Beneath Blackwater River Read online

  Beneath Blackwater River

  A totally gripping, addictive and heart-pounding crime thriller

  Leslie Wolfe

  Books by Leslie Wolfe

  Detective kay sharp series

  1. The Girl From Silent Lake

  2. Beneath Blackwater River

  Tess winnett series

  Dawn Girl

  The Watson Girl

  Glimpse of Death

  Taker of Lives

  Not Really Dead

  Girl With A Rose

  Mile High Death

  Baxter & holt series

  Las Vegas Girl

  Casino Girl

  Las Vegas Crime

  Standalone titles

  Stories Untold

  Love, Lies and Murder

  Alex hoffmann series

  Executive

  Devil’s Move

  The Backup Asset

  The Ghost Pattern

  Operation Sunset

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  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

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Hear more about the Detective Kay Sharp series

  Books by Leslie Wolfe

  The Girl from Silent Lake

  A Letter from Leslie

  Acknowledgments

  A special thank you to my New York City legal eagle and friend, Mark Freyberg, who expertly guided this author through the intricacies of the judicial system.

  1

  Falls

  Malia wore a flower in her hair.

  Not just any kind of flower; she’d gone through online shopping hell to get the plumeria blossom delivered to the hotel that morning, just in time for her planned trip to Blackwater River Falls. She’d paid a fortune for it, worth every cent.

  She wore the scented bloom over her left ear, a Hawaiian custom that told the entire world her heart was taken. By a twenty-seven-year-old, good-looking, and slightly awkward computer nerd from San Francisco named Tobias Grabowsky, who’d probably miss the symbolic meaning of the plumeria, and that was if he even noticed it in the first place.

  She didn’t care. She still wanted the flower to be just right, her hair perfectly shiny, the scent of the petals surrounding her like a mist from heaven, bringer of love and good fortune. But she wished she could’ve worn something else for that special occasion. She cringed at the thought of being proposed to in cream-colored stretch shorts and a red tank top instead of a breezy, white, ruffled gown that bared her shoulders. But if Toby wanted to take her to Blackwater River Falls that morning, she had to pretend she didn’t know why and wear the appropriate attire for hiking.

  But she knew, and the excitement had overwhelmed her since she’d first found the diamond ring in his jacket pocket.

  She’d been worried about his strange behavior the night they’d arrived in Mount Chester. Soon after dinner, expertly served by a blond with cleavage so deep it should’ve been restricted to adult audiences only, she’d noticed that Toby kept touching his right pocket as if to make sure something precious was still in there, tucked safely. That pocket was where he’d shoved the change and check from dinner, and Malia feared that Miss Cleavage might’ve sneaked in her phone number. Anxious for the rest of the evening, Malia could barely wait to get back to their hotel room. There, she lingered with the patience of a hungry spider for Toby to get into the shower, then plunged her hand into the pocket and found it.

  That 1-carat beauty was definitely not for Miss Boobs.

  Before Toby had come out of the shower, she had her plan in place. She’d make sure it was one to remember, and even if she had to wear shorts, at least everything else would be perfect.

  Blackwater River Falls was a one-hour hike from their hotel, climbing at a gentle rate on the western versant of Mount Chester through a stunningly beautiful, fall-tinged forest. As they gained elevation, oaks and maples gave way to a variety of pines and firs, their cones littering the paths. They held hands and hiked with enthusiasm, her impatience causing Toby to ask, “Why the rush?” a couple of times. She’d just smiled in response and slowed down a little, even stopped to press her lips against his for a quick moment, before rushing uphill again.

  They were a good ten minutes away when the whooshing sound of the falls started to be heard, faint and distant, yet precise, melodious, echoing against the rocky slopes of the mountain.

  “I can see it,” Malia announced cheerfully, letting go of Toby’s hand and sprinting ahead. “We’re there.”

  “All right,” Toby replied, panting heavily. “It will still be there in a few minutes, you know,” he quipped, stopping for a moment and looking around.

  She rushed back to him and grabbed his hand, then pulled him ahead on the trail.

  “Come on, you’ll rest when we get there,” she said, and he followed her with a resigned sigh. “You need to work out more,” she added. She was barely out of breath, the fresh air filling her lungs with pure energy. “All day long you sit in front of a screen,” she started, then bit her lip. Maybe she should wait until after the wedding to start criticizing him. She burst into laughter instead, imagining herself as a nagging wife, hands propped on her hips, tapping the tip of her slipper against the gleaming hardwood floors in their future home.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Ah, nothing, I’m just happy,” she replied, lifting her arms in the air and turning in place like a dervish. “Whoo-hoo,” she cried, and the mountain promptly echoed back. “Did you hear it?”

  “Yeah, and so did half the state of California.”

  A punch to his side was quick to follow, and she burst into crystalline laughter as he feigned injury and collapsed to the ground, holding his side and groaning as if he were about to die a wretched death. Now he would have dirt and pine needles on the white T-shirt he was going to propose in, but she didn’t care as much as she thought she would. She just loved hearing him laugh.

  When he stood, he touched his pocket briefly, and then brushed some dirt off his shoulders. She ran her hands over his back, wiping away whatever stuck to the cotton fabric, then they joined hands again and sprinted ahead.

  In a few minutes, they cleared the forest and stopped, hand in hand, to admire the tall, narrow falls against the blue sky, flanke
d by rocks tinged rusty red. Still panting, Toby gave her a long, loving look, as if trying to figure out what to do next, and then crouched to undo his laces and remove his shoes.

  “What are you doing?” Malia asked, her voice filled with disappointment, after her heart had promptly stopped thinking he was going to take a knee and propose in front of the majestic falls, only to see him preoccupied with the entangled shoelaces on his left sneaker.

  He kicked off both his shoes, then invited her to do the same. “Let’s go in there,” he pointed at the waterfall, “behind that water curtain. I read there’s a cave, not too big, and the water’s only a few inches deep.”

  She hesitated as she imagined dipping her bare feet into the freezing water. She forced a smile and took off her shoes and socks, then tiptoed, faltering on the sharp-edged gravel that littered the path to the fall’s basin.

  He jumped in first, without hesitation. “Yup, it’s freezing, but you won’t feel it,” he reassured her, once he had caught his breath. “Come on.” He tugged gently at her hand. “Take the leap with me.”

  Her face lit up in a beaming smile. She was ready to take a leap with him, the biggest leap of all, for the rest of her life. She put one hesitant foot into the icy water, then the next. He was right. After a few moments, she stopped feeling the cold as badly.

  They splashed toward the water curtain, and she winced at the thought of wading through a shower of freezing water to get to the cave, but that wasn’t the case. There was a narrow opening to the side, enough to allow them to sneak in. Inside the almost dark space, the loud sound of the waterfall was dimmed and seemed distant, as if the silence of the cave absorbed the screams of the crashing cascade. Filtered and powerless, the light that came through the torrent barely touched the glistening walls.

  She studied her surroundings for a quick moment. The walls were stained in hues of green and rusty red, with off-white blotches here and there, where calcareous stone interlaced with the granite. She dipped her hand in the freezing water, and cupped her palm to collect some. She wanted to taste it, but Toby stopped her hand before it reached her lips.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “You never know what’s in it.”

  She looked at the water still pooled in the cup of her hand. “It looks like it has a pink hue, or is that just the light?”

  “Could be what stained these walls.” He looked around briefly, then smiled widely, visibly nervous. “But I’m not here for spelunking.” He lowered himself on a bent knee, dipping it in the freezing water, while his hand revealed the ring nestled in its black velvet box. “I wanted it to be just you and me, my lovely Malia, when I ask you, will you marry me?”

  Her eyes widened in feigned surprise and sincere delight, while her smile broadened. She clasped her hands together in excitement, then extended her left hand toward Toby. He took out the ring from its box and slid it onto her finger. She looked at him grinning, sealing every detail of the image in her memory, to always remember, till death did them part.

  Then she screamed, a long, searing shriek of pure terror.

  A pale hand with long, narrow fingers grazed Toby’s calf, shifting slowly into the rippling water.

  Toby jumped to his feet and rushed to her, grabbing her shoulders. “What? What is it?”

  Speechless, she pointed at the body moving slowly back and forth under the water surface, barely visible in the dim light.

  In the flashlight coming from Toby’s phone, she saw a large boulder held the girl’s body in place, pinning it to the bottom of the cave. Her long black hair and her right arm had surfaced, the water only a foot deep, brought forward by the constant pounding of the cascade.

  She looked alive, her hair drifting freely in the water as if flowing in the wind, her beautiful face pristine, her red lips gently parted, as if to let her final breath escape. Her eyes seemed to stare at them, surprised, aghast, the terror of her last moments still alive in her irises. A small red locket floated right by her face, still attached to her neck with a silver chain.

  She couldn’t’ve been more than seventeen years old.

  2

  Home

  Detective Kay Sharp was still getting used to living with her brother again, in the childhood home she’d left in her rearview mirror eight years ago. It was a broad and sometimes unsettling mix of emotions. She loved Jacob and had missed him over the years. On the flip side, after having lived by herself for all that time, she’d developed a low tolerance for clutter, mess, dirty dishes in the sink, and any other form of disorganized living, especially when her baby brother had also grown used to being the typical slovenly bachelor. The house itself held memories, some sweet, of her mother baking cookies or birthday cakes or singing to them. Others were bitter and angering, of her father’s alcohol-fueled rages and their painful consequences.

  After having returned to Mount Chester for less than a month, she was getting antsy about moving out of her family home. But the last time a house had been listed for sale in Mount Chester had been over a year ago; it was a posh ski lodge up the mountain, and some Silicon Valley stockholder had rushed to put a truckload of money on it. Nothing else had hit the market since. Even their local Realtor held a day job.

  Mount Chester was a small place, ski resort included. Most of the town’s dwellers worked seasonal jobs on the mountain, in restaurants or hotels, operating or maintaining the ski lifts or catering to tourists. A great place to visit and spend some time on the slopes, or, during summer, on the endlessly meandering beaches of Silent Lake, Mount Chester was home to only 3,823 people, as it stated on the city limit sign. Although, very recently, when driving by at high speed, Kay had noticed the number had been adjusted to 3,824, making her wonder for a brief moment if the additional dweller someone had censused was actually her. After all, she’d updated the address on her driver’s license, and that made her, officially, a Mount Chester resident. But she didn’t have to wonder for too long. Soon after, something scribbled under the sign’s population count had made her put her car in reverse and take a closer look. In white chalk, someone had written, WELCOME HOME, DR. SHARP, in block letters on the green sign.

  That was small-town living, something she was still trying to adapt to, after all the time she’d been away, taking it one day at a time.

  Kay had been up since dawn, although her shift didn’t start until later. It wasn’t the traditional shift per se; Mount Chester Sheriff’s Office was barely large enough to qualify for two detectives on the payroll, and she still wondered why Sheriff Logan had chosen to extend her the job offer only a week ago. One of the benefits of the small team size was she had a bit more flexibility in her start time, given she’d put in long hours whenever she worked a case. Same rule applied to her partner, largely the man whose blue eyes and handsome looks had persuaded her to stay, Detective Elliot Young from Austin, Texas. She’d assisted him with a serial killer case in an unofficial/somewhat official capacity as a consultant. Then, she was surprised to be offered the permanent position with the local sheriff’s office. Finally, she surprised herself by accepting it, and one particular detective carried some of the blame, albeit unknowingly.

  Because life was like that; weird, convoluted, more loaded with twists than a bestselling novel. She’d lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for years, a city of over seven million people, and never met anyone even remotely interesting. Yet she came back for one visit to Mount Chester, the place she’d sworn she’d never return to, and there he was, cowboy hat and Texas drawl and all, smiling when he saw her, ever so briefly, before lowering his head and covering his eyes underneath the wide felt brim.

  And she’d stayed. She still wasn’t sure she hadn’t made a mistake, being how much she missed her old job as profiler for the San Francisco regional FBI office, but she just couldn’t bring herself to leave Mount Chester again.

  The coffeemaker beeped twice with its urgent, high-pitched sound, and she flared her nostrils, welcoming the bitter aroma with hints of hazelnu
t. Grabbing a mug from the cabinet above her head, she stepped sideways and poured herself a hefty helping.

  “Fix me up, sis,” Jacob said, then yawned heartily, scratching the back of his head. He was still in pajamas, although it was almost nine.

  She took another mug and filled it, then handed it to him with a smile. “You working today?”

  “Uh-huh,” he replied as he took a sip of the hot liquid. “We’re replacing a roof over by the hotel.”

  “So late?”

  “That’s what the customer wanted. I’ll be happy if we finish before sundown.” He set the mug on the table and opened the fridge, then took a cold croissant and bit half of it, chewing it hastily.

  “I can warm that up for you,” she offered.

  “You’re not Mom,” he pushed back. “I lived on my own and managed to survive, you know.”

  Frustrated, she raised her arm in the air. “I don’t want to go there, Jacob. The house was—”