Excerpt!
Christ, there was nothing left of her face to identify. Her mouth was a bloody hollow where teeth should be. The tips of all ten fingers were scorched black. Were they burned before or after she died? For her sake, he hoped it was postmortem. Someone sure as hell didn’t want her identified.
Chaney spit the last of the sour taste away, wiped his mouth on his coat sleeve, and turned back to the car. The poor woman was stuffed inside the trunk on her back, her legs pinned beneath her. They had to be broken. Blood soaked her clothes, seeping to the area rug underneath her body, turning it pitch black. Her killer had wrapped her in this piece of carpet to transport her from the murder site. Blood matted in her dirty blond hair where her skull was crushed. Caked strands knotted around gold circle earrings. Her eyes were swollen shut, a palette of eggplant purple and midnight blue. A bloodied gold chain fell toward the back of her neck. Robbery was not a motive for this act of violence.
He narrowed his focus to the interior of the trunk. Empty except for three forty-pound bags of cat litter shoved to the rear. What the fuck?
“Steel?”
He turned toward Parker Bentley, the rookie detective he mentored. As rookies go, she was smarter than most and still hungry to learn. He’d balked at taking on a trainee, assuming his seniority exempted him from babysitting. It hadn’t. His argument, that a three-month mentoring period was ridiculous given the years and experience most cops already had by the time they expressed interest in the detective bureau, fell on deaf ears, all because two years ago the mayor got his tit in the wringer over some detective new to the job who went rogue and then claimed lack of training. So now, they had training.
TV Crime Reporter Rylee Lapiz is determined to discover who murdered her best friend’s mother. When her confidential informant is also brutally killed, panic hits her like a tsunami wave. Will she be the killer’s next target?
It’s a horrifying fact that the two homicides are linked, and she knew both victims. What connects the socialite with the drug addict? Reporting these stories is no longer merely an assignment, it’s a personal quest to avenge their deaths. But uncovering the truth is dangerous. Dread drowns her in denial as she delves deeper into the crimes. She’s terrified that she might personally know a murderer.
Her dogged investigation uncovers critical evidence the police overlooked. But instead of listening, she’s astonished and frustrated when detectives begin to suspect her. Is there anyone she can trust?
Buy Shady Justice and follow Rylee Lapiz as she navigates a treacherous landscape of deceit and betrayal in search of the facts. Every reveal could be her last. Can she report the truth before becoming the next victim?
Rena Koontz is an award-winning author who was a career journalist. She writes about real events she covered as a news reporter in Pittsburgh, PA. and Cleveland, OH., weaving them into intriguing love stories. Her passions are her husband and her dog. Not necessarily in that order.
The excerpt sounds good. Thanks for sharing.
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