The Pursuit of Lies, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Book #4, Paradise Valley Mysteries) Read online

  From the Amazon Bestseller Debra Burroughs, topping the charts in Romantic Suspense and Women Sleuths, comes another exciting and entertaining book, The Pursuit of Lies.

  Praise for Debra Burroughs’ romantic suspense novels…

  “Each time Ms. Burroughs puts out a new book I can’t wait to download it. And once again the folks of Paradise Valley don’t disappoint. Since this is the fourth book, it’s almost like reading about people you know and can’t wait to catch up with. From the first page I was intrigued and caught up in the plot. I really enjoyed the entire book and was kept guessing till the end.”

  ~ Janet

  Amazon Reader

  “The main character is recently widowed and fiercely independent. She has a close knit group of girlfriends who’ve been helping her along. And it is with this group of friends in this small town setting that quickly comes to life right before your eyes. The characters and the plot are both superbly written. I’ve read 3 in the series and hope there will be others to follow…I’ve grown comfortable with this small town and this fun group of friends.”

  ~ Dryzl

  Amazon Reader

  “Loved this book. Great suspense and kept you on the edge of your seat. Would definitely read this author again.”

  ~ Gloria Wilhite

  Amazon Reader

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  Afterword

  Other Works by Debra Burroughs

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

  ~ Sir Walter Scott

  PROLOGUE

  The scariest thing about both truth and lies is that they always catch up to you, no matter how hard you try to hide them.

  ~*~

  The young blonde woman lay waiting on the neatly made bed, smoothing out her white silk teddy before reclining against the sumptuous pillows.

  “I’m ready for you,” she called out, eager for what was coming. Resting a hand behind her head, she smiled to herself, pleased with the life she had fashioned. Successful, and respected in her profession, she had no time for a serious romantic relationship—she was married to her job. So, having a handsome male friend, one with benefits and no strings, suited her just fine.

  The man was charming and sexy—what woman in her right mind wouldn’t have been attracted to him? He was honest enough to admit to her upfront that he was committed to someone else, but she didn’t mind. That may even have been what drew her to him.

  Casual dating with no commitments was all she could manage at the moment as she climbed her professional ladder to success. Her emotional needs, little as they were, as well as her physical needs were being met. That’s all she wanted for now.

  Stripped to the waist and barefooted, her lover stood in the doorway. She admired his physique as he turned to switch the bathroom light off. The bedroom was softly lit by the dimmed lamp on one side of the bed.

  She flashed him a seductive smile as he put a knee on the bed and hovered over her, with one hand held behind his back. “Why so quiet, Colin?”

  “I have a surprise for you.”

  “Is that what you’re hiding back there?” She craned her neck to see. She didn’t like surprises. “What is it? Let me have it.”

  The thrill of anticipation rippled through her body. She loved receiving gifts, especially expensive ones.

  His hand whipped around and he gave her the surprise. Rather than a beautifully wrapped box, like she had expected, he held a long sharp knife. She thought he was playing around until she gazed into his fiery eyes. He moved so swiftly that she’d had no time to recover from the shock of his actions or force out even one scream.

  The knife plunged deep into her chest and everything went black.

  Chapter 1

  As Emily Parker meandered through the busy Blue Moon Café, searching for her party, she thought her chest might burst open from excitement. As she wound through the noisy lunch crowd, she picked up snippets of conversations—people talking about their family, the latest football game, or the weather—but nothing as wonderful as the news she’d come to share. She caught sight of one of her girlfriends waving her over.

  Her friends had snagged a coveted booth at the back of the restaurant, along a wall of windows with a breathtaking view of the river flowing by. It was early autumn and the trees along the water’s edge were beginning to turn various shades of yellow, orange, and red.

  Emily slid into the booth and greeted everyone.

  “You’re late, Em,” Isabel said. “We already ordered for you—the usual.”

  “Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were all here first.”

  “Why is that?” Maggie asked, leaning forward with her chin on her palm and her big blue eyes focused on Emily.

  “Girls,” Emily glanced around the table, “I have an announcement to make.”

  “What is it, Em?” Camille laid a perfectly manicured hand on Emily’s arm. Her short and spiky red hair looked as if it was on fire with the sunlight from the window behind her lighting it up.

  “Yes, what?” Maggie repeated.

  “Another juicy new case, perhaps?” Isabel asked, pushing her long dark waves over one shoulder.

  “No, not a new case, juicy or otherwise.” Emily paused for dramatic effect, glancing from face to face. “I’m talking about a new life.” A big smile spread across her face.

  “What does that mean, Em?” Maggie began to sit back in her seat, as she tucked a strand of long blonde hair behind her ear. Then she bolted forward. “You aren’t movin’ away, are you?”

  “No, nothing like that. What it means, girls, is…” Emily stuck out her hand and displayed the sparkling diamond ring Colin had given her the night before, “that I’m engaged!”

  The atmosphere at their table erupted with excitement and congratulations.

  “I had a feeling,” Camille said, pulling Emily’s hand nearer to her for closer examination.

  “Really? Because I was totally taken by surprise.” Emily tossed her head back when she laughed and her loose honey-blonde curls tickled her neck.

  “Give me a break.” Isabel smirked. “You’re a private eye and you didn’t see this coming? I saw it coming from a mile away.” As an FBI analyst, with great attention to detail, Isabel Martínez was the practical, analytical one in the bunch.

  “Well, okay, maybe not totally.” Lately, Emily’s time and her thoughts had been consumed with solving crimes and apprehending criminals. She and Detective Colin Andrews had become inseparable, both personally and in work, but the subject of marriage had never come up—at least not until he proposed.

  “I’m just thrilled for y’all,” Maggie cooed. She was known among her friends as the southern-belle fitness queen. Lovely as she was, with her bright blue eyes, flowing blonde hair, and a body that wouldn’t quit, Maggie Sullivan had the most horrendous luck with men.

  “Oh, Em, you’ll have to let me throw together a fabulous engagement party for you and Colin.” Camille Hawthorne was a caterer and event planner, and this engagement would give her the perfect excuse to host another of her famous affairs. “Please say yes.”

  Emily glanced around the table at all the smiling faces. “Yes.” Her answer drew an excited round of approval from the girls.

  “I’m happy to have it at my house,” Isabel offered. She and her attorney husband, Alex, had a spacious, upscale home in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Pa
radise Valley.

  “Oh, Isabel, that would be wonderful,” Camille replied.

  Emily smiled as she gazed around the table at her friends. “You girls are the best.”

  “Have you set a date?” Isabel asked.

  “Not yet.”

  “Oh, Emily, you’d better hurry,” Camille advised. “All the best venues will be booked if you don’t.”

  “There’s plenty of time for that.” Emily held out her left hand and admired her sparkling new ring again. “Let me just enjoy being engaged before we have to start working on all the wedding details.”

  The waiter brought their food and the rest of the hour was spent eating and talking about the upcoming wedding. When they had finished, the girls ambled out to the parking lot to say their good-byes.

  “Hey, isn’t that Colin?” Maggie asked, pointing to a red Jeep Wrangler whizzing by on the main street that abutted the parking lot.

  “Looked like him,” Isabel replied. “Short dark hair and all.”

  “Maybe,” Emily said, straining to catch a glimpse of the vehicle. “I’ll give him a call in a little while.”

  “Okay, I’ve got to get back to work. Congratulations, again.” Isabel gave Emily a quick hug. “I’ll see you all Thursday night.”

  The four of them regularly got together each Thursday evening for a girls-only potluck dinner at one of their homes.

  “Yes, at your house this week,” Camille replied. “The theme is Mexican.”

  “Again?” Maggie asked, wrinkling her nose.

  “I have a new recipe for Chili Rellenos that I’m dying to try,” Camille said.

  “Then Mexican it is.” Emily opened the door of her white Volvo sedan and slid behind the wheel. “See you Thursday.”

  Once Emily was out on the main road, she dug her cell phone out of her handbag and dialed Maggie’s number.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, Maggs, it’s Emily. I wanted to talk to you privately.”

  “What’s up?”

  “I have a case I’m working that I could use your help with.”

  “Ooh, I love helpin’ out on your cases. What’s it about?”

  “Possible insurance fraud. I’ve been hired to tail a man to see if he’s faking an injury. I could use your help to trap him, see if he’s lying.”

  “Trap him? Won’t that be dangerous?”

  “No, don’t worry. It’s just a figure of speech.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  Emily went over the plan with Maggie. “If this guy is faking it and he gets away with his little scam, it’ll cost my clients millions.”

  “Okay then, I’m in!”

  “Meet me at my house tomorrow at four? Then we’ll work out the details.”

  “All right. I have a few clients in the afternoon, but I should be finished by then.” As a fitness instructor and personal trainer, Maggie could pretty much set her own schedule.

  “Hey, looks like Colin is calling on the other line. I’d better take it.”

  “Tell him congratulations for me.”

  “Will do.” Emily clicked her phone to the other call. “Hello, Colin.”

  “Hey, Babe. How’d your lunch with the girls go?” Colin’s deep, masculine voice was soothing and sensual, and the very sound of it warmed her.

  “They were all very excited about the engagement. Camille tried to nail me down on a wedding date.”

  “Sounds like Camille. Hey, I can’t talk long. I’m on my way to Boise to meet with ADA Laraway about a case.”

  “Allison Laraway? You’ll have to tell her about our engagement.”

  “I’m sure she couldn’t care less.”

  Emily thought back to when Colin first landed in Paradise Valley, taking a job as the new police detective, and how Assistant District Attorney Allison Laraway, a polished and sophisticated blonde, had tried to get her claws into him.

  She recalled how Colin had seemed oblivious to her overtures. Emily shook her head slightly at the thought, reminding herself that she had won Colin’s heart in the end, not Allison.

  “By the way, Maggie thought she saw you drive by the restaurant when we were in the parking lot getting ready to leave. Isabel too.”

  “Wasn’t me.”

  “Must’ve been some other tall, dark and handsome guy driving a red Jeep.”

  He chuckled. “So, will I see you for dinner tonight?”

  “I have a job to do this afternoon, but I should be done by seven. Why don’t you come by then?”

  “Can’t wait. I’d love to stay and chat, but I’d better let you go. I’m pulling into the parking structure and I’ll probably lose reception.”

  “I love you, Colin.” As she spoke his name, she remembered his soft warm lips on hers the night before, after he had proposed to her, and a light tingle spread across her body. She hoped he heard her before losing cell service.

  ~*~

  While Colin went to meet with ADA Laraway, Emily drove across town to check on her assignment, Mr. Martin Dillingham. The overweight thirty-eight-year-old man claimed to have severely injured his back during a fall at one of the popular restaurants in the area. He now wore a back brace and walked with a cane.

  The man had a report from a doctor in town stating he was truly injured, but from experience, she knew that just because something was in writing didn’t make it true. The patient in question could have found a doctor willing to split the sizable settlement in exchange for his testimony. That wasn’t completely farfetched.

  It was time for Emily to see what Mr. Dillingham was up to. If he was truly injured, the insurance company was willing to compensate him, but he had filed a three-million-dollar lawsuit against the restaurant owners and they wanted to be certain he was telling the truth.

  Her clients had provided her with a photo of the man and she spotted him as soon as she pulled into the apartment complex’s parking lot. He had a little pug on a leash and looked like he was attempting to take the pint-sized dog for a walk. His gait was slow and he used a cane.

  The man couldn’t know he was being watched, yet he hobbled along as if he was in pain. Maybe he really was hurt.

  Emily followed him at a safe distance as he walked the dog around his complex, then took the animal back to his place and left it there. She watched as he went to the parking lot and carefully slid behind the wheel of his small pickup. She tailed him for a few blocks until he turned into the parking lot of a grocery store. He appeared to be in pain as he slowly climbed out of the truck, grimacing with each deliberate movement.

  She followed him into the store and kept an eye on him as he went up and down the aisles, putting only a few things into his cart with one hand. He checked out, lumbered back to his truck with a single plastic bag of items, and gingerly climbed back in.

  Emily remained hidden between the cars with her small video camera ready, but there was nothing to capture.

  At a respectable distance, Emily tailed Mr. Dillingham back to his apartment and observed as he struggled to work himself out of the small truck with the plastic bag hanging from his right arm. Either he was a very good actor, assuming he knew he was being watched, or he really was injured.

  He plodded to his main-floor apartment. Emily waited for him to go in, hoping she could get a peek inside one of his windows. There was only one window on the main level, next to the front door, and the blinds were shut. She moved to the side of the window and tried to peek in through the small gap between the blinds and the window frame, but she couldn’t see anything.

  She decided to try her luck again later. As she drove home, she thought of Colin’s meeting with ADA Allison Laraway and wondered how that was going. Even though he had always claimed that he hadn’t noticed Allison’s advances toward him when he’d first arrived in Paradise Valley, Emily believed he only said that for her benefit.

  Allison Laraway was a strong and decisive woman—all about the win. It wasn’t like her to let anything, or anyone, stand in her way. Emily was s
ure Colin knew a confrontation between Allison and Emily would have become ugly.

  Both women were beautiful and strong, but Colin had told Emily she possessed qualities Allison lacked. She remembered him saying that he was drawn to her because she was sweet and compassionate, which balanced out her strength and stubbornness. He said those were important qualities, and he loved that about her.

  Raising her left hand from the steering wheel, Emily admired her diamond engagement ring as the sunlight filtering in the window danced off the facets, making it sparkle and shine. She was pleased with how things had turned out with Colin, and now she would soon be Mrs. Emily Andrews. She wondered what Miss Laraway would have to say about that.

  ~*~

  Emily drove back to the apartments a few hours later and found a place to park with a clear view of Mr. Dillingham’s front door. After sitting in her vehicle and waiting for the next couple of hours, with no sign of the man coming or going, she gave up for the day. She had a plan to find the truth, though, which Maggie had agreed to help her play out the next day.

  The sun was starting to sink over the western mountains as Emily pulled into her driveway along the side of her charming bungalow in the older part of Paradise Valley. Colin would be coming over soon, so she rushed to straighten up her place and get ready for him.

  When the doorbell rang, Emily went running to answer it. Seeing it was Colin, through the small windows at the top of her Craftsman-style door, she flung it open wide.

  “Hello, gorgeous.” Colin stepped inside and gathered her up in his arms. “I missed you today.”

  “Missed you too.” She tilted her head back and smiled up at him, enjoying the warmth of his embrace.

  He planted a quick kiss on her lips.

  She pushed the door shut with her bare foot and snuggled back in his arms. “What shall we do for dinner?”

  “I ordered delivery,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind. The pizza should be here soon.”

  “I guess I should make a salad then.” She pulled away and took his hand, leading him back to the kitchen. “Can you get the big glass bowl down from the top shelf?”