Lantern Beach Mysteries Box Set Read online

  Lantern Beach Mysteries, Books 1-3

  Christy Barritt

  Copyright © 2019 by Christy Barritt

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Complete Book List

  Squeaky Clean Mysteries:

  #1 Hazardous Duty

  #2 Suspicious Minds

  #2.5 It Came Upon a Midnight Crime (novella)

  #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 & Gloom

  #10 Dust and Obey

  #11 Thrill Squeaker

  #11.5 Swept Away (novella)

  #12 Cunning Attractions

  #13 Cold Case: Clean Getaway

  #14 Cold Case: Clean Sweep

  #15 Cold Case: Clean Break (coming soon)

  #16 Cleans to an End (coming soon)

  While You Were Sweeping, A Riley Thomas Spinoff

  The Sierra Files:

  #1 Pounced

  #2 Hunted

  #3 Pranced

  #4 Rattled

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

  The Curtain Call Caper

  The Disappearing Dog Dilemma

  The Bungled Bike Burglaries

  The Worst Detective Ever

  #1 Ready to Fumble

  #2 Reign of Error

  #3 Safety in Blunders

  #4 Join the Flub

  #5 Blooper Freak

  #6 Flaw Abiding Citizen

  #7 Gaffe Out Loud

  #8 Joke and Dagger

  #9 Wreck the Halls

  #10 Glitch and Famous (coming soon)

  Raven Remington

  Relentless 1

  Relentless 2 (coming soon)

  Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries:

  #1 Random Acts of Murder

  #2 Random Acts of Deceit

  #2.5 Random Acts of Scrooge

  #3 Random Acts of Malice

  #4 Random Acts of Greed

  #5 Random Acts of Fraud

  #6 Random Acts of Outrage

  #7 Random Acts of Iniquity

  Lantern Beach Mysteries

  #1 Hidden Currents

  #2 Flood Watch

  #3 Storm Surge

  #4 Dangerous Waters

  #5 Perilous Riptide

  #6 Deadly Undertow

  Lantern Beach Romantic Suspense

  Tides of Deception

  Shadow of Intrigue

  Storm of Doubt

  Winds of Danger

  Lantern Beach P.D.

  On the Lookout

  Attempt to Locate

  First Degree Murder

  Dead on Arrival

  Plan of Action

  Lantern Beach Escape

  Afterglow (a novelette)

  Lantern Beach Blackout

  coming soon

  Carolina Moon Series

  Home Before Dark

  Gone By Dark

  Wait Until Dark

  Light the Dark

  Taken By Dark

  Suburban Sleuth Mysteries:

  Death of the Couch Potato’s Wife

  Fog Lake Suspense:

  Edge of Peril

  Margin of Error

  Brink of Danger

  Line of Duty (coming soon)

  Cape Thomas Series:

  Dubiosity

  Disillusioned

  Distorted

  Standalone Romantic Mystery:

  The Good Girl

  Suspense:

  Imperfect

  The Wrecking

  Sweet Christmas Novella:

  Home to Chestnut Grove

  Standalone Romantic-Suspense:

  Keeping Guard

  The Last Target

  Race Against Time

  Ricochet

  Key Witness

  Lifeline

  High-Stakes Holiday Reunion

  Desperate Measures

  Hidden Agenda

  Mountain Hideaway

  Dark Harbor

  Shadow of Suspicion

  The Baby Assignment

  The Cradle Conspiracy

  Trained to Defend

  Nonfiction:

  Characters in the Kitchen

  Changed: True Stories of Finding God through Christian Music (out of print)

  The Novel in Me: The Beginner’s Guide to Writing and Publishing a Novel (out of print)

  Contents

  Hidden Currents

  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

  Flood Watch

  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

  Storm Surge

  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

  Also by Christy Barritt:

  Other Books in the Lantern Beach Series:

  You might also enjoy …

  Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries:

  The Worst Detective Ever:

  Fog Lake Suspense

  About the Author

  Prologue

  At the sound of a footfall behind her, Cady Matthews’s back musc
les tightened faster than a mousetrap snapping its prey. All her plans flipped upside down, and reality hit her: she might not leave this situation alive.

  She twisted around, and her heart thumped against her chest.

  Raul Sanders.

  He was one of the most powerful leaders of DH-7, a notorious gang who’d struck fear into the hearts of people up and down the West Coast. And their reach was expanding rapidly.

  His beady, soulless eyes stared at her, and danger surrounded him like an expensive yet pungent cologne.

  “Raul.” She tried to keep the quiver from her voice. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t.” He stepped closer, his eyes narrowing and his jaw muscle twitching. The tattoos across his neck and behind his ear looked menacing—as intended. Anyone who saw Raul knew he was trouble.

  “What’s going on?” It took every ounce of her strength and energy to sound casual.

  Raul leered, tilting his head in a way meant to intimidate. He didn’t say anything for a minute. He just stared. Allowed time for her fear to accumulate. To spin and spin and spin, growing larger with each rotation.

  “Who are you really?” Though his words came out in a hiss, they held bold accusation.

  Cady had worked so hard to ensure a moment like this didn’t happen. Raul was supposed to be out of town. His minions were meeting somewhere twenty minutes away, trying to firm up a new deal. She had the evidence she needed, and she was ready to turn it over and walk away from this assignment. Backup should be here any moment.

  Except they’d get here too late.

  She hadn’t anticipated Raul finding her in this alley. The dark, narrow space seemed more like the green mile—the walk to death row.

  Cady had been attempting to leave the old apartment that served as DH-7’s hideout. She’d just stepped from the squealing metal door and onto the dark, dank cement when she’d heard Raul’s footstep. Everything in her shivered with a chill that matched the surprisingly cool May day.

  Raul’s eyes burned into her, layer upon layer of malice loaded there and ready to explode. “We saw her.”

  Cady raised her chin defiantly. What was he talking about? She had no idea, but an ominous feeling churned in her gut. “Saw who?”

  “Samantha.”

  Cady sucked in a breath. How had Raul seen Samantha? Was he bluffing? She didn’t know, but suddenly she felt wobbly and off-balance. If he’d realized Samantha was alive . . . then Cady truly was a dead woman.

  “Anything you want to say?” he continued.

  “Your eyes must be deceiving you.”

  “Maybe if I give you some of this you’ll talk.” He raised a syringe dripping with a sickly, whiskey-colored substance.

  Cady knew what was inside that cylinder. Flakka. She’d seen what the drug could do to people. If Raul gave it to her now, she’d be a goner. She’d lose her sensibilities. Lose her thoughts. Time would become a dizzying place of irrelevance.

  “I’m just going to work. Let a girl earn some money.” Her voice sounded gritty. She’d perfected the streetwise way of speaking. Then again, the task force had orchestrated this plan for months, leaving no detail untouched.

  Samuel Stephens—the task force head—had prepared her for the beatings. For how to get through the initiation. For what would be expected of her as a supposed member of DH-7.

  “There are other ways for you to earn money.” His eyes glimmered with a malice that made her insides feel as frigid as the arctic.

  No way would Cady be one of Raul’s girls and let him be her pimp. She’d go the extra mile for her job—but not that far.

  She stepped back. “I like to do things my way.”

  He still held that syringe, and Cady knew he was still considering using it. All he had to do was plunge it toward her and . . .

  Cady didn’t want to think about it. If there was one thing she hated, it was losing control.

  “So . . . about Samantha.” He stepped closer—close enough that she could smell his breath—a mix of alcohol, nicotine, and his favorite snack, peanuts.

  “I killed her. Just like I said. You saw her dead body.”

  He sneered, obviously unconvinced. “One of my guys saw her today. Down in Portland.”

  Cady’s heart thumped harder. So Raul hadn’t seen her himself. Where had Samuel taken Samantha? Cady only knew they’d left Seattle.

  Please, not Portland.

  “That’s impossible.”

  Raul’s eyes lit with satisfaction, yet that inquisitive look remained. “Don’t worry. She’s dead now. We took care of her.”

  Dead? Cady could hardly hear anything over the flat-lined silence that consumed her.

  Raul’s free hand jutted forward, clutching Cady’s neck. Her windpipe closed, crushed beneath the pressure.

  “Are we going to have to take care of you the same way?” Spittle hit her face, but she held back her disgust.

  Raul’s thugs appeared behind him—behind her. Forming a circle. An impenetrable fortress.

  Each one dragged a bat across the ground. Slowly. Methodically.

  Cady had seen what they could do with those bats. Her body wouldn’t survive it. Well, maybe she would for the first one or two hours. But her system would eventually shut down.

  Cold fear trickled down her spine. Where was her backup? And why hadn’t she accepted that full-ride softball scholarship?

  But no, she’d had to become a detective and take this undercover assignment. It was all for her best friend’s sake. Lucy’s murder had changed all Cady’s plans. Had created a vast chasm between herself and her parents. Made her life veer in a different direction.

  Cady glanced around, looking for something—anything—to protect herself with. Old boxes huddled against the wall. Some crates. A crumpled beer can.

  None of those things would help her right now.

  “I asked who you really are,” Raul hissed. “You need connections to fake a death like that.”

  “What are you talking about?” Cady finally croaked out, trying to soften her gaze so Raul wouldn’t read into her soul and see the truth.

  The truth was that she was terrified. That she’d lied to him. That she was going to send him to death row and shatter his gang into so many pieces they’d be impossible to reassemble.

  Unless she died.

  And she just might die.

  “Do you work for the police?” His voice was raspy with anger, and his fingers squeezed harder.

  Cady gasped, and panic swelled in her as her lungs screamed for air.

  “I would never work for the cops,” she whispered, her pulse beating in her ears and her head swirling from lack of oxygen.

  Her one goal was to stop DH-7. Now she might die before that would happen.

  Suddenly visions of having the family she’d never experienced growing up gripped her thoughts. She hadn’t realized how much she wanted it until just now.

  But that was what she wanted more than anything. A loving husband. Kids. A small house in the suburbs and book club meetings and soccer games.

  The opposite of her life growing up.

  “It’s starting to make sense,” Raul continued. “Samantha. Your aloofness. That cop you were talking to yesterday.”

  His guys still stood around them, bats in hand. Guns would be too easy—but Raul had one in his waistband, just in case. He always had to have the upper hand.

  “That cop was pestering me.” Cady’s voice came out as raspy under the weight of Raul’s stranglehold. “I told him to get lost.”

  Raul snarled. “I knew there was something too good to be true about you. You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

  “Why would you ever think that?” Her voice cracked and tumbled and rose in pitch.

  She was a cop. She shouldn’t be so scared. Yet she was terrified.

  Raul’s eyes were soulless. Full of death and hate.

  He squeezed her neck harder. Soon, Cady would lose consciousness. And then . .
.

  A cry tried to escape but couldn’t. Not with Raul cutting off her air.

  Behind Raul, more shadows appeared. Not her backup.

  No, more members of DH-7. Raul’s loyal followers. They would do anything Raul asked of them without batting an eye. Loyalty didn’t seem like such a good trait when you were loyal to the wrong people or ideas.

  She couldn’t give up this easily. She wouldn’t convince Raul that she was innocent. So she had to fight for her life instead.

  She pulled her knee back and lunged it below his waist.

  Raul gasped with pain, and the needle fell to the ground.

  His grip on Cady’s neck loosened for long enough that she jerked herself out of his grasp.

  Cady scrambled away, her gaze scouring the area for something to protect herself with.

  Finally, she spotted something.

  Her hand closed over a baseball.