Dead reckoning, p.1
DEAD RECKONING, page 1
D E A D
R E C K O N I N G
(A Kelsey Hawk Mystery—Book 2)
K a t e B o l d
Kate Bold
Bestselling author Kate Bold is author of the ALEXA CHASE SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising six books (and counting); the ASHLEY HOPE SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising six books (and counting); the CAMILLE GRACE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising eight books (and counting); the HARLEY COLE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising eleven books (and counting); the KAYLIE BROOKS PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising five books (and counting); the EVE HOPE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising seven books (and counting); the DYLAN FIRST FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising five books (and counting); the LAUREN LAMB FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising five books (and counting); and the KELSEY HAWK MYSTERY series, comprising five books (and counting).
THE KILLING GAME (an Alexa Chase Suspense Thriller—Book #1), LET ME GO (an Ashley Hope Suspense Thriller—Book #1), and NOT ME (a Camille Grace FBI Suspense Thriller—Book #1) are available as free downloads on Kobo!
An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Kate loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.kateboldauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.
Copyright © 2023 by Kate Bold. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Jacket image Copyright Louisen, used under license from Shutterstock.com.
BOOKS BY KATE BOLD
KELSEY HAWK MYSTERY
DEAD INSIDE (Book #1)
DEAD RECKONING (Book #2)
DEAD TO ME (Book #3)
DEAD SILENCE (Book #4)
DEAD TO DAWN (Book #5)
ALEXA CHASE SUSPENSE THRILLER
THE KILLING GAME (Book #1)
THE KILLING TIDE (Book #2)
THE KILLING HOUR (Book #3)
THE KILLING POINT (Book #4)
THE KILLING FOG (Book #5)
THE KILLING PLACE (Book #6)
ASHLEY HOPE SUSPENSE THRILLER
LET ME GO (Book #1)
LET ME OUT (Book #2)
LET ME LIVE (Book #3)
LET ME BREATHE (Book #4)
LET ME FORGET (Book #5)
LET ME ESCAPE (Book #6)
CAMILLE GRACE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER
NOT ME (Book #1)
NOT NOW (Book #2)
NOT WELL (Book #3)
NOT HER (Book #4)
NOT NORMAL (Book #5)
NOT AGAIN (Book #6)
NOT SAFE (Book #7)
NOT TODAY (Book #8)
HARLEY COLE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER
NOWHERE SAFE (Book #1)
NOWHERE LEFT (Book #2)
NOWHERE TO RUN (Book #3)
NOWHERE LIKE THIS (Book #4)
NOWHERE GIRL (Book #5)
NOWHERE TO HIDE (Book #6)
NOWHERE CERTAIN (Book #7)
NOWHERE PURE (Book #8)
NOWHERE SOUND (Book #9)
NOWHERE SANE (Book #10)
NOWHERE TRUE (Book #11)
KAYLIE BROOKS PYSCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE THRILLER
LAST BREATH (Book #1)
LAST CHANCE (Book #2)
LAST WISH (Book #3)
LAST SHOT (Book #4)
LAST MISTAKE (Book #5)
EVE HOPE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER
IN HIS BLOOD (Book #1)
IN HIS SIGHTS (Book #2)
IN HIS REACH (Book #3)
IN HIS MIND (Book #4)
IN HIS WAY (Book #5)
IN HIS THOUGHTS (Book #6)
IN HIS DREAMS (Book #7)
DYLAN FIRST FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER
OUT OF REACH (Book #1)
OUT OF TOUCH (Book #2)
OUT OF TIME (Book #3)
OUT OF BOUNDS (Book #4)
OUT OF LUCK (Book #5)
LAUREN LAMB FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER
SOMETHING KNOCKING (Book #1)
SOMETHING CALLING (Book #2)
SOMETHING WRONG (Book 3)
SOMETHING DARK (Book #4)
SOMETHING TO HIDE (Book #5)
CONTENTS
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
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
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
The panting was the worst of it.
No, that was not quite true. The fact that she knew she would die was the worst of it—the panting coming from the monster behind her only made things worse. She ran as fast as her frozen limbs would carry her, cracking against the hard ice that made thunderous sounds below, trying to ignore the icy wind that cut her cheeks like shards of glass. Trying to ignore the snarls of the beast as it closed in on its prey.
She couldn’t hide. Her breath, the last few she would breathe in this world, escaped her lips in large bursts of white, rising like a beacon to show it exactly where she was. She had learned about smoke signals in school, and it only came back to mind now. Knowledge that had been lost until her life flashed before her eyes, and it was still useless.
The woman tried to hold her breath, but it was impossible when she was running as fast as she could. If she held it for a few steps, the white tendrils leaped up instantly and abundantly to call out to the pursuer. It would still track her even if she were not breathing so heavily. She had known that when she first looked into its eyes. Her oncoming death was old news—she knew she was dead from the moment she looked into the dark eyes—now, it was toying with her.
But human instinct told her there was a chance. If only she could run faster, move for a minute more, get to the lights in the distance that never seemed to get any closer. If only she could live for a moment more, then she might survive. If she had not been running, she would have laughed. Even as her brain told her to keep going, she knew she was lying to herself.
The frozen lakes often became mirrored at the start of winter before the snow dusted them with a blanket of snow. The rivers did not—the rushing water twisted and snapped into uneven ripples that refracted the light and sucked it in. She did not need a mirror to know there was terror in her eyes.
Another shiver ran through her body, threatening to topple her. Still, the panting came from behind, and she did not dare turn to check how close it was, or she would freeze in place. She had been naive enough to think she had escaped, but he had let her go to torment her more.
Her foot went through the ice and into the water below. Her bare foot numbed—the water was colder than ice. She gasped as it cut through her and ran up her leg toward her heart. She grabbed her thigh, wrenched her leg from the cold, and moved even though she felt unable. She stumbled through the two-inch deep snow, limping and favoring her numb left leg.
Please! Please let the cold kill me!
She wore a thin T-shirt, already wet from the thin mist hanging in the air, and her pants clung to her legs, soaked from the kicked-up water and unfortunate breaks through the ice. She was not running for her life anymore; she was running for her death. She only had to outlast the beast, and the cold would claim her. She clouds slip into the numbness with no more pain. She would not have to look into his eyes again, or recoil from his glistening teeth, or cower from his sheer size and power.
She stopped. The silence was the most terrifying thing she had ever heard. The woman looked wildly around, trying to find the beast. The moon shone down from above, the stars twinkling in the black sky, and the white snow brightened the night. She could see all in every direction, but she could not see it. She covered her mouth and breathed through her nose, hoping to remain concealed even though she did not have a hiding spot.
Bushes stood to her right, a tree line fifty paces to the left. She could feel the water rumbling below the ice, her soles numb, and the tremoring of the rushing water moving up her like an earthquake. She had to make a decision: left or right. She took a shaky breath and focused on the bushes. They were closer—she could hide there.
A deep exhalation of breath sent ice flowing through her veins. She had not been cold out in the vast desolate landscape with scraps of clothing covering her body or when she had plunged her foot into the unforgiving water. She only truly knew what cold was when she felt the chill of its breath on the back of her neck.
Her choice was not the trees or bushes; it was to fight or run. The beast had come for her; death had come for her, but she could prolong her life even if she could not escape death.
Trembling, she took a step forward and away from the beast. Perhaps she could sneak away unnoticed. Then she ran. She only made it two steps before her feet betrayed her, and she fell, spinning and sprawling to the ground. She looked up at the night sky, wishing upon a star, but her wish did not come true.
The face of the beast replaced the beauty of the night, snarling with flashing teeth. It covered the blackness as it pounced on her, smashing her through the ice and into the waiting death below.
The water numbed her instantly—comforted her in its cold embrace. The eyes of the beast looked down into hers as it pushed her down into the depths of hell, and she could only smile. The monster could not terrorize her anymore.
She slipped away into the darkness, finally welcoming death.
CHAPTER ONE
Special Agent Kelsey Hawk twisted the coiled phone cord as she waited to be connected to the ex-detective who might help her find the person who slaughtered her family. She had called multiple times over the past few weeks, and he had not picked up the phone once. She let it ring out before placing the old phone on the receiver. She tapped it a couple of times before opening her laptop.
It was not much, but it was all she had gotten her hands on so far. No one liked a cop looking into old unsolved cases—it was like a kick in the teeth. You didn’t solve the case, and I think I can. What it really said was: you are not good at your job. It was especially worse when the cop was a Special Agent in the FBI, and the victims were the agent’s family. Kelsey’s mother, father, and younger sister were brutally murdered in a home invasion. The case had gone unsolved for twenty years, and Kelsey knew there was little chance of solving it after all this time, but she had to try.
Her career in the FBI had consumed her for years, driven toward her line of work by a thirst for justice. She had looked at the case files before but had not delved into the case. Perhaps she was scared about what she might find—why had she been allowed to live when her entire family had been slain? She’d not had the time to consider the case before, but since being shipped off to a small town in North Dakota, she had all the time in the world.
When not catching serial killers!
She hovered the cursor over the folder on the desktop marked CS Photos. She had been putting off looking at them and didn’t know if she would. She could still remember how grotesque they had looked when she had lived through it as a child. She was only ten when it happened and had only escaped the killer’s clutches by hiding in the closet. Kelsey didn’t have the strength to look at the crime scene photos of her dead family.
The window offered a much more appealing view. Her new apartment, slightly bigger than the temporary one she had been housed in when she first moved to Winchburgh, looked over the Balsam River. Most of the rivers in Vanburgh County converged or merged at points, and she knew this river fed into the river that ran through the City of Bridges. She had almost died there after plunging into the river to stop a killer taking young women to relive his childhood monstrosities. She shivered at the thought.
I would do it all again if it meant keeping someone like him off the streets.
It was home now. When she had moved to Winchburgh, thanks to her Special Agent in Charge back at the FBI office in sunny Valleyview, Kelsey hoped for a speedy expedition. He was still out to get her, meaning she would not leave small-town North Dakota any time soon. Not that she was in any rush anymore. Since working the biggest case in Vanburgh County history and getting to know the locals, she found that the place wasn’t so bad. Even if they still had four more months of snow to contend with.
The snow created a clean blanket of white over the entire state, and it would be beautiful if only it were not so cold all of the time. Kelsey had been used to beaches and warmth, and now, she had this. She stared out into the white expanse outside.
No time to daydream when there is work to be done.
With spare time on her hands after solving the previous case, she had vowed to solve her family’s case or look into it, and it was slow going. She was still waiting on some of the case files being sent over, but everything was being blocked by red tape and procedure. That was not abnormal, but she couldn’t help but think her previous SAC was hindering her progress with his sick and twisted games. She took out her cell phone and brought up the last message from Paul Granger, her ex-Special Agent in Charge.
We all get lucky sometimes. Good thing you didn’t get anyone killed with your recklessness. Don’t worry, I’m waiting for you to mess this up, as always.
It should have been much simpler in a small town, but her life was more complex and complicated here.
Now that I’m looking into the deaths of my family, I’m sure my life will be anything but simple… or easy.
The worst of it all was having to relive it. For the past two weeks, the nightmares had come. She was back in her childhood home, walking through the halls, her family already dead. She was cursed in her dreams to wander the halls forever, knowing someone was in the house with her. Every room she came across had a dead body in it. Each time she woke, she was comforted by the white snow outside, a welcome replacement for the red in her dreams.
Kelsey shook her head—she needed to concentrate, or she would get nowhere. She had less to do at work, but there were still plenty of administrative tasks, and she would not have extra time for long.
She opened up some of the files on her laptop, checking for the fifth or sixth time the files she had been sent. The neighbors had been interviewed the morning after to check if they had heard or seen anything, but no one had. The deaths occurred in the middle of the night; the three victims were stabbed to death. There was a list of suspects that had committed crimes in the area during that time, but they all led nowhere. More than half of them were dead, and a handful were now in prison. Kelsey was still waiting on the forensics from the crime scene and any other files from the investigation. She had not directly looked at the case, but she knew there was not much. They had no leads to chase, so there was nowhere to go. Still, she was determined to do something.
Kelsey picked up the phone again and dialed the number she had memorized. She stared out the window absently but was startled from her daydreams by the phone being answered.
"Will you stop calling this number!" Harvey Waters demanded.
"I will when you talk to me," Kelsey replied.
She grabbed her notebook and a pen, hoping to get something down on paper. Something told her she was only going to have one chance to talk with him.
"Listen, I get that you think you are some hotshot in the FBI because you have a decent track record, and I know you like to break the rules, but you are not special, Hawk."
Kelsey wanted to correct him and mention she was a special agent, but she didn’t want to lose him. He was disrespecting her, but she let it slide while she had him on the line.
When she had requested more case files, someone had taken notice, and she suspected it was her old SAC. Whoever it was must have spread the word, and Harvey Waters had been expecting her call.
"I don’t think I’m special," Kelsey agreed. "My family were slaughtered, and I deserve answers."
"The best detectives in the city worked that case, and there was nothing. I should know; I was one of the leads."
Sounds like someone has an ego.
"I’m not trying to step on anyone’s toes, Mr. Waters. I only want to look at the case myself and see what’s there. Times change, and technology improves. He might have done this again if he’s still out there, and we can cross-reference cases. When you were working on a case, did you consult anyone else in the department? Did you get a second opinion on things, or did you think you knew it all?"
Kelsey knew she was treading a fine line.
