Cold Heart Creek: A nail-biting and gripping mystery suspense thriller (Detective Josie Quinn Book 7)
Page 31
Before Moore led her away, Josie went over to her, leaned in and said, “Did you ever get in touch with that dark side that Jack and Charlotte always went on about?”
Maya looked past Josie to Michael once more. “What do you think?”
Sixty-One
Josie pushed a small table against one of the walls in her kitchen. Once it was in place, she unplugged the toaster oven and carried it over to the table. Relieved that it fit just right, she stood back and surveyed it, trying to decide if it would look better elsewhere in the kitchen. No, she decided. It was perfect right there. She heard the front door open and close. Hearing Noah moving around, she waited for him to come into the kitchen. After a few minutes, she called for him.
“Just a minute,” he said.
A minute went by, then another. “Noah,” Josie said.
He came in then, his face flushed. He almost had a look about him like a child who’d been caught doing something wrong. Josie raised a brow. “What’s going on?”
“There’s something I need you to see.”
“There’s something I need you to see,” she replied. She pointed at the table with the toaster oven on top of it. “Ta da! Not only do you get to keep the toaster oven, but it has its own space now.”
Noah laughed. He walked over, gathered her in his arms and kissed her. “I love you.”
“I know that,” she said.
He gazed down into her eyes. “But?”
She pushed away from him, but he didn’t let her go.
“I saw the way you looked at Baby Bestler.”
His brow furrowed. “What? Josie, what are you talking about?”
She pushed again and this time, he let her go. The words were a struggle to get out. She wasn’t good at talking about her feelings. Still, she peeled each word from her psyche like she was picking at a scab. “I want to be enough for you.”
“What?”
“Oh God, don’t make me repeat it.”
He stepped forward and took one of her hands. “Josie, you are enough for me.”
“How do you know?”
He laughed and placed her hand over his heart. “Because I know,” he said simply.
“But you spent every spare second at the hospital with that baby. What if you want a baby? What if I don’t want a baby? What if it’s not something we can resolve or agree on? Kids? That’s not something you agree to disagree on. You either want them or you don’t, and I don’t know if I want them. What if I don’t and you do? Then what?”
He patted her hand. “Josie.”
“I just—how do we know this is going to work? You couldn’t tear yourself away from that baby. Every time I turned around you were gone, and I’d say, ‘Where did Noah go?’ and someone would say you went to the hospital to check on Baby Bestler.”
“Josie.”
“I don’t know—”
“Josie!”
She looked at him, silenced.
He pulled her toward the living room. “I have something I need you to see.”
Puzzled, she let him guide her through the foyer and into the living room where a large brown, lidless box sat on the coffee table. “I wasn’t with Baby Bestler. I mean, not all of those times. Most of the times I took off, I said I was going to check on the baby, but I was really on the phone or meeting with this woman, Phyllis.”
Josie snatched her hand from his. “Are you trying to tell me you’re having an affair?”
He laughed again. “No.” He reached into the box. “Phyllis is with the Northeast Boston Terrier Rescue.” He lifted out a small ball of black and white fur with the most soulful brown eyes that Josie had ever seen. The dog had a handsome, slightly smooshy face, and ears that made perfect triangles. Noah looked from the dog to Josie. “This is Trout,” he said.
Josie smiled. “Trout?”
“Yes, a dog named after a fish.” Noah set him down on the floor. “He’s three years old. He had to be rehomed because his owners fell on hard financial times and had to move to a place where they couldn’t have dogs. He’s already house-trained.”
Trout looked up at Josie and sat down, staring up at her as if waiting for her to tell him what to do. She dropped to the floor and scratched beneath his chin. “Hi buddy,” she whispered.
She crossed her legs and scratched between his ears. Tentatively, he moved closer to her. Then he climbed into her lap, circled and lay down, giving a contented sigh. Josie stroked his soft back. Noah got down on the floor, crossing his own legs and sitting directly across from her. He leaned in to her until their foreheads touched. Josie looked down at the warm bundle between them. “You’re home, little buddy,” she said. “You’re home.”
Epilogue
Trout ran through the woods, his nose twitching at the myriad of smells. Every few feet he would stop to sniff the base of a tree or the leaves of a plant, but he couldn’t stay still for long. His little behind shook with excitement. Occasionally, he would stop and look back at Josie, his ears raised to perfect points, his eyes wide and bright.
“It’s okay, boy,” she would tell him and off he would race once more. She had outfitted him with a red bandana so that he was easy to spot in the forest. But he never went too far from her. In the short time they’d been owner and dog, Josie had learned that Trout was extremely smart and that his previous owner had trained him very well. She used a leash when they were in the city limits, but out in the woods, she let him run free.
She caught up to him as he sniffed a thatch of foxtail, huffing and shifting Lila’s urn from her left hip to her right. Overhead, clouds turned the sky a slate gray. The cool morning air had given way to warmer temperatures, but Josie was relieved that the cloying humidity of August was finally gone. Soon, fall would be in full swing, and the lush green trees around them would turn to a panorama of golds, oranges, and reds.
Trout looked up from the foxtail and stared at her, as if waiting for instruction or permission to keep running. “We’re almost there,” she told him. His head tilted as he listened to her words. Then he trotted off, deeper into the forest.
Josie heard the rush of water before the creek appeared. Her boots squished in the mud as she stepped up to the bank. Trout stepped up onto a nearby stone and watched her. She watched the water rush along. “This is it,” she told the dog.
She twisted the cap of the urn until it came free. Slowly, she tipped the contents into the waters of Cold Heart Creek. Trout lifted his snout and scented the air. When she finished, Josie put the cap back on the urn and tucked it beneath her arm. Trout sidled up beside her leg and gave a low, mournful whine. Josie smiled and squatted next to him, scratching the top of his head. He extended his neck and licked her cheek. “I’m okay, Trout. Everything’s going to be okay.”
She stood and turned back the way they had come. Shafts of sunlight burst through the canopy of trees, dappling the forest with light. A big orange monarch butterfly fluttered past, weaving in and out of the sun’s rays. Trout raced after it and Josie followed.
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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)
A Letter from Lisa
Thank you so much for choosing to read Cold Heart Creek. It was such a pleasure to bring you another adventure featuring Josie Quinn. If you enjoyed it and want to keep up to date with all my latest releases, just sign up here. Your email address will never be shared, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
While I have to take creative liberties with many things for purposes of plot and pacing, you should know that Northeast Boston Terrier Rescue and Search and Rescue Dogs of Pennsylvania are real organizations doing vitally important work. I hope you’ll look them up and find ways to support them. Also, there is no Route 9227 in Pennsylvania. Like Denton, as well as Alcott and Lenore Counties, I made that up.
I love hearing from readers. You can get in touch with me through any of the social media outlets below, including my website and Goodreads page. Also, if you are up for it, I’d really appreciate it if you’d leave a review and perhaps recommend Cold Heart Creek to other readers. Reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations go a long way in helping readers discover my books for the first time. As always, thank you so much for your support. It means the world to me. I can’t wait to hear from you, and I hope to see you next time!
Thanks,
Lisa Regan
www.lisaregan.com
Vanishing Girls
Detective Josie Quinn Book 1
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‘Wow this book blew my mind!… Utterly fantastic, I loved it. It kept me hanging on the edge of my seat unable to put it down. A huge 5 stars.’ Bonnie’s Book Talk, 5 stars
When Isabelle Coleman, a blonde, beautiful young girl goes missing, everyone from the small town of Denton joins the search. They can find no trace of the town’s darling, but Detective Josie Quinn finds another girl they didn’t even know was missing.
Mute and unresponsive, it’s clear this mysterious girl has been damaged beyond repair. All Josie can get from her is the name of a third girl and a flash of a neon tongue piercing that matches Isabelle’s.
The race is on to find Isabelle alive, and Josie fears there may be other girls in terrible danger. When the trail leads her to a cold case labelled a hoax by authorities, Josie begins to wonder is there anyone left she can trust?
Someone in this close-knit town is committing unspeakable crimes. Can Josie catch the killer before another victim loses their life?
Utterly gripping crime for readers who adored Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott and Robert Dugoni. You will be sleeping with the lights on once you discover the first in this unputdownable new crime thriller series.
The Girl With No Name
Detective Josie Quinn Book 2
Get it here!
Detective Josie Quinn is horrified when she’s called to the house of a mother who had her newborn baby snatched from her arms.
A woman caught fleeing the scene is Josie’s only lead, but when questioned it seems this mysterious girl doesn’t know who she is, where she’s from or why she is so terrified…
Is she a witness, a suspect, or the next victim?
As Josie digs deeper, a letter about a mix-up at a fertility clinic links the nameless girl and the missing child to a spate of killings across the county. Josie is faced with an impossible decision: should she risk the life of one innocent child to save many others… or can she find another way?
The Girl with No Name is nail-biting, twisty and impossible to put down. If you love griping thrillers from Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine, you’ll be hooked.
Her Mother’s Grave
Detective Josie Quinn Book 3
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When two young boys discover human bones buried beneath a tree in a trailer park, Detective Josie Quinn races to join her team at the scene. She used to play in those woods as a child, happier outside and away from her abusive mother, Belinda Rose.
Josie’s past crashes into her present when a rare dental condition confirms the bones belong to a teenage foster-child who was murdered thirty years ago. A girl named Belinda Rose…
Josie hasn’t seen her mother in years but, with an undeniable connection between her mother and the dead girl, does she dare try to track her down?
Just as Josie gets closer to uncovering a secret that will shatter her world forever, another body is uncovered. It’s suddenly clear that someone very close to Josie will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried forever.
As she battles the demons from her past, can Josie stop this killer before another precious life is taken?
Do you love unputdownable crime thrillers that keep you up all night? Then this gripping rollercoaster ride, perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine, will have you totally hooked!
Her Final Confession
Detective Josie Quinn Book 4
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Watching her friend dragged away in handcuffs, Josie couldn't believe for one second that Gretchen had killed that poor boy. Confession or not, someone else was involved. She would find out who…
When the body of a young student is found on the driveway of a local Denton home, a photograph pinned to his collar, Detective Josie Quinn is first on the scene. The house belongs to Gretchen Palmer, a dedicated member of Josie’s team, missing for the last twenty-four hours.
Working around the clock, Josie is stopped in her tracks when Gretchen hands herself in to the police. She knows that there’s no way Gretchen could ever be a killer, so why would she confess to a murder she didn’t commit?
Digging deep into Gretchen’s secretive life, Josie uncovers a link between the boy, the photograph and a devastating case in Gretchen’s past. But just when Josie thinks she has it all figured out, the bodies of a young couple surface on the other side of town. Can Josie get to the truth in time to save her friend from a life in prison or certain death?
Absolutely gripping, this unputdownable crime thriller from a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author will leave you gasping for breath. A perfect read for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine.
The Bones She Buried
Detective Josie Quinn Book 5
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Josie works until her arms ache, until the paramedics arrive and pull her gently away from the woman’s cold, fragile body. Noah’s voice cracks beside her as he calls the time of death for his own, beloved mother.
Arriving with her partner Noah for dinner at his family’s immaculate countryside home, Detective Josie Quinn is devastated to find Noah’s mother, Colette, lying lifeless in the back garden, her mouth clogged with soil.
Searching the house for answers, Josie’s team don’t know what to make of the rosary beads buried in the dirt near the body, or the hidden file labelled “Drew Pratt”, the small town of Denton’s most famous missing person.
As she delves deeper into Pratt’s case, Josie quickly discovers he had a brother who’s body mysteriously washed up on the banks of a river. There’s also a diary entry suggesting that Colette may have met him on the last day he was seen alive. Can Josie believe the unthinkable, that a kind old soul like Colette might have been involved in their murders? And, will Josie’s new relationship with Noah survive the accusation?
Josie’s only hope lies in tracking down Pratt’s daughter. But when she arrives at her home to find she’s been murdered just minutes before, Josie knows the real killer is one step ahead and won’t stop until Colette’s secret is buried forever. With many more innocent lives on the line, how deep is Josie prepared dig to reach the truth?
An absolutely unputdownable crime thriller that will have you up all night! If you love Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni or Rachel Caine you’re guaranteed to be hooked from page one.
Her Silent Cry
Detective Josie Quinn Book 6
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Round and round she goes, blonde pigtails flying, her high-pitched giggle catching
on the wind. But as the ride slows to a stop, her seat is suddenly empty. Little Lucy is gone…
When seven-year-old Lucy Ross is snatched from the carousel in Denton city park, Detective Josie Quinn joins the frantic search. She’s the one who finds Lucy’s sparkly butterfly backpack abandoned by the ticket booth, a note with a devastating message stuffed inside: answer your phone, or your sweet little darling will die…