Kiss Her Goodnight: A completely unputdownable crime thriller (Detectives Kane and Alton Book 15) Read online

  KISS HER GOODNIGHT

  A COMPLETELY UNPUTDOWNABLE CRIME THRILLER

  D.K. HOOD

  BOOKS BY D.K. HOOD

  Detectives Kane and Alton prequels

  Lose Your Breath

  Don’t Look Back

  Detectives Kane and Alton Series

  Don’t Tell a Soul

  Bring Me Flowers

  Follow Me Home

  The Crying Season

  Where Angels Fear

  Whisper in the Night

  Break the Silence

  Her Broken Wings

  Her Shallow Grave

  Promises in the Dark

  Be Mine Forever

  Cross My Heart

  Fallen Angel

  Pray for Mercy

  Kiss Her Goodnight

  AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

  Detectives Kane and Alton prequels

  Lose Your Breath (Available in the UK and the US)

  Don’t Look Back (Available in the UK and the US)

  Detectives Kane and Alton Series

  Don’t Tell a Soul (Available in the UK and the US)

  Bring Me Flowers (Available in the UK and the US)

  Follow Me Home (Available in the UK and the US)

  The Crying Season (Available in the UK and the US)

  Where Angels Fear (Available in the UK and the US)

  Whisper in the Night (Available in the UK and the US)

  Break the Silence (Available in the UK and the US)

  Her Broken Wings (Available in the UK and the US)

  Her Shallow Grave (Available in the UK and the US)

  Promises in the Dark (Available in the UK and the US)

  Be Mine Forever (Available in the UK and the US)

  Cross My Heart (Available in the UK and the US)

  Fallen Angel (Available in the UK and the US)

  Pray for Mercy (Available in the UK and the US)

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Epilogue

  Hear More from D.K. Hood

  Books by D.K. Hood

  A Letter from D.K. Hood

  Lose Your Breath

  Don’t Look Back

  Don’t Tell a Soul

  Bring Me Flowers

  Follow Me Home

  The Crying Season

  Where Angels Fear

  Whisper in the Night

  Break the Silence

  Her Broken Wings

  Her Shallow Grave

  Promises in the Dark

  Be Mine Forever

  Cross My Heart

  Fallen Angel

  Pray for Mercy

  Acknowledgments

  *

  To the fans of the Kane and Alton series. I wrote Kiss Her Goodnight especially for you.

  PROLOGUE

  Trapped in the musty dark stone cell, Deputy Poppy Anderson sat on the mattress and stared at her only form of entertainment. It came in the form of a constant drip, drip, drip of water hitting the granite floor, and slithering in a winding rivulet to join the growing puddle surrounding the drain. Despondent, after three months of being confined in hell, she flicked a cockroach from her blanket into the water. It landed on its back, legs flailing and trying to walk on air, as it rushed toward the drain and then spun around and around in the whirlpool before slipping between the metal slots. She lifted her head and stared at the shaft of light coming through the cracks surrounding the door to her prison. It was always the same steady light. There was no way to tell if it was day or night. In fact, time had ceased to exist in her nightmare.

  Reality came in the form of terror. Poppy’s hands hadn’t stopped trembling since the first time she’d pressed her eye to the crack in the door and seen a woman beaten to death. Blood had seeped under her door in a ribbon of horror and the smell of death had lingered for so long she’d gotten used to it. He’d been there, the man she’d first met on a flight to Black Rock Falls, Montana—the nice man who’d lured her into the woods at the pretense of finding a lost child. He wasn’t nice at all. On the flight they’d talked about baseball and how he loved to swing a bat. She swallowed bile. Oh, he liked to swing a bat—but not at a ball.

  She’d become a number, and as number twenty-five, she’d been placed on death row. There were others in the jail, but no one said a word. No one dared after he’d made an example out of one who’d called out, cried and demanded to be set free. Poppy had watched her die, one eye fixed in morbid fascination to the slither of light. Her captor had caught her looking at him and smiled with the innocence of a choirboy as he took the life of an innocent woman. She wasn’t his first.

  Many more followed, and each time, Poppy rolled into a ball, too scared to move or make a sound. Would she be next? There could be no reasoning with this brutal man. The stark reality of being trapped in his storeroom just waiting to die had become her future. Or was he keeping her just to watch him kill? Her thoughts moved from one possibility to another in rapid succession. It was all she could think about because no one would be searching for her. He’d made sure of that by forcing her to email the office with her resignation and intention to head for Colorado. She had wanted to work with Dave Kane and could have convinced Jenna to make her a member of the team, but her one day as deputy at Black Rock Falls had ended in a violent kidnapping. The hope that anyone would come to rescue her had faded long ago and now her imagination centered on him. He was unpredictable and his mood swings chilled her to the bone. Did knowing she watched him kill make it more thrilling for him? Her mind was spinning with the implications, and the next time the screams started, she turned her back to the door and tried to block out the noise. After each murder, she couldn’t eat for days, vomiting bile and sitting staring into empty corners. She understood her mental health was suffering but could no longer fight. Her vomiting caught his attention and, as her door opened, fear grasped her by the throat.

  “If you make a sound. I’ll know. I can see you every second of the day. I watch everything you do. I own each breath you take.” The man stared at her, his face passive. “The next time I see or hear you, the others will pay the price of your disobedience.”

  Days blended into each other, and small sounds gained her attention. The odd cough, the running of a faucet or flushing of a toilet. The s
crape of a tray as it was pushed in front of the delivery slot no doubt laden with discarded wrappers just like hers. It had been days without hearing or seeing their captor but none of the others tried to communicate. All followed the rules until they died. When his footsteps came again, without thinking, Poppy went to peer through the crack. The jailer brought supplies in the form of survival rations and pushed them through the slot in the door once a week, but this time he carried an unconscious woman and dumped her into the cell opposite. Like her, the woman wore a skimpy nightie. The cell door clanged shut and the man turned slowly to look along the row of cells. Fear gripped Poppy and she froze on the spot.

  “I can see you, looking at me, Twenty-Five.” Her captor’s mouth curled into a wide grin. “You’ve been so self-centered all your life, haven’t you? How many times have I told you that if you break the rules, everyone suffers?” He opened a cell door and dragged out a bedraggled woman and pushed her hard against the wall. “Lift up your arms.”

  The woman complied like an automaton, and he secured her to metal loops in the wall. Poppy’s stomach lurched. Would he kill her just to prove a point? When he took a horsewhip from a hook on the wall, horrified, Poppy slid to the floor. Over the next terrifying hour, the extent of the prisoners came to light. Apart from her, and the unconscious woman, three others were dragged from the cells. All went without a struggle to receive their punishment for her wrongdoing, but as their screams echoed through the walls, Poppy rocked back and forth, humming, with her hands pressed hard over her ears. Make it stop.

  The door to her cell opened slowly and a figure blocked the light. She could see the sheen of sweat on his bare shoulders as his rancid stink poured into her space like a thick fog. Terrified, Poppy flattened against the wall, her heart pounding in her ears. Had he come to punish her or kill her?

  “See what you did, Twenty-Five? You destroy people’s lives without a second thought. Women like you, who flirt and break up people’s relationships are all the same. You don’t care who suffers because of you, do you? Or what happens to the kids from broken marriages?” He indicated behind him to the woman hanging from her wrists. “She is the same as you. They all are. Did you hear how loud they screamed? Don’t worry, I don’t intend to kill them just yet, but their time will come.”

  Refusing to cower to him, Poppy lifted her chin. “You know nothing about me. I’m not like the others. You’re mistaken.”

  “Nah, I can see right through your lies. Can’t you see? I’m just putting the world right. It’s an experiment in social justice. All of you are nothing more than a bunch of narcissistic parasites.” He narrowed his gaze and took a step toward her. “I’ll give you something to think about while I’m away. You can’t hide from me. I’m in your dreams, hiding in the shadows.” His tongue slid over his bottom lip. “You’re close to the top of my list, and I’m gonna so enjoy taking my time with you. Won’t that be fun?”

  ONE

  BLACK ROCK FALLS, THURSDAY

  The summer sun poured through Sheriff Jenna Alton’s office window like a beam of hope. She leaned back in her chair, watching the dust motes twirl and spin. As a child, they’d been fairies with gold wings traveling between dimensions on a shaft of sunlight but today they reminded her the office needed cleaning. It was just before eight and she wondered why she’d bothered to arrive so early just to stare at the walls. She’d been doing practically nothing for almost three months and the quietness concerned her. It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something was happening. She could feel it in her bones. Life in Black Rock Falls was very different from her time in Washington, DC, as DEA Agent Avril Parker, but her time as an undercover operative was over. With a new face and name, she’d fought her way to becoming the sheriff of this vast county. She had no idea when she moved to this backwoods town, hidden deep in a forest and surrounded by mountains, that she’d moved to serial killer central.

  It was by pure luck the specialized team she’d gathered around her was unique. Her second in command and deputy sheriff, David Kane, had turned out to be an off-the-grid special forces sniper, but another surprise awaited her with the arrival of his handler, Dr. Shane Wolfe, who set up as medical examiner. It had taken three years working with these two men before Jenna discovered they had strong ties to the White House. Now along with her deputies—Jake Rowley, a local Black Rock Falls resident; ex LAPD gold-shield detective Zac Rio; and semiretired Deputy Walters—she’d taken on psychopaths and brought them to justice. She turned in her chair to stare out the window. From here she could see the length of Main and a crowd gathering in the park. She turned to her computer to check the calendar for upcoming events and found nothing. Footsteps came up the stairs and Kane stood framed in the door. At six-five and two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle, Kane was a force to be reckoned with and he just happened to be her fiancé. She frowned at his stone-faced expression. “What’s up?”

  “I’m not real sure. Maggie got an anonymous call saying we should be down at the park.” Kane jerked his thumb over one shoulder. “Want me to go and take a look with Rowley?”

  Jenna stood and plucked her hat from the desk. Magnolia “Maggie” Brewster ran the front counter with amazing efficiency, and if she couldn’t get a name, nobody could. “I noticed the crowd. We’ll go. I’d love to get out of the office. Updating the files is so boring. I’m afraid my mind isn’t on work right now. It’s set on getting married and being in Florida next weekend.” She smiled.

  “Mine too, but if it’s an argument about picking up dog poop, I’m all over it.” He pushed his black Stetson on his head and followed her downstairs. “I’ve read everything there is to read. I used to look forward to some downtime, but constant inactivity is like watching paint dry.”

  The next moment, phone ringtones filled the office. Jenna pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned to raise an eyebrow at Kane. “I figure this might be more complicated than dog poop.” She answered the call. “Jenna Alton.”

  “Morning Sheriff this is Susie Hartwig from Aunt Betty’s Café. People are coming in and saying there’s a body in the kids’ playground.”

  Jenna could hear Kane talking to someone and then Rowley jumped to his feet, phone pressed to his ear. She held up a finger when they both spoke at once. “Okay, Susie, we’re on our way. If you can get the names of anyone you spoke to about this, it would be a great help.” She disconnected and turned to Rowley. “Was your call about the body?”

  “Yeah.” Rowley frowned. “In the playground?”

  Jenna nodded. “Call Wolfe and bring him up to date, and I’ll go and secure the scene with Kane. When you’ve done that, head down to the park and start collecting names.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Rowley’s phone started up again. “I’m on it.” He walked back to his desk.

  Jenna thought for a beat. “Rio, grab your camera, but first, I want photographs of the crowd and the crime scene. Use the drone. I don’t want anyone slipping away. Check the woods as well. If this is a homicide, killers often mingle with a crowd to watch the fallout of their work.” She hurried to the front door.

  “Sure.” Rio moved past her, heading for the equipment closet.

  “Come on, Duke.” Kane patted his leg and a bloodhound stood, stretched, gave a doggy yawn, and went to his side, tail wagging. As a tracker dog, Duke was a valued member of the team.

  As Jenna climbed into Kane’s black truck affectionately known as “the Beast,” she turned to him. “I know it’s been boring around here lately, but I’d hoped the crime rate would remain low until after our honeymoon. If this is a homicide, we’ll have to cancel the wedding.”

  “Maybe someone just up and died.” Kane shrugged as he fastened Duke into the back seat. “It happens.” He slid behind the wheel. “Not every incident in town has to be the result of a serial killer.” He backed out of the parking space and headed down Main.

  People congregated in and around the park like ants around honey. Jenna let out a long sigh. How w
as it that death drew people? Didn’t they understand the memory of seeing a dead body would stay with them forever? She stared down Main. The townsfolk were gathering as if someone were giving out free money. “You know, every time we say we’re bored someone gets killed. Perhaps we should drop that word from our vocabulary. Maybe it’s cursed or something?”

  “Nah.” Kane pulled alongside the curb. “Nothing we say makes any difference. They’ve all been out there doing their thing. We just haven’t noticed them yet.”

  The tension of the crowd was palpable as Jenna stepped out into the morning sunshine. Fear had a smell to it, and it hovered in the air like sweaty socks in a locker room. She waited for Kane to grab Duke, and the crowd parted as they made their way into the park. People pointed in the direction of the children’s playground, and the breakfast of hotcakes in Jenna’s stomach formed a solid ball. “Oh, please, don’t let it be a child.”