Desperate Acts
MURDER IN A SMALL TOWN
Kaden abruptly turned, pacing across the cramped space as he considered what Lia had told him. He didn’t look upset, but there was a tightness to his features that suggested a part of him was disappointed to discover that Vanna was as ruthless as he’d always feared. Or maybe he was wishing his brother had never gotten involved with her.
Finally, he turned back to face her, his disappointment replaced with a grim determination.
“If she was using her power as an EPA inspector to blackmail local businesses, that might explain why no one wants her identified.” He deliberately paused. “Including the mayor.”
Lia slowly nodded. “It would certainly be awkward.”
“It might be more than awkward.”
He didn’t have to spell out his suspicion that whoever was being blackmailed had murdered Vanna. Either to hide the evidence of their violations or to avoid paying the bribe. Or both.
An ancient regret sliced through her heart. “I can’t wrap my mind around the thought I might have seen Vanna running from her killer.”
“And that whoever killed her is still in town . . .”
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DESPERATE ACTS
ALEXANDRA IVY
ZEBRA BOOKS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
MURDER IN A SMALL TOWN
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
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
Epilogue
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Copyright © 2023 by Debbie Raleigh
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Prologue
Pike, WI
December 14, 2007
Tugging her coat tight around her shivering body, Lia Porter scurried down the dark pathway. It was past midnight, and the late December air was cold enough to burn her lungs as she sucked in deep breaths. This was so stupid. She should never have crept out of her house to attend the party. Even at fifteen years old she knew that a gathering of kids in an old barn in the middle of winter was a lame idea. Some of her friends might enjoy shivering around a small fire, listening to country music and drinking cheap beer, but she’d been bored out of her mind.
So why had she allowed herself to be cajoled into going?
Lia wrinkled her nose. She’d told herself that she was tired of being called Lia-Killjoy by her classmates. Okay. She liked to follow the rules. She wasn’t a maverick. Or a risk-taker. She didn’t cheat on tests or skip classes. She didn’t even go skinny-dipping at the local lake. In fact, if she wasn’t at school, she was helping her mother at the family-owned grocery store in the center of town. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a good time, right?
But deep in her heart she knew that wasn’t why she spent an hour straightening her strawberry-blond hair until it fell in a smooth curtain down her back. Or added a layer of mascara to the long lashes that framed her green eyes. Or why she’d snuck out of her room and trudged two miles to the middle of the frozen field.
She’d been hoping to attract the attention of Chuck Moore, the guy she’d nursed a secret crush on for an entire year. He wasn’t the most popular boy in class. Or the cutest. He had frizzy black hair and an overbite that was prominent despite his braces. But he was one of the few guys who at least pretended to listen when she spoke. That was far more attractive to a girl who’d spent her school life in the shadows than perfect features or bulging muscles.
Unfortunately, she’d had to wait until her mother was asleep before sneaking out. They lived above the store and she couldn’t just climb out a bedroom window. She had to creep down the squeaky stairs at the back of the two-story brick building. By the time she arrived at the barn the party was in full swing, and Chuck was already in the hayloft with her best friend, Karen Cranford.
Calling herself an idiot, she’d forced herself to stay long enough to drink a beer and pretend to laugh at the antics of the guys who thought it was a great idea to try to push one another into the fire. As if nursing second-degree burns was a hilarious way to spend the evening. Then, assuring herself that she’d proved whatever stupid point she’d come there to make, she’d slipped out the door and headed across the dark field.
Lia muttered a bad word as she slipped on a patch of ice. Pike, Wisconsin, wasn’t the best location to take a midnight stroll. Especially in the middle of winter. If she fell and broke a leg, she was going to be in so much trouble.
The thought of her mother made Lia grimace. Trina Porter had only been sixteen when she’d given birth to Lia. That had been tough enough, but Lia’s father had disappeared just months after she was born, and her grandparents had died in a tragic car accident eight years later. Trina was forced to work endless hours to keep a roof over their heads and food on their table. She’d sacrificed everything to give her child a warm and loving home.
Lia felt the constant weight of those sacrifices pressing down on her like an anchor. If she knowingly added to her mom’s daily struggle, she would never forgive herself.
Rounding a bend in the pathway, Lia breathed a sigh of relief. Ahead, she could see the soft glow of streetlights. Soon she would be back in her room, tucked in her warm bed with one of the books she’d borrowed from the library. Exactly where she wanted to be.
Lost in the fantasy of being curled up beneath her thick comforter with a cup of hot cocoa, Lia came to an abrupt halt. She heard a sound in the distance. Not a car. Or an an
imal. It sounded like . . . like running footsteps.
More curious than alarmed, Lia watched as a shadowed form appeared from the shadows. It didn’t occur to her that she might be in danger. This was Pike. Nothing bad ever happened here. The figure neared, moving down the path toward her. As she grew closer, Lia could make out the delicate features of a woman with long, black hair that flowed behind her. She was wearing a heavy leather jacket and pants that looked like some kind of uniform. Lia could also see the glitter of gold in the moonlight. The woman had a large badge pinned to the upper shoulder of her jacket. Like a cop.
Oh no.
Lia sucked in a sharp breath. Had her mother awakened and found her missing? Had she called the sheriff’s office? No. She sternly squashed the urge to panic. She would recognize anyone local. Pike was too small to have strangers. This woman was from somewhere else.
So why was she running from town in the middle of the night?
It was a question that was to haunt Lia for the next fifteen years, as the woman suddenly spotted her standing in the middle of the pathway. She’d just reached the bridge that spanned the railroad tracks.
A scream was ripped from her throat, as if Lia was a monster, not a fifteen-year-old girl sneaking home from a party. Then, with a shocking speed, the woman turned toward the edge of the bridge, climbing onto the stone guardrail.
What the heck was she doing? Lia took a startled step forward, lifting her hand as the woman wobbled. It was at least twelve feet to the tracks below. Not even the local boys were stupid enough to jump from there.
“Wait!” she called out, but she was too late.
With a last, terrified glance toward Lia, the woman leaned forward and disappeared into the darkness.
Chapter 1
Pike, WI
Now
It was mid-December and the town of Pike, Wisconsin, looked like an image on a postcard. The ground was coated in pristine layers of snow and the trees sparkled with Christmas lights. The town square was draped in garland that filled the crisp air with a scent of pine. There was even a miniature North Pole set up in the park where Santa perched on a chair from six to seven in the evenings for the kids to take pictures.
The downside to the winter wonderland, however, was the brutal windchill that whipped through the narrow streets despite the clear blue skies and bright morning sunlight. The cold kept most sensible people snuggled in the warmth of their homes. A shame for the local businesses that depended on the holiday season to pad their yearly income, but for Lia Porter, the quiet was welcome. The grocery store was never a hot spot in town, not even during Christmas, but she was there alone and she didn’t want to be disturbed.
Seated at her desk in the private office she’d claimed at the back of the building, Lia kept one eye on her computer and the other on the surveillance monitor that kept guard on the front of the store. She wasn’t afraid of shoplifters. The four short aisles with wooden shelves were stocked with basic supplies. Flour, sugar, bread, and canned goods. There was also a cooler with dairy products and a section for frozen foods. If someone was desperate enough to steal food, she would be happy to hand it over to them. She just wanted to keep watch in case a customer entered and needed her help.
Something that wouldn’t be necessary if Wayne had arrived on time. With a sigh, Lia returned her attention to the computer screen, where she’d downloaded the portfolio of an online retailer who was trying to attract new investors. Lia was interested. She preferred putting her capital in businesses just starting out. Getting in on the ground floor meant she would make the most profit. But she was still reviewing the business model and debt-to-equity ratio before she agreed to meet with the founder.
High risk/high return didn’t mean recklessly tossing her money around. She devoted weeks and sometimes months in research before she agreed to invest. That had been her motto since she’d taken the trust fund she’d inherited from her grandparents at the age of twenty-one and invested it with a local carpenter who wanted to flip houses. Her mother had been horrified, but soon she was making a profit, and she’d taken that money to invest in another company. And then another.
Within five years, she had tripled her trust fund and proved that she could not only support herself but could build a large enough nest egg that she didn’t have to worry about her future. It’d also given her mother the opportunity to concentrate on her own life. Within a few months, the older woman had married a man who’d loved her for years and whisked her away to a secluded cabin in Colorado.
Lia had been delighted that her mom could find happiness, and she hadn’t minded taking over the store that had been in their family for over a hundred years. It was as much a part of Pike as the surrounding dairy farms and the stone courthouse down the street. It rarely made a profit, but the store wasn’t about creating money. It was keeping the tradition that her great-great-great-grandfather had started, as well as providing much-needed provisions for the older citizens who didn’t feel comfortable driving to the larger town of Grange. Not to mention offering the necessities during the winter months, when the roads could be closed for days at a time.
Scribbling a few notes she wanted to double-check before continuing her interest in the potential investment, Lia heard the familiar tinkle of a bell. Someone had pushed open the front door. She glanced toward the monitor, watching the tall, lanky boy with short, rust-brown hair and a narrow face enter the store.
Wayne Neilson was a seventeen-year-old boy who’d asked for a job the previous summer. Lia already had a part-time helper who’d been there for forty years, but Della was getting older and her health wasn’t always the best, so Lia had agreed to give Wayne an opportunity. He was being raised by a single mother just like she had. She understood the need to earn extra money.
He’d proven to be remarkably dependable, arriving right after school to put in a couple of hours and on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Until this Saturday morning.
Rising from the desk, Lia headed out of the office and firmly shut the door. Only her mother knew about her investment skills. And that was how she wanted to keep it. Pike was a small town where everyone was always snooping into everyone’s business. It was even worse for someone like her. She’d always been different. She didn’t have a father. She didn’t mix easily with the other kids. And now she’d vaulted past her scary thirtieth birthday with no marriage proposal in sight. It made people study her as if she was a puzzle that needed to be solved. Or maybe fixed.
She wanted something that was just for herself.
She entered the main part of the store and walked toward the front counter, where Wayne was hanging his heavy parka on a hook drilled into the paneled wall.
“Hey, Ms. Porter. Sorry about being late,” he said, his narrow face flushed and his blue eyes sparkling with an intense emotion.
“Is everything okay?”
“Fine.” He shifted from foot to foot, as if he was having trouble standing still. “At least for me.”
Lia studied him with mounting concern. Usually he was shy and subdued to the point she could barely get more than two words out of him. This excitement was completely out of character.
“What’s going on?”
He glanced around the store, as if making sure it was empty. Then, he sucked in a deep breath.
“Drew and Cord found a body.”
“A body of what?”
Wayne leaned toward her; his voice lowered to a harsh whisper. “A human body.” He grimaced. “Or at least a skeleton.”
Lia snorted. She knew both Drew Hurst and Cord Walsh. They were known around Pike as the local bullies. Clichéd but true. And their favorite target was usually Wayne.
“Are you sure they weren’t messing with you?”
Wayne grimaced, no doubt recalling a thousand different insults, humiliations, and even physical blows he’d endured over the years.
“Yeah. They’re usually being jerks. Especially to me,” he conceded. “But they aren’t smart enough to set up an actual prank. They just shove people into lockers and steal stuff out of backpacks.” He shrugged, the bones of his thin shoulders visible beneath his T-shirt. “Besides, they couldn’t fake looking pale as ghosts when they climbed over the bridge railing. Or Drew puking up his guts when he told me what they’d seen. For real, I thought he was going to pass out.”