The Place That Sleeps

By L.R. Starr

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack. All dressed in black, black, black.

He likes to watch.

The place that sleeps, that’s what the natives call it. A sweet little coastal coast town on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Piper decides it’s time for a seaside visit, she’s a frustrated investigative journo who's on a quick getaway with her girlfriends. She picks a holiday house that’s owned by a wealthy barrister. The overpriced oceanfront rental mysteriously goes on the market every two years, except it never sells.

The walls are dripping wet with secrets that threaten to overflow from its cracks.

Then there’s Jack McMaster, the hot boy broody surfer and son of the owner. He's drawn to Piper for more reasons than one. Locals start whispering in her ear about the house amongst the dunes, as a monster lurks and her investigative nose starts sniffing.

She might break the story of the year, but when her friends go missing and she unravels one deadly secret after another the monster wants to take her to a watery grave.

What will she discover about the broody McMaster from the sleepy side town?

You can only cover things up for so long...

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.R. Starr
• Release date: Nov 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005050863

L.R. Starr

Welcome to L.R. Starr's author page. She is a romantic suspense writer with a penchant for private investigator heroines, assassins, and complex hot baddies who you hate to love.L.R. Starr is a lover of mysteries, witty dialogue, suspense, romance, and fantasy. If you like to travel through your books strap in for the ride she'll take you across the country.When she's not writing she's usually exploring, and coming up with yet another devious plot or pursuing her other love which is painting and drawing. Enjoy the bedlam friends!If you want to join in the hijinks follow her here onFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/L.R.STARR1/BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/l-r-starr

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack... All dressed in black, black, black.

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons. All down her back, back, back.

She asked her mother, mother, mother…

My sister sang that stupid rhyme. I used to watch her as the silken waves of the roaring sea crashed on the shoreline, bruising the tawny rocks of Umina Beach. I could still hear her clapping her hands together with her friend Polly like a horse’s hooves. I liked to watch. Was fun, she left like Mummy. I watched as she struggled in her submersion as the air bubbles escaped to the surface.

Her white nightdress floating up around her neck, making her resemble an octopus. She was so pretty, her sandy blonde hair floated like a carousel around her. She reminded me of the others, oh how they thrashed when I closed my greedy fingers around their necks. Other times they knew death was calling and gave up the fight quietly. My longest battle was two and half minutes.

My adrenaline ran high with that one. I liked it ever so much. I found myself a little out of breath, but I managed. She'd clawed at me underwater - must have been a water baby, she could hold her breath quite well. I didn’t know that part until we were further out in the middle of the sea. She appeared to be fragile, petite in size, but she had a strength that made me think she might be a seal. I found out she wasn’t after two minutes. Oh well.

If I was feeling strong, I would pick more of a challenge. On that day I wasn’t looking for one. I wanted to freshen my skills is all. I thought about improving my stamina after that, so I wouldn’t be caught out.

That was two summers ago, and now I was keen again to see another underwater symphony. I wanted to feel the resistance of the water as I led my victim to the watery gates of Atlantis. That’s the place they went, had to be. That’s what the monster told me anyway. Same place my mother lives now.

I wanted to see their glorious lifeless limbs float to the surface as their lips turned a magnificent shade of blue. Sometimes, I wanted to revive them, if only to watch them slip into the watery abyss once again. I wouldn’t let them stay at the surface of course. That would be stupid, and I would get caught, derrrrrr. I would tie a weighted rock to the bottom of their feet and drive the boat out to the shark breeding ground of Lion Island. I only did that when they were feeding. Easy disposal. I was doing the natural world a favour. Couldn’t be mad at me. I learned from the best. The one who taught me so well. He’s the greedy monster that stole our mother too.

Except her body of water was much smaller than the giant turquoise pool I swam in all the time.

1

PIPER

That smug prick got to the story before me. He’d been sucking up Callister’s arse again. Working at The Sydney Wire was a complete batshit nightmare for me now. Never used to be like this. Every day I dreaded going into work, because the male journos were a pack of irreverent beasts, but one made me want to dry heave on the regular. Clayton Mall, he thought he was God’s gift to just about everything. Who has a last name like Mall anyway? His mouth was too big for his face, and if his snout had been any longer I would dare say Pinocchio would come ask for his nose back.

His coif was terrible as well and over-gelled. He obviously had the wrong product because the white flakes from it would crust up on his shoulders, cause for a smug grin to curve on my lips.

What are you grinning at Longley? he would say.

I would give him my best-fuck-you smile and glance at his shoulders where the sprinkles of snowflakes found their home. He would scatter to the bathroom and remove them, because the next time I saw him the flakes would be gone. Small victories were the only ones I had to hold onto at the paper, the larger ones went to the toss bags.

I was rubbing my throbbing temple and sitting in the middle of a pile of notes. Not unusual for me. That story he took from under my nose was one of the biggest investigative pieces The Sydney Wire had seen, and now it was in his greedy mitts.

A large fraud case focused on Sydney city. Two swift con men coaxed twenty-five investors out of their panties to the tune of $10 million dollars. Fuck, I wanted that story. I put in so much legwork. I’d spoken to the girlfriends and the wives, and built a great expose piece on the background of the men. I wanted to explore the human angle and to appeal to the public, so they could understand what these heathens were really like.

I’d spoken to three of the investors and all their stories were the same. "They were so smooth, Piper. Smoke and mirrors with all their fancy presentations. Took us blokes for a ride. We met their families and all, their websites were on point. We met their colleagues. Built a rapport, ya know? Spent a small amount with them and made a little money back. Now, I’m jacked out of my life savings and in the poorhouse." A finder’s fee property scam, now both con men were on the run and possibly attempting to leave the country. Clayton didn’t do anything different to me with the story, except he claimed he had access to the

Reviews for The Place That Sleeps

[Theodora Soh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Exciting short story! I love the descriptions of the beach and the ocean too! And all the Australian slang and speech patterns. I can almost hear the characters speaking in my head. Makes me long for the day when I can travel again. Even though this holiday had its ups and scary downs, I'd risk it to meet someone like Jack! <3