Hush Little Girl
An absolutely gripping mystery and suspense thriller
Lisa Regan
Books by Lisa Regan
Detective Josie Quinn Series
Vanishing Girls
The Girl With No Name
Her Mother’s Grave
Her Final Confession
The Bones She Buried
Her Silent Cry
Cold Heart Creek
Find Her Alive
Save Her Soul
Breathe Your Last
Hush Little Girl
Available in Audio
Detective Josie Quinn Series
Vanishing Girls (Available in the UK and the US)
The Girl With No Name (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Mother’s Grave (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Final Confession (Available in the UK and the US)
The Bones She Buried (Available in the UK and the US)
Her Silent Cry (Available in the UK and the US)
Cold Heart Creek (Available in the UK and the US)
Find Her Alive (Available in the UK and the US)
Save Her Soul (Available in the UK and the US)
Breathe Your Last (Available in the UK and the US)
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Hear More from Lisa
Books by Lisa Regan
A Letter from Lisa
Vanishing Girls
The Girl With No Name
Her Mother’s Grave
Her Final Confession
The Bones She Buried
Her Silent Cry
Cold Heart Creek
Find Her Alive
Save Her Soul
Breathe Your Last
Acknowledgments
In loving memory of Dr. Chris Justofin, who saved my life,
and for Dr. Katherine Dahlsgaard, who saved the life of someone I love.
Prologue
Neither Josie nor Noah had time to brace for impact. The deer shot out of the trees to their left, a blur of faded brown. Its body met the front end of Noah’s new Chevrolet with perfectly imperfect timing. The hood of the car smashed inward like an aluminum soda can. Noah had no time to brake. Both their bodies launched forward. The seatbelt snapped taut across Josie’s body and her head whipped forward and back, leaving her disoriented. Blinking away the mind fog, she looked ahead to see a tendril of smoke rising from the compacted hood of the car. Noah’s voice floated over to her from the driver’s seat. “Josie? You okay? Josie?”
She turned her head toward him, flinching at the pain that streaked from the base of her skull down her neck. Blood trickled from a small cut on Noah’s forehead. Reaching toward him, she said, “You’re bleeding.”
He wiped the sleeve of his jacket across his head. “I’m fine,” he said. “Are you?”
Josie’s mind started to kick back into gear, catching up with her body. Other than her neck, everything felt okay. “I’m getting out,” she said.
She undid her seatbelt and tried to open the door, but it was stuck.
Noah said, “The frame bent. You’ll have to get out my side.”
He unlatched his seatbelt and got out, extending a hand inside the car to help pull Josie clear. It was late January, and the weather had been miserable for days. Gray clouds hung low and heavy over the city of Denton, occasionally gracing them with a dusting of snow. On the shoulder of the road, Josie pulled her coat tighter around her and looked up and down the winding mountain road. All they could see were trees and a ribbon of asphalt stretching miles in either direction.
Noah said, “We’re at least three miles from Harper’s Peak.”
“More like five,” Josie told him. She pointed in the direction they’d been headed—back into the city. “Two more miles into town.”
The city of Denton was nestled in a valley in Central Pennsylvania along the banks of the Susquehanna River. Most of its thirty thousand residents lived in the main area of town where neighborhoods were grouped closely together. However, in its entirety, the city spanned twenty-five square miles and encompassed the rural areas all around it. Lonely, winding roads like the one they were on snaked outward from the city proper and into the mountains in every direction.
Josie and Noah walked toward the front of the car where the deer lay on its side, unmoving. There was no visible injury, but Josie knew the impact had likely been enough to kill it. She took a few steps closer, noting that it had no antlers and its abdomen was swollen. “Good God,” she said. “I hope this isn’t a mommy deer.”
Noah drew up closer behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t get too close,” he said. “If she’s still alive and springs up, she could hurt you.”
Josie made no move to walk away. Instead, she stared at the doe, a sadness swirling around her insides, stirring up old feelings best left dormant.
“Josie,” Noah said. “It was an accident.”
“I know,” she said. It certainly wasn’t the first time either of them had hit a deer on the road. In Central Pennsylvania, accidents like this were a given. She wasn’t sure why this one bothered her so much.
“Do you think it’s bad luck?” she blurted, as icy rain began to spit from the sky.
Noah said, “What do you mean?”
She turned to him. Blood gathered in a fat bead along the cut on his forehead and slid down toward his right eye. Again, he swiped at it with his sleeve.
Josie fished a crumpled tissue from her jeans pocket. She slid her free hand around to the back of his head, threading her fingers through his thick, brown hair, and pressed the tissue to his forehead with the other hand, keeping pressure on it. His breath came out in a puff, the cold air making it visible. She said, “We’re on our way home from finalizing our wedding plans, and we hit a deer. Maybe a deer about to have a fawn.”
Noah put his hands on her shoulders and smiled at her. “We’ve had all the bad luck that two people can have already, don’t you think?”
Josie lifted the tissue and saw the bleeding had stopped. Dropping her arms, she looked into his
