Wrong Number
K. J. Dahlen
kjdahlen1@yahoo.com
Excerpt Heat Level: 1
Book Heat Level: 1
While reporter Lacey Hancock
is tracking a serial killer, she gets a phone call in the middle of the night
meant for someone else. The caller tells her he received the money and within
the next twenty-four hours two people will be dead. When she goes to the
police, she runs into an old friend, FBI agent Sam Reed. When they connect the
separate cases they are working on, they find the serial killer is after them.
Can they find him before he finds them?
EXCERPT
The
ringing phone woke Lacey Hancock from a sound sleep. On the third ring she
picked up the receiver and whispered a sleepy, "Hello."
"I
have received the payment you promised."
She heard someone say. "By this time tomorrow your judicial troubles
will be over. The only witness will be dead and you'll be in the clear."
Lacey
frowned and slowly sat up in bed. She brushed her long dark hair away from her
face and rubbed her eyes. She had been so tired lately she wasn't sure she was
hearing the conversation correctly. "Excuse me?" She took a deep
breath. "Who is this?" When she heard no reply she asked, "Is
this some kind of joke or something? Because if it is, this isn't very
funny."
She
heard a sharp intake of breath and a muffled swear word then heard a resounding
click as the phone call ended. She frowned and reached over to snap on the bed
side lamp. Hanging up the phone, she glanced at the alarm clock sitting on the
bedside the table and saw it was just after one a.m.
She
hated phone calls in the middle of the night. They never brought good news,
only bad news, and this one sounded like a prank call. Yet there was something
she heard in the caller's voice that made her stop and think.
It could
have been a prank call or something a little more sinister. As a reporter, her
inner alarms were going haywire. She knew this sort of thing happened all the
time and yet she had been shocked by the phone call. This sort of crime, a
murder for hire, was more a big city occurrence, it didn't happen so much
around here. The caller had sounded very sincere about what he was planning to
do. In the small amount of conversation she had with the caller she could sense
his intent. If she believed him, someone was going to die in the next day,
Lacey
shivered. She had just spent the last three days trying to track down a serial
killer. She had seen too much death since she began this quest. She received a
call four days ago from an attorney for a man on death row. The attorney told
her his client's name was Mickey Dallas and he was dying of cancer. Mickey knew
he wouldn't live long enough to get the needle and he was okay with that. The
attorney told her Mickey had a story to tell, and he wanted her to tell it. He
told her she had every right to refuse, that it was okay if she wanted to turn
around and walk away, He would understand, but he hoped she would at least
listen to his story.
Lacey
had been just curious enough to stay. Mickey wanted to tell her about someone
he met fifteen years ago in Detroit. He'd recently read a story she wrote about
child abuse and he told her he liked the way she brought the victims to life.
He told her she made him feel the child's pain and when she was finished, he
felt that justice had been done by the courts. He felt the judge who sentenced
the couple to prison had stopped them from hurting any other child. He wanted
the world to know his story and why he had done the things he had done. He
wasn't looking for forgiveness; but he did want people to know what he felt
during the time he was committing his crimes. He told her that while he'd done
a number of bad things in his life, he needed to tell the world about a man
that scared even the hardest of criminals. As a reporter she knew this man had
a story to tell and she told him if she could verify what he was telling her,
she would write his story. What she found out scared the hell out of her, but
she had been able to verify his tale in New York, Chicago, Seattle and St.
Louis and many little towns along the way.
She had
returned from her journey only three hours ago. Her suitcase was still sitting
just inside the bedroom door. All she wanted to do when she got home was sleep.
Lacey
grabbed a pen and a notepad she kept close to her and wrote down the message
she had been given. She knew she should call the police and if she did and it
turned out to be a crank call, the police wouldn't give her the respect she
demanded for her profession. The caller had said that the hit would happen
within twenty four hours. The question was who was going to die and why? The
reporter in her wanted to know the five W's; who, what, when, where and why. So
far she knew the when but she didn't know the rest. She tried to think of
upcoming interesting cases, but she couldn't think of one that would warrant
this kind of solution.
Her
adrenalin was pumping and she knew from the butterflies in the pit of her
stomach she had stumbled on to a story that she was never supposed to know
about. What she would do next might save someone's life or cost her own.
"Way cool of a book! If
you are a fan of murder mysteries, run don’t walk and get your copy today.
Twists and turns start from the first sentence. Wrong Number has great
characters with depth, and a truly psychopathic killer on the loose. What is
not to love."
Matilda
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More
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