Dawn That Brings Death: A Psychological Thriller Read online

  DAWN THAT BRINGS DEATH

  A MYNART MYSTERY THRILLER

  ADDISON MICHAEL

  2022 Pages & Pie Publishing

  Copyright © 2022 by Addison Michael

  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.

  ISBN: 978-1-7359621-1-5

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Michael, Addison.

  Dawn that brings death:a mynart mystery thriller / Addison Michael

  Cover Design by Art by Karri

  Editing by Tiffany Avery and Sabrina Waggoner

  While set in real places, this novel is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and police agencies portrayed are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to established practices or similarity that may depict actual people, either alive or deceased, are entirely fictional and purely coincidental.

  www.addisonmichael.com

  For my siblings

  Thank you all for your support

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  The End

  About the Author

  Also by Addison Michael

  PROLOGUE

  Dark red blood pooled underneath the body of Stephen Wilton. EMT, the Brighton Fire Department, and Brighton Police Department were all on the scene approximately ten minutes after a frantic 911 call was placed by an unknown female caller.

  “They’re both dead,” she had pronounced with a finality in her voice that no one could dispute. She gave an address. Then she hung up.

  There was no sign of the female, though Jud Blackwell, Fire Chief and dedicated neighbor, thought he knew exactly who had placed that call. Paige Deffer was the newest owner of the “Mynart Murder House” as Jud was starting to dub this place. He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops under his large belly that rested over the top of his jeans. His t-shirt was tucked in tidily. He had hastily thrown on his signature ball cap to hide his balding head. Then he rushed right out to the scene.

  It had all started over twenty years ago with Jason Mynart, devoted husband and man of the community. Jason’s body had been found with multiple stab wounds and blood dripping off the bed sheets. His wife, Krysta Mynart, had gone missing and all bets were on her as the murderess.

  The home sat vacant until less than a year ago when Paige Deffer bought the place and moved in. Trouble sure follows that gal around, Jud thought as he surveyed the blood and damage in the exact bedroom where Jason Mynart had been murdered. Here they were some twenty-five years later. The boyfriend, his name was Stephen, Jud thought he remembered, was the first body they’d found.

  It was hard to maneuver around Stephen’s body and the blood that was pouring out of him. There was so much blood. Was all that from the gunshot wound? Jud wondered. From the looks of it, Stephen had just stepped through the doorway when he was shot, likely as he’d entered the room. Jud could see a slight smear of blood on the doorframe. Maybe Stephen had hit his head on it after he was shot. The blood was too high to be where a bullet went through, and there was no splintered wood.

  Peering into the room at a certain angle, Jud could see the blood smeared down the wall as well as a second body. The slumped lifeless man lying there was Ray Lennon. Ray, he knew well.

  “What in the world…?” Jud muttered aloud. What would put Ray Lennon in the same room as Paige’s boyfriend? Jud assumed the two had shot each other. Guns lay discarded on the floor and only one person could logically explain what had happened here. Paige Deffer.

  Jud clicked his tongue in shame. He had just been in this home repairing floors with his fellow neighbors as a goodwill gesture after some vandal came in and destroyed the wooden floors with a sledgehammer. The floors they had lovingly fixed were now stained once again with blood.

  “This house is cursed,” Jud announced, breaking the terse silence.

  “We have a pulse!” a slender female EMT worker cried out. She had been working on Stephen. The rest of the team flew into action. Excitement and fast movement erupted. The workers applied a pressure bandage to slow blood loss before they carefully moved Stephen to a stretcher.

  A lone police officer had managed to finagle his way past Stephen’s body and the blood on the floor. He was bent over Ray’s body inside the bedroom. When he straightened, Jud caught his eye. The police officer shook his head negatively at Jud.

  “No pulse. This one’s gone,” the officer said.

  The EMT crew left in a flurry of activity desperate to get Stephen in the ambulance and en route to the emergency room as quickly as possible. Jud could hear the siren’s wail, which faded as they drove further away from the house. The officers sectioned off Ray’s body with police tape. They were now calling this house a crime scene.

  Jud stepped carefully over the blood and into the bedroom to get a better look at Ray.

  “It’s Ray Lennon. Lived around here his whole life,” Jud said with a frown and looked at Ray’s still, dead body. “What the hell happened to you, Ray?”

  “Sir, if you don’t mind?” A young female police officer gave him a pointed stare and motioned for him to step back. She was polite but firm.

  Jud looked up in surprise and saw that he was standing a little too close to the crime scene.

  “Sorry, ma’am. Tell ya what? Why don’t I head on down to the hospital and see if I can help there?”

  At her nod and grunt of approval, Jud turned away. Before he left the room, he took a picture of the crime scene with his phone. Just in case he noticed anything later on that no one else had noticed.

  Jud sat heavily in his car and started it. He hit the gas. With any luck, he could get there when the ambulance did. He knew a shorter way.

  Sure enough, he arrived at the same time. He could see the EMT unload Stephen and wheel him quickly through the doors. Jud was sure they had been working to stabilize him in the ambulance, but they were still moving pretty fast to get him in to the emergency room. It didn’t look good.

  Jud went into the emergency room and made himself comfortable. He knew a bit about Paige Deffer, but he didn’t know her boyfriend’s last name. Stephen was definitely her boyfriend. Jud had seen him twice. Once when he decided to check up on Paige at her home and another time when the two of them left a neighborhood party together.

  He opened his Facebook app and looked for Paige Deffer. She wasn’t hard to find. Most young people were mighty proud of their relationships. Sure enough, she had it listed. In a relationship with Stephen Wilton.

  He picked up his phone and called his buddy at the police station.

  “Heya, Will,” Jud greeted in his slow, laid-back way. “Say, we got a fella that came in here tonight,” Jud paused and listened. “Oh, yeah, right. Of course, you know. Well, you guys get an ID yet?” Jud listened as his friend said they’d found his car parked just off the road down the street from the Mynart house and they were about to run his plates.

  Jud chuckled. “No need, my friend. His name is Stephen Wilton. Think you can find his parents or next of kin? His girlfriend is Paige Deffer and she owns the place. Didn’t see her there and there was no extra car. Suppose she could have come with the boyfriend.” Jud had a terrible thought. “You guys might want to check her property to see if she’s laid up somewhere there.” He listened once more and then said his goodbyes.

  He went to the check-in desk an
d asked them to tell him if any news came down about Stephen Wilton.

  “Hi, Jud,” the kind woman at the check-in desk greeted him. “You know I can’t break HIPAA law, even if you are the Fire Chief and worked the scene.”

  “Right, right,” Jud frowned. Jud knew from years of living in such a small town, it was only a matter of time before the gossip came out and he preferred to be the one to break it. “Well, I’ll be over here in the waiting room in case anyone needs a statement from me.”

  She smiled at him, clearly grateful he didn’t push her for more information and went back to her triage duties.

  Jud found a semi-comfortable chair and closed his eyes, planning to fall asleep. A few years ago, the emergency room got a furniture update. This was the only big, overstuffed chair they left in the room that wasn’t hard and plastic. Jud must have fallen fast asleep.

  Jud was dreaming a little when he felt someone shake him awake. Disoriented, Jud opened his sleepy eyes and worked to figure out where he was. How long had he been out? He’d guessed a few hours at least.

  “Excuse me, sir?” The man was wearing scrubs and an air of authority. It seemed clear he was a doctor. Jud thought he knew all the doctors but he had never met this man.

  “Yeah?” Jud asked.

  “Sir, are you a relative of Stephen Wilton?” the doctor asked.

  Before Jud could answer, a frantic woman bolted up from her chair. The emergency room was small. She must have heard the doctor ask. It was pretty impossible to keep things private here.

  “I’m Stephen’s mother, Linda.” She was thin and pretty with blond hair that waved down to her shoulder blades. She looked like she had cried off some make-up, but she was still fairly put together.

  The doctor moved walked away from Jud to address Linda. Jud could hear them speaking in low voices.

  “Is he okay? Will he make it?” Linda asked.

  “Time will tell. He’s lost a lot of blood. He has a collapsed lung which could take weeks, maybe even a month to heal.”

  She started crying softly. “Is that fixable?”

  “Yes, but it will take time,” the doctor double-checked his notes then looked up. “He also has some swelling and bleeding on his brain that needs to be closely monitored. Do you know if he hit his head on something?”

  Jud approached quietly. “Jud Blackwell, Fire Chief. I was at the scene earlier,” he took a moment to shake both their hands.

  Linda was too shaken up to be surprised by his sudden appearance.

  “There was a blood smear on the doorframe. Also, the floors were real hardwoods. If he fell without catching himself on the way down, I reckon he could’ve hit his head pretty hard,” Jud admitted, thinking himself clever to have joined the conversation the way he did.

  “We’re going to put him on a ventilator. He’s stable but we need him to recover. He’s in a medically induced coma right now.”

  “Medically induced?” Linda repeated with uncertainty.

  The doctor nodded. “For now. I think it’s the only way for him to stay still long enough to heal.”

  “How long do you think it will take?” she asked.

  “We don’t have an answer to that. It could be a month. It could be six months. A collapsed lung takes time to heal. Swelling in the brain takes time to heal. Then there’s the matter of how much blood he’s lost. That’s a lot less predictable. We’ve moved him to intensive care if you would like to see him?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Jud heard the doctor tell her to keep the environment as stress-free as possible as they walked back to the hospital room.

  1

  Missy had just broken free from a bad situation and found herself driving around aimlessly. She dialed a number. The phone rang three times, giving ample time to hang up before her little sister answered. Missy never knew what kind of mood her sister would be in, and she wasn't sure if she could handle a breakdown tonight. The truth was, Missy was calling because she needed her own support, and her younger sister was the only person she could think of to turn to.

  “Hello?” Lizzie answered, sounding out of breath.

  “Hello Lizzie. How are you?” Missy smiled in relief. She loved when her sister was in a good mood, and right now, Missy could hear the smile in Lizzie’s voice.

  “Great! I’m working right now,” Lizzie responded.

  “Working? Do you need me to let you go?” Missy asked.

  “No way! I started working for Deliver and Dash,” said Lizzie. “Just to pick up some extra cash here and there. I can make my own hours and I love the fast pace. I really like it. Except the people, of course. I swear to God—I moved to Canada to get away from rude Americans but now I get to deal with rude Canadians. I got a few complaints so now I have to be nicer. The good news though is I’m gonna make it for Christmas because I’ll be able to work while I’m there!”

  “I see,” Missy said and smiled despite herself. “I know how much you hate people.” The truth was, she couldn’t wait to see Lizzie for Christmas. They were one of those families who did the holidays very well. They didn't bicker or use their time to be ugly but enjoyed the short amount of time they had together.

  “So, you sound good. Happy,” Missy observed.

  “I am!” Lizzie said. “I even went on a date with this new guy the other night.”

  Of course, Missy thought.

  Lizzie was strikingly pretty, and it was no surprise that she had a new guy on the hook as often as she did. What those guys did not know about Lizzie was she was also incredibly intelligent and not just any guy would do.

  “And I enrolled in school,” Lizzie stated.

  “You what?” Now this was new. “What do you plan to do?”

  “I’m thinking about becoming a dental hygienist.”

  “That's great!” Amazing, Missy thought, truly stunned by this new turn of events. Maybe Lizzie was really going to try harder at life.

  “Oh, hang on! I have to go deliver this food. It's always so weird when people insist that they see the person who delivers their food. I usually refuse to take those jobs but I’m trying to improve my customer rating. Give me a sec."

  Missy waited on the other end and could hear Lizzie cheerfully greet the person who opened the door. Lizzie must have been wearing earbuds because it sounded like her hands were full. Missy could hear a bag rustling. Then she heard her sister thank the man. Missy assumed she was turning to leave.

  “Hey where you going?” A gruff man’s voice asked.

  Missy could hear his deep baritone.

  “Is something wrong?” asked Lizzie. “You’re hurting my wrist. Let me go.”

  “Yes,” said the man, “I need you to come in here right now.”

  “Is something missing from your order?” Lizzie asked. “Were you supposed to get a drink with that?”

  Missy could hear the bewilderment in Lizzie's voice.

  There was a brief silence. Then Lizzie shrieked suddenly.

  “Lizzie?” Missy asked, “Are you okay?”

  “No!” Lizzie yelled, “Stop it! Let me go!”

  “Let me go,” the man mocked her in falsetto. “Lizzie says, let me go…”

  Missy could hear the sound of a scuffle and a door slammed loudly.

  “Lizzie! Are you okay?” Missy’s voice was more urgent. “Answer me, Lizzie!” Missy was quite certain that Lizzie was not okay. But what could Missy do while her sister was a country away? True, from where she was in Michigan, Canada was a drive across the border, but all of that would take too much time.