Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
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
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1
Willow Point
S.R. Grey
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not considered to be real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Willow Point (A Harbour Falls Mystery II)
Copyright © 2013 by S.R. Grey
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Beta Reader: Gaele
Copy Editing: Barbara at Create Space
Cover Design by Damonza at Awesome Book Covers
Print and EBook Formatting by Benjamin at Awesome Book Layout
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all the bloggers, all the reviewers, all the readers, everyone who gave Harbour Falls, the first of the A Harbour Falls Mystery series, a chance. I owe all of you so very, very much. I am forever humbled, my friends. Thank you. Willow Point is for you.
Prologue
On a snowy afternoon in early December, Adam and I returned from our getaway trip to California. With the Harbour Falls Mystery solved, our troubles appeared to be behind us. I was no longer in any danger, Adam was in the clear, and things felt as close to perfect as they could be. We’d even ended up extending our trip out west, spending many a night hanging out at my house in Los Angeles; going to dinners with Katie, my agent and best friend; and just some general sightseeing. It was my chance to share with Adam all my favorite things to do and see in LA.
We eventually traveled up to San Francisco, where we spent an amazing Thanksgiving with Adam’s parents. Trina, Adam’s sister, and Walker Adair, her fiancé, flew out from Boston, so it turned out to be quite the Ward family holiday. And, wow, did we have a blast. But now Adam and I were back on Fade Island, a remote island off the coast of northeastern Maine. It wasn’t far from the town of Harbour Falls, where I grew up and where my dad still presided as mayor.
Until very recently there’d been a mystery haunting the town—the disappearance of a young woman with a less-than-stellar reputation. The mystery was the reason I had returned three months ago. I once planned to write a novel based on the facts I uncovered. I’d chosen to investigate the Harbour Falls Mystery, as it was known, from Fade Island.
The primary suspect was the island’s most well-known resident, Adam Ward. He’d once been engaged to a young woman who had gone missing, Chelsea Hannigan. I later learned Adam actually owned the island, which shouldn’t have really surprised me. Adam owned a very lucrative software engineering company and had money to burn.
During the course of the investigation Adam and I grew close, and I eventually fell in love. Luckily, Adam fell just as hard for me. Not to say there weren’t times our love was tested, especially as I’d forged ahead—sometimes recklessly—with my plans to research and ultimately write a book about the Harbour Falls Mystery. Since then, though, things had changed. My previous plans were scrapped, and I was now concentrating on writing a love story instead. But not tonight.
I was too tired to schlep down to the cottage, too tired to work on the new book. So I decided to spend the night at Adam’s place. In truth, we’d spent so much time together it felt weird to go our separate ways. I wasn’t ready to be apart from him; I wanted to prolong our time together for a little while longer.
That, however, was not to be. Despite my wish for things to remain as they’d been in California—having Adam all to myself with no work interruptions—he was already being pulled away by business now that we were back home. As usual.
I understood though. My boyfriend was a very busy man, with a lot of responsibilities. Rumors abounded that he worked with some very high-powered players—secret organizations, branches of the government, those sorts of things. I had no proof those rumors were true, but I suspected they were. A lot of Adam’s business was cloaked in secrecy, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
But tonight Adam was pulled away by Nate Jackson, his closest friend and business associate. Not ten minutes had elapsed that Nate was knocking on the door, stopping by to tell Adam he’d missed a lot—too much, really—and he needed to get up to speed as soon as possible. Adam gave me a quick kiss, an apologetic look, and then he’d left with Nate.
This was why I now found myself curled up in front of a slow-burning fire in the soaring stone fireplace in Adam’s living room, going through a stack of mail Nate had distractedly handed to me before he’d left with Adam. Some of the mail was mine, and some belonged to the man of the house, so I began the task of separating the pieces into two piles. I had to chuckle because, not surprisingly, my pile was downright anemic compared to Mr. Ward’s. Stifling a yawn, I paged through bills, letters, even a few early Christmas cards. Adam Ward, Adam Ward, Adam Ward. The man sure did get a lot of mail.
At last, I reached the final item, a letter addressed to me, Maddy Fitch. When I glanced at the return address, I shivered, despite the heat from the fire. This letter was from Willow Point. And there was only one person I knew—Ami Hensley—who currently resided at the big, Gothic facility for the criminally insane that loomed atop a hill overlooking Bangor.
Ami had once been my best friend, way back in high school. But a lot of things had happened
