The Chosen

The Chosen
BEVERLY BARTON

Bolt the doors, turn on the lights and pray for mercy - you'll be up all night with this disturbingly addictive novel - perfect for fans of Karen Rose.It's the ultimate game.To win, you have to kill.To lose, you have to die.If he's chosen you to play, then it's Game Over…A brutal serial killer is on the loose. Each victim is a former beauty queen, a single rose placed next to their mutilated bodies.The scenes of unimaginable carnage have become familiar to Detective Lindsay McAllister. For the last 5 years, dozens of beautiful women have been slain and lives have been shattered, including Judd Walker whose wife was one of the first victims.But when the killer strikes again Lindsey knows she needs Judd's help. The murderer is getting bolder, faster, and more ruthless. The game has escalated, the rules have changed, the body count is rising…and no one is safe.

The Chosen

BEVERLY BARTON

Copyright (#ue0aa2576-ce19-597a-adc9-a9d4d1fd38a7)

Published by AVON

A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain as The Dying Game by HarperCollins 2008

This eBook edition published 2018

Copyright © Beverly Barton 2007

Cover design © Diane Meacham Design 2018

Cover photograph © Shutterstock

Beverly Barton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9781847560209

Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780007281855

Version: 2018-06-04

Dedication (#ue0aa2576-ce19-597a-adc9-a9d4d1fd38a7)

To Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Sonja Henie, Richard Greene, John Payne, Maureen O’Hara, John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Anne Baxter, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Greer Garson, Clark Gable, James Cagney, and countless other movie stars who shined so brightly in black and white on the old silver screen and brightened my childhood, filled my with life with romance and magic, and ignited my innate creativity.

Thank you, Daddy, for sharing your love of classic movies with me.

Contents

Cover (#u5a144b3e-29ad-5b88-a325-4fe5a0b53a61)Title Page (#ubde6c917-bc3d-55b1-84e3-031ba62b7c4c) Copyright Dedication Prologue (#ua0e3a3fc-a19e-5dd4-a655-959b630bf7b3)Chapter One (#u1abccd8d-126b-5460-8c1d-594c79abfcab)Chapter Two (#u5683a212-9d29-5bcf-9b45-1b0fe8cc8f9d)Chapter Three (#uae81ff6f-a3f5-507c-88ed-c50c560f12d6)Chapter Four (#uf2b6fa9e-f44d-5b6e-b9a2-d2b36917737c)Chapter Five (#uefab78d8-0746-5793-8097-e9b8207c5641)Chapter Six (#u568e4840-3fab-5148-9b9b-635c4b3845e9)Chapter Seven (#u08b82f23-4ef4-5e1d-8e22-e3d45ec4680d)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty One (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty Two (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty One (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty Two (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirty Five (#litres_trial_promo)Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)Keep Reading … (#litres_trial_promo)About the Author (#litres_trial_promo) Also by Beverly Barton About the Publisher

Prologue (#ue0aa2576-ce19-597a-adc9-a9d4d1fd38a7)

The intensely bright lights blinded her. She couldn’t see anything except the white illumination that obscured everything else in her line of vision. She wished he would turn off the car’s headlights.

Judd didn’t like her to show houses to clients in the evenings. But her career as a Realtor was just getting off the ground and if she could sell this half-million dollar house to Mr. and Mrs. Farris, her percentage would be enough to furnish the nursery. Not that she was pregnant. Not yet. And not that her husband couldn’t well afford to furnish a nursery with the best of everything. It was just that Jennifer wanted the baby to be her gift to her wonderful husband and the nursery to be a gift from her to their child.

Holding her hand up to shield her eyes from the headlights, she walked down the sidewalk to meet John and Katherine Farris, an up-and-coming entrepreneurial couple planning to start a new business in Chattanooga. She had spoken only to John Farris. From their telephone conversations, she had surmised that John, like her own husband, was the type who liked to think he wore the pants in the family. Odd how, considering the fact that she believed herself to be a thoroughly modern woman, Jennifer loved Judd’s old-fashioned sense of protectiveness.

When John Farris parked his black Mercedes and opened the driver’s door, Jennifer met him, her hand outstretched in greeting. He accepted her hand immediately and smiled warmly.

“Good evening, Mr. Farris.” Jennifer glanced around, searching for Mrs. Farris.

“I’m sorry, something came up at the last minute that delayed Katherine. She’ll be joining us soon.”

When John Farris raked his silvery blue eyes over her, Jennifer shuddered inwardly, an odd sense of uneasiness settling in the pit of her stomach. You’re being silly, she told herself. Men found her attractive. And it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t do anything to lead them on, nothing except simply being beautiful, which she owed to the fact that she’d inherited great genes from her attractive parents.

Jennifer sighed. Sometimes being a former beauty queen was a curse.

“If you’d like to wait for your wife before you look at the house, I can go ahead and answer any questions you might have. I’ve got all the information in my briefcase in my car.”

He shook his head. “No need to wait. I’d like to take a look around now. If I don’t like the place, Katherine won’t be interested.”

“Oh, I see.”

He chuckled. “It’s not that she gives in to me on everything. We each try to please the other. Isn’t that the way to have a successful marriage?”

“Yes, I think so. It’s certainly what Judd and I have been trying to do. We’re a couple of newlyweds just trying to make our way through that first year of marriage.” Jennifer nodded toward the front entrance to the sprawling glass-and-log house. “If you’ll follow me.”

“I’d be delighted to follow you.”

Despite his reply sending a quiver of apprehension along her nerve endings, she kept walking toward the front steps, telling herself that if she had to defend her honor against unwanted advances, it wouldn’t be the first time. She knew how to handle herself in sticky situations. She carried pepper spray in her purse and her cell phone rested securely in her jacket pocket.

After unlocking the front door, she flipped on the light switch, which illuminated the large foyer. “The house was built in nineteen-seventy-five by an architect for his own personal home.”

John Farris paused in the doorway. “How many rooms?”

“Ten,” she replied, then motioned to him. “Please, come on in.”

He entered the foyer and glanced around, up into the huge living room and to the right into the open dining room. “It seems perfect for entertaining.”

“Oh, it is. There’s a state-of-the-art kitchen. It was completely gutted and redone only four years ago by the present owner.”

“I’d like to take a look,” he told her. “I’m the chef in the family. Katherine can’t boil water.”

Feeling a bit more at ease, Jennifer led him from the foyer, through the dining room, and into the galley-style kitchen. “I love this kitchen. I’m not much of a cook myself, but I’ve been taking gourmet cooking lessons as a surprise for my husband.”