CHAPTER 1 FEBRUARY 2018 “Wake up, Tess.” Sophie leans in closer to me. “Stealth approach, two o’clock.” I blink and pull myself back into the present, glancing over my shoulder to see two men approaching our table, creased shirts and red faces a sure sign they’ve been here a while. Not bad-looking, but neither does…
Chapter 1 “This is Terry Banner asking you to remember that you heard it here first.” The red light went off, telling Banner with certainty that he was no longer on the air. He took out his earpiece, removed his microphone, opened his shirt collar, and removed his tie. He hated ties; if the inventor…
Chapter One “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean.” Anxiety pooled in the pit of my stomach, and I knew it had to be reflected in my face because my sister, Margot, grabbed my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Nigel Hearst, my newly deceased husband’s accountant, regarded me with sympathy. “I’m…
Author Acknowledgement This is my twenty-second true-crime book and perhaps the most disturbing. There are so many unanswered questions as to why Chris Watts, a seemingly perfect father, would annihilate his entire family. “He was a great father,” Shanann’s father, Frank Rzucek, told investigators. “Husbandwise the same way.” So what could have been going on…
CHAPTER ONE It was a Monday morning in early October when I first heard about you. I was getting out of the shower when my phone rang. After throwing on a robe and cinching it, I ran into my bedroom, snatching my cell off the nightstand. Unknown number. Normally, I let those go. But I’d…
REDLEAF LAKE | CRIME SCENE #2 | GREELEY, COLORADO December 2 Special Agent James Mason struck off toward the distant police cordon, his FBI windbreaker flaring on the breeze, his sunglasses shielding his blue eyes from the winter sun. His hair had grown shaggy, but getting it cut was the furthest thing from his mind.…
Chapter 4: Boomtown I was beginning to think of Rock Springs in a way I knew I would always think of it, a lowdown city full of crimes and whores and disappointments… —Richard Ford, “Rock Springs” 1987 Two men walked into a bar. Actually, it was not yet a drinking establishment. Ed Varley’s family…
CHAPTER 1 Thursday, February 23 More often than you’d think, the troublemakers sit in first class. Not the upgraders. They’re so thankful for a golden ticket to the promised land, they stay on best behavior in hopes of proving they belong in the club full-time. Most of them are business types who simply want to…
Chapter 1 Before the great earthquake of 1906, I was not haunted, but it would be inaccurate to say my mind was entirely at peace. From the time I was a small child, I’d suffered from what the sisters called “spells”—strange, trancelike episodes of which I have no memory. I’d be found, say, with a…
Guadalcanal Island, The Solomons August 1942 Rain. Pounding, tropical rain. Not comforting; more like scary. Sounding like a waterfall on my steel shipping-box home. My brain telling me: It’s just rain. Go back to sleep. But it wasn’t just rain: someone or thing was also pounding on the side of the box. Go away! I…
