My romantic suspense novel, What We Found, is currently free on Amazon.
Finding a dead body changes a person.
22-year-old Audra Needham is
back in her small New Mexico hometown. She just wants to fit in, work
hard, and help her younger brother. Going for a walk in the woods with her
former crush, Jay, seems like a harmless distraction.
Until they stumble on a body.
Jay, who has secrets of his
own to protect, insists they walk away and keep quiet. But Audra can't simply
forget what she's seen. The woman deserves to be found, and her story deserves
to be told.
More than one person isn't
happy about Audra bringing a crime to life. The dead woman was murdered, and Audra
could be next on the vengeful killer's list. She’ll have to stand up for
herself in order to stand up for the murder victim. It’s a risk, and so is
reaching out to the mysterious young man who works with deadly birds of prey. With
her 12-year-old brother determined to play detective, and romance budding in
the last place she expected, Audra learns that some risks are worth taking – no
matter the danger, to her body or her heart.
“Another action-packed suspense novel by Kris Bock, perhaps
her best to-date. The author weaves an intriguing tale with appealing
characters. Watching Audra, the main character, evolve into an
emotionally-mature and independent young woman is gratifying.” Reader Ellen R.
"This book had me guessing to the end
who was the murderer. Well written characters drive the story. Good romance.
Exceptional and believable plot twists and turns. I loved it! I recommend this
book highly." Reader Suzanne B.
"This is a nonstop suspense. Love the
characters and how real they seem with every episode played out. This is a love
story and suspense all in one." Reader Pam
Excerpt: Chapter 1
I shouldn’t be doing this. I don’t do things like this.
And yet I kept walking, following
Jay through the woods. I stepped carefully along the narrow path, but my good
shoes would be dusty by the time we were done. My gaze flicked up to Jay’s long
legs in faded jeans. His butt had been voted the best in our high school. It
wasn’t the only reason I’d had a crush on him as a sophomore, but it definitely
played a part.
Six years later, it was hard to
believe I was really walking through the woods with him. Though we’d grown up
together in a town of only 8,000 people, we’d rarely spoken. He was two grades
ahead of me, but even if we’d been in the same year, I wouldn’t have traveled
in his circles. I’d seen him around school or at the pizza parlor, I’d watched
his basketball games, I’d felt sorry for him when I heard his dreams of playing
college ball fell through.
Since I’d graduated, I’d only
seen him around town when I came back to visit. We might smile and say “Hey” as
we passed, the way acquaintances did. Yet a week after I’d moved back home, I
was taking a long lunch to follow Jay into the woods. I felt like a giddy high
school girl again.
I had to remind myself that I was
twenty-two, an adult, with a brand-new college degree—with honors. I’d worked
hard to get the Hospitality Degree that had landed me one of the few good jobs
in the only place in town worth working. I’d come back to my hometown for my
new job at the Mountain Inn and Resort and for my brother, not for Jay. And I
was old enough to realize that we probably didn’t have much in common.
But when my high school crush
noticed me for the first time and offered to show me the view from the plateau,
how could I resist? I didn’t expect to start a beautiful relationship, but it
was nice to imagine I’d turned into the type of woman who could attract a cool
guy’s attention.
My heart was beating a little too
quickly and I had to wipe my palms on my slacks. Despite the leafy shade, the
air hung heavy and hot, the first really warm day of the year. It had hit 87
down in Albuquerque
the day I moved, but summer came later in the central New Mexico mountains, at an elevation of
almost 7,000 feet.
We entered a small clearing.
Sunlight broke through the trees, dappling the long yellow grass. It was nice
to be back in the mountains, back in these woods where I’d walked so often,
after four years in a big city. I’d missed the green.
A bird rustled nearby. Jay turned
and smiled at me. I smiled back, but my face felt stiff as I remembered his
reputation with girls. At the time I’d envied those girls, with all the naïveté
of a shy teenager who never got asked to go for walks in the woods with boys.
Now I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. He’d said he wanted to show me the
view and point out the changes since I’d been gone. But in high school, a “walk
in the woods” wasn’t about the scenery.
I was being silly. We’d grown up
since then. And we hardly had time to get into trouble. He couldn’t possibly
assume we were sneaking out for a quickie after chatting for half an hour in
the employee lunchroom. I’d told him I only had a few minutes.
“Come on, let’s go through here.”
He pushed into the trees to the side of the clearing, rather than going forward
on the established path that looped around the plateau and eventually back
toward the resort. The view should be straight ahead.
I glanced back down the path, but
the bright green of the golf course had disappeared around a bend. Still, we
were just a few minutes from work. Maybe he knew another path, a smaller game
trail.
It was easier to go along than to
ask questions. If he had something more in mind than admiring the view, I could
stop him later. But no need to cause a fuss yet.
A minute later he stopped in a
smaller clearing, where a fallen log had cleared a space among the other trees.
A nearby bank sloped down to a ditch that might carry a trickle of water later
in the season, after the rains. I kept my smile in place and waited to see what
he would do.
He swung toward me and reached
out with one hand. I jerked back. My arm bumped against a tree and I felt the
bark catch my sleeve. I looked down to free it, my face hot.
“Nervous?” Jay asked with a smile
in his voice.
I shrugged and avoided his gaze.
“You startled me.”
“Ah, sweet little Audra. Not so
little anymore, and surely not so innocent?” He brushed his fingers over my
hair where it draped over my shoulder just above my breast. I tensed but
couldn’t move back without hitting trees.
He reached in his pocket and
pulled out a small plastic baggie. He unrolled it and pulled out a handmade
cigarette—probably a joint. Some of the other rumors about him came back,
rumors I’d forgotten. He grinned the cocky basketball-star smile that had
melted so many hearts, but it didn’t look quite the same now. For the first
time I noticed the hollows under his eyes and the faint lines on his weathered
skin. Could he really be just twenty-five? Had we all aged so much? Or had the
years been harder on him?
He did work outside, which could
account for some of the weathering. I was glad I always used moisturizer with
sunscreen.
He lit up, took a puff, and held
out the joint. I shook my head and struggled to keep a polite half-smile in
place. He frowned and kept his arm extended. “Come on, you need to loosen up.”
My hand twitched, as if it wanted
to follow his command of its own accord. I hated conflict. But I didn’t do
drugs, and I wasn’t about to start. If I got fired from my job in the first
week, I’d have a hard time finding anything else in town. I’d been away for
four years, only visiting once a month, and I wasn’t about to make Ricky deal
with Mom on his own any longer.
“Thanks, but no. I, uh, have some
mild asthma and smoke makes me cough.” I’d found excuses like that more
effective than a simple no thanks, which could lead to derision and pressure.
He shrugged and turned away,
taking another puff. The smoke drifted toward me, confirming that this was no
ordinary cigarette. I edged toward the ditch bank to get away from the smell.
As an excuse for backing away, I leaned over to sniff the clusters of yellow
blossoms on a gangly wildflower.
I almost gagged.
Could that stench really be
coming from those pretty little flowers? I straightened, trying to breathe
shallowly through my mouth and hide my disgust so Jay wouldn’t think I was
disapproving of him.
Once I’d noticed it, the smell
seemed strong all around me. Jay sat on the log and smoked. I paced the small
open space, trying not to gag. It smelled of garbage, something rotten,
decaying, dead. I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to turn back and run
through the woods, back to my small office where I could focus on my work. This
was a mistake. I’d never belonged with Jay and never would.
My friend Katie’s voice sounded
in my head. Stop it! You’re channeling
your mother again. Not all men are monsters.
He grinned up at me. “Come on,
have a seat.”
I stared into his face as my
stomach churned. How could he stand being in this place? Couldn’t he smell it?
Or did his little cloud of pot block out everything else?
I managed a smile. “Can we go
now? I don’t want to get in trouble my first week.”
He made a sound that might have
been a short laugh or might’ve been a grunt of annoyance. “What’s the big deal?
My dad’s the manager. I’ll put in a good word for you.”
But his dad wasn’t my direct
boss, and having Jay ask his dad to tell my boss to go easy on me wouldn’t
build the reputation I wanted.
He gave a smile that I would have
found charming when I was fifteen. “Come on, sit down next to me.”
I hesitated. I should tell him I
was leaving. Just walk away. But I couldn’t make the words come out. He might
get angry, and as he’d said, his father was the manager.
I didn’t want to go back to the
office smelling of marijuana. He had the joint in his right hand, so I finally
sat on his left a couple of feet away. Once he finished his joint, I’d insist
we leave.
He edged closer and put his arm
around me. His right hand—fortunately empty—came up to my face. I hoped he
hadn’t dropped the joint into the dry grass. Fire danger was at its usual
early-summer high.
He leaned in and his lips touched
mine. I flinched.
Jay leaned back. “What the hell
is wrong with you?”
My face heated. “I’m sorry. It’s
just….” I searched for an excuse that wouldn’t insult him. I glanced toward the
ditch. “Something stinks here. It’s making me sick.”
He sniffed the air. “You’re
right. Smells like something died.”
When he stood, I jumped up too.
But instead of heading back for the main path, he walked closer to the ditch.
It figured, a man notices something dead and instead of getting away from it he
wants to poke around closer. I sighed.
Jay sniffed and then made a face.
He pushed past a low-hanging branch and took a couple of steps down the ditch
bank. I guess I have my share of morbid curiosity, because I edged closer.
Jay made a choking sound. He
stumbled backward, turned, and bumped me hard as he pushed past.
“What is it?” I demanded.
He leaned over the log, hands on
his thighs, taking deep breaths. I looked toward the ditch, then back at Jay.
What could have caused this reaction? Something dead, but larger and grosser
than he’d imagined? I pictured a deer with maggots crawling all over it.
I shuddered. Whatever it was, I
didn’t want to see it.
“Jay? Are you all right?”
He straightened, still breathing
heavily. “We have to get out of here. It’s a body. I think—I think it’s a
body.”
I stared at him, the words slowly
sinking in. “You mean … a human
body?”
He didn’t answer. I glanced
toward the ditch and whatever it hid. “Are you sure?”
He shook his head. His skin
looked gray, and his eyes seemed to stare at something no longer there. He
lifted a hand and curled it into a fist over his chest. “There was … a hand.”
I swallowed hard and pressed my
arm over my stomach. “We need to call someone.” But if we reported a body and
it turned out to be an animal, we’d look like fools. “We have to know for
sure.”
Jay made no move. I said again,
“We have to know.”
I walked slowly toward the ditch.
I ducked under the branch. The smell rose up to gag me and I put a hand over my
nose and mouth. My face turned away, refusing to see. I had to force myself to
turn my head, to keep my eyes squinted open.
Oh God. It was a body. A woman’s
body.
The smell choked me and my vision
blurred. Behind me, I heard Jay’s harsh breathing. I should have listened to my
instincts.
I shouldn’t be here.
Kris Bock writes novels of suspense and romance involving
outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. In Counterfeits, stolen Rembrandt paintings bring danger to a small
New Mexico town. Whispers in the Dark
features archaeology and intrigue among ancient Southwest ruins. What We Found is a mystery with strong
romantic elements about a young woman who finds a murder victim in the woods. The Mad Monk’s Treasure follows the hunt
for a long-lost treasure in the New Mexico desert. In The Dead Man’s Treasure, estranged relatives compete to reach a
buried treasure by following a series of complex clues. Read excerpts at www.krisbock.com or visit her Amazon page.
Since I’m a native New Yorker, many of my favorite travel
spots are right within the state’s borders. Naturally, I set many of my books
in the various places I’ve enjoyed since I was a child. Hearts Unloched, my New York Book Festival winner, is a romantic
suspense set in the tiny burgh of Loch Sheldrake, N.Y., near where my husband
grew up. A Taming Season is the first
of my Love at Lake George Novels, set in the upstate village of the same name.
I’ve vacationed on Lake George all my life, so there wasn’t any better place to
set a series of loosely related romantic novels—there simply is no better place
to fall in love.
Research technician Lannie Marvin has a very rough birthday.
Turning forty is bad enough, but she discovers her husband is leaving her,
& then is bitten by an experimental mouse at work. Lannie snaps, taking off
to chase her old dream of a music career & her new crush: the drummer of a
heavy metal band.
