if anyone had reason to believe in that mantra, it was Ruth Catlett. She’d buried a husband and a child, yet every day she’d risen before dawn to work at a local diner one block down the road. And if her spirits had never quite recovered from Presley’s death, she managed to put on her game face in public.
And now there was one. Harper was the last of her family. Oh, sure, there were a couple of aunts and uncles and cousins scattered about Baysville, but it wasn’t the same.
Harper sighed and sipped her coffee as she stepped onto the front porch. Streaks of purple and orange illuminated the sky and were reflected in the Pagan River’s rippling water. Many of the quaint shops lining the riverfront had already turned on their lights. Baysville was awakening to a new day. She’d forgotten how beautiful her hometown was. The Tidewater region of Virginia was steeped in history and picturesque in a way that a big city like Atlanta could never match. She sat in the glider for several minutes, enjoying the slower pace. No clients to meet, no ringing phones or assistants to send on errands. She’d been much too busy this past year with her interior decorating business. In some ways, it’d been therapeutic after her breakup with Doug, but she was over that disappointment. Any man that fickle and gun-shy over commitment wasn’t worth the heartbreak.
The streets gradually began to fill. Slow pace or not, it was time to go in and get dressed before someone she knew spotted her in the grungy but comfy robe that was the epitome of ugly.
Inside, Harper strolled to the kitchen table and picked up the exterminators’ phone numbers. There were four new emails in her inbox. She supposed she’d better check them in case of pressing business in Atlanta. Sitting down, Harper opened her email, and her eyes were immediately drawn to one subject line that blared at her in all caps:
GET OUT OF THE HOUSE
With trembling fingers, she opened the email. No message in the body of the email, only the ominous warning from a sender: loser@life.
* * *
HARPER WALKED BY the front door of the Baysville Police Department three times before resolutely squaring her shoulders and marching in. Behind the charming brick facade of the station, the interior was utilitarian and stark. The designer in her was aghast at the yellowed linoleum floors, cheap metal chairs and institutional-green walls of the lobby, but taxpayers were paying for a service, not a pleasing office aesthetic.
At the counter, a bored woman handed her a clipboard. “Write down your name and reason for coming.”
Dutifully, Harper printed her name, then paused. Reason for coming? They were going to laugh her out of the station if she wrote “disturbing email.” This had been a terrible idea. Growing up, other kids had merely looked at her strangely if she mentioned the thing she’d seen that night. Worse, she hated that look of pity as they scooted away from her. As though she was a sort of magnet for disaster. It had been high school before her friendships had returned to normal, and that was due in large part to making the cheerleading squad and becoming friends with the popular Kimber Collins. Harper had learned to fit in with her peer group, keep her mouth shut and act as if all was well in her world.
“Never mind,” she told the city employee, handing back the clipboard.
She blinked at her behind thick glasses. Before the woman could ask questions, Harper flashed a fake smile and turned away.
“Excuse me, miss, are you sure about this?” the woman called out.
The few others slouched in the lobby waiting area looked up from their cell phones. Harper ignored them, too, as she waved a hand, the phony smile still in place. She looked and felt like an utter fool. All she wanted was a quick exit and...
Oomph. She crashed into a solid object and began tumbling backward. Hands gripped her forearm.
“Whoa, there. You okay?”
Dark, amused eyes flashed before her face. Bryce Fairfax.
Harper’s face and neck heated. “Fine,” she mumbled. Maybe if she hurried, he wouldn’t recognize her. She tried to pull away, but he held fast.
“Harper Catlett, Presley’s little sister,” he said, flashing his infamous grin that had had all the girls swooning in high school, including Presley. Truth be told, Harper had secretly crushed on him, too, although he was a good nine years older than her.
His smile faded. “Sorry to hear about your mom. I imagine you’ve been busy with her estate and settling loose ends.”
“Yes, thanks.”
His grip loosened but still remained. “What brings you to my station? Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Well, no. It’s not important.”
Bryce tugged at her arm and guided her back into the station. She fell into step beside him, wishing like hell that she’d never come.
“I’d do any favor for Presley’s little sister. Did you know that in high school, she used to tutor me in algebra? If it wasn’t for her, I might have failed that class. As it was, I managed to slip by with a D-minus.”
His self-deprecating laugh eased some of her tension. Bryce was as charming as ever. He had a knack for drawing people to him, especially women. He’d kept his athletic physique, and the crinkles at the corners of his eyes and forehead only made him look more interesting.
“Yes, I knew about the tutoring. Presley was so smart. Wish she’d been around when I struggled with math classes.”
Bryce shot her a sympathetic nod. “Such a tragic accident.”
“If it was an accident...” Harper clamped her mouth shut. No sense reminding anyone about her so-called mystery monster.
His brows rose, but he didn’t respond as they passed through the lobby and into the bowels of the station. From here, the slamming of iron doors and loud voices emanated from the county jail connected to the back of the building. It was disquieting. Any moment, she expected an escaped convict to pop out of nowhere, looking for a hostage.
At th
e end of a narrow hallway, she followed Bryce into his private office. She’d expected more from the police chief’s office, although she shouldn’t have been surprised, given the rest of the station’s decor.
Bryce slid behind a massive desk constructed of dark-stained plywood. A simple nameplate on his desk displayed his name and title. “About what you said back there—” he clasped his hands on the desk and leaned forward slightly, all business “—are you saying that you believe Presley’s death wasn’t accidental?”
“Not at all. I mean, I was only a child when it happened. What do I know?”
His dark eyes pierced her, as if trying to read her mind. “I remember the rumors. You claimed to have seen something—or someone—by Presley’s body right after she fell.”
She swallowed hard. “Like I said, I was a kid. One with a vivid imagination and who had awakened from a bad dream. A bad combination.”
“Describe what you saw, again.”
Harper shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with the request. “It sounds so silly now. I thought I saw a stick-thin person wearing filthy rags and staring at me with huge eyes.”
They were like the alien eyes that people drew after supposed encounters with UFO creatures, unnaturally large and black. But she didn’t elaborate on the details. Even now, the memory unnerved her. Harper rubbed the goose bumps on her arms.
Another cop entered the room and shoved a piece of paper across the desk to Bryce. The man was tall and exuded authority in the firm set of his shoulders. He shot her a curious glance, his gray eyes quickly assessing her. She had the feeling he’d overheard some of the conversation. Probably pegged her as a wacko. A nuisance taking up the boss’s time.
Bryce nodded at the cop. “I’ll call him back in a few minutes. Stay a moment while I finish up here. I have some questions for you on this matter. Harper, this is Officer Andrews.”
“Hello,” she said politely.
“Harper Catlett was born and raised here in Baysville,” Bryce told Andrews.
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