Cold Pursuit - Carla Neggers [0]
New York Times bestselling author
Carla Neggers
“When it comes to romance, adventure and suspense, nobody delivers like Carla Neggers.”
—Jayne Ann Krentz
“Fans of romantic suspense will be charmed.”
—Publishers Weekly on The Angel
“Suspense, romance and the rocky Maine coast—what more could a reader ask? The Harbor has it all.”
—Tess Gerritsen
“Neggers keeps the reader guessing ‘whodunit’ to the end of her intriguing novel.”
—Publishers Weekly on The Widow
“Neggers has created yet another well-matched pair of characters and given them a crackerjack mystery to solve—complete with a seriously creepy villain.”
—Romantic Times BOOKreviews on Abandon
“[Neggers’s] skill at creating colorful characters and deliciously twisted story lines makes this an addictive read.”
—Publishers Weekly on Stonebrook Cottage
“A keen ear for dialogue and a sure hand with multidimensional characterizations are Neggers’ greatest gifts as a storyteller…. By turns creepy and amusing.”
—Romantic Times BOOKreviews on Breakwater
“Carla Neggers is one of the most distinctive, talented writers of our genre.”
—Debbie Macomber
Also by CARLA NEGGERS
TEMPTING FATE
THE ANGEL
ABANDON
CUT AND RUN
THE WIDOW
BREAKWATER
DARK SKY
THE RAPIDS
NIGHT’S LANDING
COLD RIDGE
ON THE EDGE
“Shelter Island”
THE HARBOR
STONEBROOK COTTAGE
THE CABIN
THE CARRIAGE HOUSE
THE WATERFALL
ON FIRE
KISS THE MOON
CLAIM THE CROWN
And coming March 2009
BETRAYALS
CARLA NEGGERS
COLD PURSUIT
To my brother-in-law Bill Ochs
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to Lieutenant Jocelyn Stohl of the Vermont State Police and to Susan Bayley and Kenneth Thibodeaux of the White River Junction (Vermont) Veterans Affairs Medical Center for your help, as well as for the remarkable work you do. Once again I want to thank Paul Hudson—judge, scholar, friend and a Vermonter with deep roots in this incredibly beautiful part of our country.
And, as always, many thanks to Joe, Kate, Conor and Zack. We do have fun together!
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
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Prologue
Drew Cameron slipped and went down on one knee in the heavy, wet spring snow, but he forced himself back up again, propelled by a sense of urgency he had never known before.
Not Elijah.
Please, God. Not my son….
Drew took another step, then another, pushing against the fierce wind. Sleet cut into his face and pelted onto the snow-covered trees and juts of granite on the steep terrain. The mid-April storm was worse than was forecasted. In the valley, daffodils were starting to pop up out of the ground. It was mud season in Vermont. If anything, he’d worried about causing more erosion on the trails, still wet from the melting winter snows.
He hadn’t bothered strapping a pair of snowshoes onto his pack in case conditions warranted—a mistake, he realized now.
But he refused to turn back.
He had gone off the main trail hours ago, but he knew every inch of Cameron Mountain. By now, the snow would have covered any footprints he’d left. If anything happened to him, he’d be lucky if searchers found his body for his family to bury.
“I don’t care.” He spoke in a ragged whisper. “Take me.”
Take me instead of my son.
How many fathers through the millennia had cried out those same words?
Drew coughed and spat, catching his breath as he came to a lull in the upward sweep of the mountain. The summit was another thousand