BEVERLY BARTON - Time of Death

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

AVON

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First published in the U.S.A by Kensington Publishing Corp. New York, NY, 2010

TIME OF DEATH. Copyright © Beverly Barton 2010. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, 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 HarperCollins ebooks

Beverly Barton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9781847561404

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2011 ISBN: 9780007412228

vERSION: 2018-07-09

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

There it was again, that odd sound. It must be…

Chapter 1

Lorie Hammonds slept until nearly eleven and woke with a…

Chapter 2

Derek Lawrence arrived late. He wouldn’t have even considered attending…

Chapter 3

Barbara Jean met the potential client at the front door,…

Chapter 4

He exited the small commuter airplane, hoisted his vinyl carryall…

Chapter 5

“I want to assure you that the sheriff’s department will…

Chapter 6

Derek parked his Vette in the driveway, got out, locked…

Chapter 7

After locking the door and securing it so that no…

Chapter 8

Maleah and Derek had agreed to split the day guarding…

Chapter 9

Lorie walked Paul Babcock to the door. “I’m glad you…

Chapter 10

The Powell jet landed shortly before noon, Eastern Standard Time.

Chapter 11

He was dying. His doctor had delivered his death sentence…

Chapter 12

The sun heated their naked skin as they played together…

Chapter 13

“Buddy!” Mike bellowed the deputy’s name.

Chapter 14

After the unsettling night before, Lorie had decided not to…

Chapter 15

On Saturday morning, Special Agent Hicks Wainwright held a press…

Chapter 16

When he had phoned Abby and explained the situation, she…

Chapter 17

Mike called her at 10:05 P.M. “We need to talk.”

Chapter 18

Mike Birkett dropped his kids off at school and headed…

Chapter 19

Jeff Misner rammed into his wife, his upper thighs slapping…

Chapter 20

Lorie had almost forgotten the sound of her mother’s voice.

Chapter 21

Ransom Owens lived alone in the brick house built by…

Chapter 22

Deputy Buddy Pounders lived a quarter of a mile from…

Chapter 23

Lorie wasn’t sure if she was relieved or not that…

Chapter 24

When Nicole Powell woke, she found herself alone in bed.

Chapter 25

Casey used his friend Jason’s cell phone to make the…

Chapter 26

During the past couple of weeks, Lorie and Mike had…

Chapter 27

He had three days to make it happen. Three days…

Chapter 28

Lorie had just stepped out of the shower and wrapped…

Chapter 29

He stood in the woods, darkness surrounding him, as the…

Chapter 30

“There’s a problem with Mrs. Owens,” Ashley White said as she…

Chapter 31

Puff Raven had been and still was an extremely sexy…

Chapter 32

At 8:15 on the last Friday morning in April, Lila…

Chapter 33

Carrying a newspaper under his arm and with the straps…

Chapter 34

“What are you doing here?” Tyler Owens stared in total…

Chapter 35

The Powell Agency wrapped up their investigation into the Midnight…

Chapter 36

When Lorie walked out of the sheriff’s office the morning…

Epilogue

Lorie had tried to convince Mike that they should have…

Read on for an exclusive chapter of Beverly Barton’s new novel, If Looks Could Kill

About the Author

Other Books by Beverly Barton

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There it was again, that odd sound. It must be the wind. What else could it be? Possibly a wild animal, a raccoon or possum or even a stray dog. Bears are in hibernation this time of year.

Get hold of yourself. You’re imagining things. Nobody’s out there. Nobody is going to show up here in the middle of the woods in the dead of winter just to frighten you.

Dean’s bone-thin hands trembled as he pulled back the gingham curtain from the dirty window and peered out into the darkness. The quarter-moon winked mockingly at him through a thin veil of clouds, as if it knew something he didn’t. The cold wind whispered menacingly. Was it issuing him a warning?

Releasing the curtain, he rubbed his hands together, as much to warm them as to control the quivering. He sure as hell could use a drink about now. Or something stronger, quicker. But he had learned to settle for strong coffee. A caffeine fix was better than no fix at all. He had been clean and sober for three years and he had no intention of allowing a few stupid letters to destroy his hard-won freedom from drugs and alcohol.

Forget the damn letters. They’re just somebody’s idea of a sick joke.

There were things he should be doing—stoking the fire he’d built in the fireplace, checking supplies, preparing the coffeemaker for morning coffee, bringing in more firewood, putting fresh linens on the twin beds. Dean wanted everything to be in order before his brother got here. Jared, who was driving in from Knoxville where he taught biology at the University of Tennessee, would arrive sometime in the morning, and if all went as planned, they’d spend the weekend here. This was the first time they’d been together at their family’s cabin in the Smoky Mountains since they were teenagers.

God, that had been a lifetime ago. Jared was forty-eight now, widowed, the father to two adult sons. His brother was successful in a way he would never be. Jared lived a normal life, always had and always would. Dean was a failure. Always had been and probably always would be. He’d been married and divorced four times. But he’d done one thing right—to his knowledge he had never fathered a child.