The
Detective Matt Jones Thriller Series, Bks 1&2
The
Detective Matt Jones Thriller series got off to an amazing start! CITY OF
ECHOES, Book 1, received a starred review from Booklist, who wrote “A powerhouse.
Stunning emotional force. Ellis keeps everything in focus while building a
staggering momentum.” Amazon even awarded the book a “Best Book of the Month.” When THE
LOVE KILLINGS, Book 2 came out, Kirkus Reviews called it “a gleefully tense sequel.”
Now
THE GIRL BURIED IN THE WOODS and CITY OF STONES are finally here. And to make
everything just right, Thomas & Mercer, have lowered the price of both CITY
OF ECHOES (4.99) and THE LOVE KILLINGS (5.99) to only $0.99 for the entire month of September!
They’ve
been behind this special series from the beginning. Much thanks to all. Here’s an
excerpt from CITY OF ECHOES, the book that kicked all this off! Chapter 4, with
Matt on a bad night and in a real jam. Hope you love it!
CITY OF ECHOES on Amazon for $0.99
Chapter 4
It
wasn’t very big, but it was beautiful: a two-story Mediterranean off West
Kenneth Road in Glendale. The grounds were heavily landscaped, the gardens,
stepping down the hill to a small pool and spa in the backyard, more than just
lush. Over the rear wall was a picture-perfect view of both Glendale and
downtown Los Angeles, a view that had become lost in the trees and forgotten by
the original owner, who soldthe
house cheap before his bank could steal it away and foreclose.
Matt
couldn’t see any of this because it was 3:00 a.m.
and he was still sitting in his car. He’d been parked across the street for the
better part of an hour, sipping coffee and chewing nicotine gum while trying to
decide how to go about the impossible task of walking up to that house and
ringing the doorbell.
Matt
had never made a next-of-kin notification before, yet he had a feeling that
this one wouldn’t require many words. He was wearing the news on his face. On
his person. One look and Hughes’s wife, Laura, would know.
During
the course of the night, any doubt as to the identity of the murder victim had
been lifted. By 10:00 p.m. the manager from the GM dealership had been located
at a bar in Eagle Rock. By 10:30 they had the name of the customer who had been
given the black SUV as a loaner while his Escalade was being serviced. An hour
later a tech from SID called from the lab to say that he had brought the cell
phone back to life.
Matt
glanced at his watch. Seconds had ticked by, not minutes, and it was still 3:00
a.m.
He
took another sip of coffee and looked back at the house. Except for a small
table lamp burning in the foyer by the front door, every window in the place
was dark, peaceful, and at rest.
Hughes
had been more than a friend to him. More than even a mentor. After their tour
of duty in Afghanistan, it had been Hughes who convinced Matt to write off his
troubles by leaving the East Coast and moving to Los Angeles. It had been
Hughes who took him under his wing and brought him into the department. Matt’s
aunt had died six months before he enlisted. He could remember Hughes telling
him that there was no longer a good reason to live in New Jersey. It was time
to begin what he called the forgetting
process. LA was a city of distraction that ran 24/7. Any bad dreams he
might still be carrying from his childhood, any losses or monkeys still
clinging to his back would be wiped out by the bright sunlight and what they’d
just been through overseas.
Matt
got out of the car, his jaw muscles twitching. He took a step toward the house
and then another, struggling to dampen his mind. He could hear a small pack of
coyotes yipping and howling further up the hill as he reached the walkway. The kite-like sound of the wind blowing
through the palm trees in the dark sky above. As he climbed the front steps, he
took a quick glimpse through the window and saw a note on the table by the
lamp. The note had been left for Hughes by his wife, and seeing it felt like a
flock of blackbirds had just flown through his soul.
He
turned away, staring at the illuminated doorbell for a long time. Then he
finally pressed the button and listened to the chimes invading the serenity of
the house. A lamp on the second floor switched on, its light spilling onto the
front lawn. Looking through the window again, he waited to see Laura walk down
the staircase. When several minutes passed and nothing happened, he rang the
bell again and moved closer to the window so that she would be able to see his
face from the landing.
More
time passed, nervous beats in the center of his chest followed by quick
breaths. The hallway on the second floor remained dark. Matt thought it over.
It was the dead of night. She wasn’t going to answer the door.
He
pulled out his phone, found Hughes’s home number, and hit Call. Laura picked up
on the first ring and sounded frightened.
“There’s
someone at the front door,” she said. “There’s someone trying to get into the
house.”
Matt
paused a moment. What came next was inevitable.
“It’s
not a burglar,” he said. “It’s me, Laura. I just rang your doorbell.”
“What
are you doing here? Where’s Kevin? Why isn’t he answering his cell phone?”
Inevitable.
“Come
downstairs and open the door, Laura. We need to talk.”
Inevitable.
He
could hear the change. The sudden short gasp. The quick flash of dread.
“Oh,
God. Oh my God.”
He
slipped the phone into his pocket and took a step back. He tried to keep cool,
but he could hear her shrieking through the door as she raced downstairs and
fumbled with the locks. When the door finally opened, their eyes met, but only
briefly before she pulled him inside and buried her head in his chest. Her
cries came from a place where nothing was left. Deep and dark and all the way
through. She kept repeating words that were difficult to understand.
Eventually, Matt realized that she was begging him to say that Kevin wasn’t
really dead. That the man she loved could be brought back.
He
led her into the kitchen. After hitting the
light switch with his elbow, he guided her over to the breakfast table and
eased her into a chair.
When she looked up at him, she seemed so helpless, so wounded, that he couldn’t
hold the gaze.
“What
happened, Matt? Tell me. You were meeting for dinner. Your new job. It was
supposed to be a celebration.”
“You
want a drink? A cup of coffee?”
She shook her head and wiped her cheeks, her soft voice
breaking up. “Tell me what happened to Kevin. Tell me what happened.”
Matt
spotted a box of tissues on the counter by the sink. As he reached for it, he
noticed a pregnancy test kit on the windowsill and thought he might lose it.
“I
don’t know, Laura,” he said. “We think he was shot during a holdup.”
She
cocked her head, as if she didn’t understand. “For money?”
Her
voice was so faint. Matt nodded and sat down beside her, watching her struggle
to put it together.
“But
Kevin never carried a lot of cash,” she said.
“Is
there anyone I can call? Anyone who could come over and be with you?”
“He
never carried a lot of cash,” she repeated quietly.
Her
dirty blond hair was tangled from sleep, her deep blue eyes wet as rain. She
was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of cotton pajama bottoms with images of
flowers and rainbows and pots of gold. Matt thought about that test kit on the
windowsill and wondered if she was pregnant. He wished he hadn’t seen it.
“Do
you know who did it?” she managed.
“We
think so,” he said in a gentle voice. “But he’s never shot anyone before.”
“Someone
saw him?”
Matt
shook his head. “It’s early. We’re still working on it.”
Laura
closed her eyes and started weeping again. After several moments she began to speak as if she were alone in the room.
“I
was so worried about him . . . so worried . . . while
he was away . . . I waited and worried . . . I
watched the news every night and had nightmares that he wasn’t gonna come home . . . that
I’d never see him again . . . when I woke up, I felt guilty
for having them, but I couldn’t make them stop.” She opened her eyes, still
looking inward. “And then he comes home . . . Kevin comes
back to me, and it happens here . . . it happens here . . . for
his money . . . his cash . . .”
Her
voice died off. Matt didn’t say anything. He couldn’t find the words. He couldn’t
get past the image of his friend buried in the dark hole of that body bag. He
couldn’t turn off the memory or wrestle it to the ground. The blood. The shattered
glass. A bag of human flesh with no form.
He
felt his cell phone in his pocket. He wasn’t sure how long it had been
vibrating. After a while he pulled it out, glanced at the name on the display
without really seeing it, but took the call.
“What
is it?” he said quietly.
“What’s
wrong with your voice, Jones?”
It
was his supervisor, Lieutenant Bob Grace. Matt sat up and tried to pull himself
together, but together still seemed a long way off tonight.
“I’m
in the middle of something,” he said. “I didn’t know it was you.”
Grace
hesitated for a moment. “Where are you?”
“At
the house with his wife.”
“Why
is it taking so long?”
Matt
walked over to the sink and gazed out the window at the gardens and pool.
“What
is it? Why did you call me?”
“You
need to wrap it up, Matt. You need to come back in as soon as you can.”
He
turned to check on Laura. She was still inside herself and didn’t appear to
notice that he was even on the phone. Her lips were quivering. She was talking
to herself again, only this time in utter silence. He thought that she might
need a doctor.
Matt
turned back to the window and lowered his voice. “Did something happen,
Lieutenant?”
“We’ll
talk about it when you get here. I’m waiting with Cabrera in my office. Do your
best for her, but get back here as soon as you can.”
Matt
started to say something, then stopped when he heard the phone click and
realized that Grace had hung up.
CITYOF ECHOES on Amazon for $0.99
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