Hush Little Girl by Lisa Regan (first e reader .txt) 📗

Hush Little Girl

An absolutely gripping mystery and suspense thriller

Lisa Regan

Books by Lisa Regan

Detective Josie Quinn Series

Vanishing Girls

The Girl With No Name

Her Mother’s Grave

Her Final Confession

The Bones She Buried

Her Silent Cry

Cold Heart Creek

Find Her Alive

Save Her Soul

Breathe Your Last

Hush Little Girl

Available in Audio

Detective Josie Quinn Series

Vanishing Girls (Available in the UK and the US)

The Girl With No Name (Available in the UK and the US)

Her Mother’s Grave (Available in the UK and the US)

Her Final Confession (Available in the UK and the US)

The Bones She Buried (Available in the UK and the US)

Her Silent Cry (Available in the UK and the US)

Cold Heart Creek (Available in the UK and the US)

Find Her Alive (Available in the UK and the US)

Save Her Soul (Available in the UK and the US)

Breathe Your Last (Available in the UK and the US)

Contents

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

Hear More from Lisa

Books by Lisa Regan

A Letter from Lisa

Vanishing Girls

The Girl With No Name

Her Mother’s Grave

Her Final Confession

The Bones She Buried

Her Silent Cry

Cold Heart Creek

Find Her Alive

Save Her Soul

Breathe Your Last

Acknowledgments

In loving memory of Dr. Chris Justofin, who saved my life,

and for Dr. Katherine Dahlsgaard, who saved the life of someone I love.

Prologue

Neither Josie nor Noah had time to brace for impact. The deer shot out of the trees to their left, a blur of faded brown. Its body met the front end of Noah’s new Chevrolet with perfectly imperfect timing. The hood of the car smashed inward like an aluminum soda can. Noah had no time to brake. Both their bodies launched forward. The seatbelt snapped taut across Josie’s body and her head whipped forward and back, leaving her disoriented. Blinking away the mind fog, she looked ahead to see a tendril of smoke rising from the compacted hood of the car. Noah’s voice floated over to her from the driver’s seat. “Josie? You okay? Josie?”

She turned her head toward him, flinching at the pain that streaked from the base of her skull down her neck. Blood trickled from a small cut on Noah’s forehead. Reaching toward him, she said, “You’re bleeding.”

He wiped the sleeve of his jacket across his head. “I’m fine,” he said. “Are you?”

Josie’s mind started to kick back into gear, catching up with her body. Other than her neck, everything felt okay. “I’m getting out,” she said.

She undid her seatbelt and tried to open the door, but it was stuck.

Noah said, “The frame bent. You’ll have to get out my side.”

He unlatched his seatbelt and got out, extending a hand inside the car to help pull Josie clear. It was late January, and the weather had been miserable for days. Gray clouds hung low and heavy over the city of Denton, occasionally gracing them with a dusting of snow. On the shoulder of the road, Josie pulled her coat tighter around her and looked up and down the winding mountain road. All they could see were trees and a ribbon of asphalt stretching miles in either direction.

Noah said, “We’re at least three miles from Harper’s Peak.”

“More like five,” Josie told him. She pointed in the direction they’d been headed—back into the city. “Two more miles into town.”

The city of Denton was nestled in a valley in Central Pennsylvania along the banks of the Susquehanna River. Most of its thirty thousand residents lived in the main area of town where neighborhoods were grouped closely together. However, in its entirety, the city spanned twenty-five square miles and encompassed the rural areas all around it. Lonely, winding roads like the one they were on snaked outward from the city proper and into the mountains in every direction.

Josie and Noah walked toward the front of the car where the deer lay on its side, unmoving. There was no visible injury, but Josie knew the impact had likely been enough to kill it. She took a few steps closer, noting that it had no antlers and its abdomen was swollen. “Good God,” she said. “I hope this isn’t a mommy deer.”

Noah drew up closer behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t get too close,” he said. “If she’s still alive and springs up, she could hurt you.”

Josie made no move to walk away. Instead, she stared at the doe, a sadness swirling around her insides, stirring up old feelings best left dormant.

“Josie,” Noah said. “It was an accident.”

“I know,” she said. It certainly wasn’t the first time either of them had hit a deer on the road. In Central Pennsylvania, accidents like this were a given. She wasn’t sure why this one bothered her so much.

“Do you think it’s bad luck?” she blurted, as icy rain began to spit from the sky.

Noah said, “What do you mean?”

She turned to him. Blood gathered in a fat bead along the cut on his forehead and slid down toward his right eye. Again, he swiped at it with his sleeve.

Josie fished a crumpled tissue from her jeans pocket. She slid her free hand around to the back of his head, threading her fingers through his thick, brown hair, and pressed the tissue to his forehead with the other hand, keeping pressure on it. His breath came out in a puff, the cold air making it visible. She said, “We’re on our way home from finalizing our wedding plans, and we hit a deer. Maybe a deer about to have a fawn.”

Noah put his hands on her shoulders and smiled at her. “We’ve had all the bad luck that two people can have already, don’t you think?”

Josie lifted the tissue and saw the bleeding had stopped. Dropping her arms, she looked into his