Last Mistake (A Kaylie Brooks Psychological Suspense Thriller—Book 5)

By Kate Bold

“This is an excellent book… When you start reading, be sure you don’t have to wake up early!”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

Kaylie Brooks, a modest Midwestern girl out of place amongst the wealthy of Palm Beach, has decided to use her brilliant mind and pursue her passion for profiling, working for the police. When a young couple arrives in town and the husband is found dead shortly after, the case triggers old memories for Kaylie, forcing her to face her fears, and her past, and uncover memories she wished she had kept suppressed. Who wanted him dead? And why?

LAST MISTAKE is book #5 in a long-anticipated new series by #1 bestseller Kate Bold, whose bestseller NOT NOW (a free download) has received over 600 five star ratings and reviews.

A page-turning and harrowing psychological suspense thriller, the KAYLIE BROOKS series is a riveting crime mystery, packed with non-stop action, suspense, twists and turns, revelations, and driven by a breakneck pace that will keep you flipping pages late into the night. Fans of Gillian Flynn, Rachel Caine and Teresa Driscoll are sure to fall in love.

Future books in the series will be available soon.

“This book moved very fast and every page was exciting. Plenty of dialogue, you absolutely love the characters, and you were rooting for the good guy throughout the whole story… I look forward to reading the next in the series.”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

“Kate did an amazing job on this book and I was hooked from the first chapter!”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

“I really enjoyed this book. The characters were authentic, and I see the bad guys as something we hear about daily on the news... Looking forward to book 2.”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

“This was a really good book. The main characters were real, flawed and human. The story went along quickly and wasn't mired in too many unnecessary details. I really enjoyed it.”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

“Alexa Chase is headstrong, impatient, but most of all brave with a capital B. She never, repeat never, backs down until the bad guys are put where they belong. Clearly five stars!”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

“Captivating and riveting serial murder with a twist of the macabre… Very well done.”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

“WOW what a great read! Talk about a diabolical killer! Really enjoyed this book. Looking forward to reading others by this author as well.”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

“Page turner for sure. Great characters and relationships. I got into the middle of this story and couldn’t put it down. Looking forward to more from Kate Bold.”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

“Hard to put down. It has an excellent plot and has the right amount of suspense. I really enjoyed this book.”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

“Extremely well written, and well worth buying and reading. I can't wait to read book two!”
—Reader review for The Killing Game

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kate Bold
• Release date: Feb 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781094395784

Book preview

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L A S T   M I S T A K E

(A Kaylie Brooks Psychological Suspense Thriller—Book 5)

K a t e   B o l d

Kate Bold

Bestselling author Kate Bold is author of the ALEXA CHASE SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising six books (and counting); the ASHLEY HOPE SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising six books (and counting); the CAMILLE GRACE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising eight books (and counting); the HARLEY COLE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising seven books (and counting); the KAYLIE BROOKS PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising five books (and counting); and the EVE HOPE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER series, comprising five books (and counting).

An avid reader and lifelong fan of the mystery and thriller genres, Kate loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.kateboldauthor.com to learn more and stay in touch.

Copyright © 2023 by Kate Bold. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Jacket image Copyright ozrimoz, used under license from Shutterstock.com.

BOOKS BY KATE BOLD

ALEXA CHASE SUSPENSE THRILLER

THE KILLING GAME (Book #1)

THE KILLING TIDE (Book #2)

THE KILLING HOUR (Book #3)

THE KILLING POINT (Book #4)

THE KILLING FOG (Book #5)

THE KILLING PLACE (Book #6)

ASHLEY HOPE SUSPENSE THRILLER

LET ME GO (Book #1)

LET ME OUT (Book #2)

LET ME LIVE (Book #3)

LET ME BREATHE (Book #4)

LET ME FORGET (Book #5)

LET ME ESCAPE (Book #6)

CAMILLE GRACE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

NOT ME (Book #1)

NOT NOW (Book #2)

NOT WELL (Book #3)

NOT HER (Book #4)

NOT NORMAL (Book #5)

NOT AGAIN (Book #6)

NOT SAFE (Book #7)

NOT TODAY (Book #8)

HARLEY COLE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

NOWHERE SAFE (Book #1)

NOWHERE LEFT (Book #2)

NOWHERE TO RUN (Book #3)

NOWHERE LIKE THIS (Book #4)

NOWHERE GIRL (Book #5)

NOWHERE TO HIDE (Book #6)

NOWHERE CERTAIN (Book #7)

KAYLIE BROOKS PYSCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE THRILLER

LAST BREATH (Book #1)

LAST CHANCE (Book #2)

LAST WISH (Book #3)

LAST SHOT (Book #4)

LAST MISTAKE (Book #5)

EVE HOPE FBI SUSPENSE THRILLER

IN HIS BLOOD (Book #1)

IN HIS SIGHTS (Book #2)

IN HIS REACH (Book #3)

IN HIS MIND (Book #4)

IN HIS WAY (Book #5)

CONTENTS

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

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

Kaylie Brooks stepped off the airplane, shivering in the bitter cold of a Midwest December. But even if she'd been somewhere warm, she didn't think anything could thaw the icy dread that had lodged in the pit of her stomach.

Zoe Anderson had been murdered. Zoe, a close connection of the Brooks family, who had done Kaylie a favor and tried to mediate the situation between her and the aggressive, powerful, Palm Beach clan.

The Brooks family was out for her blood. They would stop at nothing. And yet, she had no idea which of them had been behind this.

She pulled the woolen hat further down over her honey blonde hair, tugging her jacket around her as she walked into the terminal building.

The sequence of events played itself out in her mind. She hadn't stopped thinking about everything, from the very first moment she'd set eyes on the handsome Brett Brooks while on a trip to Florida.

Their whirlwind romance and - in hindsight, far too hasty - marriage had followed. Moving to Palm Beach as a newlywed, Kaylie's life had quickly become a nightmare as she'd learned how toxic the family's hold over him was. Also, there was the little matter that had raised its ugly head of her husband being a psychopath who had killed before, and then killed again.

Kaylie had solved the crime and narrowly escaped being murdered herself. Brett had been jailed for life, but recently, they'd had news that he'd committed suicide while in prison. Details were sketchy, and Kaylie had asked that his family be informed of any news first, so she had no idea of what the latest developments might be.

The Brooks family had hated her already, blaming her illogically for Brett's imprisonment. But after that bombshell, their hatred escalated to a serious feud. Kaylie had been attacked by someone they'd paid to beat her up. She'd had graffiti and threats scrawled on her front door.

They wanted her to leave town, get out of Palm Beach and their lives, forever. But Kaylie was stubbornly refusing to do that. She was still living in Brett’s home – now legally her home. After completing her training, she joined the local police, using her psychology degree to become a police profiler.

Then, she'd made a mistake.

She'd decided that the best way to end these threats would be to engage with the Brooks family. And she had decided the best way to do it would be through a mutual third-party contact. She’d had a delusional moment of believing that this could be sorted out in a mature, calm, adult way. What a mistake that had been.

In an attempt to contain this hateful situation, she'd called in Zoe, their family friend who wasn't aligned with, or beholden to, the Brooks clan, and who had become a tentative friend of Kaylie's. Zoe had agreed to mediate, but then she'd been murdered.

Horror reverberated through Kaylie again as she acknowledged that harsh truth.

They had killed her. Her body had been found at a building site. She’d fallen several floors down an empty elevator shaft. Fallen? Angrily, Kaylie rethought that word. She had not fallen. She’d been lured there and pushed.

That had been just two days ago and Kaylie still felt shocked to the core. She couldn't think about it without tears flooding her eyes. She felt wretched with guilt. If she hadn't asked Zoe for this favor, then the slender, dark-haired woman would still be alive.

Kaylie shook her head, feeling traumatized all over again as she headed straight out of the terminal to the car rental offices. She shouldn't think that way or blame herself for something that had been done with the best-hearted intentions. All she’d wanted to do, literally, was mediate and end the conflict. Only one person was at fault here, and that was the person who had deliberately planned to murder Zoe. Nobody else could be blamed for such a callous, psychotic, move.

Kaylie needed to know who it was, because if that person killed once, they could kill again.

The police were on it, and had assigned Detective Ray, one of their leading investigators in the wider Palm Beach area, to handle it. Kaylie knew Detective Ray. He was competent and sharp, and in fact he’d handled the murder case that Brett had eventually gone down for – solved with Kaylie’s help at the critical moment.

This wasn't Kaylie's case, and she hadn't been asked to help with it. Plus, she knew that for now it was better to keep her head down.

She needed to run away, to regroup, to hide until the shock and fear had lessened. That was why she was here now. She'd come back home for a visit to the small Nebraska town where she'd grown up. That meant she was pursuing another mission: to discover what had happened to Jess, her sister.

Arriving at the car rental counter, she nodded a greeting at the attendant as she handed over her license and ID. While she waited for the paperwork to be completed, Kaylie told herself that she needed to put the Brooks family out of her mind for now. She could not let it haunt her. Instead, she had to stay focused.

That was something she was good at, at least, and she needed to get even better at it. For now, she needed to put the outrage over what had happened all the way out of her mind.

The attendant held out documents for her to sign, and she took them with a murmured, Thank you.

Then she headed out, got behind the wheel of the small, economical Ford she'd chosen, and started driving into town. She was on her way to a rendezvous with an investigator that, up until now, she'd never met. She was looking forward to meeting Dave Grimms. Needing someone to investigate Jess’s disappearance from ten years ago, and being unable to get to Nebraska herself at the time, she’d searched online and hired the person with the best credentials. So far, he seemed extremely capable. He’d uncovered information that she’d never known existed.

As she headed out onto the highway, glancing at the winter-dull landscape with a scattering of snow on the hills, he called her.

Hello, Kaylie, he said. You in town yet?

Dave! I'm on my way. Kaylie glanced at the car's clock. I should be there in five minutes.

I'm at the police department and they have agreed that we can look at the case file, since you’re a member of the police; but there are a whole lot of restrictions we’ll need to abide by, and there are a few terms and conditions attached. It’s cleared for viewing, and we’re waiting to hear the specifics on those restrictions from the station commander.

No problem. See you shortly.

She sped down the main road, turned right and left from memory, and pulled up outside the police station.

There he was, standing outside the entrance, the private investigator who'd uncovered the latest important details that were helping her piece together what had happened to Jess. This tall, solid man with his graying hair and experienced demeanor had already helped her to realize she hadn’t been mad or delusional that Jess had been taken. She hadn’t been a runaway as her parents still believed.

The case clearly hadn't been thoroughly investigated. Details had been missed by the police back then.

Kaylie was convinced that more would be found today, in the case file. All they needed to do was look carefully. A monster had taken her sister and now, ten years later, she was on his trail at last. She climbed out of the car and hurried over to meet Dave Grimms.

CHAPTER TWO

Kaylie Brooks. Good to meet you, Dave Grimms said, shifting from foot to foot for warmth in the icy wind. We need to be fast. That’s why I came out here. Just after I called you, the officer I’ve been dealing with had a message from his superior. It wasn't totally clear, but it seems that someone higher up is not keen to let us view this case file.

She shook his hand, feeling his firm grip, his pale blue eyes piercing and direct. But his words were troubling.

Why? she asked, hurrying inside with him.

I don't know whether it's political or logistical or both. Possibly a case of the correct permission not having been obtained, he told her in a low voice. He was already veering sideways, taking her down a side corridor, through a door that clicked open as they approached.

So what's the situation now? Can we view it?

Yes, he murmured. The file was already taken out, based on earlier permission, and the officer at the desk is a good friend of mine. So he said that until he gets a firm answer and a definite no, we can go ahead. We need to work very fast. The case file has been put in one of the back offices. Second door on the right. Just go through it and get inside. Don't stop, don't greet.

He walked alongside her, fast and purposefully.

She liked this investigator. He had done the best possible job so far in helping her with this ice-cold trail. He was motivated, and he was a go-getter, with determination to uncover everything there was to find. He'd already found a vitally important, game-changing clue.

She guessed that he was a lot like herself in many ways. Kaylie knew that one of her strongest attributes was her determination.

The small, windowless office was chilly, and the file they needed was resting on the otherwise empty desk. Kaylie and Dave sat down together and she stared at the weathered looking folder, with dog-eared corners, that represented the last account of her sister's disappearance. It had all boiled down to this, and then it had fizzled out, grown cold, and answers had never been found.

She felt a sense of sadness as she looked at this small, humble, long forgotten folder.

Let’s photograph whatever we can, as fast as we can, Dave said.

I remember the day like it was yesterday, she said, needing to share what happened with him as he opened the file and quickly started assembling the documents, photographing each one in turn so that even if they were told to leave, they could hopefully refer to the photos. It was so weird; the house felt so lonely when I woke up. I knew before I had even gotten into her bedroom that something was wrong, that she wasn't there.

And I guess the front door was unlocked?

Yes. But not forced. And the note was on her bedside table. I saw it immediately, it was as if it drew me there. And as soon as I saw it, I realized it wasn't in Jess's handwriting. I mean, it was the first thing that jumped out at me. Of course, my mother argued otherwise and the police believed her, Kaylie said, feeling bitter at being disbelieved and shouted down.

You recently got your version confirmed, didn't you?

Yes, after finding that note in a box of Jess's things, in the attic. I got the sample professionally analyzed and compared it to the writing in her schoolbooks. It wasn't the same person. And why was that note never taken into evidence? She spread her hands angrily.

Why was the wardrobe never properly looked at? Dave asked.

His latest evidence had been from Jess's old bedroom. Dave had noticed, when inspecting her old room that was now locked up and unused, that there had been a false wall