Winter Black Box Set 3
Winter Black Series
Books 7-9
Mary Stone
Copyright © 2020 by Mary Stone
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
To my husband
Thank you for taking care of our home and its many inhabitants while I follow this silly dream of mine.
Contents
Winter’s Web
Description
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
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Winter’s Storm
Description
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
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Winter’s End
Description
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
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Winter Black Series by Mary Stone
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Description
Human webs are the deadliest...
When Ryan O’Connelly—the unwilling accomplice of a bank robber turned mass murderer—slipped out of the FBI’s grasp, no one expected to hear from him again, much less of his own volition. But when he shows up at the FBI’s doorstep after almost a year of successful evasion, he has information to point Special Agent Winter Black in the direction of a brutal serial killer.
As Ryan takes the team into the deep, dark web of sinister secrets, Winter receives an even more disturbing message from her brother than the last. She can feel him out there...watching, waiting.
Lucky for Winter, she isn’t afraid of spiders. She’s only afraid when the spider disappears.
Book seven of Mary Stone’s addictive Winter Black Series, Winter’s Web, exposes what goes on behind closed doors and the web of lies and deadly truths we ignore to protect the ones we love.
1
As Nathaniel Arkwell stepped out of the garage and eased the door closed behind himself, he noticed right away that the house was far quieter than usual. Turning the deadbolt back into place, he glanced around the mudroom, taking in the bench, the few pairs of shoes beneath it, and the jackets that hung from hooks on the other side.
The space was immaculate. Even the black chalkboard above the bench had been recently wiped clean. Nathaniel’s daughter, Maddie, had made the board over the summer to help her remember important school functions.
The knack for organization was a trait she’d inherited from him. In all Maddie’s seventeen years of life, Nathaniel could count on one hand the number of times he’d had to remind her to clean her room. More often than not, her bedroom was every bit as tidy as his home office.
He was grateful for the common ground he and Maddie had discovered as she grew older. They maintained an open dialogue about everything from her senior geology class to the navigation of the high school social scene.
However, a knack for cleanliness was virtually the only thing Nathaniel and his college-aged son had in common. In the eleven years since Katrina Arkwell—Nathaniel’s beloved wife and the mother of his children—died, the gap between him and Cameron had only widened. He’d made a valiant effort to bridge the veritable canyon between them, but to no avail.
The thought coaxed a sigh from his lips. Sometimes, he thought Katrina had been the only thing that kept his son tethered to the real world.
With one foot, Nathaniel shoved both shiny black dress shoes beneath the bench before he made his way through the hall and into the spacious kitchen.
A tinge of light was visible through the picture windows at the other end of the room. The splash of color was all that remained of the sun’s rays. For the third night in a row, he hadn’t gotten home from work until after the sun had disappeared below the horizon.
Like the mudroom, the kitchen was spotless. The housecleaning staff had already left for the day, and apparently, no one had been through the house since. If Cameron or Maddie had used the kitchen, there would be evidence of their pit stop. As neat as they were, there would be, at the very least, the faint smell of pizza or tacos. Maddie had recently discovered a love for onions, so Nathaniel was certain he’d still be able to smell her last meal.
No, he already knew that neither of his children were home. He couldn’t stop yet another sigh, this one in relief, at the knowledge. He loved his children, but quiet wasn’t a privilege he often received.
Cameron attended classes at Virginia Commonwealth University and Maddie was a high school senior, but their days off tended to correspond with one another. Tomorrow was a weekday, but neither of them had class, Nathaniel remembered. Maddie sent him a
text earlier in the day to ask if she could stay overnight with a friend, and he’d given her his blessing.
And with Cameron? Well, who knew. Nathaniel could only hope he was at a kegger or a bar. Some place conducive to the activities of a normal college kid.
Nathaniel strode through the kitchen and the breakfast area, his stocking feet little more than a whisper of sound. He shrugged off his messenger bag as he headed past the great room and to the base of the staircase. Aside from the usual recessed lights and a floor lamp, no other fixtures had been turned on.
Feeling much older than his forty-four years, he ascended to the open loft of the second floor. From the raised vantage point, he took one last look over the living area and what he could see of the kitchen and breakfast room. Still, there was no movement.
Though he had no reason to think danger awaited him on the second floor of the house, the hairs on the back of his neck rose to attention at the unsettling quiet.
Clenching his jaw, he gave himself a mental shake, hoping to rid himself of the sudden bout of paranoia. The outside of the house was monitored twenty-four-seven via a system of security cameras and motion sensor lights. Inside, the alarm system came with around the clock backup support of one of the city’s best regarded personal security firms.
Well, if there were no children or employees who needed his attention, he might as well take the opportunity to get a head start on some work.
In part because the house was so clean, and in part because he’d just been in his office that afternoon, Nathaniel noticed the envelope as soon as he flicked the switch that brought the floor lamp in the corner to life.
There, in the center of the polished mahogany corner desk set a nondescript white envelope. His first thought was that Maddie had surprised him with one of the charms she’d taught herself to make. But as he drew nearer, he knew the handwriting wasn’t Maddie’s.
The handwriting belonged to his son.
Nathaniel wasn’t convinced that Cameron was a bad kid, but the boy was…odd. He portrayed himself much differently to his classmates and even his sister than he did to his father. To them, Cameron was a normal, twenty-two-year-old undergraduate student.
But to Nathaniel, he was someone else entirely.
Nathaniel was allergic to cats, and after an attempt to bring in a guinea pig for Maddie when she was eight, Nathaniel was finally grateful for the allergy. Porky the guinea pig went missing a couple weeks after Maddie brought him home.
At first, Nathaniel just assumed that his eight-year-old daughter had left the door to the cage unlocked, and Porky made a run for freedom. As far as he’d been concerned at the time, the loss was a normal part of growing up and learning responsibility. He hadn’t been harsh with Maddie when he sat her down to discuss the guinea pig’s absence, but she was still adamant that she’d been diligent in looking after her pet.
The days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, but there was still no sign of Porky.
Then, that spring, their longtime housekeeper, Martha, had been digging in the garden to tend to her yearly vegetable patch. The remains were highly decomposed at that point, but Martha pulled Nathaniel aside to show him the body not long after she found it. Nathaniel had never excelled at anatomy or possessed any other medical expertise, but even he could tell that Porky had been ripped to pieces before the poor thing was buried.
A coyote, maybe. Or a cat. He’d assured the woman that Porky had been attacked by a wild animal, nothing more. It was just something that happened.
Porky was the first, but the guinea pig was far from the last.
Eventually, after Martha caught Cameron dissecting a small dog, she put in her two weeks’ notice, and Nathaniel had given her a huge severance bribe to ensure she kept her mouth closed regarding the incident. There had been posters all around the neighborhood for weeks after the incident, each offering a cash reward for an update on the pup’s whereabouts. Each time Nathaniel saw one, he felt physically ill.
Even then, he’d convinced himself that Cameron’s fascination with the inner workings of living creatures was normal. Maybe Cameron would become a doctor or a surgeon, maybe that was why he’d taken to chopping up small animals.
But somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d known.
After Porky, Nathaniel didn’t permit any more pets. He’d caved and gotten Maddie an aquarium a year ago, but he figured fish were a safe enough option.
Leaning his messenger bag against the side of the desk, Nathaniel dropped down to sit in the leather office chair. As he picked up the envelope, a small object shifted inside.
Though he expected a slip of paper to explain the contents, the only item sealed within was a cheap plastic flash drive.
As he dropped the device into his palm, his mouth suddenly felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls. Swallowing against the unpleasant dryness, he reluctantly opened his laptop and pressed a button to bring the screen to life.
There was only one file on the drive. A video.
Nathaniel raked a shaky hand through his hair as he opened the file.
When he spotted the length, his eyes widened. Four hours?
As he gritted his teeth, he leaned in closer to squint at the screen. The camera had been placed high up in a corner of the dim room, either mounted to the wall or atop a shelf. Aside from a twin-sized bed against the far wall, a wooden chair, and an end table, the space was unadorned. He thought he saw the shape of a person tucked beneath the blankets, but the area was cloaked in shadows, and he couldn’t be sure.
He hovered an index finger above the trackpad, clenching and unclenching his jaw as he willed himself to press play.
For the first few moments, he thought the video wasn’t a video at all. He did such a thorough job convincing himself that the image was a still that he almost leapt out of his seat when the shadows along the bed shifted.
A young woman sat upright, her movements hurried as she flung off the dark comforter. Her head snapped from side to side, but the recording had been made with no audio. Though Nathaniel could see that she was speaking, he couldn’t hear anything aside from the uneasy stillness of the empty house around him.
He didn’t recognize the room, didn’t recognize the girl, the furniture, none of it.
Nathaniel took in a sharp breath as the young woman climbed out of bed.
One of her ankles was shackled. Wherever she was, she had been chained to a wall.
Mouth agape, he watched in stunned silence as she made her way around the room to inspect the walls and the floor. Either she didn’t notice the camera, or the device had been hidden.
As Nathaniel caught a glimpse of her panicked expression, he hoped that this was some sort of film project—some artsy representation of human trafficking or the start of a homemade horror movie. As long as everyone involved was consenting, he didn’t care what the video was.
But the more he looked at her terrified countenance, the more and more certain he became that she wasn’t in that room of her own volition.
It was a film project. It had to be.
Cameron rarely discussed his school courses with Nathaniel. He must have enrolled in an elective film class to satisfy a general education requirement.
That’s what this was. He was sure of it.
No matter how convincing his rationalization, Nathaniel couldn’t fight off the tightness in his throat as he watched the blonde woman tuck her knees up to her chin at the foot of the bed.
As much as he wanted to know what else the video might have captured, he couldn’t sit and watch the girl’s frightened movements for four whole hours. After a steadying breath, he tapped the fast-forward button.
She didn’t move from the bed until the half-hour mark, and even then, she was back on the mattress within ten minutes. At the accelerated pace, he could almost trick himself into thinking her movements were no longer frightened or panicked.
The two-hour mark passed, then three, then four, and still no change. Just as he was su
re the entire video was merely footage of the young woman in the dim room, the screen flashed to black.
With a sharp intake of breath, Nathaniel tapped the touchpad again to bring the pace back to normal.
When the black screen flipped back to the video of the room, the space was bathed in the bright glow of what Nathaniel assumed were stage lights.