Authors: Rayven T. Hill
Tags: #Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #Retail, #Thriller
Silent Justice
After the gruesome murder of a school counselor, the victim’s overwrought husband hires private investigators Jake and Annie Lincoln to track down the young suspect wanted for the brutal murder.
The senseless slaughter continues as the distraught fugitive struggles to retain his sanity and control his unstable mind while striving to evade a police manhunt.
The Lincolns’ own lives are put in danger when their search finally brings them face to face with the desperate man, who seems determined to inflict revenge on his enemies at all cost.
SILENT JUSTICE
Rayven T. Hill
Published by
Ray of Joy Publishing
Toronto
Thanks to Merry Jones for her hours of editing and proofreading. Many thanks to my beta readers, whose comments, suggestions, and insight, have helped streamline this story and smooth out a few bumps. And not least, thanks to my wife for her patience. (1001)
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Web of Justice (Coming Next)
Table of Contents
CHAPTERS
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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Epilogue
Tell Your Friends About Silent Justice
DAY 1 - Monday, 8:49 p.m.
NINA WHITE leaned back in her swivel chair and glanced out the large window in her office. The street, a hub of activity during the day, was now strangely quiet and peaceful. A car drove by slowly, its headlights cutting a narrow path through the gathering darkness. It pulled to the far side of the street a hundred feet away and its lights died. A dark figure sat unmoving in the driver seat.
Nina yawned and turned back to her desk. Although on rare occasions she had worked into the wee hours of the morning, she didn’t often work past five p.m. But enrollment at Richmond North High School was growing and her workload grew along with it. She decided it was time to pack it in for the evening and perhaps get some rare time with her patient husband. She could get a fresh start early in the morning.
She glanced out the window again. The driver of the car had disappeared and she craned her neck to see if she could spot him. There were no houses along this street, the school property taking up the whole of one side, a block-long park on the other.
She closed the folder on her desk, stood, and tucked it into a file cabinet. She felt pleased with her day’s accomplishments. Lately, her evenings had been spent developing a new guidance curriculum. As school counselor, it was her job and her pleasure to provide students the support they needed to succeed in school and fulfill their dreams. Their dreams were her dreams and she took her job seriously.
Nina retrieved her handbag from the bottom drawer of her desk and stuffed a folder of notes and ideas she had been working on into the bag. Flicking off the office light, she stepped into the darkened hallway, closing the door behind her.
Most everyone was gone for the night. Right now, the school’s only occupants would be the security guard, sleepily making his rounds through the dimly lit hallways, and the cleaning crew that faithfully scrubbed the day’s accumulation of dirt from the corridors and classroom floors.
She went to the exit doors, stopping long enough to dig her key ring from her bag, and then unlocked the door and stepped into the warm evening air. She carefully locked the door behind her, using the bright streetlight to select her car key from the ring before going into the darkness of the school parking lot.
She glanced down the quiet street. The vehicle that had stopped earlier was no longer there. The park across the street had been vacated, children and sun lovers now nestled securely in their homes for the night.
At the rear of the building, the cleaning crew’s van was parked at a service entrance beside the security car, the only vehicles in sight except her own. Her car sat in its usual space, backed up to a high wooden fence at the far end of the lot. It was further to walk, but overhanging trees kept the car cool during hot summer days.
As she neared her vehicle, she pressed the key fob and was welcomed by a pair of beeps and a distinct click as her car doors unlocked.
Behind her, a bright light cast a long shadow ahead of her. The light drew closer and she turned. It was a car. The same car that had been parked across the street from her office a few minutes earlier.
The engine roared as the vehicle gathered speed, heading straight for her. She waved her arms frantically. Didn’t he see her?
She froze in the headlights a moment, then her handbag fell from her shoulder as she lunged to one side. She felt a breeze as the car whipped through the spot she’d occupied a moment before. Her handbag tumbled and rolled, destroyed by the tires of the vehicle.
She clambered to her feet, her heart pounding furiously in her chest. Someone was trying to kill her. Why?
Her body shook all over, her breathing rapid and shallow, and she found it hard to think clearly.
Nina hesitated a moment and then raced toward her car. She stopped short as the driver hit the brakes hard, squealed to a stop on the asphalt, then spun around and stopped. The attacking vehicle faced the side of her car, its headlights flooding the door. As the driver revved the engine, she recoiled in horror.
He was waiting. Waiting for her.
She glanced toward her handbag. Even if she could get to it, her cell phone was probably destroyed, and she could never make it safely into her vehicle before being rammed. The fence behind her car was too high to climb. There was no choice but to run back across the parking lot to the school and hope she could outrun her attacker.
She spun around and sprinted across the lot at full speed. Tires squealed behind her and she glanced over her shoulder. The car moved forward, straight toward her.
She would never make it.
Nina stopped short, turned to face the vehicle, tensed her leg muscles, and held her breath. The car missed her by inches as she dove aside at the last second. She stumbled to her feet as the vehicle braked and circled around for another try.
Her strategy wasn’t going to work. She frantically tried to think of a way out of the deadly situation. She raced for the passenger side of her car and tugged at the door handle. The door swung open.
She lunged inside, fell across the front seat, and scrambled to a sitting position. Her eyes bulged and panic overtook her as the other car sped toward her head on. There was a roar, then a crash, as the vehicle swerved and rammed the passenger-side door. It closed with an explosion of shattered glass and twisted metal.
But she was unharmed.
She howled in exasperation coupled with intense fear. Her keys. She had dropped her keys when she’d lost her handbag. She squinted through the windshield and saw them, twenty feet in front of her, glinting in the soft moonlight. And off to her left, the deadly car relentlessly persisted, lined up to T-bone her vehicle on the driver side.
There was no protection, no way of starting the vehicle, and no one to help. She dove headlong through the empty window, gouging her side on a shard of glass as she scrambled to escape the death trap.
She landed hard on her shoulder and hit her head on the asphalt. She lay still a moment, stunned, trying to clear her senses and catch her breath as the attacking vehicle roared somewhere close by.
Her keys. She had to get her keys.
She stumbled to her feet, dazed and hurting, and staggered toward her key ring. It was her only chance. She’d dodged the vehicle once and she could do it again. She would grab her keys, make it to her car, and get as quickly and as far away as possible.
Nina raced to her keys, crouched down, and scrambled to pick them up as tires squealed behind her. She turned to face the killing machine, its headlights nearly blinding her as it roared closer. She waited, poised, and ready.
Now.
Too late. The deadly machine struck her, knocking her off her feet and tossing her to the asphalt. She landed on her back, stunned and unable to move. One leg felt broken, the other weak and useless. She attempted to think clearly, to still the panic overwhelming her senses.
Tires squealed again. An engine raced.
She struggled to sit but fell back on her elbows. As she gazed helplessly toward the oncoming vehicle, she saw her murderer’s face for the first time, illuminated by the moonlight.