Random Acts of Malice (Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries Book 3) Read online

  RANDOM ACTS OF MALICE

  A HOLLY ANNA PALADIN MYSTERY

  CHRISTY BARRITT

  RIVER HEIGHTS

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  Books by Christy Barritt

  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

  About the Author

  Also by Christy Barritt

  Random Acts of Malice: A Novel

  Copyright 2015 by Christy Barritt

  Published by River Heights Press

  Cover design by The Killion Group

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  The persons and events portrayed in this work are the creation of the author, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  All Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

  Created with Vellum

  Books by Christy Barritt

  Squeaky Clean Mysteries:

  #1 Hazardous Duty

  #2 Suspicious Minds

  #2.5 It Came Upon a Midnight Crime

  #3 Organized Grime

  #4 Dirty Deeds

  #5 The Scum of All Fears

  #6 To Love, Honor, and Perish

  #7 Mucky Streak

  #8 Foul Play

  #9 Broom and Gloom

  #10 Dust and Obey

  #11 Thrill Squeaker (coming soon)

  The Sierra Files:

  #1 Pounced

  #2 Hunted

  #2.5 Pranced (a Christmas novella)

  #3 Rattled (coming soon)

  The Gabby St. Claire Diaries (a Tween Mystery series):

  #1 The Curtain Call Caper

  #2 The Disappearing Dog Dilemma

  #3 The Bungled Bike Burglaries

  Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries:

  #1 Random Acts of Murder

  #2 Random Acts of Deceit

  #3 Random Acts of Malice

  #4 Random Acts of Scrooge (a Christmas novella)

  Carolina Moon Series:

  Home Before Dark

  Gone By Dark

  Wait Until Dark (coming soon)

  Suburban Sleuth Mysteries:

  #1 Death of the Couch Potato’s Wife

  Stand-Alone Romantic-Suspense:

  Keeping Guard

  The Last Target

  Race Against Time

  Ricochet

  Key Witness

  Lifeline

  High-Stakes Holiday Reunion

  Desperate Measures

  Hidden Agenda

  Mountain Hideaway (coming soon)

  Dark Harbor (coming soon)

  Cape Thomas Mysteries:

  Dubiosity

  Disillusioned (coming soon)

  Standalone Romantic Mystery:

  The Good Girl

  Suspense:

  The Trouble with Perfect

  Nonfiction:

  Changed: True Stories of Finding God through Christian Music

  The Novel in Me: The Beginner’s Guide to Writing and Publishing a Novel

  Chapter One

  “Holly, I have to go somewhere and do something.”

  I stared at Chase Dexter, my boyfriend of almost nine months, and the love of my life. He’d called me a couple of hours ago and asked if he could come over after he finished working a homicide.

  As Ella Fitzgerald sang “Someone to Watch Over Me” in the background, I thought about the perfect evening I’d planned for Chase and me. After church today, I’d even baked two of Chase’s favorite desserts: chocolate chip cookies and a toffee poke cake. I couldn’t decide which, so I’d made them both.

  I’d pictured Chase coming inside. I’d take his jacket and encourage him to relax for a few minutes. After coffee and dessert, we’d cuddle on the couch and maybe watch An Affair to Remember if I got to choose, Dragnet if Chase picked.

  But something was wrong right now, and it caused all the plans I’d had for tonight to disappear faster than a rainbow on a cloudy day. I shifted, the motion causing my black-and-white skirt to flutter around my knees as I tried to pinpoint what exactly had made me feel uneasy. Maybe it was the uncertainty that had lingered in Chase’s words—his very vague words.

  Somewhere. Something.

  What did that mean?

  Right now, Chase’s sleeves were rolled up and his tie dangled around his neck like a noose. He looked especially tired, and I wondered about his day. Maybe the homicide investigation hadn’t been closed as he’d hoped. Or maybe another crime had occurred, one that had gotten to him in a bad way. Either way, his face looked grim with masked emotions.

  But there was more to this than professional stress.

  Usually the two of us were like giddy teenagers in love around each other. We were always holding hands, or poking each other in the ribs, or sitting close enough for our arms to brush.

  Except at this very moment.

  Chase’s hands were at his sides as we stood across from each other in the formal living room of my mom’s Better Homes and Gardens house. Darkness yawned outside, and the only light in the room was the soft glow of a table lamp. He was distancing himself from me, I realized.

  “You have to go somewhere?” I finally asked, pushing a wide curl behind my ear. “You mean, like, the grocery store for some milk?”

  I knew I was downplaying what he’d said, but I was the eternal optimist.

  “No, not exactly.” He paused, his stiff stance growing more pronounced by the moment. “I’ve taken two weeks’ vacation from work.”

  I blinked in surprise, the best-case scenarios slowly disappearing from my thoughts as his aloofness remained. “Two weeks? Is there some kind of emergency?”

  Chase hadn’t held his position as detective for even a year, and he was conscientious about making a good impression as one of the new guys on the force. This just didn’t seem like him, especially since he hadn’t mentioned anything about it in our past conversations.

  “I wish I could tell you more, Holly, but I can’t.” His eyes looked apologetic as the skin around them crinkled on the corners. He started to reach for me but abruptly dropped his hand.

  My heart lurched. Something was seriously wrong, and no amount of lightheartedness could make this better. Not even a chocolate cake could fix whatever was going on, and usually chocolate cake could fix anything. Well, cake and prayer.

  My thoughts quickly zoomed back to the present. “All you can say is, ‘I wish I could tell you mo
re, but I can’t’? Don’t I deserve a little more of an explanation than that?”

  “You do.” Chase’s voice cracked as the agony in his eyes deepened. “I know this doesn’t make sense.”

  That was an understatement. But I tried to give Chase and this situation the benefit of the doubt and keep a cool head. I had to focus on the facts and not my spinning emotions. My emotions told me that I should freak out and let worry consume me. The facts . . . well, I didn’t have any of the facts right now.

  Lord, give me a level head. I beg You to slather Your wisdom on every part of my being at the moment.

  I licked my lips, trying not to seem like a control freak. “Where are you going? Can you tell me that?”

  Chase looked away. The motion was subtle—I’d almost missed it. But he’d definitely averted his gaze. That was never a good sign.

  Oh, what I would do at the moment not to know that averted gazes happened before deceit. To forget my training as a counselor. To pretend like I didn’t know how to read people.

  “I can’t say, Holly.”

  Chase’s cell phone began beeping on his belt. With each notification, his muscles seemed to tighten. He didn’t bother to look at the screen or see who was calling.

  I nodded slowly as I processed our conversation—both the verbal and the nonverbal. I wanted to respect Chase’s boundaries, but I didn’t want to be walked on. If he left and I had no answers for two weeks, I would go out of my mind.

  Relationships ended all the time because of poor communication. That’s why I needed to speak my mind—gently and respectfully, of course. “I’m going to be honest here, Chase. This is all leaving me uncomfortable. I didn’t think we kept secrets from each other.”

  “We don’t.”

  I let my head drop toward my shoulder. “Then what do you call this?”

  His eyes pleaded with me. “You just have to trust me.”

  I crossed my arms, trying to separate myself from the hurt that seemed inevitable. “Is this a police thing?”

  That would make sense, but not in conjunction with vacation time. Unless that was just a cover. But I just couldn’t believe there were no other details Chase could give me if that was the case. He could at least hint that he was going undercover.

  Chase’s eyes implored me, losing some of the ambiguity for a moment. “You trust me, right? Tell me you trust me.”

  Up until this moment, I’d undoubtedly trusted him. But now a smidgen of uncertainty had crept in. The two of us had been through mountains and valleys since we’d been together, and Chase had only proven himself trustworthy. Most relationships wouldn’t survive what we’d endured, and we’d only come out stronger.

  “I feel like you’re pushing me out,” I finally told him. “Maybe I’m reading too much into things, but my gut is telling me something’s seriously wrong.”

  He remained silent.

  My gut dropped. All my fears—the ones I tried to tell myself were irrational—weren’t actually that irrational. Whatever he was hiding, it was big. Serious. Maybe even life changing.

  I pulled myself together, even though my insides were a tousled mess. My words sounded as stiff as my spine felt when I said, “When are you leaving?”

  “Tonight.”

  I forced myself to nod, even though the fact he was leaving past eleven indicated this matter was urgent. “Okay.”

  He leaned down, and his lips lingered against mine. The action was subdued yet passionate. It made a statement without saying a word.

  Almost like he was saying good-bye.

  My heart lurched again.

  “Good night, Holly.” His hands slipped from my shoulders.

  Somehow that moment seemed symbolic, like the bond that pulled us together had been ruptured. I hoped I was reading too much into things. I prayed I was.

  “Good night, Chase.”

  As he walked away, I feared I might never see him again. His secret had forged a barrier between us. And the next two weeks would determine if that divide grew stronger or if it diminished.

  * * *

  Monday and most of Tuesday had passed, and my head had been in an entrenching fog. I’d somehow gotten through work. I’d volunteered at the local youth shelter. I’d gone to a task force meeting. I’d baked cakes for four different people—two coworkers, a neighbor, and a woman at church who’d just had surgery.

  My thoughts always seemed preoccupied, though, no matter how busy I kept myself. I couldn’t stop thinking about Chase and his secret.

  Something was wrong. Something in my relationship with Chase was on the cusp of change, at the edge of a turning point. Eleven more days felt like a long time to figure out what.

  “You still haven’t heard from Chase, have you?”

  I snapped my focus back to my best friend, Jamie. She stared at me from across the table at our favorite pizza place. Actually, it was her favorite pizza place, but I came here because it was one of the few restaurants where my gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free friend could eat. We met here almost every Tuesday.

  Last time we’d been here, the waitress had actually brought Jamie a glass of water with apple-cider vinegar already spritzed inside. Jamie claimed it helped cleanse her system and keep her trim. I didn’t question her. She had lost more than one hundred pounds and seemed healthier and more vibrant than ever.

  During the forty minutes we’d been here, I hadn’t said a word about Chase. Yet somehow Jamie had known what was wrong. Maybe she’d seen my preoccupation or sensed my heaviness. Best friends were good for things like that.

  I pushed my plate of pizza across the booth, realizing my appetite was completely gone, and shook my head. “Not a word.”

  My friend leaned closer, her normally cheery face filled with the subtle signs of worry. “He said he’d be gone a couple of weeks. It’s only been a couple of days.”

  I forced myself to nod, hating how melancholy I felt. I wanted to be strong and unaffected, but love often didn’t work that way. As much as I tried to wrangle my emotions to the place where I wanted them, I failed.

  “You’re right,” I said. “It has only been two days.”

  “It’s probably nothing.” Jamie’s springy curls bounced out from around her face in a way that made her look ever cheerful.

  She was trying to make me believe I was reading too much into things, I realized. But I knew my friend better than that. She rarely took things at face value, which made her a great reporter but, at times, a frustrating conversationalist.

  “Things clothed in this much secrecy are hardly ever nothing.” I wished the happy music playing on the overhead would go away. “Uptown Funk” clashed too much with my gloomy thoughts. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be a secret.”

  She twisted her lips, which were red rimmed with neglected lipstick. “True that. But Chase loves you. You can’t deny he cares about you.”

  “What possible reason could Chase have for not being able to share even one little detail with me?”

  “It’s probably an undercover sting,” Jamie offered.

  “Then why did he have to take vacation time?”

  She pressed her lips together. “Maybe that was just a cover.”

  “Maybe, but he should have been able to hint at that.”

  She shifted, still staring me in the eye. “You’ve got to think of it this way: he didn’t want to lie to you. That’s a good thing. He could have easily made up an excuse so you wouldn’t be in this position right now. But honesty is important to him.”

  I hadn’t considered that. It would have been easy to outright lie in order to stop me from asking questions.

  “So you should just chill for a while,” Jamie continued. “Trust Chase. Give him space to do whatever it is he has to do. Another eleven days and he’ll be back, you’ll have a good laugh, and this will go down as another memory of the time you stressed out more than you needed.”

  I shifted in my seat and leaned toward her, lowering my voice so no one else would hear w
hat I said next. I prefaced it with “I don’t want to be one of those girlfriends. You know—the clingy, insecure ones. I like being strong and independent.”

  “You’re not insecure. You’re worried and rightfully so.”

  “I’m afraid he’s in trouble, Jamie.”

  “Trouble?” She quirked an eyebrow.

  “It’s the only thing I can think of. It’s the only reason I can imagine he would act like this.”

  “What kind of trouble?”

  I pressed my lips together, hesitating to admit what I’d done. After all, I’d been trying to stay strong, to not be neurotic but to respect boundaries. I’d taught people to respect boundaries all the time in my former career as a social worker. It seemed like a shame if I couldn’t follow my own advice.

  Not to mention I would be showing a total lack of manners. Pretty is as pretty does. Being clingy, untrusting, and insecure was not pretty.

  Finally, I sucked in a deep breath and plunged ahead. “So, after a few of the events of the last year, Chase and I thought it would be a good idea to install one of those apps on our phones, the ones where we can track each other. It was purely a safety thing, not like a weird we-want-to-stalk-each-other thing.”

  Half of her lip curled. “Sure it was. I know you guys can’t keep your eyes off each other.”

  My cheeks heated. “Anyway, I may have checked my phone yesterday.”

  A full, satisfied smile replaced the lip curl, and Jamie angled her head as if impressed. “Really? Seems kind of devious for good-girl Holly Paladin.”

  I shrugged, feeling a little guilty at what I’d done, even if Chase knew I had the app on my phone. “What can I say? Even I have my moments.”

  Jamie’s insatiable appetite for a good story ignited a fire in her eyes. She pulled one side of her lips back in a sassy urban manner. Sometimes she even broke out in the Z-shaped finger snap that ended with a hand on her hip. I called that move “the Diva.” “So, spill it. What did you discover while stalking your boyfriend?”

  I lowered my voice. “He was at a racetrack.”

  Jamie narrowed her eyes. “Like, he’s doing a marathon?”

  I shook my head, wishing it were that easy. “No, like he’s near Louisville at a horse-racing facility. Wyndmyer Park, to be exact.”