Paradise Valley Mystery 02-The Heart of Lies

by Debra Burroughs

  “Yes. I’m desperate to learn the truth about my husband,” Delia said, “and I can see you are eager to learn the truth about yours.”

  She’s got that right. Emily crossed her arms and looked at Delia for a moment or two before proceeding, giving some thought to what she would need to know in order to help this woman. “Explain to me then, Delia, what makes you think he’s stealing from you?”

  “My CPA found some anomalies in the books. We think he’s siphoning off money from our company funds.”

  “And on top of that, you believe he’s seeing another woman behind your back?” Emily asked.

  “Yes, I do. My husband is quite a bit younger than I am, you see, and he’s very good looking—the classic tall, dark, and handsome type.”

  We hope you enjoyed the excerpt from

  The Scent of Lies, A Paradise Valley Mystery: Book One

  by Debra Burroughs

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  A Paradise Valley Mystery: Book One?

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  THREE DAYS IN SEATTLE

  PROLOGUE

  Whitney began to stir from a deep sleep, waking to find herself in pitch-black darkness, her hands and feet bound. She tried to move, but she couldn’t. Yanking against the ropes proved useless, as the bonds were fastened to something solid.

  Her head began to pound and her breath was coming in short gasps, but she couldn’t get much air. Something was over her mouth—duct tape, maybe? She didn’t know or care, she just needed air.

  She struggled to scream, but the only sound she could make was a high-pitched moan.

  Where am I? What’s happening to me? Murky thoughts slogged through her disoriented mind. Maybe I’m dreaming, she thought. Wake up, wake up, wake up! But it was not a dream.

  The sound of something scraping the floor made her freeze. She tried to listen, hear if someone or something was coming, but her heart thudding in her ears made it hard to concentrate.

  A door creaked open, and she blinked as the harsh light hit her eyes. Was someone coming to rescue her? Or was it her captor? She decided not to risk it and shut her eyes, going limp, hoping her pounding heart would not give her away.

  CHAPTER 1

  “Forget it, Nigel! It’s been a very long day. I’ll finish up in the morning. I just need to soak in the tub for a while and get to bed. I will call you first thing tomorrow, I promise.” Kate McAllister clicked off her cell phone and set it on the bathroom vanity, exhausted after her hectic photo shoot in the Hollywood Hills ran late into the evening.

  The warm water in the claw-foot tub was beckoning her. She was anticipating being enveloped by its warmth, letting it soothe away the stress of the day. Sticking one painted toe in the water, she checked the temperature before getting in. Perfect, she sighed softly.

  As she was about to drop her fluffy white robe to the floor and step into the bath, the cell phone shrilled on the vanity behind her. “Shoot,” she muttered under her breath. “If that’s Nigel again, I’m going to kill him.”

  A slight frown creased her brow as she turned and glanced at the Caller ID. She recognized the area code was for Seattle, where her baby sister Whitney lived, but if it were her sister, the phone would have shown her name and not Unknown Caller.

  Peering up at the wall clock, she saw the time was ten-forty-five pm. Why would someone I don’t know be calling me this late? Tension began creeping up the back of her neck. No one calls this late just to chat. She reluctantly picked up the phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Kate, this is Suki. I’m sorry to call you so late.” The woman on the other end of the line rattled on, “But, I, well, I need to—”

  “Whoa. Slow down. You said your name is Suki?” Kate questioned, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yes, you know, Whitney’s roommate.”

  “Oh, yes, sorry. I didn’t recognize your name. Now, slow down and tell me – what’s wrong, Suki?”

  “Whitney’s gone missing.”

  “What? When?” Panic began to set in. Kate’s thoughts began flying in a thousand different directions, like a flock of sparrows spooked by the threat of danger. Gathering her thoughts, she tried to focus. Ordinarily, she connected with Whitney every day or two, but she had been so busy with work lately that Kate was ashamed to admit she did not notice when she hadn’t heard from her sister recently.

  “She’s been missing since last night. Well, no, today. I mean, well, I didn’t realize until this morning that she hadn’t come home last night.”

  “Maybe she just stayed overnight at a friend’s house. She is twenty-four years old. She can stay out all night if she wants.” Kate hoped that was all it was. The thought her sister could really be missing made her feel sick in the pit of her stomach.

  “No, no, I don’t think so, really. I think she would have told me so. We try to keep each other safe that way, you know. I have such a bad feeling about this, Kate. I think you should come to Seattle right away.”

  “You mean, like right now?” This news was all so unexpected. Frantic thoughts swirling in Kate’s mind made it hard to process.

  “Well, yeah. I mean, as soon as you can, of course.”

  “So, what do the police say?” Kate asked, searching for a voice of reason.

  “Police?”

  “Yes, Suki. You did call them, didn’t you?” Incredulous that her sister might be in danger and the police had not yet been informed, Kate’s eyes widened as she stared blankly at the phone. Are you kidding me? Her heart began beating hard against her chest, sending pulsing blood painfully racing to her head.

  “I’m sorry, Kate, don’t get mad. I think you have to wait twenty-four hours before you can report someone missing, don’t you?”

  “How should I know, Suki? I would have called them to find out, not just assumed.” A muscle twitched in Kate’s jaw.

  “You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

  “I will call them as soon as we get off the phone. I want to talk to the police myself before I come running up there.” Suki had all day to call me, why did she wait until now? Was she hoping Whitney would eventually show up? Something doesn’t feel right.

  Perhaps Whitney was just staying over with a new boyfriend that Suki didn’t know about. Or maybe she went with some girlfriends for a long weekend. Suki is probably just overreacting. Kate clung to that thought to give her a sense of security.

  On the other hand, if her sister really were missing, of course she’d drop everything and hop on the first flight to Seattle. She felt uneasy just cancelling work and reorganizing her life on the whim of this woman she barely knew. Kate had photo shoots in the Los Angeles area lined up all week, people depending on her, so she wanted to be sure it was warranted.

  “Kate. Your sister is missing! You really need to come as soon as possible,” Suki pressed. “Surely, you don’t have anything to do that’s more important than this, do you?”

  Kate recognized the guilt card being played. Her late mother had been a master at it.

  “No, of course not. Nothing’s more important than finding my sister, if she really is missing. However, I am going to call the police first and see what they say, even though you may be right about the twenty-four hour thing.”

  “Then you’ll come?”

  As much as Kate hated the thought of upending her whole world overnight, she had to consider seriously the possibility that Suki might be right. If Whitney needed her, she had no choice but to go to Seattle on the first flight she could get.

  “Yes, yes, I’ll come. After I talk to the police, I’ll check for flights out of L.A. tomorrow.” She would have to wait until the morning to change her work schedule. “I appreciate you letting me know, Suki. I’ll be in touch.”

  * * *

  Suki hung up from her conversation with Kate and immediately made another call.

>   “Hullo,” a young man answered.

  “It’s done.”

  CHAPTER 2

  “Hey, lady! You’re up,” a young male’s voice came from behind her.

  “What?” Startled, Kate looked around.

  “You’re up, over there at the counter.” The impatient teenager pointed to the airline ticket counter.

  His voice had jerked her out of a daze. She’d been standing in the long, slow-moving passenger line, replaying her situation and the unproductive conversation with the Seattle Police. She hadn’t been able to get beyond talking to the officer at the front desk because Whitney had not been missing long enough. He hadn’t told her anything of value one way or the other, except that if she was really concerned, she should come as soon as possible. Of course she was concerned. She loved her sister. How dare he suggest otherwise.

  It was because of that bond, that if there were any chance Whitney actually was missing, Kate would drop everything and go. She had arranged to fly to Seattle on the next available flight.

  Unfortunately, getting to Seattle was not so easy. Engine trouble on her connecting flight from Salt Lake City had forced the plane down in Boise, where she had to spend the night and get a new boarding pass for her last-minute change in flights.

  Embarrassed when she realized she was holding up the line, her face reddened and she rushed to the counter.

  “I’m in a huge hurry, ma’am,” Kate said, slapping her driver’s license down on the counter a little harder than she’d intended. “Do you think you could get my boarding pass really fast?”

  The ticket agent glared at her, then moved like a snail. Kate was sure she must have offended the woman. Glancing up at the monitor on the wall, it showed that her Horizon flight to Seattle was departing in twenty minutes, but she was stuck at the ticket counter in this crowded Boise airport, awaiting the re-issue of her boarding pass.

  Kate checked her watch for the umpteenth time, feeling her heart thumping in her chest. Come on, come on, come on, lady! I have a plane to catch! She tapped a staccato beat with the heel of her shoe.

  Finally, the ticket agent offered up her pass. Kate grabbed it, tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder and turned abruptly to run for the security gate.

  Splat!

  Kate normally considered herself a controlled, refined, twenty-eight-year-old woman. But here she was, sprawled out face first on the hard floor, having tripped over a child’s rolling backpack that she neglected to see in her haste. A manly, well-groomed hand reached down and helped her up. Mortified, her cheeks flushed a bright red.

  The helpful hand belonged to an attractive man who looked to be in his early thirties. Kate could not help noticing his deep green eyes, thick brown hair and the broad shoulders filling out his fleece pullover.

  “Are you okay?” His voice was warm and deep.

  “Yes,” she replied, a nervous giggle escaping her lips. “All, except my pride. Thanks for the help.”

  She scrambled to gather up her purse and coat and made a beeline for the security gate.

  We hope you enjoyed the excerpt from

  Three Days in Seattle by Debra Burroughs

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  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my amazing husband, Tim, who loves me and encourages me every day to do what I love – writing.

  I also dedicate this book to my awesome Beta Readers, Buffy Drewett, Cathy Tomlinson, and Janet Lewis, who inspire me and help me with their words of encouragement and critique.

  Finally, this book would not be what it is today without my amazing editor, Lisa Dawn Martínez, The Finicky Editor.

  Contact Information

  Debra Burroughs would love to hear from you. You can email her at: Debra@DebraBurroughsBooks.com

  Or connect with her on Social Media:

  Twitter: @DebraBurroughs

  Facebook: www.facebook/debraburroughsbooks

  THE HEART OF LIES

  A Paradise Valley Mystery: Book Two

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  Copyright © 2012 by Debra Burroughs.

  –

  Published 2012 by Debra Burroughs

  All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of Debra Burroughs.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. And any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead (or in any other form), business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First eBook Edition: 2012

  First Paperback Edition: 2012

  By Lake House Books, Boise, Idaho