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Hidden Motive Excerpt Page 2 |
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**REMEMBER
THAT YOUR UP AND DOWN ARROW KEYS WILL SCROLL THE TEXT**
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"No!
These notes suggest someone in the sheriff's office is dirty.
Murph's got his cell phone on him. I'll call him out, just
to be safe."
Paul Murphy, a paramedic at the clinic, was solid and strong.
Sable liked and trusted the man.
"I'll be waiting on the porch," Noah said. "See you in about
ten."
She grabbed her car keys and billfold from the kitchen counter
and pulled on her coat. Noah lived alone in an old farmhouse
four miles from town. She rushed outside, locking the door
behind her. Instinctively, as she hurried to the car, her
hand went up to the old pocket watch she wore on a chain
around her neck, an unexpected Christmas gift from her grandfather.
Ever since he'd given her the watch, he'd become more and
more secretive. Three weeks ago, he'd told her, "Darlin',
if anything happens to me, get out of Oklahoma. Don't look
back. This isn't any kind of town for a young lady like
you."
Recalling those words, she jumped into her Camaro and backed
from the driveway. Soon, maybe she would have more pieces
of this puzzle. She hoped they didn't raise more questions.
A flash of lightning illuminated Noah Erwin's sprawling
old house. The violent, approaching storm lit the sky, accentuating
the darkness in the house. Noah wasn't on the porch waiting
for her, as he'd said he would be.
She unlatched the gate, pulled it open with a creak of rusty
hinges, and then stepped carefully along the flagstone path.
She stopped as another flash of lightning lit the porch
and the wide-open doorway.
In that instant, Sable was blasted with shock at the sight
of her elderly friend sprawled across the threshold, his
body pinned between the door frame and both the heavy oak
and screen doors.
With a cry, Sable rushed up the porch steps and fell to
her knees at her friend's side. "Noah! Oh, Lord, no!"
More lightning illuminated a pool of blood from a hole in
Noah's temple. His glazed eyes held the blank stare of death.
Anguished beyond thought, she felt for a pulse at his throat.
Noah's head fell sideways, exposing a mass of blood at the
back of his skull. The shooter had completed the job.
Sable felt the porch spin. Numb with shock, she leaned against
the door frame as tears blinded her and icy wind whipped
her hair across her face.
This was murder. She dashed the tears from her eyes and
the hair from her face and cast a frantic look around the
shadowed entryway and the living room beyond. Dark shapes
lurked in every corner of the huge room. Another flash of
lightning cast the sofa and chairs and Noah's old desk in
sharp relief.
The storm blocked any other sounds and the wind scattered
papers across the foyer. These papers…were those the
ones Noah had called her about? Terrified of lingering,
yet desperate to find out why he had died, she grabbed all
the sheets she could find and stuffed them into a pocket
of her coat.
The wind broke briefly, and Sable heard a footfall in the
darkness near the kitchen door.
Movement! Lightning revealed a man lunging from the shadows.
Sable screamed and stumbled backward, tripping over Noah's
body. She fell on her side, then scrambled up and away.
The man grabbed her coat sleeve. She screamed again, yanking
from his grip, running off the porch toward her car.
Footsteps pounded behind her, splashing mud. She'd never
make the car. She broke away and dove into a clump of bushes.
Thorns scraped her hands. She charged through the hedgerow,
fighting brambles that clung to her clothes.
Sable fumbled in her pocket for her keys, setting her sights
on her car, but her foot caught on a root and she fell.
The man grabbed her. She swung around to claw at his face…there
was no face.
Lightning revealed a ski mask.
A brilliant flash of headlights pierced through the spiny
branches of the shrubs. The attacker released her abruptly,
swung away, stumbled, broke back through the hedgerow and
disappeared into the darkness.
Sable froze, heart pounding, breath coming in hard rasps.
The vehicle passed a large SUV. She turned and ran toward
her car, but the SUV pulled in behind it, blocking her escape.
She plunged into the blackness beyond the driveway.
"Hey!" a man shouted from the vehicle.
Sable staggered over the uneven ground. Again she heard
the sound of pursuing footsteps. She reached level ground
and raced toward the toolshed. There might be a weapon among
the garden tools, maybe a hoe, or—
Large, strong hands gripped her shoulders and spun her around,
shoving her against the wall of the shed.
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From the book :
Hidden Motive
by Hannah Alexander
A Love Inspired Suspense title
Publication Date: April 2008
ISBN-10: 0373442858
ISBN-13: 978-0373442850
Copyright © April
2008
By: Hannah Alexander
® and ™ are trademarks
of the publisher.
The edition
published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For more information surf to:
http://www.steeplehill.com/
Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication prohibited
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Hidden Motive Excerpt Page 2 |
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