Serial Threat Read online

  “I think he stabbed me.”

  “All I saw was a brick. Are you sure?”

  Loosening his grip, Noah looked down at his bicep. Blood was beginning to come through a slit in his jacket. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure he didn’t do this with a brick.”

  Emily’s stomach clenched as if she herself was injured. Yes, she was empathetic but this was more. Much more. Seeing Noah injured hit her right in the heart. “Why...?”

  “Why what?” Noah asked, grimacing.

  “Why did you get involved?”

  His glance held accusation and when he said, “Why did you tell me to chase him?” Emily had no answer. All she could think of was being thankful that Noah had not been killed because of her. Losing innocent bystanders was always terrible. Losing a dear, dear friend would have been a tremendous personal loss.

  A tragedy like that had nearly destroyed her once. She wasn’t sure she could overcome it a second time.

  Valerie Hansen was thirty when she awoke to the presence of the Lord in her life and turned to Jesus. She now lives in a renovated farmhouse on the breathtakingly beautiful Ozark Plateau of Arkansas and is privileged to share her personal faith by telling the stories of her heart for Love Inspired. Life doesn’t get much better than that!

  Books by Valerie Hansen

  Love Inspired Suspense

  Emergency Responders

  Fatal Threat

  Marked for Revenge

  On the Run

  Christmas Vendetta

  Serial Threat

  Rocky Mountain K-9 Unit

  Ready to Protect

  True Blue K-9 Unit: Brooklyn

  Tracking a Kidnapper

  True Blue K-9 Unit

  Trail of Danger

  Visit the Author Profile page at LoveInspired.com for more titles.

  Serial Threat

  Valerie Hansen

  My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

  —Psalm 31:15

  To new friends and old friends and those I have yet to meet.

  Every one of you is a special blessing.

  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

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Dear Reader

  Excerpt from Christmas Hostage by Sharon Dunn

  ONE

  The Paradise, Missouri, patrol car rolled to a stop beneath an overhead light in the deserted parking lot. “Unit three on scene, City Park,” Emily Zwalt radioed as she swept the mounted spotlight over the short-cropped grass and past picnic tables. “No sign of the disturbance that was reported.” She cautiously stepped out of the car. “No female screaming. I don’t hear anything.”

  “Copy. Your discretion,” the dispatcher replied.

  Emily stood to don her uniform jacket and hat, then spoke to her partner. “I’ll do a sweep down by the lake, Cal. You take the high ground. Okay?”

  “Whatever. You don’t have blond hair or blue eyes, so you’re probably not on the serial killer’s hit list.”

  “Not funny. Especially to the victims. Show some compassion, will you?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll try.” He adjusted his belt. “Radio me when you’re ready to give up this wild goose chase.”

  “Speaking of geese,” Emily said in parting, “watch your step around the ones that live here. They bite.”

  “Same to you. You’ll be closer to the water than I will.”

  Leaving him, she played the powerful beam of her flashlight over the terrain. Low fog blanketed the man-made lake and partially obscured her path. Shivering, she turned up the collar of her jacket. Maybe it was the fog, maybe the predicted storm, but the park felt unusually creepy tonight, as if the air was charged with malevolence.

  A rustling noise and movement in Emily’s peripheral vision startled her. She whirled. A small flock of Canada geese that had bedded down on the lakeshore was stirring.

  “It’s okay, guys,” Emily murmured, hoping to soothe the half-wild birds with a human voice. “I’m a friend.”

  A dry branch cracked. She froze. Most of the wary birds were staring into the dimness to her left. Contours of the land and the large body of water might be distorting sound as she interpreted it, but nothing fooled geese.

  “Help!” echoed faintly.

  There it is! Emily dropped into a crouch, her hand on the grip of her holstered weapon. The geese scattered and began to go berserk, honking and flapping their wings, their necks stretched long, heads held high.

  A large, dark form was starting to appear in the fog. Tensing, she drew her gun and announced, “Paradise police.”

  As she began to straighten, a masked figure caught her off-balance. She tried to dodge, but his shoulder hit her hard and sent her reeling. Rolling on the ground to bring her .38 to bear on the assailant, she shouted, “Freeze! Police!”

  The black-clad figure had passed, and she thought he would keep going. Instead, he turned and came at her again!

  There was no time to get to her feet, no chance to face her foe on an equal plane, so she double-gripped the .38 and steadied her aim. “Stop!”

  A slight pause was accompanied by a deep, menacing laugh. Whoever this was, he wasn’t afraid of her or the gun, acting as though he was sure she wouldn’t shoot. “I said, freeze.”

  The geese were making an awful racket nearby. Emily backpedaled, kept her eyes on her attacker and managed to key her radio. “Officer needs assistance.”

  “Copy. Where are you?”

  Just as she started to reply, she saw the man’s gaze shift to a place over her shoulder and focus there. He wasn’t alone!

  Piercing pain wrapped her head in a band of agony.

  Needles of colored lights pierced her vision.

  Blackness crept in at the edges of her mind until the last vestiges of her initial attacker vanished and she collapsed into the pure darkness of unconsciousness.

  * * *

  Newly returned to Paradise, attorney Noah Holden had spent a quiet evening at home, going over briefs for upcoming court actions, and had nodded off at his desk. When his cell phone roused him, it took only a second for his senses to catch up.

  “Holden.”

  “It’s me.” The voice was quavering and high.

  “Who is this?”

  “Me. Buddy Corrigan.”

  Noah sighed. Of course. Would he never learn that giving out his private number was a bad idea? “Why are you calling me at—” he checked the time “—three in the morning?”

  “Sorry. But I just remembered something important.”

  Noah reached for a pen and paper. “Okay. Go ahead.”

  “Not over the phone. Face-to-face.”

  “Then call my office and make an appointment.”

  “That might be too late. If you don’t come tonight, they may get to me before I can tell you.”

  Another sigh. Noah shook his head
, knowing he was going to cave and hoping the client was telling the truth. “Okay. Where and when?”

  “Now. I’ll be at the gazebo in the park. You know where that is?”

  “Unless they’ve moved it. I haven’t been back in town long enough to take notice.” Pausing, he waited for a reply before realizing the caller had broken the connection. At this point he really had no choice unless he intended to leave his client to the possible lethal actions of whoever he was afraid of.

  Donning a leather bomber jacket, Noah headed for the clandestine meeting. Of course he had misgivings. Who wouldn’t? But at least this was tiny, peaceful Paradise instead of Kansas City or St. Louis, where he’d practiced law in the past. Up there, he’d had a permit to carry a concealed weapon but, because being armed hadn’t seemed necessary here, he’d locked away his firearm. As he drove along the deserted streets toward the outskirts of town, however, he began to wonder if venturing out unarmed had been wise.

  Approaching the park from the north, he saw a pulsating blue-and-red glow far across the lake. If the gazebo had been over there, he would have immediately assumed he was too late.

  Parking, Noah checked his phone. There had been no texts or voice mail messages since the call that had awakened him, so he climbed out of the car.

  “Buddy? I’m here,” he announced in a normal voice as he approached the gazebo. A fresh coat of white paint made it stand out even at night, and the light built into his cell phone helped him see the ground.

  “Buddy?”

  Still no reply. Hair prickled at the nape of Noah’s neck. He figured he could stay at the gazebo where he’d be easy to see or fall back and watch from a position of relative safety. Prudence insisted he step aside.

  Circling the leading edge of the lattice-covered structure, he found a copse of azaleas leafed out and ready to bloom. The bushes offered perfect camouflage. He sidled closer and waited. Buddy Corrigan was likely to pop up any second, providing the police across the lake hadn’t scared him off, and he’d be ready.

  As Noah pushed his shoulder in among the tender new branches, the side of his foot bumped into a rock, or so he thought until he tried to step past it and realized it was quite large.

  One arm pushed aside the leaves so he could shine his light on the ground. He froze.

  “Buddy?” Seeing the prone body had made him think it was that of his client until his brain began to function better. This was a woman. He quickly crouched to check for a pulse and found none, but she was still warm. Maybe it wasn’t too late.

  Grabbing her shoulder, he rolled her onto her back. Lifeless eyes stared at him. She was clearly beyond CPR.

  Noah straightened, lifted his cell phone and called 911. “I want to report a murder.”

  * * *

  “Nonsense. I’m fine,” Emily insisted. “I’m not going to the hospital for a little bump on the head.”

  Her chief wasn’t convinced. He nodded to her partner. “Dodge, you take Officer Zwalt, circle around, and bring your unit in from the north.” He paused with a scowl. “And keep an eye on her. If she so much as looks at you funny, haul her back here. I’ll have an ambulance standing by.”

  “Yes, sir.” Cal’s smug expression made Emily grit her teeth. The problem was, in this instance, Chief Rowlings was right. A possibly injured officer like herself needed to be watched, even sidelined, until proven capable.

  The short drive around the park perimeter was nearly over when a new dispatch sent Emily’s pulse into overdrive. “Reported body found, north end of the park. All available units respond.”

  Cal flipped the switch for the light bar and hit the siren, and they careened into a parking lot seconds later.

  “Unit three on scene, north lot,” Emily radioed. “One vehicle, Missouri license plate.” She recited the numbers and letters. “No driver or passengers visible.”

  Cal was ahead of her, gun drawn, moving cautiously toward a gazebo. She heard him yell, “Freeze! Police! Hands up.”

  Capture that quickly was rare, but she followed his lead and drew her sidearm, keeping it pointed away from her partner.

  “Light him up,” Cal ordered.

  Emily aimed her powerful flashlight at the face of the dark-haired suspect. His hands were raised, his eyes squinting against the bright beam, and she was so astonished her jaw dropped. “Noah?”

  “On your knees,” Cal shouted. “Hands behind your back.”

  Standard procedure would have led Emily to secure the suspect. Instead, she countered with, “Stand down, Cal. I know him.”

  Cal’s head snapped around, his aim never wavering. “I don’t care if he’s your long-lost brother. Cuff him.”

  “Hey! I just reported the body, that’s all. I have nothing to do with all this,” Noah insisted.

  Because he had not knelt on command, Emily stepped directly in front of him. No one had informed her that Noah was back in town, and encountering him there, like that, was a shock. However, the last thing she wanted was to see her old friend in danger from a gung ho rookie like her partner.

  Emily whirled with her back to Noah and faced Cal, hands partially raised as a caution. “I said, stand down. We owe this man the right to explain.”

  Her partner lowered his gun as he radioed but didn’t holster it. “Unit three. Suspect in custody.”

  From behind her came the almost forgotten voice. “Thanks.”

  She spoke over her shoulder. “You’re welcome. You reported a crime?”

  “Yes. There’s a body on the other side of the gazebo.”

  “Did you recognize the victim?”

  Noah’s “no” didn’t surprise her since he hadn’t been in Paradise for—she mentally calculated—at least ten years.

  A stern glance at Cal’s weapon and a tilt of her head was enough to convince him to holster the gun, but she could tell he was anything but convinced. Fortunately, the sounds of approaching sirens seemed to placate him.

  “Okay, show me.” Emily turned and played her light over the gazebo and surrounding terrain, following Noah’s directions.

  “There. Under those bushes. See her?”

  “Yes.” She made her way closer, Noah at her side. Experience told the sad story, yet she bent to make sure and found no pulse.

  Blood pounded and Emily’s head wound throbbed as she straightened. This victim was a match for three others who had been murdered recently and dropped in her little town. The serial killer had struck again, and they were looking at the actual scene of the crime. This time, Lord willing, they might have a chance of finding clues to who was taking innocent lives.

  “I have one confirmed victim,” Emily radioed. “No suspect, just the reporting party. Requesting crime scene techs. Cancel the ambulance.”

  Cops were fanning out on foot to search the rest of the park while Emily guarded the crime scene. “Tell me you didn’t touch her.”

  “I had to roll her over to see if she was alive. You didn’t expect me to just leave her lying there if I could help, did you?”

  “It would have been sensible to wait for the police.”

  Noah was shaking his head. “No way. I had to be sure she was dead.”

  “I suggest you choose a different way to phrase that when you’re questioned officially,” Emily warned. “That sounds an awful lot like a confession.”

  TWO

  Officer Calvin Dodge was the object of Chief Rowlings’s ire when he arrived. “You should have asked for ID and checked with dispatch.”

  “He was found with the body, sir.”

  “Because he tripped over it and made the 911 call.”

  It was all Emily could do to hide her grin. Cal had a tendency to jump to conclusions, and she was pretty sure they had been paired because of her cautious stability. Trouble was, Cal usually failed to heed her sensible suggestions.

  Ignoring Emi
ly, Noah approached the chief and extended his right hand.

  “Good to see you again,” Rowlings said, shaking hands. “How’s Max?”

  “Recovering. Some strokes are worse than others. I’m just glad I was available to come help with his law practice.”

  “I’m sure Max is, too,” said the older man. “So, what happened here?”

  Noah began to fill him in while Emily listened. “At 3:00 a.m. I got a call from a new client, Buddy Corrigan. He said somebody was after him, and he wanted to meet in secret. That’s what brought me to the park in the middle of the night. Only she—” Noah gestured toward the victim “—was the only person I saw when I got here.”

  Rowlings had been nodding. When he stopped, Emily wondered what he was thinking. She had plenty of questions she wanted to ask Noah, most of which had nothing to do with crime.

  She noted her chief’s relaxed body language and wondered if Noah realized how well rehearsed it was. Rowlings’s good-old-boy persona was perfect for a small town. It could also disappear in a flash when he was speaking with the press or other high-ranking lawmen.

  “So,” the chief drawled, “how’d you manage to find her tucked away like she is? I mean, if I didn’t know where she was, I wouldn’t have noticed her, ’specially not in the dark.”

  “I was hiding back there,” Noah said, mirroring Rowlings’s posture and stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I figured if somebody was after Buddy, they might mistake me for him and take a potshot.”

  Emily was relieved to hear her chief say, “Smart. Course that’s to be expected, you bein’ a college boy and all.”

  Noah smiled for the first time since her arrival, and the sight sent a tingle up her spine that had nothing to do with chilly temperatures. “College can only teach so much. Common sense is necessary too.”

  “Can’t argue with that, son,” Rowlings said, once again subtly indicating his superior position by lowering Noah’s. Emily had seen this technique work before, and close observation of Noah told her that he had, too, because although his mouth continued to smile, that emotion never reached his dark eyes.