Silence: The Faces of Evil Christmas Prequel

Table of Contents

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

VICIOUS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

About the Author

SILENCE

Faces of Evil

Debra Webb

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 Debra Webb, Pink House Press

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

PINK HOUSE PRESS

WebbWorks

Huntsville, Alabama

First Edition November 2013

Absolute silence...is the image of death.

~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1

Ten years before OBSESSION, the holiday magic of Christmas touched the lives of Special Agent Jess Harris and Dan Burnett, her first love... a love that would linger for more than two decades before destiny would bring them together once more. But first, Agent Harris must survive the faces of evil.

Christmas Eve

Birmingham, Alabama, 6:20 p.m.

She should have taken I-459 before she hit Birmingham proper. Traffic was bumper to bumper. Why the hell weren’t these people at home already? It was Christmas Eve for heaven’s sake!

I think you need that vacation now
.

Jess Harris banished Supervisory Special Agent Ralph Gant’s voice from her head. Taking a deep breath, she slowed for the exit to Hoover. Lily was going to be more than a little unhappy that Jess was running late. She had promised to be there before seven.

“Not going to happen,” she muttered ruefully.

The cell phone in the cup holder chimed as if she’d telegraphed that thought directly to her sister. It wasn’t necessary to check the caller ID, it would be Lily. From the moment her sister delivered her first child, she became the matriarch of their relationship as if the rite of passage into motherhood anointed her with a special wisdom Jess didn’t possess.

No, that was wrong, the transition happened way before that. Lil had evolved into a pint-sized mom the day their parents hadn’t come home. A car crash had stolen them away. Even now the memories of that afternoon made breathing difficult.

She and Lil had been doing homework at the kitchen table when the police arrived to take them away from the only real home they would know until they were adults with places of their own. Despite being just twelve Lil had, on some level, immediately assumed the role abruptly vacated by their mother.

A smile tugged at Jess’s lips. Or, maybe Lily Harris Colburn just liked being bossy. After all, she was two years older than Jess.

Summoning a chipper tone, Jess flipped open her cell before the third chime. “Hey, Lil. Almost there.”

That was a major stretch of the truth considering she still had to stop and pick up the dessert she’d promised to bring for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner. To the best of her memory there was a Publix in Hoover. At least she hoped the store hadn’t closed or moved. If it had, she’d just have to wing it. From Hoover it was maybe another twenty minutes to Lil’s house if traffic didn’t get even more congested.

Wishful thinking
. She glanced at the line of cars waiting to merge.

Jess listened through her sister’s patient reminder for her to drive safely and not to forget that the new minister’s older son—who just happened to be about Jess’s age and single now that his divorce was final—was having dinner with the family tonight.

How could Jess forget?

“I can’t wait to meet him.” What was one more little deviation from the truth? “I’m making a quick stop at Publix. See you soon.” She closed her phone before Lil could protest, tossed it on the passenger seat and let out a big groan. “Why in the world did you do this, Jessie Lee?”

Because you had a moment of weakness after looking death in the face
. Because even her new boss had insisted.

As an agent in the field she had danced with death a few times. It went with the territory. The tension she wanted so badly to deny tightened in her chest. But this time the house call she’d made had been different, had hit a little closer to home. Images from those frantic hours before daylight this morning crowded in on her. Scrubbing the backseat of her car and the carpet in the floorboard. No matter how hard she cleaned the smell of desperation and death lingered—at least in her mind.

She banished the chill that tried to invade her bones. Her colleagues at the Bureau would be shocked. Special Agent Jess Harris hadn’t taken more than a day here or there in eight years. She wasn’t married. Didn’t have kids. Never got sick. What did she need with a vacation? That was her motto and she’d stuck to it her entire career.

Stress is cumulative, Agent Harris
.
There comes a time in every agent’s career when they need a break... or they break
. That profound statement had summarized her last psychological evaluation. When she’d moved to the Behavioral Analysis Unit two months ago, Gant had mentioned he preferred his profilers take their downtime a little more seriously. She’d smiled and agreed, then promptly dismissed the concept... until around midnight last night. A few hours after that she hastily packed a bag and headed to Alabama.

The reality of just how long it had been since she’d come home had hit Jess squarely between the eyes. Her sister was the only family she had left in this world—at least the only family she claimed anyway. Jess was not allowing another holiday to pass without spending it with her family even if that decision meant coming
here
.

Coming back here was...
difficult
.

Stretching the kinks from her neck, Jess repositioned her hands on the steering wheel. Already that particular tension had started to twist tighter and tighter inside her and she was barely within the city limits. Her heart beat faster and her mouth grew dry.

He
was here.

Memories of cruising through downtown Birmingham on hot summer nights in that convertible he’d owned back in high school rushed through her mind, doing strange things to her pulse. The lights... the stars... sitting so close to him she could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest.

She had been crazy in love with Daniel Burnett. And completely certain they would be together
forever
.

A wry laugh bubbled up in her still raw throat. “Good thing I didn’t lay a wager on that one.”

Ten years ago, while they were planning their wedding no less, he’d announced he couldn’t be what she wanted and had come back here—to their hometown—
alone
, leaving her in Boston...
alone
.

Apparently he hadn’t looked back. In fact he’d gotten married, not once but twice according to her sister, since then. The last time was scarcely a year ago. Maybe their breaking up had been a good thing.

Just hadn’t felt like one at the time, or any of the other times since, whenever she’d irrationally permitted herself to wonder
what if
they’d stayed together.

Dismissing thoughts of Dan, she turned onto John Hawkins Parkway and aimed her almost new Audi toward Publix. The gently used car was a present to herself for the long awaited promotion she had worked so hard to achieve. After eight years as a special agent in the field with the Bureau, she had been selected for a rare and prestigious position at Quantico’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.

The opportunity to dissect the most evil criminal minds was both challenging and exhilarating and worth all the years of personal sacrifice. More of the images from the past thirty-six hours elbowed their way back into her thoughts.

Unable to turn off work at the end of a case much less at the end of the day
.

Maybe she’d prove the shrink wrong by not allowing the carousel of cases she spent her time digging around in to haunt her last minute vacation.

Now there was a novel concept.

To her frustration, traffic was even slower moving on the parkway, but she was almost there. She worked at relaxing, first her neck and shoulders, then her arms and hands. All she had to do was let go of all things related to work.

This break would be fun. Visiting Lily and her cute little family was always a joy. Except for the blatant matchmaking. Jess rolled her eyes. Her sister was desperate to get her home permanently. Nearly all the emails she got from Lil these days included a bio on some newly divorced or widowed member of her church.

“Not going to happen, sis.” Jess was never coming back here permanently.

N.E.V.E.R.

After cruising the rows of cars, she finally found a vacant slot in the crowded lot and parked. Her body complained as she unfastened her seatbelt. A fringe benefit of driving for twelve hours with only two brief stops, not to mention all the bruises she’d sustained last night joined the protest. Nothing a couple of long hot baths wouldn’t fix.

The last time she’d come to Birmingham—had it been four years?—she had taken a commercial flight. Not this time. She’d needed those long driving hours alone to evict work from her head. Not an easy task for someone so hyper focused.

Well, not today. Today she wasn’t a special agent with the FBI, she was Jessie Lee Harris, the sister who’d come home for Christmas.

Despite the cold, blustery weather it was considerably warmer here than the winter storm conditions she’d left back in Virginia. The streets were free of ice and snow. The only precipitation she’d run into as she crossed into Alabama was rain. She grabbed her coat and shouldered into it, then cinched the belt at her waist. The black wool blocked the crisp wind and helped to conceal her travel wrinkled clothes.

She hit the clicker, securing her car, as she headed for the entrance. “One pecan pie coming up.”

While she was at it, she might just get two desserts, the promised pecan pie for tomorrow and one of those decadent hot fudge pies for tonight. Maybe she’d pick up some wine too. After the minister’s son was gone and the kiddies were in bed, she, Lil, and her husband, Blake, could share a few toasts. There was plenty to celebrate. Lily had the husband, kids, and the white picket fence she had always wanted. And Jess had the promotion she’d worked so very hard to achieve.

“Careful what you wish for.”

2

Two days earlier...

Quantico, Virginia, 10:50 a.m.

“Harris, I’m not going to beat around the bush here.”

Even before being assigned to his unit, Jess had worked with Supervisory Special Agent Gant on occasion so she wasn’t exactly worried about why he’d called her into his office or about his direct tone. Going straight for the heart of the matter was his usual style. He evidently saved all his charm—assuming he had any—for civilians.