Murdered in Shadows (Townsend & Gray Book 2) by Nellestein Tanya

Author:Nellestein, Tanya
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: wine&words
Published: 2025-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

The drive to Bligh Street seemed to take forever. The last of the Fourth of July revelers were making their way home, full of patriotic joy and completely oblivious to the dark undercurrent that fueled Ash and Chad’s late night dash across town. Chad gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles white against the leather, his jaw set in a hard line. Beside him, Ash could feel the crackling energy radiating off him, matching her own as her thoughts raced ahead of them.

When they finally pulled up outside Normie’s house, Chad killed the engine. Not a soul stirred anywhere on the street. “Let me grab some gloves.”

They got out of the SUV and Ash waited while he retrieved two pairs of latex gloves and an evidence bag from the kit he kept fully stocked in the car. Handing a set to Ash, they slipped them on, then approached the mailbox that sat atop the rusted wire fence.

Normie’s house stood in the faint glow of the streetlamp, its silhouette slouched against the night like a tired, forgotten relic. The paint on the weatherboards had long since peeled away, leaving behind a patchwork of faded gray and flaking white. The front yard was overgrown, weeds reclaiming the cracked pathway that led to the sagging front porch. The windows, dark and smeared with grime, seemed to silently watch Chad and Ash as they moved toward the mailbox. There was an eerie stillness about the place, as though it was holding its breath, its walls absorbing every sound. It felt abandoned, lifeless, but not in the way empty houses usually did. This was something heavier, darker—the kind of emptiness that spoke of finality.

The mailbox, once white, was now as rusty as the fence. It protested the disturbance as Chad pulled the top open on corroded hinges. Amidst the flyers advertising grocery specials and takeout menus, sat a white envelope. He lifted everything from the box and placed it in the evidence bag, except the envelope.

Ash turned the torch on her cell phone on, shining it over the envelope.

“Postmarked July 1st,” Chad said, his voice tight. “It’s here.”

Neat handwriting provided only Normie’s name and address. No return address. “Same as the others.”

“Looks like it,” Chad replied. “Let’s get this back to the station. We need to see what’s inside.”

The trip back was agonizingly slow. The weight of the envelope was far heavier than its physical form in Ash’s hands. All of the other cards had varying iterations of the same message: Together Forever; Forever as One; Eternally Together; United Forever. Would this card be the same?

The SUV finally pulled in beside the station and they wasted no time getting inside and setting up a space in the interview room to photograph the evidence and unseal the envelope. Ash carefully placed the envelope on the sterile surface of the table, before adjusting the lighting. Chad positioned the evidence tags and clipboard to document every step.

The click of the camera shutter broke the silence as Ash methodically

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.