Cause to Save (An Avery Black Mystery—Book 5)

Blake Pierce

Description

“A dynamic story line that grips from the first chapter and doesn't let go.” --Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan (regarding Once Gone) From #1 bestselling author Blake Pierce comes a new masterpiece of psychological suspense: CAUSE TO SAVE (An Avery Black Mystery—Book 5)—the final installment in the Avery Black series.In the epic finale of the Avery Black series, serial killer Howard Randall has escaped, and the entire city of Boston is on edge. Women are turning up gruesomely murdered, and everyone suspects Howard is at it again. When Boston’s most brilliant and controversial homicide detective—Avery Black—is herself stalked—and when people close to her are brutally killed, one by one—it seems the city’s worst fears are confirmed.But Avery is not so sure. The murders remind her of something she once saw in her past. They remind her of something too close to her heart—something that had to do with a secret she thought she had buried long ago….The most riveting and shocking book of the series, a psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, CAUSE TO SAVE is the finale that will leave you turning pages late into the night. “A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side, so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. The plot is very intelligent and will keep you entertained throughout the book. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

Sujets

• FBI
• Serial killer
• Series
• Mystery
• Murder
• Suspense
• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Lukeman
• Date de parution: 28 août 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 16
• EAN13: 9781640291225
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

C A U S E T O S A V E

(AN AVERY BLACK MYSTERY BOOK 5)



B L A K E P I E R C E
Blake Pierce


Blake Pierce is author of the bestselling RILEY PAGE mystery series, which includes ten books (and counting). Blake Pierce is also the author of the MACKENZIE WHITE mystery series, comprising six books (and counting); of the AVERY BLACK mystery series, comprising five books; and of the new KERI LOCKE mystery series, comprising four books (and counting).
An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Blake loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.blakepierceauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.


Copyright © 2017 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 Adam Machovsky, used under license from shutterstock.com.
BOOKS BY BLAKE PIERCE

RILEY PAIGE MYSTERY SERIES
ONCE GONE (Book #1)
ONCE TAKEN (Book #2)
ONCE CRAVED (Book #3)
ONCE LURED (Book #4)
ONCE HUNTED (Book #5)
ONCE PINED (Book #6)
ONCE FORSAKEN (Book #7)
ONCE COLD (Book #8)
ONCE STALKED (Book #9)
ONCE LOST (Book #10)

MACKENZIE WHITE MYSTERY SERIES
BEFORE HE KILLS (Book #1)
BEFORE HE SEES (Book #2)
BEFORE HE COVETS (Book #3)
BEFORE HE TAKES (Book #4)
BEFORE HE NEEDS (Book #5)
BEFORE HE FEELS (Book #6)

AVERY BLACK MYSTERY SERIES
CAUSE TO KILL (Book #1)
CAUSE TO RUN (Book #2)
CAUSE TO HIDE (Book #3)
CAUSE TO FEAR (Book #4)
CAUSE TO SAVE (Book #5)

KERI LOCKE MYSTERY SERIES
A TRACE OF DEATH (Book #1)
A TRACE OF MUDER (Book #2)
A TRACE OF VICE (Book #3)
A TRACE OF CRIME (Book #4)
CONTENTS


PROLOGUE
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
PROLOGUE

Kirsten braced herself against the Boston cold, adjusted her scarf around her neck, and readied herself for the four-block walk ahead of her, into the black night. She passed all the closed bars, realized it was too late to be walking, and had a pang of sudden fear. She glanced back to the door of the apartment complex she had just stepped out of, and thought of changing her mind. Maybe she should have stayed over at her friend’s place.
Amy had insisted that she stay that it was too late and miserably cold outside. And while both of those things were true, Amy had said them with her face nuzzled into the neck of a guy she’d met at the bar. And while her face had been there, the guy’s hands had been elsewhere. And honestly, Kirsten did not want to sleep on Amy’s couch while listening to her best friend and some random (but cute) guy going at it in a drunken stupor all night.
Honestly, she also didn’t want be there in the morning, working with Amy to come up with a clever reason to get the guy out, either.
Besides, it was only four blocks. And compared to the blistering cold that had ravaged Boston about a month ago, tonight would seem like a brisk little jaunt in a spring breeze.
It was nearing three in the morning. She and Amy had gone out intending to get hammered, to drink the night away and do whatever their drunken primate brains suggested. After all, here, in their senior year of college, their dreams had come true. Somehow, against all odds, they had both been selected out of their photojournalism class two of eight candidates to go on assignment in Spain in the summer. They’d be working for an up-and-coming nature magazine that catered specifically to educational markets…and would be getting paid more for that one assignment than Kirsten’s mother had made all of last year.
And that would shut her up, Kirsten thought. She loved her mother dearly but got really tired of hearing her gripe about how pursuing a career in photography was a pipe dream a waste of time.
She came to the end of the first block, checked the crosswalk and found it dead, and then headed on. The cold was beginning to nip at her. She could feel it on her nose like an actual presence, starting to pinch.
She idly wondered if Amy and her random dude were naked yet. She wondered if the guy was any good or if he’d be hindered by the copious amounts of liquor they’d had.
Well, not that she had enjoyed much. She’d eaten a small dinner at the very bar they had holed up in for the night. She wasn’t sure if it had been the nachos they’d shared as a table or if it had been something in the pizza, but her stomach had not been happy. After four beers, she knew her night was over that she’d be doing nothing more than keeping Amy company as she annihilated herself shot by shot.
She figured she’d get all the lurid details tomorrow. And thinking of those lurid details as well as how much they’d enjoy their summer in Spain, Kirsten at first barely even noticed the sound she heard behind her. Footsteps.
The hair stood on the back of her neck, but she dared not look back.
She increased her pace. Two blocks behind her, two blocks to go. And now the cold really was nipping at her.
Suddenly, the steps were right behind her, and a man came stumbling up right next to her. He appeared to be drunk and when Kirsten jumped back in fright, he snickered to himself, clearly amused.
"Sorry," he said. "Didn’t mean to scare you. I was just…well, can you help me? Drinking with some friends and…supposed to meet them somewhere after the bar but I don’t remember where. I’m from New York…never been to Boston before. No idea where I am."
Kirsten couldn’t bring herself to look at him as she shook her head. It was more than being uncomfortable around a strange drunk man this late at night. It was knowing that she was this close to being home and just wanted the night to be over.
"No, I’m sorry," she said.
"Seriously?!" the man said.
All of a sudden, he didn’t seem so drunk. Funny enough, he sounded amused that someone would be so defensive over something as innocent as helping a lost guy in a city he wasn’t familiar with. That struck her as odd as she started to turn away, intending to quicken her pace.
But then the slightest motion caught her eye and made her hesitate.
The man was holding his stomach, as if he might puke. It had been there the whole time but Kirsten was fairly certain this was not the case. He reached into his jacket and that’s when she saw that he was suddenly holding something.
A gun, her panicked mind thought. And while it did look like a gun, that wasn’t quite right.
Her muscles demanded that she run. She looked to his face for the first time and saw that something was off. He had been pretending. This wasn’t a lost drunk man at all. He looked too sober in the eyes sober and, now that she was starting to panic, a little demented, too.
The thing that looked sort of like a gun came up quickly. She opened her mouth to yell for help as she also turned away to run.
But then she felt something strike her from behind. It hit her in the side of the head, just below the ear sharp and immediate. She stumbled and then fell. She tasted blood in her mouth and then felt hands on her. There was another of those sharp sensations in her head, small but somehow thunderous at the same time.
The pain was immense but she was not able to experience the full extent of it before the night seemed to swell around her. The street faded, as did the man’s face, and then everything went black.
Her final thought was that this life of hers had turned out to be quite short and that the trip that was set to change it all was never going to happen.
CHAPTER ONE

Avery felt like she had been in some strange isolation chamber for the last two weeks. She had stepped into it of her own accord because, quite frankly, there was no place else that appealed to her only the sterile walls of the hospital room in which Ramirez still barely clung to the edge of life.
From time to time, her phone would buzz as a call or text came through but she rarely checked them. Her solitude was only e