If You Ever Tell
Authors: Carlene Thompson
| If You Ever Tell |
| Carlene Thompson |
| USA (2008) |
Her parents were murdered. The killer confessed. The case was closed. But the nightmare is beginning again...
Eight years ago, Teresa Farr walked in on the savage murders of her
father and stepmother. She barely managed to save herself and her
eight-year-old stepsister, Celeste. But even after notorious serial
killer Roscoe Lee Byrnes confessed, people still wondered if Teri was
the guilty one. And with Celeste unable to remember that night, or to
speak at all, those suspicions never went away.
Now Byrnes has recanted his confession. And Celeste is starting to remember.
When someone starts using a series of bizarre events to exact
terrifying "justice", Teri is desperate to uncover the truth, and
quickly. But Teri has begun to realise that everyone she loves has
secrets they would kill to keep buried. And an evil hitherto concealed
is now reaching out to silence her and Celeste forever.
PRAISE FOR
CARLENE THOMPSON
LAST WHISPER
“The characters are so well-drawn that the reader will feel like she knows them personally. Thompson offers suspense and an intriguing mystery.”
—
Romantic Times BOOKreviews
SHARE NO SECRETS
“Intriguing… brims with madness and creepy thrills.”
—
Romantic Times BOOKreviews
“Turns and twists make you change your mind about who the killer is and the ending is a real shocker. Get this one quick.”
—
Rendezvous
“Thompson knows how to write gripping suspense and keep readers enthralled throughout. A great mystery with thrilling intrigue.” —
Fresh Fiction
“A chilling murder mystery with lots of twists, turns, and unexpected curves… one of the best romantic mysteries I have read… a great book that you don’t want to miss.”
—
Romance Junkies
“A page-turner that will leave you on the edge of your seat… another wonderful thriller from Carlene Thompson… a must-read.”
—
A Romance Review
“An intriguing tale told in a wonderfully fresh voice. Thompson has a truly unique style that blends beautiful prose with compelling plots… this novel reads like lightning—and has the same effect on the reader… Thompson has created sharp, smart characters with motives that drive the story along. They are enough to keep the story moving at a quick pace. Her voice has a sense of rhythm and a rustic beauty that lingers in the reader’s memory.” —
Romance Divas
“An action-filled read with plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end! This story is highly detailed with an array of in-depth characters that are smart, funny, and engaging.”
—
Fallen Angel Reviews
IF SHE SHOULD DIE
“A gripping suspense filled with romance. Ms. Thompson has the reader solving the mystery early in the novel, then changing that opinion every few chapters. [An] excellent novel.”
—
Rendezvous Reviews
“With engaging characters and intriguing motives, Thompson has created a smart, gripping tale of revenge, anger, and obsession.”
—
Romantic Times BOOKreviews
“
If She Should Die
is a riveting whodunit!”
—
The Road to Romance
“In the tradition of Tami Hoag or Mary Higgins Clark, Thompson has created a gripping page-turner. The storyline is engaging and the characters’ lives are multi-dimensional. This is literally a book the reader will be unable to put down.”
—
Old Book Barn Gazette
BLACK FOR REMEMBRANCE
“Loaded with mystery and suspense… Mary Higgins Clark fans, take note.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
“Bizarre, terrifying… an inventive and forceful psychological thriller.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Gripped me from the first page and held on through its completely unexpected climax. Lock your doors, make sure there’s no one behind you, and pick up
Black for Remembrance
.”
—William Katz, author of
Double Wedding
“Thompson’s style is richly bleak, her sense of morality complex… Thompson is a mistress of the thriller parvenu.”
—
Fear
SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE
“This story will keep readers up well into the night.”
—
Huntress Book Reviews
DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES
“
Don’t Close Your Eyes
has all the gothic sensibilities of a Victoria Holt novel, combined with the riveting modern suspense of Sharyn McCrumb’s
The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
. Don’t close your eyes—and don’t miss this one.”
—Meagan McKinney, author of
In the Dark
“An exciting romantic suspense novel that will thrill readers with the subplots of a who-done-it and a legendary resident ghost seen only by children. These themes cleverly tie back to the main story line centering on the relationships between Natalie and Nick, and Natalie and the killer… Thompson fools the audience into thinking they know the murderer early on in the book. The reviewer suggests finishing this terrific tale in one sitting to ascertain how accurate are the reader’s deductive skills in pinpointing the true villain.” —
Midwest Book Review
IN THE EVENT OF MY DEATH
“[A] blood-chilling… tale of vengeance, madness, and murder.”
—
Romantic Times BOOKreviews
THE WAY YOU LOOK Tonight
“Thompson… has crafted a lively, entertaining read… skillfully ratchet[ing] up the tension with each successive chapter.”
—
Charleston Daily Mail
ST. MARTIN’S PAPERBACKS TITLES BY
CARLENE THOMPSON
Last Seen Alive
Last Whisper
Share No Secrets
If She Should Die
Black for Remembrance
Since You’ve Been Gone
Don’t Close Your Eyes
In the Event of My Death
Tonight You’re Mine
The Way You Look Tonight
C A R L E N E T H O M P S O N
St. Martin’s Paperbacks
NOTE:
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
IF YOU EVER TELL
Copyright © 2008 by Carlene Thompson.
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 or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
ISBN: 0-312-37285-X
EAN: 978-0-312-37285-9
Printed in the United States of America
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / April 2008
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
With love to April Blankenship
and her faithful companion, Promise
Thanks to Jennifer Meadows
Special thanks to Bridget, Rebekah, and Laurah Bush
T
ERESA
F
ARR NEVER KNEW
exactly what awakened her that warm late April night. Her eyes simply snapped open, a gentle breeze blew across her face from the partially raised window, the glowing red numbers of the digital clock on her bedside table flashed from 2:57 to 2:58, and she knew something was wrong.
For a few moments, Teresa lay still with her eyes wide open, making certain she wasn’t just waking from a nightmare. Time did not ease her mind, though. Finally, she realized she was already fully awake and caught in an atmosphere vibrating with palpable tension—tension and danger.
She wanted to cry out, just as she’d done when she was a child frightened in the middle of the night and her mother would rush to reassure her all was well. But she wasn’t little anymore. Teresa was seventeen, her mother was sick—barely functioning because of lifelong depression made worse by a humiliating divorce—and Teresa’s father, Hugh, was remarried to his former secretary Wendy, a greedy doll of a woman just shy of thirty.
Everyone except Hugh seemed to know Wendy had divorced her young husband, Jason, and married a man nineteen years her senior because he was the major stockholder and president of Farr Coal Company, an enterprise worth at least $30 million. Teresa and her brother, Kent, hated Wendy, yet somehow the shallow woman had produced a smart, sweet, delightful eight-year-old child named Celeste whom Teresa couldn’t help loving.
Considering her feeling that something wasn’t right in the house, Teresa knew she should leap from her bed, burst into the hall, and flash on the bright overhead light. But she had already caught hell from her father for coming in late. Furious, he’d raged at her, demanding to know where she’d been, what she’d been doing, with whom she’d been doing it, for God’s sake! When he met with only stony silence from her, he’d continued to yell for ten minutes, then run out of steam and told her to get upstairs to her room. Teresa could imagine his reignited rage if she woke up the household over what was probably nothing.
Still, she hadn’t been able to close her eyes and pretend everything was all right. Although Teresa was exhausted, livid with her father, and afraid of the
wrongness
in her home, a visceral instinct had pushed her to find the threat she felt lurking in the Farr house that night.
She’d thrown back her light blanket, swung her bare feet to the floor, and slowly begun walking. She hadn’t closed her curtains, and moonlight cast an eerie silvery glow throughout the room. She hesitated, then opened her bedroom door.
At first, nothing had struck her as odd. The house was quiet. The small Tiffany-style lamp Teresa loved burned on a table near the bathroom, a guide down the hall for little Celeste, whose bedroom faced the front of the house. Hugh Farr and his new wife, Wendy, used the master bedroom right across from Teresa’s room.
And that’s when she realized what wasn’t right. At night, Hugh and Wendy’s bedroom door was always shut.
Except for now.
For a moment, unease tingled through Teresa. Then she walked to the Tiffany-style lamp that her mother had bought and cherished. Looking at one of her favorite possessions, the low-watt bulbs glowing softly through the glass shade of delicate blue and purple honey locust flowers, gave Teresa a small sense of comfort. Touching it felt almost like touching a rabbit’s foot or some other good-luck totem. Silly, but reassuring.
While Teresa stood by the lamp, she looked at Hugh and Wendy’s partially open bedroom door. Beyond it, Teresa could see nothing. She drew a deep breath, then walked purposefully through the open doorway and stepped into the master bedroom, as always surprised by the feel of thick carpet beneath her feet.