Ten years ago, a woman was killed in a train accident near Bells Hill, Illinois. Her unidentified remains were buried under a memorial stone. With advances in DNA testing, the NAMUS project wants to dig her up to identify her. When they exhume the coffin, they find a second body...In Carlos's five years as a police officer in the sleepy town, he's only encountered one violent crime. The haunting nightmares of having failed the victim leave him reconsidering whether he's cut out to follow in his father's footsteps.Bella and Carlos have been friends with benefits since high school, but she saw him entering the police academy as the ultimate betrayal. When she was a teenager, her single father would call the police to track her down any time she wasn't where he expected her to be-including when she was working at her aunt's coffee shop. The harassment by one cop in particular fostered deep distrust of the police. While she loves Carlos, she can't see past the badge when he's on duty.A ghost follows Carlos home from the exhumation and takes up residence in Bella's coffee shop. It warns that "she isn't safe," but the "she" in question remains uncertain. In addition, several women in surrounding towns have turned up dead, and the one thing they all have in common is complaints against the police officer who terrorized Bella in her youth. Is Bella next? Karla Brandenburg is an award-winning author of contemporary romance novels which include paranormal elements. Now that her children have settled into lives of their own, she loves to go out into the world on adventures with her husband, from Milwaukee to the French Riviera, but the Chicago suburbs have always been "home." She is an avid reader across multiple genres and is a card-carrying cookie-holic (we all have our vices).
