CHAPTER 1

The dead body was hard to see at first in the deep shadows that surrounded it. Soon enough, as darkness faded into the edges of light, a false dawn would spread over the crime scene and reveal some of its secrets; photographs and videos would be taken, notes would be written, and the careful study of not only the victim, but the area around it, would occur. An amount of intense activity like no other would consume the investigators as they sought to solve the murder in the early hours of discovery.

But none of that would happen for hours yet.

For now, only one person knew about the crime, and they weren’t about to tell anyone.

One thing was certain; the lives of the people in April Springs, North Carolina, would never be the same once they knew that murder had come back to visit their sleepy little town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.