Veil of Innocence

By Harley McRide

Vodka Doe started her company to help other people, Black Swan Detective Agency was a rundown business when she first bought it at a young age. Now, they were known worldwide for helping out with kidnappings, ransom demands, exchanges, finding people, and helping solve cold cases.
Vodka was determined to discover who killed her parents, and she would use any resource she had to help. Suddenly, when she is put on the radar of the killer, Black Swan Detective Agency has a new client, her. Everyone in her company is hell-bent on protecting their leader, even if they have to re-open their parent's unsolved murder in another country, they will leave no stone unturned to find the person who was trying to kill Vodka.
With the help of a handsome police detective who suddenly takes an interest in Vodka, they are forced to delve into the mind of a serial killer. It is a battle against time for the crew to find the killer who is taunting them, and bring justice to Vodka Doe, so she would get back to the business of saving others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jana Leigh
• Release date: Nov 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005383510

Harley McRide

I was on the back of a bike as soon as I was big enough to hold on. My love of the lifestyle, combined with my experience and imagination drove me to writing.Now that my two kids are grown and off to college, My husband and I enjoy the great outdoors with our three great Danes: Bowser, Killer, and Maddie.I grew up in Illinois, moving from place to place with my single mother until I was twelve. I now call the little town of Arkadelphia, Arkansas home. With it’s small town charm and population just over 10,000, it is the perfect place to hit the open road. When I need to get away, the hot springs are my go to unwind spot located less than thirty minutes from my cabin in the woods

Book preview

Veil of Innocence

by Harley McRide

© Copyright June 2021JK

Cover, art, and logo © Copyright 2020 J.K.

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Dedication

To the heroes, the doctors, nurses, EMTs, policemen and women, the military and all those who have died from COVID 19

Table of Contents

Dedication

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Epilogue

Prologue

The eighteen old boy stood at the top of the hill so he could watch the house below burn. The anger he felt not more than an hour ago had not abated, it was still burning through his veins. Why wouldn’t she listen? That was all she had to do.

Since the first time he saw her, the boy knew she was supposed to be his, but she had been married. He tried to convince her, but she ignored every note, every gift he gave. Why couldn’t she see what he did? Why couldn’t she just appreciate everything he was trying to give her? He had money; her pitiful husband just had more. He was handsome, he knew it, but she thought her husband was more handsome. Love of her life, the boy scoffed, she was brainwashed and that is why they both had to die, he couldn’t have her then no one would.

As the piercing sirens filled the air the boy looked back down, the house was completely engulfed in flames, but he could still see the window where she had been sitting. Maybe if he squinted, he could see her charred remains, it would give him satisfaction to see that, she deserved it. After yesterday when she had him removed from her class it had been the last straw.

He knew she hadn’t known what that single act would do to him, the beating had been terrible, he could barely walk this morning when he tried to get out of bed, and at first, he forgave her. Then he had gone to school and saw the woman who caused all of his pain and he saw red. She had been holding that disgusting baby and kissing her husband goodbye like nothing happened. She didn’t even feel remorse for what she did, and when she turned and saw him, the boy saw the wariness in her eyes. But then he had seen him too, asshole he had the gall to call security, seriously he used his influence to get him away from her again. It was unacceptable.

That is why they had to die because in his eyes they didn’t deserve to live, in his eyes, they were an obstacle now if she was alive, the boy would never get what he wanted. With one last look, the boy turned and walked towards his home, his hell, but this time he was going to be the one who would be holding the belt, no way was he going to allow her to hurt him again, that bitch can die too.

Chapter One

Mitchell and Camille Goodwin were murdered in their picture-perfect home on a cold night in London, England. July 17th, the couple was beaten viciously and according to the coroner's report, they died from blunt force trauma to their heads. In the official report, they said it had been a blitz attack since neither Mitchell nor Camille had any defensive wounds on their bodies, it was like they had been sitting in the chairs enjoying the evening when they had been attacked. Their infant daughter Marissa, who had been in her crib in her room, suffered broken arms, broken legs, but she had survived the beating and was laying on the floor in a corner when the killer doused her with Vodka and set the room on fire, that was the origin of the fire that would eventually burn the house to the ground. The killer then moved through the house pouring any flammable substance he could find and lit the rest of the house on fire, according to the investigator alcohol was the main source of the fire, although they did find traces of gasoline in the main room where the Goodwin’s were killed. They assumed he had brought the gasoline since there were no other traces of the substance found in the home. The killer seemed to be trying to erase the whole family from existence, it would have worked too, but a neighbor called the authorities quickly when she saw the flames.

Marissa Goodwin was the only survivor of the vicious attack; the authorities were surprised when they found the child alive in her room crying. Although the killer had tried to burn her alive, the alcohol had not ignited the corner the killer threw her in, thus saving her from death, but the beating had been so severe no one thought she would survive. The EMTs worried she would not make it to the hospital, because her arms and her legs were bent in grotesque angles that made even the male firefighters, police, and rescue workers cry, no one wanted to touch her for fear they would damage the child worse. Instead, they had placed the child on a gurney and whisked her off to the hospital before any of the press or bystanders could tell they had someone in the ambulance, it made it easier when they announced there had been no survivors.

This would turn into a very high-profile case, the Goodwin’s were rich, powerful, and famous, their daughter was the princess everyone adored when they saw her. They were the picture-perfect family that people around the world loved. When word got out about the fire, the block the house was on was flooded with people clamoring to see if the Goodwin’s were okay, and when it was announced they were dead, every news show across the globe reported on it.

Mitchell Goodwin was one of the best MI-6 agents in the United Kingdom when he died, but that is not what he was known for, actually very few knew he had been an agent for the British government, so it was barely mentioned in the press. He was most well known for being a brilliant author. Although Mitchell and his spouse were millionaires because of family money, Mitchell made them billionaires with his books. His stories of an MI-6 agent were infamous across the globe, his characters came to life on the pages he wrote, and then they came to life when they were made into movies. Everyone loved his stories, but few knew most of his books were based on cases he worked on while he was an MI-6 agent.

When Mitchell met Camille who was a professor of Art at Oxford College it was a storybook romance. Love at first sight and all of that. They were married for ten years and then their storybook life suddenly became complete with the birth of their daughter on Dec 25, a Christmas gift. Everything was grand, they lived in the London high life, everyone loved them.

Suddenly, they were dead, and the storybook turned to horror. Everyone blamed a crazed fan of Mitchell’s for their deaths. Although there were no clues at all that supported that claim, and because so few knew about his service with the government, the authorities just let the speculation run rampant so they could focus on their real investigation, Mitchell’s work with MI-6, and because the press was focused on Mitchell’s books being the reason for the Goodwin’s death, they were able to delve deeply into his old cases. Nothing panned out though, they could not find one clue as to who would have killed the Goodwin’s so brutally. The murder had been labeled, ‘The Greatest Unsolved Mystery’ of all time. Rewards were in the millions for information still, but it quietly fell from the headlines as time wore on.

Meanwhile, after months of surgeries and healing in the hospital, Goodwin’s infant daughter Marissa was placed temporarily with an MI-6 Agent named Sara Higgins. There had been protests at first from the doctors and nurses who volunteered to take the baby as well, she had captured all of their hearts while she was in the hospital, it was her smile that could light up a room and her beauty that everyone treasured, even in pain the baby was just adorable. However, the baby was placed with the agent for protection at first, but after a year Sara Higgins announced, she was going to raise the child as her own. At the time of the Goodwin’s death, Sara Higgins had been undercover on a case involving the increased crime in England with regards to MC clubs that had been popping up in England. She had been entrenched in the world and had come to appreciate many of the ‘rules’ that bikers followed. Although she disappeared from that world when the call came, Sara still had a bike and loved it. Another retired MI-6 agent that had been with Sara undercover volunteered to be a bodyguard for the child as long as she was needed. Both agents had worked with Marissa’s father, and they were determined to make sure Marissa Goodwin had the life her parents wanted for her, not the fame and notoriety, but the love and caring Mitchell and Camille were known for. However, they could not deny the world they had been living in was the perfect cover for the child, so they decided to continue being bikers, although not with an MC the two women created their own world and ‘rules,’ and they took that with them when they left England and moved to the United States to distance Marissa from her past.

For safety, when Marissa was taken to the hospital she was admitted under an alias, one of the interns had named her ‘Vodka Doe’ because the emergency room had smelled like Vodka for hours after the child had been brought in. The name stuck, and Vodka Doe was born. For safety purposes Sara never changed the child's name, instead, she gave the child a story as to why she was called Vodka Doe and told the girl she could pick her own name if she wanted. But the life they were living as bikers, the girl just thought it was her ‘road name’ and she liked it. Even at a young age, Vodka loved motorcycles, and she understood what being a biker meant.

Vodka even refused to change her name back to Marissa when she learned about her past at fifteen, she had no memories of her family. When she was younger, Sara had always been open about Vodka Doe being her foster child while the story her foster mother gave her was fake, it still didn’t change anything in her mind. The young woman knew who she was, and Vodka had claimed her name years ago, nothing was going to change that. She was Vodka Doe, and she had a life with a woman she called ‘mom,’ another woman who was her ‘protector,’ and a man Sara and Vodka met long ago. They became their own small MC, just the four of them, and they made their own rules as life moved on. Vodka researched MCs when she was an early teen because she heard about them at school. The place they lived had a lot of MCs and many of the kid's Vodka played with were born into that world as well, so she never questioned living the same life. She just wanted to do it better than everyone else, Vodka embraced the life and all that came with it.

But the truth was always going to come out, it was enviable, but they were prepared, Sara already had planned on how they would handle the publicity. Vodka didn’t dwell on it, she just lived her life the way she wanted to, even as a teen she had been independent and standoffish to anyone other than her self-proclaimed family, some may say it was because she lacked the bond from her real parents or because of the world Sara introduced her to, but Vodka knew that was not it. From the moment she could walk and talk Vodka had been independent, and very intelligent, Sara saw the brilliance in her ‘daughter’ and knew there was no way to change that without killing something inside the child. So, Sara nurtured the child's independence and allowed her to make her own decisions, even if they were slightly strange. Sara loved the child and loved watching her grow, Sara also knew that Vodka was going to be a force to be reckoned with when she was older, the child just had too much of her parents in her not to be.

Chapter Two

When Vodka Doe’s foster mother Sara Higgins sat her down and told her about her birth parents and their tragic death, she had been fifteen. Sara had told her on December 29, 2006, just short of the beginning of a new year, and from Vodka’s perspective, it was a perfect time, it was the beginning of a new year, a new life actually. Although they were bikers, Vodka had plans, they were going to be something more than just the typical bikers that everyone assumed they knew. That life was rough and tumble, and while Vodka fit very well into the stereotypical biker image, she was more than that, her family was more than that. Vodka had been chosen as a baby to be Sara’s daughter, and Vodka loved that thought, it went with her personal belief that families were not made because they had the same last name. To Vodka, her family was created because they chose to be together, that is what made them all special.

Although Sara had given Vodka a story about her birth, it had been a lie, it should have shaken Vodka to the core, but it didn’t, in her world, you protected family no matter what, even if you have to lie to them to make them safe. It sounded worse than it really was, and Vodka understood that when she heard the whole story. Instead of being dramatic, it had been an extremely grown-up discussion and Sara was not sure how she felt about that, for once she really wished her daughter would throw a fit or storm out of the house, anything so Sara could understand the way she was feeling. Sara had kept her past a secret from her, so she expected Vodka to be angry with her, instead, her daughter had nodded and frowned then informed Sara she had done the right thing. Then she had told Sara that she was going to avenge her parents, although she didn’t know them, she felt close to them because of how Sara explained Mitchell and Camille Goodwin’s lives. Vodka couldn’t say she would have loved growing up like a princess because she had never been treated that way, but they were her parents and they had been taken from her, and that was not okay.

Sara work from home,