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  NOT ALONE

  The Detectives of Hazel Hill

  Book One

  Liz Bradford

  Copyright © 2018 Liz Bradford

  All rights reserved.

  Stand on the Rock Publishing

  [email protected]

  Lizbradfordwrites.com

  Cover Design by Alyssa Carlin at Alyssa Carlin Designs

  www.alyssacarlindesign.com

  Editing by Teresa Crupmton at AuthorSpark, Inc.

  authorspark.org

  Formatting by Kari Holloway at KH Formatting

  www.kariholloway.com/khformat

  Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

  Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  When single moms are turning up dead, Police Detective Rebecca Palmer will stop at nothing to bring the killer to justice.

  Detective Rebecca Palmer is hunting a serial killer bent on inflicting a warped sense of Biblical judgment. But, with so few clues, she struggles to catch his trail. The killer’s obsession with murdering single moms grips Rebecca’s heart with profound intensity, since she herself is a single mom. Will she be able to stop him before he takes another mother away from her child?

  Jared Johnson fought crime as a detective on the streets of Chicago but has decided to trade the inner city for the simpler life of the south. His brother said Hazel Hill, North Carolina is a great place to live, and Jared is willing to test his brother's claims. But is the move just another stop as Jared runs from his past, or will Hazel Hill be the place his restless soul can finally settle down?

  NOT ALONE is a Christian romantic suspense novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you cheer for love and justice to prevail.

  Table of 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

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Epilogue

  More From Liz Bradford

  Acknowledgments

  Author's Note

  About The Author

  To my mom.

  Couldn’t have done this without you.

  CHAPTER ONE

  He vigorously scrubbed the blood off the floor, off the wall, and off her body. But no amount of bleach could cleanse the filth of the heart. That is why she had to die. Sin deserved death.

  He squeezed the sponge over the bucket and then sat back on his heels. His chest deflated. He’d only done what needed to be done; she had brought it on herself.

  If she had just realized leaving her marriage was not an option…

  He dressed her in a clean, white dress. She could wear white now. He arranged her hair and flowers in her hands, took her outside, placed her in a shallow grave, and covered her with a plain white sheet. He wiped his tears with his shirt sleeve. It was a shame that her life had to end this way.

  Detective Rebecca Palmer slid her hand into a latex glove and knelt next to the dead body--a second young woman. The bustle of the crime scene swarmed around her, but her eyes focused on the victim. The technicians, medical examiner, forensic photographer, and even her partner faded to the background. Just as with the first victim, this one was holding flowers, note attached. Rebecca opened the note. She had no expertise in handwriting analysis, but she was sure it was the same handwriting as in the first victim’s note. She read it out loud: “I have paid for my sins. I was a coward, but I have nothing to fear now.” Despite the late summer North Carolina sun, a chill ran down Rebecca’s spine.

  She snapped a picture with her phone and slipped the note into the evidence bag that a tech held open for her.

  Rebecca stood, removed the glove, and analyzed the scene. She twisted her long hair around her finger as she always did when she was perplexed. The MO was exactly the same as the body they had found two weeks earlier. Both victims were in their early 30s and had dark brown hair. In white dresses, holding flowers and a note, the women had been found lying unburied out in the open of public parks. Both women were covered in bruises and had been strangled to death. Rebecca clenched her fists but restrained herself from punching someone. She huffed. Two weeks of working the first case, and there were still no leads, but with two victims now they’d find something to narrow their search.

  “Looks like the same guy,” her partner of two years, Doug Ramirez said. “Except for the different flowers this time. What do you think? Are we dealing with a copycat or a serial killer?”

  She shook her head. As much as she didn’t want this to be a serial killer, the idea of two killers churned her stomach. “Everything else is exactly the same, so I think we are dealing with the same guy, but I’m not sure why he used a different flower this time.”

  “Maybe we’ll have a better idea once we’ve checked out the victim’s home.”

  Rebecca paced and used her hands as she spoke. “The first victim had violets in her house and then was holding violets when we found her. Maybe he’s choosing a flower they like? I’m not sure, but maybe we’ll find hydrangeas in this lady’s home. Henry—” she turned to the medical examiner, “as soon as you have an ID, let us know.”

  “Duh.” He looked at her and rolled his eyes.

  “Thank you.” She closed her eyes. She wasn’t going to let Henry’s impudent attitude shake her confidence.

  She turned to leave; they had gleaned all they were going to from the crime scene, so it was best to get out of the forensics team’s way and let them do their job. She forced herself to walk at casual pace. Rebecca hated being at crime scenes; she would rather be out pursuing leads and hunting down the killer.

  When she and Doug caught this case, she’d been afraid it might become a serial case, and now it looked like it would be. Her insides quivered. Jesus, help us get this guy before he kills anymore women.

  Rebecca walked back to her desk from the police station’s break room. Her mind was spinning. Were they dealing with a serial killer? Or were they looking for two separate killers? Either prospect scared her. But first, they needed to know more. She had spent the last hour since they got back to the station poring over the first victim’s case file again so that, as she learned about the second, she would recognize any patterns between the two ladies.

  She set her coffee on her desk and looked at Doug whose desk was across from hers. “Have you heard from the ME yet?”

  He looked up from his computer. “I would have told you if I did.”

&nbs
p; She pulled her light brown hair back into a ponytail and slowly counted to four to calm herself. “What’s the deal?”

  “Beats me. He’ll call when he has it. You know that.”

  “Yeah I just wish he’d hurry.”

  Her phone rang, “Must be him.” But when she picked it up and saw the caller ID, the air in her lungs evaporated. “Just kidding. It’s my sister.” She lifted the phone to her ear. “Hey, Amy.”

  “Hi, sis. Sorry to call you at work.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you about something while Callie wasn’t around.”

  Rebecca’s chest tightened. Callie was her five-year-old daughter. “What’s up?”

  “Yesterday, when I picked Callie up from school, she had been crying. It took a while, but I was able to get it out of her eventually. Apparently, she was upset about the family project they are doing in her class. Most of her friends had pictures of their dads.”

  Rebecca’s lungs didn’t want to work, but she forced herself to take in a breath. “Oh.” Callie didn’t know her dad at all. Visions of the tall man with shaggy brown hair who had broken her heart filled her mind. She tried to blink them away.

  “Maybe it’s time to pull some pictures out and tell her about him. I can get the box out of my basement.”

  “Amy, I just can’t.”

  “You know I love you, and I understand how hard it’s been for you without him. But you can’t avoid it forever.”

  “I know. But…”

  Her big sister’s voice was intense yet gentle. “Think about it, and more importantly, pray about it. God will give you the strength.”

  Rebecca closed her eyes. Amy was right. “I’ll pray about it.”

  “I’m praying too. And… I may have encouraged Callie to ask you about it too…”

  “Amy.”

  “She said she didn’t want to talk to you about it. I asked her why, and she said it’s because you always look sad when she asks about her dad.”

  “Well… she’s not wrong. It makes me sad to think about it.” Sorrow coursed through her heart. But not just about him. She hated that her little girl felt like she couldn’t talk to her about it.

  “I know. I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Rebecca dropped her phone onto her desk and hung her head. Five and a half years, yet her heart hurt as if just yesterday he had disappeared. She hadn’t even been able to tell him she was pregnant. Would she ever get over him?

  “You okay?”

  She looked up at Doug. “I’m fine.” She took a deep breath to settle her nerves.

  The phone rang again. This time it was the ME. The victim’s name was Tonya Jennings. He confirmed cause of death. Both victims had been strangled. No evidence of sexual assault, just as with the first victim, but she was covered in bruises. Rebecca’s heart sank. These poor women had been tortured before their lives ended. Her resolve to find the killer grew stronger.

  Rebecca jotted the new information on the rolling white board and relayed it to Doug, and they both searched online for Tonya Jennings. She was thirty years old, mother of one six-year-old boy, and had been reported missing three days ago. They lived across town, so Rebecca and Doug left the station and headed there.

  Rebecca lifted her hand and knocked on Tonya’s second story apartment. An older woman with wrinkled clothes and heavy bags under her eyes opened the door.

  “Hello, ma’am. I’m Detective Rebecca Palmer, and this is my partner Detective Ramirez.” They both showed the woman their badges. “May we come in?” The only thing about Rebecca’s job that she hated more than standing around at a crime scene was notifying the family of their loved one’s death. She had secretly hoped the apartment would be empty, and they would just be able to look around and learn about Tonya, but this woman may be able to give them more insight than the apartment alone.

  “This is about Tonya, isn’t it?” The woman hung her head and let out a dry sob. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”

  “May we come in and sit down?”

  “Oh, of course. What happened?” she asked.

  Doug and Rebecca entered the small, messy apartment, as the woman motioned to the kitchen table and cleared it, putting stacks of dirty dishes in the already full sink and precariously piling papers on the counter.

  “Sorry it’s such a mess. I’ve just been so frazzled. I really can take care of Ryan.”

  The three sat at the kitchen table. “We understand. May we ask who you are, ma’am?”

  “Oh, sorry, yes, I am Tina, Tonya’s mom.” She kept switching which hand was by her face.

  “Do you live here with Tonya and her son?”

  “No, my husband and I live down by the Catawba River. I came three days ago when Tonya didn’t pick Ryan up from school, and they called me, but it’s not like her to not pick up the boy, so I knew something was wrong straight away.”

  Rebecca wondered how the woman could say so many words without taking a breath. Rebecca opened her mouth to speak, but Tina continued.

  “I called the police, but y’all didn’t do a thing. Said we had to wait twenty-four hours to know if she was truly missing. So, I waited and filed a missing person report, but still nothing, and now two detectives show up two days later.” Tina’s voice cracked. She leaned her head into her hands and rested her elbows on the table.

  Rebecca started to reach her hand out to the woman but pulled it back. She never knew how to act in these situations. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. But I promise we’ll do what we can. Unfortunately, we found Tonya’s body this morning.” Rebecca took a deep breath. “She was murdered.”

  “Mur—? Oh, dear God! Who—?” The woman’s sobs finally produced a few tears.

  Rebecca reached out and did her best to comfort the woman by patting her shoulder. Doug got up and found her some tissues.

  Between sobs Tina managed to say, “I bet you have questions about Tonya.”

  “Yes, ma’am. The more we learn about Tonya the greater our chances of figuring out what happened. When you are ready, do you mind if we look around a bit?”

  “Not at all. Ryan is in his room playing. I should go tell him.”

  Rebecca’s heart broke for the little boy who was about to find out his mother was gone and not coming back. Tina got up and went into one of the bedrooms off the main room while Doug and Rebecca looked around. Doug walked around as Rebecca thumbed through the pile of papers on the counter.

  “Palmer, over here,” Doug called from near the windows that lined the end of the apartment. There in a vase in the window was a bouquet of hydrangeas. “Looks like she did like hydrangeas.”

  Rebecca walked over and ran her fingers along the flowers. “I guess we are definitely looking at a killer that learns a bit about his victims before taking them.”

  They continued to look around. The photos that graced the wall and shelves were all of Ryan and Tonya’s family. No husband or boyfriend evident from the pictures. It wasn’t long before Tina and Ryan came out of the bedroom. The boy and his grandmother were both splotchy faced with swollen red eyes. Rebecca went over to the boy, who wasn’t much older than her Callie, and knelt in front of him. “I’m so sorry, buddy.” The boy fell into her arms; he needed a hug. Rebecca just held him until he let go. She said, “I need to know more about your mom. Do you want to help me, or should I just ask your grandma?”

  The boy didn’t say a word but took the cup of juice his grandmother offered him and went and sat on the couch. Tina looked at Rebecca and said, “I’m ready to tell you what you need to know. Let’s sit at the table.”

  Doug came from across the room, and they both sat with Tina. Doug asked, “I noticed the bouquet of hydrangeas over by the window, were they a favorite flower of Tonya’s?”

  “She loved all flowers, always tried to keep a vase full of flowers in that window. It varied what kind she had. Why?”

  “She was holding hydrangeas when we found her. Wa
s Tonya married or have a boyfriend?”

  “Not married. She never stayed with any one man for very long. She was never one to stick it out when a relationship got tough. And as far as I know she wasn’t currently dating anyone.”

  They asked many more questions and pieced together that after dropping Ryan at school, Tonya normally went to the gym between the school and where she worked. After leaving Tonya’s apartment they went to the office where she worked as a receptionist. She had not shown up the morning she disappeared. So, she must have been taken between the school and work. Next, they went to the gym that Tonya frequented. After talking to the young man at the front desk they discovered that she had shown up for her regular workout that Monday morning. And her car was still sitting in the parking lot of the gym, but there was no surveillance revealing what had happened. The gym’s cameras only covered the front door, not the parking lot. But why hadn’t her car been noticed before? Why had no one come out and investigated this missing person case? Sometimes she felt like other departments slacked and thus put lives at risk, but she also knew that missing persons were difficult because so often the person had just skipped town and wanted to be left alone.

  Rebecca and Doug got back in the department’s sedan. Tonya’s car would be towed to the evidence garage, but Rebecca doubted any clues would be found there.

  Doug cracked his knuckles. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “Me too.”

  “The women seem too disconnected for this to be personal.”

  “Yeah, so how do we figure out who his next target is before he can take her life?”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Rebecca was glad to finally be leaving the station Thursday afternoon. After starting the day at a crime scene, she was ready to enjoy Callie’s innocence. She reached up to open the door of the squad room when her phone rang. “Now what?” She just wanted to go home and play with Callie. She pulled her phone out of her purse. But her frustration vanished when she saw the caller ID. It was Caleb Johnson.