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Back The Sorority Murder
Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. Thirty
  38. Thirty-One
  39. Thirty-Two
  40. Thirty-Three
  41. Thirty-Four
  42. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. Thirty-Six
  45. Thirty-Seven
  46. Thirty-Eight
  47. From the Journal of Candace Swain
  48. Thirty-Nine
  49. Forty
  50. Forty-One
  51. Forty-Two
  52. Forty-Three
  53. Forty-Four
  54. Forty-Five
  55. Forty-Six
  56. Forty-Seven
  57. Letter Found in the Journal of Candace Swain
  58. Forty-Eight
  59. Acknowledgments
  60. Booklist
  61. Excerpt

It was just after six o’clock and he wasn’t meeting Charlie until eight, but Tommy was antsy. He had toast and a banana, considered how he was going to lay the case out.

Adam Hannigan was a hit man hired to kill the Warwick family.

Charlie would ask him how he knew that. Tommy didn’t have proof, which was one of the problems—to get the proof, he needed a warrant. He had an inside man in Grant Warwick, but even Grant didn’t have the hard evidence they would need, and he wasn’t exactly a reliable witness. Tommy bent a few laws in the pursuit of justice, but he was confident he didn’t cross the line.

Tommy would also have to explain why they couldn’t trust the FBI. His reluctance wasn’t based on hard facts, but he’d seen enough to at least cast doubt—especially with how they handled the Hannigan investigation.

Though it was early, Tommy was too antsy to stay. He poured the rest of his coffee in a to-go cup, topped it off. He’d get to the office early and poke around, start catching up on things after his month’s leave. He was ready and motivated to return.

What if you can’t sell this investigation?

Tommy had thought about that a lot—if he laid all his cards on the table and his boss still said no, they weren’t getting involved. He didn’t know what he would do at that point. He didn’t want to consider failure. He’d been a Marine, dammit—failure was not an option.

Resolved that he had enough to make his case, he grabbed his keys, set his security system, and stepped out the front door. There was a small garage behind the house, but between his tools, home renovation supplies, and ample Christmas decorations—his neighborhood went all out every year—he had no room for his truck.

He hesitated when something caught his attention. A movement, a slight reflection, something in his yard that he didn’t expect. Dawn was just breaking to the east, and his porch light was still on—it automatically turned off at eight and back on at six. Between the dim morning and the bright white light, he saw nothing in his yard, yet the memory of the breaking branch that had drawn him from sleep had him wary.

Tommy had been in the Marines for three years and the US Marshals Service for sixteen. His instincts had always been good…but he knew in that instant he’d hesitated a second too long.