A year ago, Rose Mcgovern’s sister was found dead at the bottom of a bridge. A tragic accident. That’s what the police called it. What they still call it. What everyone except Rose believes to be true. But she won’t change her mind. No matter how many seconds and minutes and days go by, no matter how much time she’s had to spend in the psych ward, and no matter how much her life falls apart. She will never give up on her quest for the truth.
And now, it’s happening again.
Another woman’s body has been found. The circumstances are far too similar to be a coincidence. There might even be more victims. Which would mean that Rose was right all along. But the police have long since dismissed her as paranoid, and she’s driven away every friend she’s ever had. With nothing but her own conviction on her side, how can she prove that an accident is really a murder? And even if it’s possible, can she do it before she makes a deadly mistake and the killer claims her life, too?
I wake up, just knowing. There’s a heaviness in my body. A stone in my stomach. A thickness in my head. A sense of impending doom, which sounds dramatic but isn’t at all.
He’s going to do it again.
That’s the thought that circles through my brain, again and again.
The time before, it’d been too late when I realized. I had been too late. Powerless to stop it. And once it was done…well. I couldn’t undo it, though I suppose I could’ve told someone. I suppose I still could. But what’s the sense in making things worse? Where’s the goodness in endangering myself? Self-centered, I know. But until today, I believed wholeheartedly that I’d made the right decision.
He’s going to do it again.
The bed, empty beside me.
The sounds of him, rustling about somewhere else in the house.
The dread, oh, the dread.
He’s going to do it again.
But there’s a glimmer of hope under it all. He hasn’t done it yet. Of that, I’m sure. His mood is too good lately, too sweet. He’d left fresh-picked flowers on the table yesterday morning. A note, too.
Love you, babe. Have the best day ever.
But this is also why the refrain is playing in my head.
He’s going to do it again.
It’s a pattern. Cheeriness. Flowers. Sweetness. And then…
But now I know. And maybe this time, I can head it off. Stop it—him—before it happens. All I have to do is to find a way. All I have to do is be sure.
Because another girl doesn’t deserve to die.
End of Excerpt
This book will begin shipping
May 7, 2024
The Echois currently available in
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