Nobody’s safe when a killer has you in their sights.
True crime podcaster Ella Tate is shaken to her core by the horrific assault and murder of Josie Wheatly, a teacher she has never met … because not only had Josie moved into Ella’s vacated apartment three months earlier, but her Facebook photos reveal a striking resemblance between the two women.
Within days, two people close to Ella are harmed, and she fears that she’s become the target of twisted revenge from her crime-reporting days. Reluctantly teaming up with her neighbour Tony, a hairdresser who loves the finer things in life, and Liam Hunter, the persistent detective assigned to the cases, Ella struggles to stay one step ahead before she becomes the target of the final kill.
Excerpt
All too soon, Ella biked past the last stretch of trees and
gardens and found herself at Carling Avenue and six lanes of traffic. She
crossed at the lights and wound her way through residential side streets in the
neighbourhood behind the Civic Hospital, where Josie Wheatly was being treated.
The street where Josie Wheatly lived wasn’t listed on her Facebook page, but
Ella knew exactly where to find the house. She biked there first to see if any
other tenants were home. Maybe she’d luck out and Josie would be back in her
apartment. The wail of a siren was fast approaching, and Ella swerved to the
side of the road and craned her neck to look behind her as an ambulance raced
past on the cross street.
Normally Ella wasn’t that person who watched someone else’s
medical crisis unfold. They deserved their privacy at such a vulnerable time,
but today she remained rooted in place, eyes fixed on the entrance. The house
was the same one showcased on Josie Wheatly’s Facebook page, the house number
prominently displayed above the door. Eighty-eight Kinnear. The same house that
Ella had lived in before she moved this past summer to Percy Street. Josie had
taken up residence in the apartment she’d vacated on the second floor. The one
with the creaky floorboards in the hallway and the drafty window in the kitchen
that had to be forced open when humidity swelled the frame in the sweltering
heat of midsummer.
The coincidence was jarring. It was unsettling enough for
Ella to wheel her bike toward the crowd of onlookers drawn out of their homes
by the sirens and commotion. She left her bike helmet on, and those neighbours
who knew her from when she lived on the street glanced past her without a
second look. She stopped behind two young mothers holding babies and waited.
Twenty minutes later, a white Volvo pulled up, and a woman
with a medical bag got out. Ella recognized her stooped posture and frizzy
brown hair from her days on the crime beat. Brigette Green, Coroner. The sight
of Green made her realize that there’d been a death, and she instinctively
clasped a hand over her heart.
The two women in front of Ella exchanged shocked looks, and
one of them said, “Leona got a text from one of the tenants. First the poor
girl was raped and now…” She looked down at her baby as if to make sure he
wasn’t listening. Her voice dropped. “She hanged herself.”
Ella rolled her bike away from the gossiping women onto the
street, her mind buzzing, scrambling to make sense of what she’d overheard. The
assault was now a death. Why had the hospital let Josie Wheatly go home if she
was so traumatized? Why hadn’t somebody stayed with her? None of this made
sense.
Ella pedalled as fast as she could away from Kinnear Street
in a vain attempt to put distance between herself and the pain of what had
transpired — the violence that had desecrated her old apartment. Yet as fast as
she could go, she couldn’t outride the thought that kept echoing around in her
head.
Josie Wheatly could have been me if I hadn’t lost my job and
needed a cheaper place to live. Whatever evil gained access to that apartment
missed me by mere weeks.
About the Author
Brenda Chapman is a Canadian crime fiction author with over twenty published novels. In addition to short stories and standalones, she has written the lauded Stonechild and Rouleau police procedural series, the Anna Sweet mystery novellas, and the Jennifer Bannon mysteries for middle grade. Her work has been shortlisted for several awards including four Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence.
Brenda taught for fifteen years in the field of special
education followed by a Communications career in the federal government. She
currently writes full-time and makes her home in Ottawa.
Website ~~ Instagram ~~ Facebook ~~ Twitter ~~ Goodreads ~~ Bookbub
This book sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteBrenda- how long did it take you to get your book published
ReplyDeleteI like the cover.
ReplyDeleteLooks good.
ReplyDelete