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A hit-and-run accident that had taken his mother’s life and left a world of pain in its wake.
Owen focused all his attention toward the large desk in front of the lone window in the room. Two smaller televisions flanked the screen, all three turned to grainy images of the woods.
“I started these at different times, all after I shot that sonofabitch and came inside. If you want to watch that, I can find it next. But I think you’ll be more interested in this.”
“Have you watched it?”
Owen leaned forward, not wanting to miss anything. Marie pressed in beside him, and the scent of coconuts wafted up his nose. He wanted to bend down and bury his nose in her silky strands. He gritted his teeth to keep his attention on what his grandpa had to show him.
Lewis lifted a bony finger and pointed at the corner of the middle screen. “The time stamp shows this was about an hour after I came inside. This camera is pointed at the edge of my property, so you won’t see much. But it’s enough.”
Owen raised a brow. “Enough for what?”
Lewis said nothing, just clicked his tongue and kept his finger extended toward the computer.
A flutter of branches caught Owen’s attention on the top of the screen, and his gaze followed Lewis’ finger as it trailed down to a shadow. He squinted, trying to morph the movements into concrete shapes. “What am I looking at?”
A hand tightened on his arm. “Feet.”
He glanced at Marie and took note of her pale cheeks then quickly turned back to the surveillance footage. The outline of two feet took form. “It’s the bottoms of the feet.”
Lewis nodded. “Give it a second.”
As if on command another shadow emerged on the edge of the screen. The figure moved quickly, pushing leaves and branches out of the way.
Owen’s narrowed gaze followed the silhouette of what he assumed was Bill, an arm looped around dainty ankles, moving through the forest. The man stumbled a few times and grabbed his side, then righted himself and continued down the hill. Owen’s blood boiled. Not only had he killed a woman, but he’d dragged her down the riverbank like she was nothing more than a prize buck taken down during deer season.
“Is that another shadow?” Marie whispered the question into the quiet room, the soft sound of her words competing with the low buzz of the old-as-dirt computer tower buzzing at their feet.
Owen held his breath and watched the third shadow take form. As the first silhouette dragged the ankles further from the camera, another figure lifted two arms above the woman’s head. The two hulking figures maneuvered through the brush until they disappeared from view, replaced with the serene landscape that gave no indication of being disturbed by monsters.
Lewis stopped the video. “I fast forwarded the footage and there’s no more images of the two men. They must have gone back up the bank further down the river, closer to their property.”
“I was there today, and I could have sworn their house was on your property, Pappy. I’m surprised you don’t have a camera closer to their house.”
Lewis shrugged. “I sold some land a few years back.”
Questions burned the back of Owen’s tongue, but he swallowed them and focused on Marie instead. “Was one of those men Bill?”
Marie bit the plumpy flesh of her bottom lip, and her chin trembled. “Yes.”
Owen nodded. “No shock there. But you said he didn’t have any friends here. Obviously he’s close enough to someone that they’d help him dump a dead body.”
“He’s had a few people at the house. I wrote down any names I heard, but most of the time it was only the first name or nicknames used.”
Lewis swiveled in his seat. “You kept records of people coming into your house?”
Owen fought not to roll his eyes at the approval shining from his grandpa’s gaze. Only Pappy would have admiration in his voice over recording people’s whereabouts in their own home. “Do you remember any of these names?”
Marie straightened and a subtle curve lifted the side of her mouth. “Most of them, but I have the notes in my purse. I’ll show you everything.”
Finally, something was going his way. Water’s Edge was a small town, and if he could connect one of the names in Marie’s notes with a resident of the town, he’d be one step closer to finding Bill.
Best yet, if he could get the name of who his grandpa sold the piece of property to that Bill and Marie lived on. Someone had to have the deed, and that someone had to know Bill to rent out that shack.
A vibration pulsed against his thigh, and he grabbed his phone from his pocket and waited for Marie to leave the room before answering the call. “What do you got, Tommy?”
“We found Bill’s truck.” A beat of silence pulsed through the phone before Tommy said, “He’s not with the vehicle. It was abandoned outside of town.”
