Jessica Andersen - Ricochet

ISBN: 9781408947463

Ricochet

© Jessica S. Andersen 2006

First Published in Great Britain in 2011

Harlequin (UK) Limited

Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, including without limitation xerography, photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

This ebook is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated, without the prior consent of the publisher, in any form or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters in this work have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II B.V./S.á.r.l.

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Though she’s tried out professions ranging from cleaning sea lion cages to cloning glaucoma genes, from patent law to training horses, Jessica is happiest when she’s combining all these interests with her first love: writing romances. These days she’s delighted to be writing full-time on a farm in rural Connecticut that she shares with a small menagerie and a hero named Brian. She hopes you’ll visit her at www.JessicaAndersen.com for information on upcoming books, contests and to say hi!

Alissa Wyatt—Bear Claw City’s new crime-scene artist wants to put down roots, but instead attracts the attention of a sinister serial kidnapper.

Tucker McDermott—In trying to protect Alissa from escalating danger, the footloose detective winds up with a partner…and a whole lot more. Will the growing attraction be enough to keep him in town? More important, will they both live long enough to find out?

Johnny Ferguson—The serial rapist vowed revenge when Alissa helped capture and convict him years earlier. Now he’s out and looking for payback.

Cassie Dumont and Maya Cooper—Alissa’s two best friends and coworkers in the forensics department want to keep her safe and catch the kidnapper, but interdepartmental politics may endanger them all.

Detectives Piedmont and Mendoza—The partners don’t trust Alissa or her friends. How far will they go to prove that Bear Claw doesn’t need a new forensics department?

Bradford Croft—The unassuming man lives next door to the first kidnap victim. He was previously convicted of a sex offense, but the evidence doesn’t seem to directly link him to the kidnappings.

Michael Swopes—With a rap sheet and a suspicious purchase, Swopes seems like a strong suspect. But where is he?

William Parry—The chief of the Bear Claw police department will do anything to weld his officers into a team and find the Canyon Kidnapper.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Prologue

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

COMING NEXT MONTH

The collector unlocked the door with fingers that trembled, not from the cold but from excitement. He eased the shed open and let the cold winter sun splash across the soiled floorboards, let it touch the girl’s bare, chilled foot.

She stirred and her dusky-blond eyelashes fluttered as though she still fought the drugs that swam in her bloodstream.

His lips curved into a smile and he whispered, “Perfect.” She was perfect. Young and scared and too weak to run away, just the way he liked them. “She’s perfect.”

But you can’t keep her, a voice said nearby, or maybe inside his head. Stick to the plan.

The collector scowled. “I don’t want to. I’m going to keep her. She’s mine. I picked her out. I took her. I can keep her.”

No you can’t. Stick to the plan—or else.

It wasn’t the tone of anger—whether real or imagined—that changed the collector’s mind. It was the slice of fear that slipped into his chest, colder than the Colorado winter, reminding him of what would happen if he disobeyed.

“Okay, fine. Never mind. I’ll do it.” He opened the shed door wider and shook out the blanket he’d carried from his van. He leaned over and wrapped the girl, not to keep her warm, but to cover her from view, just in case. Then he lifted her off the dirty floor and carried her out into the light. He felt the snow crunch beneath his boots, heard the others calling to him from their sheds, and smiled.

Everything was going according to plan.

Alissa Wyatt pulled her VW into the back parking lot of the Bear Claw Creek Police Department—BCCPD—five minutes after the task force meeting was set to begin.

Damn. She hated being late. She yanked off her BCCPD ball cap, twisted her honey-colored hair into a businesslike bun and shoved her sketches into a nylon portfolio. Then she bolted for the back entrance, trying not to slip on a patch of ice and rock salt.

The fierce Colorado mountain winter was cold and raw, but to Alissa, it felt like coming home. Granted, home was a relative term in her experience, but that was the goal here, to make a home. To find a place for herself.

She shouldered through the heavy door and sped past the desk clerk, heading for the back conference room at a fast walk. Though Chief Parry might overlook her tardiness, the others wouldn’t. Bear Claw Creek’s finest had been slow to welcome the three women who made up the new Forensics Division. Not because of their sex, but because Alissa and her two best friends from way back in the Denver Police Academy had been brought in to replace Fitzroy O’Malley.

The now-retired Fitz was an icon. A one-man crime lab who’d been a fixture in the mountain cop shop since long before most of the veterans had been rooks. And now those rooks-turned-veterans resented the three-woman team that had been brought in to run the newly expanded Bear Claw Creek Crime Lab.