Sleep Softly
Gwen Hunter
Four little girls–each blond, each on the verge of adolescence–stolen from their families.Their bodies discovered months later in shallow graves, surrounded by trinkets they never owned, clutching a scrap of paper bearing a cryptic verse. As a forensic nurse in rural South Carolina, Ashlee Davenport Chadwick acts as both caregiver and cop, gathering evidence from anyone who arrives in the local E.R. as the result of a crime. It's a tough job, both physically and emotionally draining, but deeply satisfying.Then a child's red shoe is discovered on Davenport property. The evidence leads Ashlee to the body of a missing girl and her work suddenly invades every aspect of her life. As an expert and a witness, she must call upon all her resources. And when the killer's eye turns to her, she becomes intimately involved with a crime that tests her mind and her spirit…and the price of failure will be another child's life.
GWEN HUNTER
sleep softly
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
FOR HELP ON MUSES:
S. Joy Robinson, who did research and brought me wonderful books on the subject.
And Misty Massey, who gave me the idea in the first place.
FOR MEDICAL HELP:
I have tried to make the medical sections of Sleep Softly as realistic as possible. Where mistakes may exist, they are mine, not the able, competent and creative medical workers in the list below.
Susan Prater, O.R., Tech and sister-in-love, in South Carolina
Earl Jenkins, Jr., M.D., in South Carolina
James Maynard, M.D., in South Carolina
Eric Lavondas, M.D., in North Carolina
Randall Pruett, R.N., in South Carolina
As always, for making this a stronger book:
Miranda Stecyk, my editor, who had a massive editing job in this one! Kisses!