Twin Murder Mix-Up, page 1
“The brakes are gone.”
Keith tried the hopeless action one more time. Still nothing. “Call 911.”
Amy fumbled with her phone and placed the call. “Okay, now what?”
The fear in her voice rattled him, but he had to keep his attention on the task at hand. He couldn’t leave Carter an orphan after he had just found him.
Amy sat up straight and gripped the dashboard. “Can we make it to the straightaway?”
“Not sure. It’s still a couple miles from here.”
The air whooshed from Keith’s lungs at the sight of a large deer carcass in the middle of his path.
“Hold on, Ams.” The loose gravel from the tiny shoulder of the road spit from his tires, pulling his vehicle toward the drop-off. He fought for control. The tires held, then slipped too far for him to recover.
“Hold on!” Keith flung his arm in front of Amy in a futile attempt to stop her from whipping forward.
The truck slid on the rocks and careened over the edge.
Amy’s scream pierced the air.
Two-time Genesis Award–winner Sami A. Abrams and her husband live in Northern California, but she’ll always be a Kansas girl at heart. She enjoys visiting her two grown children and spoiling their sweet fur babies. Most evenings, if Sami’s not watching sports, you’ll find her engrossed in a romantic suspense novel. She thinks a crime plus a little romance is the recipe for a great story. Visit her at www.samiaabrams.com.
Books by Sami A. Abrams
Love Inspired Suspense
Deputies of Anderson County
Buried Cold Case Secrets
Twin Murder Mix-Up
Visit the Author Profile page at LoveInspired.com.
Twin Murder Mix-Up
Sami A. Abrams
Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
—Proverbs 10:12
This book is dedicated to my amazing friend and Love Inspired Suspense mentor, Virginia Vaughan. I couldn’t have done it without your help and encouragement along the way. And to my agent, Tamela Hancock Murray. Thank you for believing in me and walking this journey with me. You’re the best!
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
Epilogue
Dear Reader
Excerpt from Escape Route by Tanya Stowe
ONE
Cool air blasted from the car vents. The AC struggled to stay ahead of the rising summer temperatures. Amy Baker maneuvered through the afternoon traffic, whispering a prayer for the millionth time that the person responsible for her sister’s death hadn’t discovered his mistake: he’d killed the wrong twin.
That error had not only left her with overwhelming guilt and her sister’s baby but had forced her into hiding for the past three months, using her mother’s maiden name of Jones to stay under the radar of a killer.
Amy tightened her grip on the steering wheel and scanned her surroundings. Situational awareness. Detective Trent Jefferies had drummed it into her when he’d helped her fade into the background.
Her cell phone buzzed in the cupholder. She glanced at the caller ID. Detective Jefferies. Sweat beaded on her forehead. He never contacted her during the day. His check-ins always came in the evenings after he left work. “Trent?”
“Get out of town now!”
The squeal of tires over the phone line ratcheted Amy’s nerves. She pushed down the panic attack threatening to overwhelm her. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t go home. Just leave!” The frantic tone of the normally calm Detective Jefferies sent chills running down her spine.
She had no choice but to drive past the one-story bungalow she currently called home. The flash of a dark figure in her living room window caught her eye. A whimper escaped her lips. “Someone’s in my house!” Her voice skyrocketed. “How did he find me?” Three months of making herself invisible—gone.
“I’m not sure, but I think I asked the wrong questions and led them to you in Jackson.” Trent’s car door slammed, reverberating in her ears. “Find a place to hide—”
A shot pierced the air.
“Trent!”
The phone went dead.
Tears flooded her eyes. She blinked to clear her vision. Please, God, don’t let Trent die because of me.
Mind spinning, she sped from the quiet neighborhood she’d found solace in when she moved to Jackson to hide out. What now? Where would she go? She’d given up her friends when she left her childhood hometown of Eagle Bay and hadn’t made new ones for fear they’d say the wrong thing to the wrong person.
She’d tried to call her childhood friend Keith Young when this whole thing started, but he hadn’t returned her calls. In fact, he’d ignored her for the past year. His silence had stung, and she had no idea what she’d done to deserve the cold shoulder.
Thankfully, Eagle Bay Police Detective Jefferies had come to her rescue and had hidden her in plain sight in Jackson, a town thirty minutes from her home, away from the person who wanted to kill her. Over the past few months, Trent had become a trusted friend. She had no one else—no family, no other friends. Her parents had died in a car accident years ago, and Amy’s twin sister had died in her place. If Trent died, who could she turn to? Trust?
Keith.
Blood whooshed in her ears as she aimed her car out of town toward Keith’s new home of Valley Springs, where he worked as a detective with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department.
She glanced in the rearview mirror at her four-month-old nephew. Her heart twisted like a pretzel. What choice did Amy have if she wanted to keep Carter safe but to take another chance on the man she’d secretly loved since she was twelve? Would he answer her call for help? Or would he ghost her once again?
Uncertainty bubbled inside. Amy smacked the heel of her hand against the steering wheel. Why hadn’t he been there for her the first time? She knew his mom had fought cancer for the past two years, but that was no excuse to ignore her. When Detective Jefferies gave her a new phone number and requested she not make contact with anyone until he figured out who had killed her sister, she’d stopped her attempts to contact Keith and let the hurt fester. Now she needed him in a big way and prayed he wouldn’t let her down—again.
Carter’s cries intensified from the back seat. She’d picked him up from daycare and had arrived before he’d had his bottle. With the threat looming, he had to wait until she found a safe place to lie low. Her heart broke for the little guy, but his safety came before satisfying his hunger needs.
“Hold on, baby.” Amy turned onto the main road out of town. She prayed the cops wouldn’t stop her for speeding. A piece of hair flipped across her face, compliments of the air conditioner. She tucked it behind her ear and focused on the road.
A month ago, after a scare that the person who’d killed her twin had discovered Amy’s whereabouts, Trent advised her to pack a bag for herself and Carter and leave it in the trunk of her car. Along with several thousand dollars in cash in case the need to escape arose. It looked as though her past had caught up with her, and Trent had been right. A vise tightened on her chest. She’d lost her sister, become responsible for a newborn and left her treasured job as a professional landscape photographer to hide from a killer all in one horrible moment. And now she had no idea the fate of Trent.
She bit her lip. Why had she gone to take pictures at the cliff overlooking Eagle Lake that afternoon? She could have picked any other time. But no, she had to go that day and witness a woman being shot and falling over the precipice. Tears pricked her eyes. Why, God?
Trees lined the highway, and the green grass along the shoulder blurred as she passed. The mileage sign whipped by. Twenty-three miles to Valley Springs. Amy’s eyes darted to the side mirrors for the umpteenth time. The cars on the two-lane road had thinned, and no one had followed her. At least to her knowledge.
Carter’s cries hit an ear-piercing level. She draped her arm over the back of the seat and reached into his car seat, blindly fumbling for his pacifier. Several attempts later, her fingers found the item. Popping the rubber binky in his mouth, with a singsong voice, she continued soothing her nephew—no, according to Stacey’s wishes in her living trust, Amy would raise him as her own child. Amy had signed the final papers yesterday and had yet to crack into the manila envelope stamped For Amy’s Eyes Only that the attorney had handed her.
Several minutes later, the little man in the car seat settled into a soft whimper.
Her heart ached at the sad sound, and the desire to stop and comfort him flooded her. She had no option but to continue on. Her life and Carter’s depended on finding Keith. Terror filled her veins. What if he refused to help? Where would she turn then? No. Keith was a man of honor, and even though she hadn’t spoken with him in over a year, she considered him a friend, no matter how bad his silence hurt.
Fingers trembling, she pressed Keith’s number on her cell phone and put it on speaker. She prayed he would answer since she’d changed her number months ago at Detective Jefferies’s urging.
“Young.” Keith’s deep timbre filtered across the line, soothing her frayed nerves.
“Keith, it’s Amy.” She swallowed, forcing down bile. “Someone’s after me.”
Silence.
Panic gripped her throat, cutting off her ability to breathe. Please don’t turn your back on me. I need you.
“Keith? Are you there?” She choked out the words. “I need your help before they kill me.”
* * *
Cell phone to his ear, Detective Keith Young stepped into the sheriff’s station parking lot after his shift. His fingers tightened around the device. Amy’s words stopped him midstride.
His head spun. Amy had disappeared after Stacey’s murder three months ago, and to his surprise, she hadn’t contacted him. Granted, he’d ignored her previous attempts at communication over the past year after his glaring blunder with her twin, but after Stacey’s death, he’d put aside his personal discomfort and had tried to call. Her phone number had no longer been in service. He rubbed his forehead, chasing away his confusion. “I’m here. Why do you think that?”
“There’s stuff you don’t know. The reason I haven’t called and...well...other things.”
A copy of her twin’s cold case file sat in the bottom drawer of his desk, haunting him on a daily basis. His mind created a mental picture of the murder scene. Stacey’s riffled-through and tossed-aside purse and empty camera bag. A bullet hole in her head and her partially burned body from the killer’s attempt to torch the car. Now Amy was in trouble. If he had found God before his stupid choices, maybe his best friends would be safe and by his side.
Regret smashed into him. He and Stacey had made a mistake after a night of celebrating—they’d never told Amy. Not only had his actions damaged his and Stacey’s relationship, but calling Stacey by her twin’s name had placed a boulder between them. Then he’d pulled away from Amy out of shame, distancing himself by not calling and texting, but he’d never stopped being her friend. Or Stacey’s, for that matter. It had just made things more complicated. “Enlighten me.”
“I’m about five miles outside of Valley Springs, coming from Jackson. I can meet you—” Amy’s muffled cry filled his ears.
“What’s wrong?” His voice raised in volume, and his feet pounded a rapid rhythm on the ground.
“He found me!”
“Hold on, Ams. I’m on my way!” He didn’t know who was after her, but obviously Amy was in danger. Keith jumped in his truck, mashed on the accelerator and flipped down the visor light bar. Alternating blue and red lights flashed on his front windshield. Pebbles spit from his tires, and the bed of his vehicle fishtailed on the loose gravel. The squeal of rubber pierced the air when he hit the blacktop. “I need your car type and color.” His pulse rate increased at her lack of response. “Amy?” Right now, he didn’t care about the past. He had to get to her.
“Dark red SUV. Please hurry.” Her plea was barely above a whisper.
Keith searched the road. “I should see you any moment.” Come on. Come on. There. Ahead. He spotted Amy’s car a second before a large black truck slammed into the rear of her vehicle, sending her careening off the road.
Her scream sliced the air. The SUV hit the embankment, and the call went dead.
“Amy!” Keith slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop. He yanked his SIG Sauer from his holster and leaped from his truck.
The offending vehicle spun out and raced off in the opposite direction. He wanted to go after the person responsible, but Amy’s well-being took priority.
Feet striking the hard ground, Keith sprinted to the driver’s side of Amy’s car. Steam hissed from the engine. Heart pounding, he took in the condition of the wrecked vehicle and released a pent-up breath—no immediate fire danger.
He peered through the broken window and sucked in a breath. Amy’s blond hair draped over the crimson-stained deflating airbag as she slumped against the black leather steering wheel.
Fingers to her carotid artery, he almost collapsed with relief when her heartbeat met his fingertips. “Amy? Can you hear me?”
She tilted her head to face him, and her unfocused eyes fluttered open. “Keith.”
The air whooshed from his lungs. Stacey’s vacant eyes stared at him.
He placed a hand on the hood of the car to steady himself. No, not the woman—his friend’s—lifeless picture from the file, but her twin, Amy. He had to pull it together. Clearing his throat, he tugged at the phone in his pocket. “Take it easy. I’m calling for an ambulance.”
“Keith.” Her breathy words worried him. “Baby... Stacey...help.” Her head drooped, and eyes closed. Blood trickled from her nose and dripped from a gash on her forehead.
Baby? His mind scrambled to keep up.
Cries broke through his tunneled focus. He glanced in the back seat. A car seat stole the air from his lungs. When had Amy had a baby? If Keith had manned up and not cowered from the shame, he’d have known about her pregnancy. He would have been there to support her. Instead, he stood there like a stranger staring at his best friend’s child.
He dialed dispatch and scanned the area for any sign that the person responsible for running her off the road had returned. Satisfied danger didn’t lurk around the corner, he yanked open the back door and crawled in next to the crying infant dressed in a dinosaur shirt that screamed boy. “Hey, buddy. It’s okay. I’m going to get you out of here.”
“Dispatch.”
“Sonja, it’s Keith. I need an ambulance. Highway twelve, two miles outside of town. Look for my truck. And put a BOLO out for a black Ford F-150 heading in the direction of Jackson.”
The young dispatcher relayed the information to the fire department and turned her attention back to him. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. A woman and infant were run off the road.”
“The guys are on the way.”
“Thanks, Sonja.” Keith hung up and took a closer look at the baby. No visible injuries, but he’d let Ethan and Brent assess the little dude. Checking the edges of the car seat, Keith found a pacifier and stuck it in the boy’s mouth.
Tiny sapphire eyes, identical to Amy’s, stared back at Keith. Little fingers gripped his pinkie while the baby’s mouth sucked hard on the rubber pacifier. “It’s okay, little guy. Help will be here soon.” As if on cue, the ambulance siren whined in the distance. “See, here come my friends.”
The boy stopped sucking and smiled behind his binky.
“Well, aren’t you a happy one.” Keith’s stomach clenched. He’d dodged the baby bullet the night he and Stacey had crossed the line of friendship. They’d both had too much to drink, and one thing had led to another. He regretted his behavior and the wedge it had placed between him and Stacey, and due to his guilt, he’d pulled away from Amy, as well. Looking into the child’s trusting eyes, he vowed to protect Amy from whoever had caused the crash.
“Hey, man, whatcha got there?” Brent slapped him on the back.
Keith crawled from the back seat and proceeded to inform the paramedics what had happened. While the two men treated a semiconscious Amy and her son and loaded them into the ambulance, he gathered Amy’s purse, diaper bag and an important-looking envelope from inside the car along with bags from the trunk, then tossed them in the cab of his truck.
Burned rubber and the sickening sweet smell of antifreeze tickled his nose. The mixture was enough to turn his stomach. He swallowed hard and prayed the scent would dissipate soon. Leaning against his truck, he folded his arms across his chest and waited for backup. Duty demanded he remain at the scene, but his heart ached to follow the ambulance to the hospital.
Gravel popped from under the medic truck as it flipped a U-turn and headed toward Valley Springs General Hospital.
Moments later, Deputy Lewis arrived to secure the scene. Keith jogged to the department vehicle and relayed the information to the deputy, then rushed back to his truck, hopped in and sped toward his childhood friend.
