The Man From Falcon Ridge. Rita Herron

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      CAST OF CHARACTERS

      Hailey Hitchcock—A woman running from a past she doesn’t remember into a future just as terrifying as the nightmares that plague her.

      Rex Falcon—A man determined to find the real killer behind the Hatchet Murders.

      Randolph Falcon—Rex’s father. He’s spent the past twenty years of his life in jail for killing the Lyle family—but is he really guilty?

      Deke and Brack Falcon—Rex’s brothers are determined to free their father from prison.

      Thad Jordan—A man obsessed with Hailey. Will he kill to keep her his?

      Lawrence Lyle—The man and his family were brutally murdered twenty years ago. Did he carry the secrets of his family’s murder to his grave?

      Sheriff Andy Cohen—He arrested Rex’s father for murder, but did he have ulterior motives?

      Bentley McDaver—The prosecutor put Rex’s father in jail for life. Did he have reason to rush the trial?

      Carl Pursley—Rex’s father’s defense attorney. Did he help frame him for the murder?

      Lindy Lou Lyle—She died in the Hatchet murders, but now her ghost is haunting Hailey.

      Ava Riderton—She was Lyle’s secretary. Does she know more than she’s telling?

      To Kim Nadelson:

      Thanks for all your enthusiasm and

      support with my first gothic!

      Contents

      Prologue

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Prologue

      Ten-year-old Rex Falcon stared in horror at the yellow crime-scene tape wrapped around the Lyle house. It was dark now, the night sounds adding to the eeriness. When he’d gotten here, he’d peeked inside the window and seen the gory murders. Then the sheriff and his deputies had pushed him and his brothers and mother into the yard with the other neighbors and refused to let them talk to Rex’s father.

      Just because his daddy had found the bodies, they were treating him as if he’d killed the people inside.

      His mother hugged the boys close to her. “You boys go on home. You shouldn’t be seeing all this.”

      “I’m not going anywhere till they let Daddy go,” Rex said, hands fisted.

      “Me neither,” his middle brother Deke said.

      His youngest brother Brack jutted up his chin, his eyes wide. “I’m staying, too.”

      An image of the dead people flashed into Rex’s head. There was so much blood. It looked like a river on the kitchen floor. The mother lay in it. The boy cuddled beside her. The father, too. It covered his hands and face, and his head….

      “Little girl’s dead, too,” a neighbor murmured behind him. “Found her blood near the river.”

      “Randolph Falcon.” Sheriff Cohen jerked Rex’s daddy to a standing position and handcuffed him. “You’re under arrest for the murders of the Lyle family.”

      “No!” His mother collapsed into a neighbor’s arms, sobbing.

      His father’s hawklike eyes pierced Rex as the sheriff yanked him down the steps toward his squad car. “Take care of your mama and brothers for me, son.”

      Rex shook his head in denial. His father’s words had sounded so odd, as if he wasn’t coming back. But they couldn’t take his father away and lock him up.

      He was innocent.

      “Daddy!” His brothers chased after the sheriff, and Rex ran after them.

      A bald eagle that had been perched on top of the porch swooped down and soared toward the car, its talons bared. Rex’s father nodded toward the bird. The animal knew what СКАЧАТЬ