Darkest Journey Read online

  They say it’s about the journey, not the destination...

  Charlene “Charlie” Moreau is back in St. Francisville, Louisiana, to work on a movie. One night, she stumbles across the body of a Civil War reenactor, the second murdered in two days. Charlie is shocked to learn that her father—a guide on the Journey, a historic paddle wheeler that’s sponsoring the reenactment—is a suspect.

  Meanwhile, Ethan Delaney, new to the FBI’s Krewe of Hunters, is brought in on the case. He and Charlie have a history of their own, dating back to when he rescued her from a graveyard—led there by a Confederate ghost!

  Charlie arranges a Mississippi River cruise so she and Ethan can get close to the reenactors, find out who knows what, who has a motive. They discover a lot more as they resume the relationship that ended ten years ago...but might die, along with them, on the Journey.

  Praise for New York Times bestselling author

  Heather Graham

  “Graham is a master at world building and her latest is a thrilling, dark, and deadly tale of romantic suspense.”

  —Booklist, starred review, on Haunted Destiny

  “Intricate, fast-paced, and intense, this riveting thriller blends romance and suspense in perfect combination and keeps readers guessing and the tension taut until the very end.”

  —Library Journal, starred review, on Flawless

  “With an astonishing ease and facility, this talented and hard-working writer can cast her stories in any genre.”

  —Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels

  “A masterfully created psychological thriller...leaving readers shocked and enthralled.”

  —RT Book Reviews on The Hexed

  “Dark, dangerous and deadly! Graham has the uncanny ability to bring her books to life, using exceptionally vivid details to add depth to all the people and places.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Waking the Dead, Top Pick

  “Murder, intrigue...a fast-paced read. You may never know in advance what harrowing situations Graham will place her characters in, but...rest assured that the end result will be satisfying.”

  —Suspense Magazine on Let the Dead Sleep

  “Graham deftly weaves elements of mystery, the paranormal and romance into a tight plot that will keep the reader guessing at the true nature of the killer’s evil.”

  —Publishers Weekly on The Unseen

  “Suspenseful and dark.... The transitions between past and present flow seamlessly, and the main characters are interesting and their connection to one another is believable.”

  —RT Book Reviews on The Unseen

  Also by HEATHER GRAHAM

  DEADLY FATE

  HAUNTED DESTINY

  THE HIDDEN

  THE FORGOTTEN

  THE SILENCED

  THE DEAD PLAY ON

  THE BETRAYED

  THE HEXED

  THE CURSED

  WAKING THE DEAD

  THE NIGHT IS FOREVER

  THE NIGHT IS ALIVE

  THE NIGHT IS WATCHING

  LET THE DEAD SLEEP

  THE UNINVITED

  THE UNSPOKEN

  THE UNHOLY

  THE UNSEEN

  AN ANGEL FOR CHRISTMAS

  THE EVIL INSIDE

  SACRED EVIL

  HEART OF EVIL

  PHANTOM EVIL

  NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRES

  THE KEEPERS

  GHOST MOON

  GHOST NIGHT

  GHOST SHADOW

  THE KILLING EDGE

  NIGHT OF THE WOLVES

  HOME IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

  UNHALLOWED GROUND

  DUST TO DUST

  NIGHTWALKER

  DEADLY GIFT

  DEADLY HARVEST

  DEADLY NIGHT

  THE DEATH DEALER

  THE LAST NOEL

  THE SÉANCE

  BLOOD RED

  THE DEAD ROOM

  KISS OF DARKNESS

  THE VISION

  THE ISLAND

  GHOST WALK

  KILLING KELLY

  THE PRESENCE

  DEAD ON THE DANCE FLOOR

  PICTURE ME DEAD

  HAUNTED

  HURRICANE BAY

  A SEASON OF MIRACLES

  NIGHT OF THE BLACKBIRD

  NEVER SLEEP WITH STRANGERS

  EYES OF FIRE

  SLOW BURN

  NIGHT HEAT

  * * * * *

  Look for Heather Graham’s next novel

  A PERFECT OBSESSION

  available soon from MIRA Books.

  HEATHER GRAHAM

  Darkest Journey

  In memory of one of the finest friends I was ever privileged to know.

  Greg Varricchio

  Incredible musician, husband and father, Greg made hard times easier, brought laughter and smiles to so many so often, and lived every day with honor and an incredible ethic. The world is truly a poorer place without him.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  The Main Players

  Charlene “Charlie” Moreau, actress

  Ethan Delaney, FBI agent, Krewe of Hunters

  From the Movie Set

  Brad Thornton, writer and director

  Mike Thornton, cameraman

  Luke Mayfield, sound

  Barry Seymour, electric and lighting

  Jennie McPherson, makeup artist

  Grant Ferguson, actor/extra (responsible for budget and accounting)

  George Gonzales, in charge of location, setting and props

  Jimmy Smith, actor/extra

  Blane Pica, actor

  Harry Grayson, actor

  Krewe of Hunters

  Thor Erikson

  Jude McCoy

  The Civil War Dead

  Anson McKee, Confederate cavalry captain

  Ellsworth Derue, Union medical corps

  Other Characters

  Jonathan Moreau, Charlie’s father, historian and tour guide on the riverboat Journey

  Emily Watson, café owner

  Farrell Hickory, owner of Hickory Plantation and Civil War reenactor

  Albion Corley, professor and Civil War reenactor

  Nancy Camp, Charlie’s high school friend

  Randall “Randy” Laurent, high school friend of Ethan’s, parish detective

  Sherry Compton, high school friend

  Terese, Ethan’s great-grandmother

  Chance Morgan, photographer

  On the Journey (Celtic American Lines Ship)

  Timothy Banks, captain

  Gerard “Gerry” Amerind, doctor

  Haley Howell, nurse

  Rebecca Jennings, nurse

  Ricky Simpson, entertainment director

  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

  Excerpt from Flawless by Heather Graham

  Prologue

  West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana

  High School

  “What are we doing?” Charlene—Charlie—Moreau demanded, surprised that both her escorts—senior girls high up in the hierarchy of one of their high
school service clubs, the Cherubs—had suddenly taken hold of her arms. “Where are we going?”

  She’d started out blindfolded in a car with five of her friends—all of them giggling girls ready to claim the prestige of being a Cherub. They’d been accepted into the club. They’d gone through ridiculous weeks of pledging—running, fetching, even doing homework for the “older sisters” in the club, and now it was their final night. Their great hazing. But the five of them had been split up about twenty minutes earlier; she’d been put in a car with Nancy Deauville and Sherry Compton, who’d gently led her out a little while later.

  Now both girls were gripping her arms, nothing gentle about it.

  Nancy Deauville laughed softly. “They say your mama’s family has the ‘sight.’ We’re just leaving you where you’ll have to ask some of your ghostly friends for help.”

  “Come on! What are you going to do? Tie me up in the Grace Church graveyard?” Charlie asked, feeling her temper flare.

  “Oh, Charlie, no!” Nancy said.

  Sherry giggled. “We’re tying you up outside the graveyard—in the unhallowed section.”

  “That’s ridiculous. And dangerous,” Charlie said angrily, a spark of fear entering her. “Three girls have been killed close to here, just north of Baton Rouge!” Her mom had been emphatic about her being careful, about her staying in the company of friends. A serial killer was at work in and around Baton Rouge.

  “Don’t be alone, Charlie,” her mom had warned sternly. “He’s preying on young women who are on their own. Make sure you stay with your friends.”

  Charlie had thought these people were her friends. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  She tried to wrench free, but someone stronger had her arms now, and she heard multiple footsteps nearby.

  Nancy and Sherry weren’t alone. They’d met up with others.

  The two were superrich brats whose dads held great positions with one of the local oil companies—while her dad was a hardworking historian!

  She didn’t know why she was pledging anyway, except that Cathy Corcoran, her best friend, had insisted that they at least try. The Cherubs were respected at school, plus they had the best parties.

  Charlie had managed to handle the weeks of doing what the older girls asked. She’d even shocked Nancy, dropping a pack of cigarettes on her lap after the other girl had demanded that she get them, even if she had to beg, borrow or steal them. Charlie hadn’t had to do any of those things; someone on one of her dad’s tours had left a pack behind on the dock.

  But this...

  She didn’t tend to be scared of much. Tonight, she was.

  She wasn’t afraid of the graveyard. She never had been. But girls had been murdered—and not at all far away.

  She was angry now, and that anger mixed uneasily with a fear that had nothing to do with the dead.

  “You know what? Don’t bother. I don’t want to be in your club,” she said. “This is ridiculous. Where are Cathy and the others?”

  “Cathy is taking a little swim,” Nancy said, and laughed.

  Charlie felt her temper flare another few degrees. Cathy couldn’t swim—and she was terrified of water.

  “That’s it. Let me go,” Charlie said. “I’m done with you and your stupid club.”

  They didn’t let her go. She heard a male voice whispering—probably Todd Camp, Nancy’s football-star boyfriend. Or maybe it wasn’t Todd. At least three other people had joined Nancy and Sherry; she could tell where they were all standing by listening to where their voices came from. All told, there were at least five people there, probably including some of Todd’s football goon friends.

  “We should just let her go. Come on, Nance.”

  Todd was there, Charlie was certain. But he wasn’t the one who had just spoken. Todd did anything that Nancy said. Probably—as Charlie had heard whispered in the hallways—Nancy only “gave it up” for Todd when he behaved.

  “Listen to whichever of your juvenile delinquent friends was just speaking. This is criminal. You should let me go this instant,” Charlie said.

  “No way, so shut up, you whiny pledge. You’ll be glad when we come back for you. Everyone wants to be a Cherub, and tomorrow you’ll be glad you didn’t chicken out,” Nancy said.

  Someone approached her and whispered into her ear. She recognized the voice. It was a friend. Jimmy Smith. “Charlie,” Jimmy said urgently, “it won’t be that long. Tomorrow you really will want to be in the club. I’m so sorry, but just go with this, okay?”

  “I do not want to be a Cherub,” she yelled—and meant it. “I will never be a Cherub. You are the most immature group of brats I’ve met in my entire life. Let me go!”

  “Chicken!” Nancy laughed.

  Charlie was strong; she worked out in the dance troupe and was also on the gymnastics team. She could have easily taken Nancy and Sherry.

  But the two girls weren’t alone, and whoever was holding her now was stronger than she was. Her captor forced her down to the ground, and someone tied her wrists and ankles around something cold and hard. A tombstone, she thought.

  “Assholes!” she hissed, struggling against the ropes that held her.

  “Watch your tongue, pledge,” Nancy snapped. “Or you won’t get to be a Cherub.”

  “Don’t you get it? I don’t want to be in your damn club!” Charlie shot back.

  “Maybe we should just let her go,” she heard Jimmy plead.

  “Shut up! You’re ruining my speech,” Nancy said. “Oh, pledge. May all cherubs and angels everywhere look over you this night. For you are not in the sacred graveyard of the church but in the unhallowed ground beyond, where criminals—hanged for their sins—lie, where many a Yankee was hidden in the earth, where the most evil among us rest uneasily for all eternity. But you, should you survive the hours ahead, will rise triumphant, a Cherub for all time,” Nancy said dramatically.

  Charlie’s blindfold was slipping; from where she lay she could just see Nancy’s arms upstretched to the night sky. She was wearing her cheerleading uniform, which seemed to be a disservice to the entire school at that moment.

  Nancy’s arms dropped, and she turned, presumably to face the others. “Let’s get the hell out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”

  “Damn you all!” Charlie swore. “Let me up! I don’t want to be one of you stupid people.”

  Her words did no good. Laughing, the group hurriedly left, heading back to Nancy’s car and whatever vehicle Todd and the others had come in.

  She screamed for a few minutes more—to no avail. Still, it made her feel better, and she realized she was at least ridding herself of the blindfold. It was just a piece of white cotton, probably someone’s ripped-up shirt.

  She fell silent and worked harder at the blindfold. Eventually she dislodged it by rubbing her head back and forth against the headstone she was bound to. It finally came unknotted and fell down by her side. She laughed bitterly. Nancy and her crew weren’t even capable of tying a decent knot.

  The boys were, though. She couldn’t dislodge the ropes around her wrists and ankles, which were secured tightly against the tombstone.

  She let out a sigh, reminding herself that she wasn’t afraid of a graveyard. Even an unhallowed one. Her father had brought her here many times and told her of the injustices that had been perpetrated over the years. The townspeople had strung up an innocent slave instead of admitting to the guilt of a rich white man who had raped and strangled a young woman in the 1830s. His grave was unmarked. A horse thief—who was admittedly guilty but hadn’t killed anyone—was strung up in 1860. Apparently horse theft had been a major crime back then, since horses were needed for the militia units forming in the lead-up to the Civil War.

  Charlie closed her eyes for a minute. She could hear the river—the mighty Mississippi—churning far
below the bluff. She could hear tree branches swaying, the leaves rustling. She opened her eyes. Even though this was unhallowed ground, loved ones of those long gone had erected stones and monuments to mark their graves. A broken-winged angel looked mournfully down at her from a pedestal. Tombs and all manner of funerary art graced the area, some of it half-hidden by overgrown grass and shrubbery.

  Time passed as she continued to fight with the ropes that bound her. She cursed out loud and then quietly to herself. She prayed that Cathy—who was truly terrified of water—was going to be all right.

  Then she heard the sobbing.

  “Hey!” she called out.

  There was no reply. She inhaled, then let her breath out in a rush.

  Yes, her family often saw ghosts or just felt their invisible presence. She’d known that Uncle Jessup had come to his own funeral; she’d seen him stroking her mother’s hair, as if trying to assure her that he was all right.

  She wasn’t at all sure she was ready to see a ghost tonight, though, not while she was tied to a tombstone. Especially not here on unhallowed ground. Some of the people buried had been truly evil. There was even rumor that a vicious voodoo queen—a woman who had poisoned a number of people—had been brought out here, hanged and left to rot, then buried with no marker. It might only be a tale meant to scare away couples who liked to come to the cemetery and drink among the old tombstones, maybe do drugs or have sex...whatever.

  She wished she could see her watch. She felt as if she’d already been there for hours.

  More likely it had only been thirty minutes or so. Maybe she had imagined the sobbing.

  No, she hadn’t.

  Because the sound came again. She blinked hard. A young woman seemed to be materializing right in front of her, just to the left by the base of an old moss-draped oak tree. The woman’s hair was swept up, and she was wearing a pretty blue gown. For a moment Charlie thought that she had come from a different era in history, but then she realized that the blue dress was a beautiful and entirely contemporary formal gown. The woman bent down; she looked like she was trying to pick something up.

  But she couldn’t. Whatever it was, it slipped through her ethereal fingers.

  The woman seemed to sink against the tree and down to the ground.