by Lisa Regan
Cold Heart Creek
A nail-biting and gripping mystery suspense thriller
Lisa Regan
Books by Lisa Regan
Vanishing Girls
The Girl With No Name
Her Mother’s Grave
Her Final Confession
The Bones She Buried
Her Silent Cry
Cold Heart Creek
Available in Audio
Vanishing Girls (Available in the UK and US)
The Girl With No Name (Available in the UK and US)
Her Mother’s Grave (Available in the UK and US)
Her Final Confession (Available in the UK and US)
The Bones She Buried (Available in the UK and US)
Her Silent Cry (Available in the UK and US)
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Epilogue
Hear More From Lisa
Books by Lisa Regan
A Letter from Lisa
Vanishing Girls
The Girl With No Name
Her Mother’s Grave
Her Final Confession
The Bones She Buried
Her Silent Cry
Acknowledgements
For Jessie Mae Kanagie
We’re blazing new paths on this journey through motherhood.
I love you.
One
Josie wriggled beneath her mother’s weight, the cold of the tile floor seeping through her thin nightgown. The knife in Lila’s hand flashed in the overhead light of the trailer kitchen, and fear stopped Josie’s heart for a long second and then snapped it back into a gallop.
“Mommy, no!” Josie choked out.
Lila’s blue eyes flashed, and Josie knew at once that her mother was past the point of reason, past the point where Josie’s screams could reach her. When she got angry like this, there was no stopping her. She was a storm, and there was nowhere for Josie to hide.
Lila used her free hand to press the left side of Josie’s face into the floor. The knife came closer.
“Mommmmeeeee,” Josie wailed. Her limbs shook. She felt a loosening in her lower body, like she might wet herself.
“Shut up,” Lila snarled.
From the corner of her eye, Josie watched the silver tip of the blade puncture the skin where her ear met her cheek. Then, with steady pressure, Lila sliced downward. Searing pain shot all the way down Josie’s jawline to her chin. She blinked the hot blood from her right eye and screamed, “Mommmmmeee nooooo! Stop! Stop!”
But Lila didn’t stop. She never stopped.
“Your daddy thinks you’re so damn special,” Lila said, taking the knife away to admire her handiwork. A satisfied smile curved her lips. “You ain’t so special. You bleed just like everyone else. He thinks he can just leave me? He thinks he can take you with him and just dump me? Leave me behind? He thinks you’re more important?”
“Mommy, please stop,” Josie whimpered. “Please.”
Lila brought the knife closer, touching it to the bottom of Josie’s chin where she had left off. “I’ll show him. We’ll see how special he thinks you are after I destroy this pretty little face of yours.”
A hand clamped down on Josie’s arm.
“Josie,” said a man’s voice.
As Lila began to slice again, Josie drew in a deep breath and howled in pain. Suddenly, Lila was gone, and everything went pitch black. A new terror took hold. She blinked but the darkness was complete. Nothing penetrated it. Squirming, Josie felt the scratchy carpet of the closet floor against her bloodied face. “No!” she cried. “Not the closet. You promised, Mommy! Not the closet!”
The man’s voice came again. “Josie!”
She stood and pounded against the closet door. “I’m here! I’m in here. Please let me out!”
But the door didn’t open. It never opened. Not until Lila said so.
Salty tears streamed down Josie’s face, stinging the place where Lila had sliced her. “Please,” she begged. “Please let me out.”
“Josie. Josie, wake up!”
She shot straight up to a sitting position, arms and legs flailing. Punching and kicking the air around her. Terror tore from her lungs. Her entire body was slick with sweat, wicking her nightshirt to her skin. As her surroundings came into focus, she realized she wasn’t in the trailer. She wasn’t six anymore. This was her bedroom. She was a grown woman. Lila was in prison, and Josie’s boyfriend, Noah, was beside her in bed, reaching tentatively for her.
Josie fought the urge to slap his hand away as the last vestiges of the nightmare left her gasping for breath. It’s just Noah, she reminded herself. She blinked rapidly and looked around the room. Noah had turned on the light on his nightstand, and it cast a soft glow across their king-sized bed. The covers lay twisted at the bottom of the bed. Josie’s pillow lay on the floor. Noah sat next to her, bare-chested, his brown hair in disarray and his hazel eyes dark with worry.
Josie reached up and traced the thin scar that ran down the right side of her face. It had been a nightmare, but also a memory. One of the worst from her childhood with Lila Jensen. She closed her eyes, trying to slow her breathing. Noah stroked her back.
“What was it?” he asked softly.
Without opening her eyes, she shook her head. He already knew the story. She didn’t want to talk about it. “Just a bad dream,” she said.
Noah chuckled softly. “Yeah, I figured that part out.”
She opened her eyes and looked at him again, disarmed by his smile. She was safe, she reminded herself. That particular horror was in her past.
Noah said, “What can I do?”
“Nothing,” Josie said. “I’m going to shower. I’m soaked.”
He sighed, put his hands behind his head, and laid back on his own pillow. The clock on his bedside stand read three thirty-two a.m.
In the bathroom, she
peeled off her damp nightshirt and underwear and dropped them in the hamper. She ran the water in the shower and studied her pale face in the mirror while it warmed up. It wasn’t fair, she thought. She had had to live through Lila Jensen’s abuse once; she should not have to revisit it over and over again. But ever since the calls, and Lila’s impending—
“No,” she said to the woman in the mirror. She wasn’t going there. Not now.
But her mind went there anyway because the moment you told your brain not to think of something, that was precisely what it conjured. Josie needed to forget. To lose herself. To give her brain something else to wrap around. Something that would leave little room for bad memories and future worries.
Back in the bedroom, Noah was still awake, staring at the ceiling. He sat up abruptly when he saw her standing naked in the doorway.
“Actually, there’s something you can do for me,” she told him.
He didn’t hesitate. In two steps she was wrapped in his arms, every conscious thought subdued by his deep kiss.
Two
Coffee dripped from the kitchen ceiling. Josie swore under her breath, tore some paper towels from the dispenser over the sink and started mopping up the floor first, then the cabinets, and finally the counter. Then she pulled a chair over and climbed on top of it, trying to reach the ceiling.
Noah’s voice startled her, and she nearly toppled off the chair. “Did you say something about the ‘damn toaster oven’?” he asked.
She glared at him. “I did. I told you we don’t need a toaster oven. We have a toaster, that’s good enough.”
He stepped further into the kitchen, and she noted his T-shirt and boxer shorts. “You’re not even ready,” she pointed out.
He motioned toward the brown spots on her white ceiling. “What’s going on here?”
Josie got down from the chair and tossed the wad of paper towels into the trash bin. Looking down at her clothes, she decided she could get through the day just fine. Luckily the coffee had only splashed onto her shoes and the bottoms of her khaki pants. No one would be looking at her feet anyway.
“What’s going on,” she answered him, “is that I made myself a cup of coffee, and then I turned away from the counter and my wrist bumped that unnecessarily huge toaster oven you insisted on bringing, my mug broke, and coffee went everywhere. Literally everywhere. We’re going to have to paint the ceiling.”
She saw his smile and pointed a finger at him. “Don’t you dare laugh.”
He covered his mouth with one hand.
She stomped past him, out to the foyer. “I’ll get coffee at Komorrah’s on the way in. Now go get ready. I don’t want to be late for work on our first day back from vacation.”
Noah stood at the bottom of the steps. “You could shower with me. We could have a repeat of last night. It will make you feel better.”
He was right, sex would make her feel better, but they didn’t have time. “The Chief will be all over both our asses if we’re late,” she said. “That’s the last thing I need today.”
The two of them worked for the city of Denton, Pennsylvania’s police department—Josie as a detective and Noah as a lieutenant. Their small team did its best to cover roughly twenty-five square miles across the untamed mountains of central Pennsylvania with one-lane winding roads, dense woods, and rural residences spread out like carelessly thrown confetti. The population was edging over thirty thousand—even more than that when Denton University was in Fall or Spring session—just a large enough population to keep their department consistently busy. Josie and Noah had been dating for about a year and a half and had only moved in together a month earlier. It had been more of an adjustment than Josie had thought it would be. She had lived alone for several years now and although she regularly entertained friends and family, living with Noah on a permanent basis required more compromise than she had anticipated.
Ten minutes later, Noah slid into the passenger’s seat of Josie’s vehicle, the sight of his still-damp, tousled brown hair softening her mood. For a moment, her mind flashed back to the hours they’d spent in bed on vacation—every bit as passionate as last night’s activities—and she wished they were back at the beach. With a sigh, she backed the car out of her driveway as Noah buttoned up his Denton PD polo shirt and said, “You know, a toaster oven does a lot more than just a regular toaster.”
Josie groaned. “It’s too big. It takes up so much counter space.”
“Counter space you use for what? All the cooking you do?” He was being sarcastic but not malicious. Josie swatted his shoulder with the back of her right hand.
“Touché,” she said.
“I lost the bed argument. You have to give me the toaster oven.”
Josie shot him a raised-brow look. “It wasn’t an argument. My bed is bigger and newer than yours. It just made sense to keep it and get rid of yours.”
They pulled up in front of Kommorah’s Koffee and Noah opened his door. “I’ll get the coffee,” he said. “Then you’ll forgive me and agree to keep the toaster oven.”
Josie laughed. “Get Gretchen some pecan croissants while you’re in there, and I’ll think about letting you keep the ginormous toaster oven that does not fit into my kitchen.”
“Our kitchen,” Noah said as he shut the door and jogged into the café.
Ten minutes later, Josie deposited a brown paper bag filled with pecan croissants in front of Detective Gretchen Palmer, who sat at her desk in the Denton PD’s bullpen—a collection of desks in the center of the large room on the second floor where officers did paperwork, made calls, and conducted research. Josie, Noah, Detective Gretchen Palmer and their newest Detective, Finn Mettner, had permanent desks, whereas the other desks were shared by the rest of the officers. The receiver of Gretchen’s desk phone was pressed to her ear. Her face lit up at the sight of the Komorrah’s bag. To the person on the phone, she said, “Can you hold on just a second?”
She pressed the hold button. As she looked up, Josie noticed the deep circles under her eyes. Josie said, “Have you guys been busy?”
Gretchen nodded. “I think this August heat is making everyone crazy. Lots of domestics, a few bar brawls, and some stolen cars. What I’ve got on the phone is a lot more complicated. You guys want it?”
Noah took a seat at his desk which faced Gretchen’s diagonally. “What is it?”
“Couple of bodies in the woods,” Gretchen replied.
“We’ll take it,” Josie said.
Noah laughed. “Not so fast, Quinn. Let’s hear more.”
Josie said, “Gretchen’s been here all night. If she takes it, she’ll be here all day too.”
“I know,” Noah said. “I was joking. Have some more coffee and let’s hear the rundown.”
Gretchen nodded toward her phone. “The game commission officers have been out inspecting the woods in anticipation of hunting season which starts soon.”
Josie said, “State gameland is to the south of us, though. That’s Lenore County, not Alcott.”
“Right,” Gretchen said. “Initially, the wildlife officer assumed it was Lenore County jurisdiction but when he called the Lenore sheriff’s office out to the scene, they said it’s Alcott County. Guy says where they found the bodies is actually part of Denton.”
Josie felt her phone vibrate in the pocket of her jeans. She ignored it, letting it go to voicemail as Gretchen turned her computer monitor so both Josie and Noah could view it. She pointed to a thin ribbon of road snaking through miles of forest marked as State Route 9227. It was a largely rural route that skirted the edge of Denton proper, running north to south through the city into Lenore County below.
Gretchen said, “He says it’s right here, a couple of miles from where this route intersects with…” Gretchen put her reading glasses on and leaned closer to the screen. “Otto Road.”
“Not sure about the jurisdiction there, but we can figure that out once we see where the actual scene is located,” said Josie.
“Homic
ide?” Noah asked.
Gretchen shook her head. “They’re not sure. That’s why they want someone to go down there and have a look. I’m on the phone now with the sheriff’s deputy from Lenore County. His name’s Josh Moore. He says it looks like a couple were camping out in the woods and passed away. He said it’s an unusual scene but wouldn’t elaborate.”
“Hmm,” Josie said, studying the screen as the vibration in her pocket started up again.
Behind her, Noah said, “I think your phone is ringing.”
Josie pulled out her cell just as the call ended. Her stomach rolled. She knew what number she would see when she brought the notification up. Two missed calls from State Correctional Institute, Muncy. The state’s women’s prison.
“You okay?” Noah asked as Josie clutched the phone to her chest so he wouldn’t see.
“Fine,” she said. She pointed to Gretchen’s desk phone where one of the buttons blinked orange, indicating that Deputy Moore was still on hold. “Give him my cell phone number. Tell him we’ll meet him where Route 9227 meets Otto Road. Then he can walk us out to the scene. Noah, grab some handheld GPS units. We’re going to need them to navigate that deep in the woods.”
