She separated herself from the others and met him halfway.

  “I wasn’t expecting the special agent I requested to be you,” Madison spoke in clear shock.

  Garrett grinned awkwardly. “Surprise.” He thought about giving her a quick hug, if only for old times’ sake. Being able to make body contact wouldn’t be bad either. But he sensed it would be an inappropriate gesture at this time.

  A hand rested on a hip of her slender frame as she questioned, “So, how long have you been back in this region?”

  Was there any right way to answer her? “Not long. I was planning to call you.”

  “Right.” Her curly lashes fluttered cynically. “Anyway, this isn’t about us,” she stressed, for which he concurred. “Someone I know has been murdered and we need to work together to solve the crime.”

  Murder in the Blue Ridge Mountains

  R. Barri Flowers

  R. Barri Flowers is an award-winning author of crime, thriller, mystery and romance fiction featuring three-dimensional protagonists, riveting plots, unexpected twists and turns, and heart-pounding climaxes. With an expertise in true crime, serial killers and characterizing dangerous offenders, he is perfectly suited for the Harlequin Intrigue line. Chemistry and conflict between the hero and heroine, attention to detail and incorporating the very latest advances in criminal investigations are the cornerstones of his romantic suspense fiction. Discover more on popular social networks and Wikipedia.

  Books by R. Barri Flowers

  Harlequin Intrigue

  The Lynleys of Law Enforcement

  Special Agent Witness

  Christmas Lights Killer

  Murder in the Blue Ridge Mountains

  Hawaii CI

  The Big Island Killer

  Captured on Kauai

  Honolulu Cold Homicide

  Danger on Maui

  Chasing the Violet Killer

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Madison Lynley—A law enforcement ranger who goes after a serial killer on the Blue Ridge Parkway, while having to work with a former boyfriend assigned to the case. Can they put aside their differences to solve crime and rediscover each other?

  Garrett Sneed—A national park service special agent who finds the death of young women eerily similar to his mother’s murder in the Blue Ridge Mountains thirty years ago. Could there be a connection? And, with the help of the woman he mistakenly walked away from, can the Cherokee investigator uncover it?

  Nicole Wallenberg—A park ranger involved in the investigation and trying to avoid becoming a victim.

  Ward Wilcox—A park maintenance ranger who seems to be caught in the middle of the case. Does he have something to hide?

  Ray Pottenger—A deputy sheriff assisting in the serial killer investigation and equally determined to solve it.

  Blue Ridge Parkway Killer—The unsub is stabbing women on the Parkway to death and has set his sights on a certain pretty law enforcement ranger... Can he be stopped?

  To H. Loraine, the love of my life and best friend, whose support has been unwavering through the many wonderful years together. To my dear mother, Marjah Aljean, who gave me the tools to pursue my passions in life, including writing fiction for publication; and for my loving sister, Jacquelyn, who helped me become the person I am today, along the way. To the loyal fans of my romance, mystery, suspense and thriller fiction published over the years. Lastly, a nod goes out to my wonderful editors, Allison Lyons and Denise Zaza, for the great opportunity to lend my literary voice and creative spirit to the successful Intrigue line.

  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

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from A Place to Hide by Debra Webb

  Prologue

  Jessica Sneed was a proud member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a tribe based in North Carolina. But she was even prouder of being the mother to a rambunctious little dark-haired boy named Garrett. Being a single parent at age twenty-five was anything but easy. Had it been up to her, she would be happily wed with a strong marriage foundation and Garrett would have both parents to dote on him. That wasn’t the case, though, as his father, Andrew Crowe, wasn’t much interested in being a husband. Much less a dad. Besieged with alcohol-related issues and a self-centered attitude, he’d left the state two years ago, abandoning her, forcing Jessica to go it alone in taking care of her then three-year-old son. Well, maybe not entirely alone, as her parents, Trevor and Dinah Sneed, did their best to help out whenever they could.

  Shamelessly, Jessica took full advantage of the precious little time she had to herself, such as this sunny afternoon when she got to hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She loved being in touch with nature and giving back to the land her forefathers had once roamed freely, through retracing their footsteps in paying her respects. She made sure that Garrett, whom she’d given her family surname, was aware of his rich heritage as well. They spent some time in the mountains and forest together when he wasn’t in school.

  But today, it’s just me, Jessica told herself as she ran a hand down the length of her waist-long black hair, worn in a bouffant ponytail. She was wearing tennis shoes along with a T-shirt and cuffed denim shorts on the warm August day as she trekked across the hiking trail on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the hundreds-of-miles-long scenic roadway that meandered through the mountains. She stopped for a moment to enjoy some shade beneath the Raven Rocks Overlook and took a bottle of water from her backpack.

  After opening it, Jessica drank half the bottle and returned it to the backpack. She was about to get on her way when she heard a sound. She wondered if it might be coming from wildlife, such as a chipmunk or red squirrel. She had even noticed wild turkey and white-tailed deer roaming around. Humans had to adapt more than the other way around. Some did. Others chose not to.

  She heard another noise coming from the woods, this one heavier. Suddenly feeling concerned that it could mean danger, Jessica headed back in the direction from which she’d come.

  But the sounds grew louder, echoing all around her, and seemed to be getting closer and closer. Was it a wild animal that had targeted her? Perhaps rabid and ravenous? Should she make a run for it? Or stay still and pray that the threat would leave her alone? As she grappled with these thoughts, Jessica dared to glance over her shoulder at the potential menace. It was not an animal predator. But a human one. It was a man. He was dark haired, with ominous even-darker eyes and a scowl on his face. In one large hand was a long-bladed knife.

  Her heart racing like crazy, Jessica turned away from him to run but pivoted so quickly that she lost her balance and the backpack slipped from her shoulders. She fell flat onto the dirt pathway, hitting her head hard against it. Seeing stars, she tried to clear her brain and, at the same time, get up. Before she could, she felt the knife plunge deep into her back. The pain was excruciating. But it got much worse as he stabbed her again and again, till the pain seemed to leave her body, along with the will to live. What hurt even more was not getting to say goodbye to her son. She silently asked Garrett for forgiveness in not being around for him before complete darkness and a strange peace hit Jessica all at once.

  * * *

  HE TOOK A moment to study the lifeless body on the ground before him. Killing her had been even more gratifying than he had imagined in his wildest dreams. He recalled his mother once telling him as a child that he was messed up in the head. The memory made him want to laugh. Yes, she’d been right. He had to agree that he wasn’t all there where it concerned being good and bad, much more preferring the latter over the former. His sorry excuse of a mother had found out firsthand that getting on his bad side came with dire consequences. Too bad for her that he’d put her out of her misery and made sure no one ever caught on that he’d been responsible for her untimely death.

  His eyes gazed upon the corpse again. How lucky for him that she’d happened upon his sight at just the right place and time when the desire to kill had struck his fancy. It had been almost too perfect. A pretty lamb had come to him for her slaughter. He wondered what had been going through her head as she’d lain dying, a knife wedged deep inside her back. Maybe it had only been his imagination, but there had almost seemed to be a ray of light in her big brown eyes before they’d shut for good, as though she’d been seeing something or someone out of his reach.

  He grabbed the knife with his gloved hand and flung it into the flowering shrubs. There were plenty more where that had come from. And he intended to make good use of them. Too bad for the next one to feel the sting of his sharp blade. But that wasn’t his concern. A man had to do what a man had to do. And nothing and no one would stop him.

  He grinned cro
okedly and walked away from the dead woman, soon disappearing into the woods, where he would slip back into his normal life. Before the time came for a repeat performance.

  Chapter One

  Thirty years later, Law Enforcement Ranger Madison Lynley drove her Chevrolet Tahoe Special Service Vehicle along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Pisgah Ranger District of Pisgah National Forest, where she was stationed in North Carolina. It was a gorgeous span of nearly five hundred miles of scenery that ran through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

  She had been employed as a law enforcement ranger with the National Park Service for the past eight years, or since she’d been twenty-seven, after completing four months of basic training. Along with receiving her bachelor’s degree in natural resource ecology and management and a master’s degree in environmental science from Oklahoma State University. In the process, she had chosen to go in a different direction than her brothers, Scott and Russell, who were both FBI special agents, as well as their adopted younger sister, Annette, who was a sheriff’s department detective. All of them had followed in the footsteps of their parents, Taylor and Caroline Lynley, with long careers in law enforcement. Their father had been a chief of police with the Oklahoma City Police Department, while her mother had once been an Oklahoma County District Court criminal judge.

  The fact that both were now deceased pained Madison, as they’d been the rocks of the family, leaving it to their children to carry on without them. All seemed more than committed to doing just that, remaining fairly close, in spite of each going their separate ways in adulthood as they navigated their lives, careers and other interests.

  In full uniform on a slender five-eight frame, Madison continued to drive. She admired the forest—rich in chestnut oak, birch and buckeye trees—on this late summer day. As one of only a relatively small number of rangers patrolling the more than eighty thousand acres of land along the parkway, she never tired of this, loving the freedom and appreciation of nature and wildlife the job provided. Beyond patrolling the park in her vehicle, she had also ridden on bicycles, snowmobiles, ATVs, boats and even horses in the course of the job. She had participated in search-and-rescue missions, dealt with car accidents, wildfires and dangerous or wounded animals, you name it.

  Then there was the criminal activity, such as illicit drug use, drug dealing and occasional crimes of violence that forced Madison into the law enforcement part of being a ranger. She was equipped with a Sig Sauer P320 semiautomatic pistol in her duty holster, should she need it when having to deal with hostile and dangerous park visitors.

  Thank goodness I’ve never had to shoot anyone yet, she thought, while knowing there was always a first time for everything.

  Madison’s mind turned to her love life. Or lack thereof. She was now thirty-five years old, nearly thirty-six, and still very much single. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had gone out on a real date. Actually, she could. It was two years ago when she’d been dating Garrett Sneed, a handsome Cherokee special agent with the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch. For a few months there, they’d been hot and heavy and had appeared headed for bigger and better things. And then, just like that, it had been over, as though it had never begun.

  She couldn’t really put a finger on why they’d broken up. Only that neither had seemed ready to make a real commitment to each other and the opportunity to fix things that had gone unsaid or undone had slipped through the cracks. Before she could even think about trying to get back together, Garrett had gotten a transfer to another region, as though he couldn’t leave soon enough. They’d lost touch from that point on, leaving Madison to wonder about what might have been if they had tried harder.

  When she got a call over the radio, Madison snapped out of the reverie and responded. It was her boss, Tom Hutchison.

  “Hey,” he spoke in a tense voice, “we just got a report of a dead woman discovered by a hiker along the Blue Ridge Parkway.”

  “Hmm...not a great way to start the day,” Madison muttered, never wanting to hear that a life had been lost, whatever the circumstances. “Are we talking about an accident, suicide, animal attack or...?”

  “Could be any of the above.” Hutchison was vague. “Check it out and make your own assessment. We’ll go from there.”

  “I’m on my way,” she said tersely, after being given the location.

  As was the case any time she had to deal with a death, all types of things went through Madison’s head. Who was the victim, and why had the person been at the park? Was this something that could have been prevented, such as the taking of one’s own life? Or was it the result of actions beyond the control of the deceased, such as an encounter with a black bear? Or a human predator.

  Bad news no matter what, Madison told herself frankly. She would soon get some clarity, as she parked her car and was met by an anxious-looking African American woman in her fifties, with curly black crochet braids and hiking attire.

  “I’m Ranger Lynley,” Madison said. “And you are?”

  “Loretta Redmond.”

  “You found a body?”

  “Yeah. While I was hiking, though I nearly missed seeing her where the body was located. I could tell she was dead.” Loretta took a deep breath and shook her head in dismay. “I still can’t believe it.”

  Madison understood, as seeing a corpse outside of a funeral setting was something that was hard to forget for most people. “Can you take me to her?”

  She followed Loretta through a wooded area and down a steep embankment, asking, “Did you see anyone else coming or going?”

  “No one,” Loretta replied without hesitation.

  “Okay.” Madison was thoughtful as they reached a spot off a trail that was overgrown, where there lay the body of a tall and slim female. She was lying flat on her stomach, wearing a purple-colored sports bra, printed blue running shorts, and white tennis shoes. Blood spilled onto the dirt from several gashes in her back, neck and elsewhere that Madison speculated had come from a long knife. She glanced at the thirtysomething victim’s short red hair in a pixie cut with tapering sideburns.

  Only then did a sense of familiarity hit Madison like a hard smack in the face. Upon closer inspection of the person’s discolored round face that was turned awkwardly to one side, her lids shut, Madison realized with shock that she was looking at her friend and neighbor Olivia Forlani, a brown-eyed attorney from the nearby town of Kiki’s Ridge. Both loved to jog and just yesterday had met up on Madison’s day off for a run on the popular trail at Pisgah National Forest.

  As though sensing her troubled expression, Loretta said, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Madison swallowed thickly in turning away from Olivia’s body. “Worse than that,” she remarked, maudlin. “There’s nothing supernatural about what’s happened here. It’s very real. Someone killed her.”

  Which left Madison wondering who would have done such a horrible thing to her friend. It would be left largely up to the NPS Investigative Services Branch to figure that out. She would need to phone this in and have them get a criminal investigator out there right away, while wondering who would do the honors with Garrett now working on the other side of the country.

  All things considered, she believed that was probably for the best as neither of them needed distractions, and her friend’s death as a near certain victim of homicide would be the top priority of the ISB agent sent.

  * * *

  “A WOMAN HAS reportedly been stabbed to death on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” Carly Tafoya, the recently appointed director of the South Atlantic-Gulf Region of the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch, said glumly.

  ISB Special Agent Garrett Sneed cocked a thick brow as the shocking news registered while they stood in his midsize, sparsely furnished office in Region 2, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was stationed. His sable eyes gazed at the petite green-eyed director who was ten years older than his age of thirty-six but looked younger. She had short brunette hair in an A-line cut and wore a brown pantsuit with black pumps.