The perfect stranger, p.1
THE PERFECT STRANGER, page 1
t h e p e r f e c t
s t r a n g e r
(a jessie hunt psychological suspense—book 43)
b l a k e p i e r c e
Blake Pierce
USA Today and #1 bestselling author Blake Pierce is the author of numerous series in the mystery and thriller genres, spanning 10 years of work, including the Jessie Hunt, Ella Dark, Rylie Page, Faith Bold and Rachel Gift series. Blake's most recent latest releases are the Jenna Graves, Alison Payne, Isla Rivers and Kari Blackhorse series.
Please visit blakepierceauthor.com to learn more, join the email list, receive free books, and stay in touch.
Copyright © 2025 by Blake Pierce. 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 Pereslavtseva Katerina used under license from Shutterstock.com.
SERIES BY BLAKE PIERCE
KATE VALENTINE
KARI BLACKHORSE
ISLA RIVERS
ALISON PAYNE
JENNA GRAVES
THE GOVERNESS
RACHEL BLACKWOOD
SHEILA STONE
FINN WRIGHT
MORGAN CROSS
JULIETTE HART
FAITH BOLD
FIONA RED
DAISY FORTUNE
AMBER YOUNG
CAMI LARK
NICKY LYONS
CORA SHIELDS
MAY MOORE
PAIGE KING
VALERIE LAW
RACHEL GIFT
AVA GOLD
A YEAR IN EUROPE
ELLA DARK
LAURA FROST
EUROPEAN VOYAGE
ADELE SHARP
THE AU PAIR
ZOE PRIME
JESSIE HUNT
CHLOE FINE
KATE WISE
THE MAKING OF RILEY PAIGE
RILEY PAIGE
MACKENZIE WHITE
AVERY BLACK
KERI LOCKE
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
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
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
CHAPTER ONE
Up until now, most of the day had gone perfectly, including the murder.
Ash Pierce was annoyed with herself. She’d been so meticulous. But this was proof that letting her guard down for even a moment could be a recipe for disaster.
She left the travel plaza parking lot and walked to the car, trying to act like everything was normal, like she hadn’t just made an error that could compromise her whole bloody plan. Once she got to the car, she settled into her seat and allowed a moment to regroup before she started it.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in and out. But her mistake immediately popped back into her head. She physically shook it away and tried to focus on the positive.
The plan had run shockingly smoothly until this recent screwup. She had watched from a safe distance as Linda Crewes had a goodbye Sunday breakfast with her friends at the hotel. The Los Angeles real estate agent was in Lake Tahoe for a conference but had stuck around through the weekend for a mini-vacation.
Once she returned to her room, Ash followed, wearing the housekeeping uniform she'd stolen, along with the blonde wig that covered most of her face. She pushed the cleaning cart that she'd borrowed from the closet at the end of the hall. There were cameras in the elevators and in the hotel hallways, so she needed to be careful to hide her identity. After all, as a professional hitwoman who had twice escaped custody, she was wanted across the whole state of California.
“Housekeeping,” she said after knocking on the door.
“Oh, can you come back in a few minutes?” Linda told her through the closed door. “I’m about to check out and leave.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ash replied. “I was asked by the front desk to provide you with this coupon. There’s a code on it. If you use it when you check out online, you get a 15% discount on your stay.”
“Really?” Linda said excitedly, opening the door.
Ash smiled through her wig hair.
"Yes, ma'am," she said, pretending to fish around in her uniform pocket for the coupon when in truth, she was holding a syringe. She popped off the top and removed her hand from the pocket. With quick precision, she poked it into Linda's arm, injecting the solution completely before the woman had even realized what had happened.
“What did you—?” she started to ask even as she began to stumble backward slightly.
"Are you all right, ma'am?" Ash asked, stepping into the room and grabbing Linda by the shoulders, easing her to the hotel room carpet so that she didn't land with a thud.
Linda's eyes fluttered briefly, and she opened her mouth to form a word. But before she could, she was out. Within a minute, her heart would stop completely. But Ash wasn't one to take chances. So, after pulling the cleaning cart into the room and then closing and locking the door behind her, she moved over to Linda's bed, grabbed a pillow, and returned quickly to the woman on the floor.
She pressed the pillow over Linda’s face. The woman barely struggled at all, only twitching slightly before her body relaxed completely. She was dead. It was time to get to work.
Ash removed Linda's phone from her purse, used her face to unlock it, and then removed the security lock features so that from here on out, she could access it without needing passcodes or facial recognition. She searched through Linda's email until she found the one from the hotel offering expedited online checkout and hit the button. There was no 15% coupon, but that hardly mattered to Linda anymore.
All that mattered from this point forward was that everyone in the woman’s world believe that Linda was still alive but unavailable for the next few days. Ash had a detailed plan to ensure folks would buy that.
With Linda checked out, Ash moved on to her next tasks. She checked the woman’s purse to make sure her car keys, wallet, and ID were all in there. They were.
Linda had made it easy on her. The woman was already all packed up so there was no need to collect her belongings. Still she did a quick once-over, searching dresser drawers and peeking into the bathroom in case there were leftover toiletries. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and took stock.
Despite the blonde wig, she couldn’t help but marvel at how similar she and Linda looked. They both had black hair, petite frames, and pale skin. Plus, the real estate agent was in good shape for someone of their shared age, 37.
Ash pulled out the extra bedsheet from the cleaning cart and rolled the woman into it like a mummy. She kept the sheet loose enough that she could still fold Linda up and more easily maneuver her into the well of the cart. She put the woman’s carry-on suitcase on top of her. It bulged out slightly but Ash adjusted the cart’s curtain to cover it up. Then she propped the door open, wiped down the handle and lock, and pushed the cart, along with Linda and her bag, into the hallway.
Five minutes later she was in the hotel garage, easing Linda into the trunk of her car, along with her bag. The vehicle was a cheap, junky 1988 Ford Tempo that she’d happily bought with cash, mainly because it was from a pre-GPS era, making it harder to track.
Even though Ash wanted to just head out from there, she had to cover her tracks. Since she didn’t want there to be any reason for the staff to be suspicious, she returned the cart to the closet on Linda’s floor. While a missing cleaning cart might not cause flashing alert lights, why take the chance?
Once back downstairs, she exited the garage with Linda in the trunk and drove to the spot she’d prepped yesterday. About fifteen minutes outside of town, she turned onto the service road that ran parallel to a hikin
That was where, just down the adjacent hill, she’d dug a grave that was ready and waiting for Linda. After doing a final check to make sure there was no one else around, she popped the trunk and dragged Linda out and over to the hill’s edge. She pushed the bedsheet-wrapped body over the side and watched it roll down until it came to a stop at the flat shelf about twenty feet down. Then she retrieved her utility backpack from the back seat, tossed it over her shoulder, and scooched down the hill on her butt, unconcerned about getting dirt on the housekeeping uniform that she would never wear again.
She unrolled Linda’s body, then removed the items she needed from the backpack, laying them on the bedsheet. There were the pliers, the garden shears, the disinfectant wipes, the package of lye, the latex gloves, a gallon-sized Ziploc bag, and a heavy duty black trash bag. Once everything was in order she moved fast. She’d done this before.
Since the garden shears were new and sharp, removing the fingertips was easy. She dropped them in the Ziploc bag one by one, and then moved onto the teeth. The pliers were a little big for the job, so that took a bit longer than anticipated and was a little messier than she would have liked. But eventually they went in the bag too.
Then she carefully rolled Linda into the hole she’d dug yesterday, making sure she was face up. Even though it was late August, there was still a morning chill in the air at this elevation, which prevented her from sweating too much despite the challenging work.
Ash opened the package of lye with caution, then sprinkled it over the body, making sure to put an extra dollop on Linda’s face and hair. Even without teeth or fingerprints to identify her, there was always the chance that someone might recognize her in a crime scene photo. So better to make sure there wasn’t much of a face to look at.
After that, she used the shovel she’d hidden under some leaves yesterday to dump mounds of dirt into the grave. When it was full, she patted it flat, then covered it with leaves and branches so it wasn’t so conspicuous.
Things moved quickly after that. The lye package, dismembering tools, and latex gloves all went into a trash bag, along with the Ziploc bag full of human body parts. The shovel was too big. She’d find a dumpster to drop it in later.
She pulled out her change of clothes, and removed the housekeeping uniform. She stuffed it in the trash bag too. She got dressed quickly, trying to ignore the brisk weather, which made her near-naked body break out into goosebumps.
The hardest part was yet to come. Now in her new attire, she had to traipse up the hill with the garbage bag in one hand and the shovel, which she used as a walking stick, in the other. Once back at the car, she tossed the trash bag in the trunk, then used a disinfectant wipe to clean the shovel handle before placing it in the trunk too. She tossed the wipe and the blonde wig in the trash bag and tied it off. The riskiest part of the job was done.
Back in the vehicle, she pulled out the other wig and used the rearview mirror to adjust it so that it fit properly. It was cut to match Linda’s hairstyle and Ash thought it looked great. With that done, it was back to the hotel, with a couple of pit stops along the way.
She found one dumpster, where she dropped off the trash bag. She went to a second one to toss in the shovel. The next stop was the massive used car lot at the far end of town. It wasn’t open yet, which was partly why she’d chosen it. She drove the ratty Ford Tempo to the back corner of the lot, where several vehicles in bad shape sat. It was like a car graveyard.
She knew that it would take a while for the dealership staff to even notice the car. Would they report the random, abandoned vehicle on their lot to the authorities? Would they just claim it? Either way, it couldn’t be traced to Ash, considering that she’d paid cash in a private sale that conveniently excluded paperwork.
From there, she took the bus back to a stop a block from the hotel. Once she arrived, she returned to the parking structure, got into Linda’s gray Toyota Camry, and left Lake Tahoe.
She made it to a travel plaza just south of Big Pine before having to stop. She refilled the tank and went inside to go to the restroom and grab a snack. After finishing up in the bathroom, she moved to the sink. She was glad she was alone because she needed to make an adjustment to the wig.
It was rubbing against her scalp in a way that was causing irritation. She quickly removed it and found the issue—a tiny interior tag that she ripped off with her teeth. At that moment, someone started to open the door so she quickly put the thing back on and left the restroom.
She walked down the hallway back to the main shopping area of the travel plaza. A woman passed her and gave her an odd look. Unsure what that was about, Ash stepped over to a sunglasses rack and checked herself out in the small mirror. She noticed the issue immediately. Her wig was badly off-kilter. She quickly re-adjusted it before noticing the security camera that was trained directly on the spot where she stood and cursed herself silently.
Trying not to make a bad situation worse, she grabbed a few protein bars and headed to the checkout counter, where she made sure to pay with one of Linda’s credit cards. She kept her cool until she was in the travel plaza parking lot walking back to Linda’s car. That’s when, certain there was no one in hearing distance, she cursed audibly.
This was letting her guard down. This was sloppiness. Why hadn’t she waited until she was back in the car to check out the issue with the wig? Had the discomfort been so great that she couldn’t have delayed a few more minutes? No, she’d just been careless.
Now there was security footage of her adjusting the wig. Admittedly, the chances that anyone would notice were remote. Even smaller was the likelihood that the people with the skills to see the significance would ever come across the footage. Or that they would connect it to Linda Crewes’s disappearance. Or tie it to Ash. But it was still an unforced error. She couldn’t afford any more of those.
Luckily, by the time anyone started asking serious questions about Linda Crewes’s whereabouts, it would be far too late. Ash would be in Linda’s home in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles, which conveniently happened to be across the street from Jessie Hunt’s house.
Eventually someone would come across the body in the forest outside Lake Tahoe or realize that Linda had been out of contact for weeks. Somebody would start to put the pieces together.
But by then, the job would be long done. Jessie Hunt, along with everyone she loved, would already be dead.
CHAPTER TWO
Lauren Mitchell was quite satisfied with her handiwork.
She was often intimidated by recipes from The New York Times. But this one, a cheesy, spicy black bean bake, seemed eminently doable. Her hope was that if this test run went well, she could try it again for her husband when he returned from his business trip tomorrow. Jason was a big red meat eater and this seemed like a great way to get a protein hit at dinner without some of the health downsides.
The only issue was how long it took. Lauren loved her home in the historic Windsor Square neighborhood of L.A. But the house was over a hundred years old and some of the appliances were a little iffy. As a result, the oven took forever to reach the proper temperature.
She’d gotten so frustrated that she finally decided to have the whole thing replaced. As a high-end realtor, she was able to get a major discount on the installation from a company she regularly recommended to clients. But even with the reduced cost, they couldn’t get to her until next week. So for now, a dish that The Times said should be ready in about fifteen minutes took her nearly an hour to prepare. Nonetheless, the results looked yummy.
She was just about to scoop herself a serving when she heard the front door unlock. Excitement surged through her as she considered the possibility that Jason had surprised her by returning home early.
“Hon?” she called out as she left the kitchen and started down the hallway to the foyer. But the figure she saw standing there wasn’t Jason. The excitement was quickly replaced by fear as she stared at the person, dressed all in black, with a black hood covering their entire face except for the eyes and mouth.
Lauren immediately turned and ran. She rushed back down the hall and into the living room, where she intended to open the sliding door and dash into the backyard. She was just unlocking the latch when she caught movement behind her in the sliding door’s reflection. She tried to ignore that and just focus on getting outside.
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