Shirlee McCoy - Night Stalker

Booklist Also By Shirlee McCoy Contents Cover Back Cover Text About the Author Booklist Title Page Copyright Introduction Dear Reader Bible Verse Dedication ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN Extract Special Crimes Unit Night Stalker Mission: Rescue Protective Instincts Her Christmas Guardian Exit Strategy Deadly Christmas Secrets Mystery Child The Christmas Target Mistaken Identity Christmas on the Run Classified K-9 Unit Bodyguard Rookie K-9 Unit Secrets and Lies Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Title Page Night Stalker Shirlee McCoy www.millsandboon.co.uk

Copyright ISBN: 978-1-474-08259-4 NIGHT STALKER © 2018 Shirlee McCoy Published in Great Britain 2018 by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental. By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher. ® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries. www.millsandboon.co.uk Version: 2020-03-02

Introduction Something darted out from the trees. Adam had his gun in hand in an instant, his arm pressing Charlotte down and out of the line of fire. He knew how quickly safety could turn to danger, and he knew how desperate the Night Stalker must be. The local papers had run the story. Guardian Angel Saves Tenth Victim of Notorious Night Stalker. The reporters might not have Charlotte’s name, but they were speculating that she was someone local to Whisper Lake. How long would it take the Night Stalker to figure out who she was and where she lived? Leaves rustled. A twig snapped. A dog appeared. “Clover!” Charlotte shouted, and then she was scrambling out of the car and onto the road. He grabbed her, hauling her up and into the SUV. Not caring about her injury. All he cared about was keeping her alive. If the dog loping toward them was hers, someone had let it out. Someone who might be waiting for her to return, waiting for her to go looking for the dog she obviously loved. Waiting on the road with a gun in hand, ready to finish what he’d begun.

Dear Reader Dear Reader Contents Cover Back Cover Text About the Author Booklist Title Page Copyright Introduction Dear Reader Bible Verse Dedication ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN Extract , Last year, my ten-year-old niece was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of sarcoma. As you can imagine, this was devastating for our family. I have watched my sister travel this very difficult road, and I have been reminded of how short life is. More than that, I have been reminded that bad things often happen to good people. None of us are exempt from heartache and none of us are immune to doubts and struggles. He is here, though. In the darkest times and in the brightest ones. If you doubt it, look at the moonlight dancing on an ocean wave, watch the goldfinches flit from branch to branch and listen for the sound of His love whispering through the leaves of the tallest oak tree. You will find Him there. In the FBI: Special Crimes Unit series, I explore the darker side of human nature. The men and women who work for this elite team each have unique backstories and traumas that have made them determined to protect the most vulnerable citizens. Like us, they sometimes wonder if God dwells in the toughest places. I hope you’ll journey with them as they find their answers and learn the truth of His extraordinary grace and love. Blessings to you, my friend. Shirlee McCoy

Bible Verse When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. —Isaiah 43:2

Dedication To you: the reader who has followed me from Lakeview, Virginia, to Whisper Lake, Maine. May you find joy in every sunrise and peace in every circumstance, and may the fullness of His love and mercy sustain you through every heartache.

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Extract

ONE

Charlotte Murray hated the lake.

She hated the blue-green water that gleamed like black ink in the moonlight, the quiet lap of waves against the shore, the whisper of damp air rustling through the tall reeds that bordered her yard. She hated it, but she couldn’t make herself leave.

Six years after her four-year-old son, Daniel, had wandered outside and drowned, five and a half years after her husband, Adam, left, five years after the divorce was finalized, and here she sat, the old swing creaking as she rocked in the early-morning darkness. How many sleepless nights had she spent staring out at Whisper Lake, wondering what she could have done to change things?

Too many.

Her friends said she needed to move on. Her therapist had encouraged her to rent out the cottage, move into town and create a new life for herself. One not defined by the tragedy of losing her son. It’s time to join the living again, he’d said as if there were some limit to grief and some timeline for recovery that she should be following.

She hadn’t been back to see him since.

Grief eased. It didn’t go away. Not even as time passed or environments changed.

“Besides,” she murmured, “I’ve got a job, friends, volunteer work. It’s not like I spend all of my time staring at the lake and dwelling on what I can’t change.”

Clover whined and dropped his boxy head on her knee, the added weight stopping the swaying motion of the swing. At seventy pounds, the poodle mix was double the size the county animal shelter had said he would be. Charlotte didn’t mind. He filled up more of the house, took up a little of the extra space that had been left when Daniel died and Adam walked out.

She scratched behind Clover’s floppy ears, kissed his velvety muzzle. “Ready to go inside?”

He was on his feet before she finished speaking, trotting to the back door, doing his goofy little poodle prance. She’d chosen him out of desperation, wanting something to keep the silence from smothering her. Before Daniel’s death, she and Adam had talked about getting a therapy dog, one that would bond with their son and maybe enter his solitary world. They’d planned it as a Christmas surprise.