Hiding in plain sight, p.1
Hiding in Plain Sight, page 1
Crack!
Someone was shooting at them!
Liam hit the gas and Shauna braced herself for the worst. Her body began to shake uncontrollably as the SUV sped up and jerked from side to side as Liam attempted to escape.
They were shooting at her this time, not just attempting to run her off the road.
These people, whoever they were, wanted her dead.
Just like her mother.
Why? She couldn’t seem to grasp why she’d suddenly become a target. It just didn’t make any sense. Tears pricked her eyes, but she held them back.
“Are you okay?” Liam asked tersely.
She hesitantly lifted her head. “I— Yes.”
“I wish I knew exactly where the gunfire came from.” He sounded frustrated. “This is my fault. I knew you were in danger, but I didn’t expect anyone to fire at us in broad daylight.”
“At me.” Her voice was soft, but firm. “Not you, Liam. This is all about me.”
Laura Scott has always loved romance and read faith-based books by Grace Livingston Hill in her teenage years. She’s thrilled to have been given the opportunity to retire from thirty-eight years of nursing to become a full-time author. Laura has published over thirty books for Love Inspired Suspense. She has two adult children and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her husband of thirty-five years. Please visit Laura at laurascottbooks.com, as she loves to hear from her readers.
Books by Laura Scott
Love Inspired Suspense
Hiding in Plain Sight
Justice Seekers
Soldier’s Christmas Secrets
Guarded by the Soldier
Wyoming Mountain Escape
Hiding His Holiday Witness
Rocky Mountain Standoff
Fugitive Hunt
Rocky Mountain K-9 Unit
Hiding in Montana
Visit the Author Profile page at LoveInspired.com for more titles.
Hiding in Plain Sight
Laura Scott
I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
—Psalm 34:4
This book is dedicated to Sally Nowak, who has been waiting for this book for a long time!
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
Epilogue
Dear Reader
Excerpt from Fugitive Ambush by Jenna Night
ONE
Shauna McKay’s cell phone rang as she followed her classmates into the chilly, dark Illinois fall night. Their business law midterm exam had been tough, but she felt good about it. Now they had a full week off until classes started up again.
Her phone continued ringing, so she dug around in her backpack for the device. When she noticed her mother’s name on the screen, she grimaced.
“Hi, Mom. What’s up? I don’t have a lot of time. I’m just leaving campus now and need to go straight to work.”
“Shauna, listen carefully.” Her mother’s whispered tone screamed urgency. “I need you to leave Chicago right now. Don’t go to work—they’ll find you there.”
“Who will find me? What are you talking about?” Shauna’s patience with her mother’s issues was wearing thin. For the past few weeks, her mother had claimed she’d noticed people following her. Coming after her. Her mom might be off booze and drugs, but the synapses in her brain cells still didn’t work as well as they should. This call was likely yet another example of her mom’s worsening paranoia.
“This is serious. I’m being followed. Go to Green Lake to find your uncle David. He’ll keep you safe.”
A shiver of apprehension slunk down her spine. The panicked desperation in her mom’s voice was new. And her mom had never told her to go find Uncle Davy before. “Mom, maybe we should get together. I’ll call in sick to work. Where are you?”
“No! Don’t come here. Find David!”
Before Shauna could say anything more, there was a muffled thud, then a startled cry before the line went dead.
“Mom? Mom!” Shauna pushed the redial button, but the call went straight to voice mail.
“What’s wrong?” asked her classmate Jeff Clancy. He was already going bald at thirty-three and was ten years her senior and a great study partner. Thankfully, he was also one of the few men who didn’t seem to want anything from her other than friendship. Which was all she had to give.
“I don’t know.” She desperately hit Redial again and again, but each time without success. Shauna felt sick to her stomach. Something was wrong. Very wrong. “I have to head home to check on my mom.”
“I’ll come with you.”
Shauna nodded, grateful she wouldn’t have to go alone. Her mom hadn’t asked her to call the police, and while she knew that was the logical next step, she couldn’t quite bring herself to do it.
Her mother and the police didn’t exactly get along. Too much history. Too many prior arrests.
“Hurry,” she said, abruptly sprinting toward her car, her backpack bouncing against her side.
Jeff tried to keep up, his wheezing breaths proving that he didn’t do any type of running on a regular basis. Not that she was a track star.
Jamming the key into the ignition, she fired up the engine while Jeff scrambled to buckle his seat belt. She took off, tires squealing as she headed toward the highway. The Carlisle Chicago Community College campus wasn’t too far from the Hidden Pines trailer park that her mother called home.
The headlights from her car slashed through the darkness as she turned onto Hidden Pines Road, illuminating the dilapidated and poverty-stricken trailers that were parked far too close together for comfort or privacy. The name of the park was due to a whopping six pine trees scattered among the cramped community, one right next to her mother’s place.
When she pulled up in front of her mother’s trailer, most of the windows were dark, except for the light that her mom normally left on above the kitchen sink. Was her mom even home? Or had she called Shauna from somewhere else?
No! Don’t come here, her mom had said. Shauna figured for sure that meant her mother was at home.
Her mom didn’t drive—too many DUIs and no cash to purchase a car even if she wanted to—so the absence of a vehicle in the driveway didn’t mean anything. Yet Shauna couldn’t seem to shake the impending sense of doom that cloaked her as she threw the gearshift into Park and cut the engine.
“Shauna, wait! Maybe you shouldn’t—” Jeff protested.
She shot out of the car and slammed the driver’s-side door, cutting him off. Jeff could follow or not, his choice.
“Mom?” Shauna found the screen door unlocked and ignored her deepening panic. “Mom! Are you okay?”
Dark mahogany stains on the yellowed linoleum floor of the narrow hallway caused her to stop in her tracks. Was that blood?
“No, please, no...” She forced herself to move forward, one step, then another.
Until she could see her mother’s body lying on the kitchen floor, sticky with blood.
“Mom!” She rushed forward, hoping she wasn’t too late.
No pulse. Cool skin. Too much blood. And, worst of all, a large butcher knife embedded in her mom’s chest.
Shauna didn’t realize she was sobbing until Jeff pulled her away from her mother’s dead body. He gave her a hard shake.
“Shauna, snap out of it. You need to stay back. This is a crime scene. We have to call the police.”
She lurched sideways, shrinking from Jeff’s touch. Her mind could barely comprehend what had happened. In the depths of her mind, she realized Jeff was right. This was a crime scene.
Her mother had been brutally murdered.
She turned and staggered into the tiny bathroom, losing the contents of her stomach in one sickening lurch. Tears filled her eyes, but even through her blurred vision she could see that her hands and clothes were stained with her mother’s blood.
What had happened here? Why had her mother been murdered?
On the other side of the bathroom door, Shauna heard Jeff speaking to the 911 operator. She quickly washed off as much of the blood as possible, then abruptly exited the bathroom, brushing past him to head outside.
The cool October breeze didn’t help clear her head. She could still see the horrific knife. Smell the metallic scent of blood. Feel the icy coldness of her mother’s skin.
Without stopping to think it through, she jumped behind the wheel of her white Honda Civic and cranked the key. From the doorway of her mother’s trailer, Jeff shouted at her to stop, to wait, but she jerked the gearshift into Reverse, backed up, then cranked the wheel and drove away.
Jeff could wait there to talk to the police, but she wasn’t going to. She didn’t trust the cops.
Especially when it came to anything related to her mom.
Tears streamed down her face, blurring her vision. Sh e swiped at her eyes, and then grabbed her mobile phone from the cup holder where she’d dropped it earlier.
Unfortunately, her attempt to call her uncle didn’t go through. A mechanical voice informed her that her uncle’s phone was no longer in service.
Her stomach clenched painfully. Was Davy hurt, too? Was someone murdering her entire family?
Gripping the steering wheel tightly, Shauna headed for the interstate. She’d been to her uncle Davy’s place, located in a rural area of Green Lake, before. Granted, that was just over two years ago, but she hoped she’d still remember where it was.
And that she wouldn’t find her uncle dead. Like her mom.
If her mother’s panicked claims held any kernel of truth, Shauna was next.
Shauna stopped for gas several times, using up her meager supply of cash. She was afraid to use her credit or debit cards. No sense in leaving an electronic trail for either the police or the murderer to follow.
The idea that someone had killed her mother and was now after her, as well, was incomprehensible. After the initial shock had faded, her mind whirled with questions. She didn’t understand why on earth either one of them would be a target. Granted, her mother might have made a few enemies along the way—mostly low-level drug dealers—but her mom had been clean for the past few years. So why would one of them come after her now? None of it made any sense.
Yet the memory of her mother’s bloodstained trailer proved the magnitude of danger.
Guilt hit hard. She’d often been impatient with her mother, had gotten irritated with her mother’s neediness.
Now her mother was gone for good.
I’m sorry, Mom. So sorry I didn’t believe you.
Tears threatened again, so she swiped her face and focused on the road. The recent dusting of October snow made for a few slippery spots. She desperately wished she could talk to Davy. Why wasn’t his phone in service? Because he’d stopped paying his bills? Wait a minute. She frowned. Where was her mom’s phone? The attack had happened mere seconds before their call had been disconnected. Shauna had heard her mom’s startled cry. If she’d dropped the phone, it would have been lying somewhere nearby.
She racked her brain, thinking back to the grotesque crime scene. Her mother’s phone hadn’t been anywhere in sight. At least, not on the floor beside her, the way she’d expect it would be if her mother had been interrupted by the attacker.
So where was it? Had the murderer taken it? And if so, why?
Her gaze dropped to her mobile phone sitting in the cup holder beside her. A shiver rippled through her body, and she instinctively shrank from the device, as if it were a copperhead snake that might strike out and bite with razor-sharp fangs.
The murderer could very well have taken her mom’s phone to get Shauna’s number.
Now who was being paranoid? She struggled to take several deep breaths. Why hadn’t she taken her mom’s fears more seriously? If she had listened, her mother would still be alive.
She lowered the window and tossed the phone out, listening as it shattered on the hard pavement. No point in keeping it, since she didn’t have anyone else to call.
There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road. As time passed, she eventually grew closer to Madison, Wisconsin. She winced when a blinding pair of twin headlights hit her eyes, reflecting off the rearview mirror.
At first she was simply annoyed, but then the high beams grew closer. Zooming up until the vehicle was right behind her.
Too close.
Shauna instinctively braced herself, even as she tried to increase her speed.
No! She saw it happen as if in slow motion. The vehicle slammed into her, causing her to lose control of her small car. She gasped when the car slid into the side rail. The impact of the blow caused the airbags to deploy, punching her in the face with enough force to make her cry out in pain.
And there was nothing but air as her car flipped, falling over the side of the road and down to the snow-dusted wooded area below.
* * *
Green Lake County sheriff Liam Harland took the circular entrance ramp onto the highway, heading due north, grateful to leave the state capital behind. Visiting the cemetery where his wife and son were buried only reminded him of his colossal failures. Guilt stretched like a heavy yoke across his shoulders, chaining him forever to the mistakes of his past.
He’d barely cleared the interchange when he heard the high-pitched screech of metal crashing against metal. When he glanced in his rearview mirror, he saw something white falling through the air and landing in a mass of trees below.
Was that a car?
There was a jagged break in the side rail of the highway ramp, proving he hadn’t imagined the incident. Reacting instinctively, Liam yanked the steering wheel hard to the right, pulling off on the shoulder of the interstate and punching the brakes to bring his SUV to an abrupt stop. Grabbing his phone, he dialed 911 and reported the accident. After providing his information, Liam tucked the phone in the pocket of his denim jacket and dodged through traffic to get closer to the scene.
He could see what looked to be a small white vehicle lying upside down, suspended within the tree branches. The windows were shattered, likely from when the airbags had deployed. For a split second he saw a different vehicle—one lying in a ditch, a navy blue four-door, the roof crushed in on the occupants inside. He blinked the two-year-old image away, returning to reality with a jarring thud.
Without the slightest hesitation, Liam made his way down the edge of the ravine. Maybe there wasn’t anything he could do to help, but he needed to try. He was halfway to the bottom when he heard a woman cry out as the car slid from its perch, crashing to the ground below.
No! Liam covered the distance as quickly as possible, his heart thundering in his chest by the time he reached the vehicle. The first thing he noticed was a flash of pale skin streaked with blood through the driver’s-side window.
“Are you okay?” he shouted, pushing through the brush to reach the door. “Help is on the way.”
“I’m—all right,” a female voice said.
Liam hunkered down near the car, trying to peer inside. “Don’t move around too much,” he cautioned. “The paramedics will be here soon to check you out. You might have hidden spinal cord injuries.”
“Hanging upside down is making me feel sick. Please help me get out of here before I throw up.”
The night was still and silent—no wail of sirens indicating help was imminent. Liam tugged on the driver’s-side door and amazingly was able to pry it open enough to reach inside.
“Hold still,” he warned, rocking back on his heels and pulling his penknife from the front pocket of his jeans. “I’m going to cut the belt, okay?”
“Thank you.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, and her face was veiled with a curtain of dark hair. Her hands were pressed against the steering wheel. She wasn’t tall enough to reach the roof of the car below her, and he understood her discomfort when he noticed her legs were braced on the sides, as if to help ease the pressure from being held up by the seat belt.
Bits of shattered glass littered the area as he went to work on the seat belt. Sawing through the thick fabric of the belt was more difficult than he’d anticipated. He used his shoulder and back as a brace to prop the woman up so that she wouldn’t fall once he’d gotten rid of the restraint. When the edges of the belt finally separated, she sagged against him. Liam made sure to tuck the knife out of the way before gently assisting the woman down and away from the vehicle.
She leaned against him for a moment, surrounding him with an evergreen scent, before moving away.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Shauna.”
He waited for a last name, but none was forthcoming. Maybe her head injury was worse than he’d thought. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes.” She crawled over to sit against the closest tree trunk. She tipped her head back and relaxed against the rough bark, as if grateful to be in a normal position again.
She looked younger than he’d expected, for some reason. Feeling ancient at twenty-eight, Liam turned his attention to what was left of the damaged car.
