Down to the Bone
An Allie Down Mystery Thriller
PJ Fernor
Contents
Hey there, Reader
Down to the Bone
Prologue
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
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Epilogue
What’s next?
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About the Author
Hey there, Reader
Thank you for joining me again.
* * *
Detective Allie Down is back. This time she has a new position but she’s still in the same town. Life begins to settle for her - but only a little.
* * *
And then the unthinkable happens…
* * *
(Side note - this book takes place around Halloween, which just so happens to be my favorite time of the year. Writing this book during the grueling hot months of summer helped a lot. I may have even had some artificial pumpkins on my desk as I wrote this book!)
* * *
I’ll see you at the end.
* * *
Sincerely,
* * *
PJ Fernor
www.pjfernor.com
Down to the Bone
TWO BEST FRIENDS MURDERED AT THE SAME TIME. A HUSBAND, A BOYFRIEND, AND AN EX ALL BEING QUESTIONED. THAT’S WHEN THREATENING NOTES BEGIN SHOWING UP AND THE CASE TAKES A TWIST NOBODY EVER SAW COMING.
* * *
It’s Halloween time in the small town of Sandemor. The biggest problem is supposed to be how to organize the town’s Halloween parade.
That all changes when a nosy woman calls about seeing a mysterious figure across the street from her house.
A quick search reveals two murdered women.
Best friends both with checkered pasts, leaving Detective Allie Down to think that maybe this case will be a quick one to solve.
Which is good because she has the mayor breathing down her neck over the parade.
* * *
That’s when everything changes.
* * *
The suspects in question have alibis.
And Allie finds a threatening note on her vehicle.
Someone is watching.
Someone is plotting.
* * *
Someone is waiting for the right moment to strike.
* * *
When Allie then discovers a cold case from decades ago that had a similar crime scene as the current case, she begins to realize that this isn’t going to be a simple ‘crime of passion’ as she once thought.
* * *
A killer from years ago is back and has struck again.
* * *
Allie calls in another detective who specializes in cold cases to help.
* * *
There’s just one big problem.
* * *
It might be too late.
* * *
Another threatening note is left for Allie… and now everything she loves and cares for is at risk.
Prologue
He takes a deep breath and finishes tying his shoe.
He laughs, remembering being taught how to tie his shoes as a child.
The bunny ears were the trick that did it.
The idea of looping the laces and twisting one around and then trying to pull… it didn’t work. Neither did it work when his father took off his thick, leather belt and hit him repeatedly, demanding he learn how to tie his shoes now.
RIGHT NOW! DO IT NOW!
The bunny ears though.
That’s what did it.
He rubs his hands together and closes his eyes to push the bad memory of his father away.
Then he stands up and smiles.
Looking around, with the amber orange leaves mixing with the apple reds, the banana yellows, the chocolate browns, and the Christmas greens, he catches himself almost ready to cry.
“Is autumn not the greatest time of the year?” he thinks to himself as he begins to walk again.
Autumn was the final bend of the year. That last curve that led into everything fun. Everything changing. Everything dying. And so many lights.
He almost feels like skipping.
Right there on the walking trail!
For anyone around to see!
He lets out a small laugh and keeps his normal pace.
It is a great night for a jog, but he’s not a jogger.
Up ahead he sees a woman jogging toward him.
She’s wearing black pants and a pink long-sleeve shirt. Her phone is in her left hand, ear buds in her ears, focused on her run.
Just for fun, he begins to pump his arms as though he’s running.
When the woman sees him, she smiles.
He smiles back and points at her for a second.
Then she’s gone.
He doesn’t look back.
No need to look back.
It’s not like he’s going to chase her down and kill her, right?
RIGHT NOW! DO IT NOW!
He walks a little faster.
The air is crisp and cool.
Actually, this might be the most cliché autumn day ever. Like he magically jumped into a postcard of a small town during the autumn season.
The only thing missing is the smell of an apple pie cooking. Or the smell of pumpkin cooking.
Just to be sure, he puts his head back and sniffs the air.
No cooking smells hit him. But there is that dirty crispness of the leaves. T
hat unmistakable smell of old leaves. Crunchy leaves. Wet leaves. And wet ground under the leaves.
A happy couple approach him.
They’re holding hands, talking.
They nod to him.
He nods back.
It’s a great feeling to be acknowledged but not truly seen.
In a few minutes, he’s swallowed up by the trees.
The path begins to turn.
That’s when he stops.
Being careful, he knows to look around.
Left, right, forward, back… and even up and down for good measure.
He knows nobody can be around right now.
Lucky for him, nobody is around.
He sidesteps to the right.
Once. Twice. Three times…
He’s off the main trail.
A few more steps and he’s in the woods.
Nobody from the trail can see him.
He looks for markers on trees that any normal person would never see or care about. Then again, this trip is his favorite to make. He can do this with his eyes shut.
He’d rather just get there quickly though. It’s going to get dark soon and trekking through the woods in the dark is never any fun.
Ever.
Finally, his destination is in front of him.
Again, any normal person wouldn’t see a thing.
He crouches down and digs through a pile of brush, leaves, and sticks.
That reveals a metal circle.
It’s heavy to move, which is good.
It takes him a few tries and a few more minutes, but the heavy, metal top lifts and rolls out of the way.
Down on his knees, he looks into a shallow hole.
His heart races.
These are his rewards in life.
Each one has a story.
Each one makes him smile.
Reaching into the hole, his fingertips graze their hard, smooth surfaces.
He shuts his eyes and plays a game with himself.
Guess the bone… and remember the story…
On his first try, he tells himself he’s touching a skull.
He lifts the skull out of the hole and laughs.
“That was too easy,” he says.
He stares at the skull.
A wave rushes over him.
Slowly, his mouth falls open. His heads tilts to one side. He doesn’t blink.
He goes right back to the moment he killed her.
He takes a breath and returns the skull back to the hole.
Then he reaches in again.
There are so many bones.
So many stories.
But only so much time to keep adding to his collection.
Chapter One
“How long have you been on this case?”
Reed looked at me with cold, dark eyes. “Eighteen months, five hours, and seven minutes.”
“How many seconds?” Johnny added.
Reed shook his head. “This is all or nothing.”
“We’re well aware,” I said. “I was just curious how long.”
“You got your answer, Detective Down,” Reed said.
I nodded.
My title actually was no longer Detective but I wasn’t going to get into that at the moment. When Johnny called saying a buddy of his needed help making a bust, I couldn’t help but jump at the chance for some action. Ben told me if I was going, he was too.
The entire department of Sandemor was now mine. My days consisted of more paperwork and conversation that I had ever imagined having. Not to mention I was still neck deep in the mess left behind for me to sort through. Years and years of issues I kept discovering.
“Our target is this guy right here,” Reed said as he held out his phone. “He goes by the name of Chaz. He has several aliases. This guy is no joke. We take him in and we bust up a large part of the drug ring. I want to be clear about a few things here. We have backup all around us. Not too extreme though. We can’t give away what’s happening. Backup is there in case we get shot and they take off.”
“How pleasant,” Ben said.
“I’ve spent every day of my life with this crew for eighteen months,” Reed said. “I started out as nothing to them. I worked my way up to this position. To have the ability to just walk into the secret space and expose them all. This warehouse is full of clothes. And discount garbage to be sold in retail stores. That’s the point of it. The second floor is where we make our mark. Each room is filled with enough money and drugs to put them all away for life, and then some. We cannot mess this up. They operate under a mentality…”
“Of?” I asked.
“Always shoot first,” Reed said.
His voice was cold. Very cold. I couldn’t imagine the time and rehabilitation he’d need to get back to some sense of normal after this.
“Shoot first?” Ben asked.
“If they think anything is even the slightest bit off, they shoot,” Reed said. “I’ve seen at least two dozen guys killed in cold blood for no reason. One guy had to sneeze. He was afraid to sneeze in front of Chaz. Chaz shot him in the chest. As the guy was dying, he told us all he had to do was sneeze.”
“What a sick guy,” Ben said.
“This is not some run of the mill drug bust,” Reed said. “This isn’t some small-town thing. This is as close to the top as we can get right now. We take this down and a message is sent. Are you all ready?”
“More than ready,” Johnny said.
Ben looked at me.
I nodded.
I felt the tension pouring from him.
This was risky.
Our job was to just linger around.
We were all dressed in street clothes. Dirty jeans and black hoodies. Ben wore a baseball cap backwards on his head. Johnny wore a baseball cap forward. The two of them were well-built, towering men, and the way they were dressed, they looked like trouble.
“I’m going through that door,” Reed said, pointing across the street. “I want you three to spread out. Be ready if and when you see Chaz. He’s a no-nonsense guy. Stand tall and firm. Let’s get this over with. We’ve got a small window of five minutes here to catch him a little bit off guard.”
“Let’s have Allie run communication from here,” Ben suggested.
I laughed. “Not a chance.”
I slipped my hands into my pockets and began to cross the street.
I, too, was dressed in jeans and a black hoodie.
My hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, sticking through the back of the hat.
With my head down, I jogged across the street and went to the back of the building.
Ben and Johnny fanned out.
Reed went up the stairs.
As he said to us, he had a key to get into the building.
Once he went inside, that’s when the adrenaline kicked in.
On the ride over, Johnny briefed Ben and I on the case. So everything Reed told us was redundant, but it was good to hear a second time.
I stood at the corner of the building and quickly caught myself thinking about my sister. I made the proclamation months ago that I was going to find out who killed her. Who was cruel enough to crash into Alex’s car and then drive off, leaving her to die?
It wasn’t exactly a cut and paste thing either.
Especially dealing with my new position and the reality of my former predecessor.
There was just a lot happening at once.
Which I had become used to in my life.
Even if sometimes it meant-
Click.
I looked to my right.
There was a gun pointed at me.
“Do I need to ask you to toss me your weapon?”
The man grinned at me.
Chaz.
My back stiffened.
I nodded. “What do you want my gun for? I’m here for the delivery. They told me to stand point in case anyone came through.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yeah. We’ve got, what, maybe f
ive minutes to go here?”
“That’s right,” Chaz said. “There’s just one issue. I shut the streets down already. There’s no use for someone like you… here…”
I made a daring move and took out my gun. “You know why I’m here then, Chaz. And you know what will happen if you try anything stupid.”
“Do I now?” Chaz asked.
I heard the door open and slam shut.
Then footsteps.
It was probably Reed. To come find me… and Ben and Johnny… to tell us Chaz wasn’t inside.