Deadly Homecoming

Deadly Homecoming
Barbara Phinney

Who killed the bride and groom?Everyone thinks it was "that troublemaker," Peta Donald. Gossips say she came home to stop the wedding. That jealousy led her to murder. No one on Northwind Island believes that Peta has changed since her youth. And nothing has changed in town. Peta is still shunned by everyone.Everyone except Lawson Mills, whose appearance on the island is as mysterious as the double murders. Peta is sure he has an ulterior motive for helping clear her name. Full of questions about another set of murders, Lawson is secretive about himself. Until they discover what's behind Peta's deadly homecoming…

“Hey! Anyone home?”

It had been a decade since she was here, and yet the furniture was the same, the pictures the same, the same layer of dust everywhere. At the top of the stairs, she turned. Danny was probably still sleeping off some pre-birthday celebration.

“Danny? Wake up!”

She peeked in. With a grimace at the empty, unkempt room, she walked to the large window that overlooked the backyard and bay. Below there stood a glass-enclosed gazebo, a battered relic from the sixties, now at the very end of the eroding backyard, and looking as if it might topple over the cliff at any moment.

She didn’t like being this high up, seeing this much wide-openness, but she couldn’t shut her eyes.

Because down below, Danny lay on the floor of the gazebo, his unnatural pose and glazed stare telling her a horrible truth.

Her ex-boyfriend was very dead.

BARBARA PHINNEY

has lived in four countries in her life and never gets tired of traveling. But nowadays, you’ll find her in her rural New Brunswick home writing or planning some volunteer event for her church or her children’s school. The small town in which she lives provides much fodder for her stories, and she’s often threatening her friends and family that they’ll find a place in one of her books. Barbara has had six books published, five with Harlequin Books, and finds the Bible to be her greatest source of inspiration. She feels it has the widest variety of people, and every one of them made mistakes, yet God loved them all. That amazes her.

She would love to hear from her readers, either through her Web site, www.barbaraphinney.com or through the editor at Steeple Hill Books, 233 Broadway Suite 1001, New York, NY 10279, U.S.A.

Deadly Homecoming

Barbara Phinney

Bless those who persecute you;

bless and do not curse.

—Romans 12:14

Dedicated to my family and my friends.

Thank you, all of you. You’re the best!

CONTENTS

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

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

ONE

Northwind Island punctured the fog bank ahead. At the back of the motorboat, Peta Donald bounced on the slick wooden seat, gritting her teeth to ride out the short bumpy trip into the Bay of Fundy.

Coming home was going to kill her.

But she couldn’t turn around now. Besides, Danny had called her, quite out of the blue, and asked her to come to his thirtieth birthday party. Not many ex-girlfriends got such an invitation.

And, well, after what she’d done to Danny, she had to come.

The open ferry hit another cold wave, and she cringed in anticipation of the hard bump. Salt water sprayed her, stinging her eyes and chilling her more than the early July day should.

“Sorry,” the operator tossed over his shoulder. Peta swiped her face, knowing there was really nothing he could do. The choppy sea wouldn’t calm just because she was on it.

By now, she could make out the wharf and some bold herring gulls searching for a free lunch. At five miles in length, Northwind Island was too small for anything but one village and one wharf. Sustained years ago by the dulse and herring industries, and now by its retirees, the island still looked the same. The trees had thickened, but the steeple of the island’s only church still pierced the misty skyline.

Hopefully, she’d have time for Sunday service. Though it was Tuesday, Danny’s birthday wasn’t until Friday, and she’d be leaving Sunday afternoon. She should be able to manage it, and Danny wouldn’t care one way or the other.

He hadn’t talked to her in a year. Then, after all that silence, he’d called with his invitation. “I’m turning thirty. You’ve got to come and help me celebrate.”

Reluctance had washed over her. “I’m hardly welcome on Northwind.”

“Don’t sweat it, girl. They hate everything here.”

“Then why are you still there?”