Cold Light of Day (Missing in Alaska Book #1) , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Elizabeth Goddard

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187 pages

English

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Police Chief Autumn Long is fighting to keep her job in the quiet Alaska town of Shadow Gap when an unexpected string of criminal activity leaves her with a wounded officer, unexplained murders, and even an attack on her own father. Despite her mistrust of outsiders, she turns to Grier Brenner, a newcomer who seems to have the skills and training Autumn needs to face this threat to her community.Grier is in Alaska for the same reason so many others are--to disappear--when Chief Long enlists his help. He emerges from the shadows and proves his mettle, but his presence in her life could be a deadly trap for them both. If his secret is exposed, all will be lost. And he's not sure even Autumn could save him.As the stakes rise and the dangers increase, Autumn and Grier must rely on each other to extinguish the deadly threats.

Sujets

Romance

Thriller

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	07 février 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493439775
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	4 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0408€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Endorsements
“Thrilling story! The story took off in the first line and held me cuffed until the last. A must-read for every romantic suspense reader. Goddard’s novels keep getting better and better.”
DiAnn Mills , author of Concrete Evidence
“Elizabeth Goddard’s Cold Light of Day is an exhilarating, page-turning race to the finish! Highly recommended.”
Carrie Stuart Parks , bestselling author of Relative Silence
“In Cold Light of Day , Elizabeth Goddard has created a novel that immerses the reader in small-town Alaska. From the first page, it’s a race to stay alive and solve a number of ever-spiraling mysteries. From who the hero really is to why one body after another is found, the reader will be sucked into a story that presses forward from page to page at a rapid pace. I highly recommend this novel.”
Cara Putman , award-winning author of Flight Risk and Lethal Intent
“Gripping and hard-hitting. Grab a cup of cocoa to keep you warm, because the cold and danger on these pages are as real as it gets.”
James R. Hannibal , award-winning author of Elysium Tide
“A simmering romantic suspense with an explosive ending. Once more Goddard proves she is a master storyteller and deserving of her place as one of the best Christian romantic suspense authors of our time. Cold Light of Day is a book you will not want to miss.”
Mary Alford , author of Among the Innocent
Half Title Page
Books by Elizabeth Goddard
U NCOMMON J USTICE S ERIES
Never Let Go
Always Look Twice
Don’t Keep Silent
R OCKY M OUNTAIN C OURAGE S ERIES
Present Danger
Deadly Target
Critical Alliance
M ISSING IN A LASKA
Cold Light of Day
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2023 by Elizabeth Goddard
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2023
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3977-5
Most Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Some Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Dedication
To Dad: long ago you took us on adventures in the mountains, and that’s where my heart remains.
The mountains are calling, and I must go.
—John Muir
Contents
Cover
Endorsements
Half Title Page
Books by Elizabeth Goddard
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
Acknowledgments
The Next Thrilling Case in the MISSING IN ALASKA Series
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
Epigraph
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8 NIV
Prologue
S OUTHEAST A LASKA M AY
I never should have come.
What was he even doing here? What had he been thinking?
I’m an idiot!
He wasn’t so stupid that he couldn’t admit he was lost. Dusk was almost on him, and if he didn’t find his way back to civilization soon, he could very well die.
Kenny thought back to his uncle’s open invitation to find refuge at his place in the mountains. The man often bragged about “wild” Alaska. Eagles. Bears. Bigfoot. Spawning salmon. Whatever. Kenny wasn’t much of a fisherman, but he could learn to fish. What better place than Alaska? Or he could hike on a glacier. Take up dog mushing.
“You can escape what holds you back, son. Here in Alaska—the world is at your feet,” his uncle had said.
And like the proverbial fool on an errand, Kenny had finally decided to take his uncle up on that offer and purchased a one-way ticket to surprise him. With its record-breaking snowfall, his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula couldn’t be that different than Southeast Alaska. Could it? And since Kenny had spent half his life on a snowmobile, he could make his way around the snow-covered Tongass National Forest, a temperate rain forest, the same way.
He’d worked up a sweat hiking, and the cold wind whipped around him, cutting between the layers of his fleece-lined winter jacket. With the lush evergreens covered in fresh snow, early May seemed like winter. The frosted forest closed in around him as he hiked on the snowshoes he’d brought from Michigan.
He’d taken the snowmobile up the road and thought he could continue up the trail, but the vehicle had gotten stuck.
Stuck!
Of all the stupid things to happen. He couldn’t believe it. That was on him. He shivered and glanced at his cell phone. No signal, but he hadn’t expected one.
Still . . . he should have made it to his uncle’s by now. Had he missed an important marker? The man had sketched him a map, for crying out loud. Kenny pulled the drawing out of his pocket and clumsily held it in his gloved hands. All he’d had to do was follow the trail. And that was the problem. The path had kind of disappeared with the heavy snowfall today. Another blast of wind whipped over him along with huge flakes, reminding him that his life was in jeopardy if he didn’t find his way back—and soon.
A sliver of fear slid through him, cutting deep.
If he backtracked down the mountain, he might run into the main road again. And if he died out here?
Mom is going to kill me.
Now, too late, he could easily see the big mistake he’d made. He’d allowed emotions to drive his decision to come to Alaska, but this wasn’t the first time he’d been impulsive.
A gunshot cracked the air.
He stopped in his tracks. That sounded close. Heart pounding, he stood perfectly still. A hunter out looking for dinner? He started hiking again and picked up his pace, hoping he’d run into someone who could help.
Then, through the trees, he spotted a man in a black ski mask. Nothing unusual about the cold-weather garb . . . except . . . he stood over a woman in a bright-pink parka.
She lay on her back. The man pointed a pistol at her head and shot her point blank. Instantly, her blood turned the white snow crimson.
And Kenny’s blood turned to ice.
Move, move, move.
Panic exploded in Kenny’s chest, the glacial air knifing through his lungs.
I have to get out of here.
Kenny headed away from the killer.
Except . . . oh no! His tracks would give him away if the killer spotted him.
I can do this. I can survive. He willed himself to believe. He picked up the pace, going deeper into the forest. A glance over his shoulder sent dread blasting through him.
The killer was tracking him.
Legs shaking, Kenny powered through the fear before it paralyzed him. Keeping to the thickest trees for protection, he snow-jogged. Outlasting the killer, giving him reason to give up the hunt, was the only way to lose him.
Except Kenny had already been out here for too long. His lungs ached. Muscles burned.
Pressing his back against a spruce to rest, he sucked in cold air.
Kenny pulled out his Buck 50th anniversary–edition Ranger knife in case he had to face off with the man who had a long gun as well as a loaded pistol. What did the hunter want with him? Dumb question. Kenny had witnessed him commit murder. But he hadn’t seen the man’s face. He’d just have to do what a lot of people came to Alaska to do—vanish.
Pushing from the tree, he tried to keep up the pace as he jogged through the snow toward higher elevation. Another possible mistake, but he wanted to lose this guy.
He hadn’t gone far before he couldn’t catch his breath, which meant he couldn’t keep going.
Even if his life depended on it.
The temperature was dropping fast. He stumbled forward and out of the tree line . . . just a little farther . . . and spotted the lights shining from the town below.
He should be sitting next to the fire at his uncle’s cabin and eating moose stew instead of running for his life.
A shout brought him around. Standing twenty-five yards away, he spotted the killer. The man aimed his rifle right at Kenny and looked through the scope.
Before Kenny could react, the ground rumbled and shook, and the snow shifted under his feet. He glanced up at the peak above.
A new terror gripped him as realization dawned.
The hunter would kill him to make sure he didn’t climb out from the avalanche racing toward him. Alaska would make him disappear forever.
No one would miss him—no one who cared even knew he was here.
ONE
S OUTHEAST A LASKA A UGUST
A utumn Long had no plans to give up without a fight, even though it might be killing her a little every day.
As the bush plane sank lower, her view of the glacier spilling into the valley behind a forest exploding with reds, oranges, and browns fell away. Lofty mountains on each side of the fjord filled her vision.
“Hold on, Chief. We’re almost there.” Pilot Carrie James flew her bush plane straight up the Lynn Canal—one of the longest, deepest fjords in the world. The snowcapped Kakuhan Mountains rose lofty on the right, the Chilkat Range near Haines to the left. And across from Haines to the west—Glacier Bay National