Written in Secret by Crystal Caudill

Author:Crystal Caudill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Published: 2025-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Sleep should have come the moment Abraham’s head hit the pillow. Instead, he tossed and turned, the horsehair mattress stiff and unyielding. Just like his conscience.

One more night won’t kill him.

But what if it did? They knew Poe actively sought his next target in an attempt to impress Lydia with his affections. If Poe were re-creating the victim’s crimes, Ross wasn’t likely to starve over the course of one night. Still, lying in bed, knowing there was a man whose life was potentially in danger didn’t sit well with Abraham, no matter how exhausted he felt. He had a duty to serve and protect. They had reasonable cause to enter Ross’s house and check on his well-being. A warrant wasn’t needed. On the other hand, if Ross were waist-deep in criminal dealings, they wouldn’t be able to use the evidence against him in a case, and a jail cell might be the safest place for him.

After struggling to sleep for over an hour, Abraham rose from his bed, redressed, grabbed a hand lantern, and slipped out of the house.

Three a.m. meant Lucian still patrolled his beat. It covered a section from Smith to Pearl to Broadway to Water Streets, an impossibly large area to find one man on the move. Still, after how the other two victims had received Abraham this evening, having a second person with him when he knocked on Ross’s door seemed prudent. Abraham found the nearest police box and used his key to access the phone Cincinnati had installed the year before. The dispatcher at the station house informed him where Lucian had last checked in, and Abraham headed in that direction.

It took another half hour to locate Lucian, but his friend didn’t hesitate to change course and join him. All was quiet on the dark street. The drinking establishments had closed their doors hours ago, and their patrons had either stumbled home or into a gutter somewhere. Even the gas streetlamps seemed too tired to do anything more than cast a faint glow over the cool mist hanging above the rutted street.

Abraham raised a fist to knock on the door but paused. “You have that baton ready to keep the dog away, right?”

“Got better than that. If it’s as hungry as you say, I’ve got a meat pie in my pocket.” Lucian pulled out a grease-blotched paper wrapped around an odd-shaped lump.

A treat for any dog, hungry or not.

Abraham hammered with a force that echoed down the street and made the door shudder. “Mr. Ross, this is the police. We need to speak with you.”

No sounds came from within. Not even the dog. Abraham frowned. Was the poor creature too weak with hunger to respond?

Abraham pounded and yelled louder. A dog inside the neighbor’s house barked, and a stooped salt-and-pepper-haired woman yanked open the door of her home.

“Land sakes, man. I told that other officer that Sam has been gone for over a week. No need to go on trying to wake a man who ain’t there.

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