“Name,” the Marshal demands, eyes boring into my skull.
“Ruth Iverson,” I say, swallowing hard, teeth chattering now. “Like I said, I live here. Well, I did live here… I’m here… I…”
The handler’s eyes flick toward the woods behind the house. His dog sniffs the ground and growls low, pulling against the leash like it wants to run. My stomach drops. If they follow that scent… how long will it take them to find him?
“Ma’am, has anyone else been on the property tonight? Your disabled mother is in the house.”
I force my shoulders to slump, and lower my hands, which they watch with attention that leaves me uneasy. “No,” I whisper. “It’s just me and my mom. I was looking for my dog… I thought I let him out?—”
“Dog’s in the house,” the Marshal snaps.
The other one with the dog narrows his eyes. “We’ve found a body in the lake. Local man. You need to be escorted to the house and stay put.”
I freeze, the news actually surprising me. “A body?” My heart hammers against my ribcage so hard I’m sure they can hear it.
“Yeah, not far from here,” the Marshal barks at me, but doesn’t specify.
“Sir,” the handler says to his partner as the dog jerks at the end of the leash, “scent’s coming from the direction of that area.”
Oh god. Did Noah do it? Is it the man in camo?My head spins, but I try to keep my face neutral.
“You’re certain you haven’t seen anyone?” the Marshal without the gun presses, and my eyes jump past him…
More law enforcement materializing.
I force my voice calm, voice cracking just a little. “I—I saw a man in camo yesterday, I think. He scared me. I ran.”
“And so you went back to the woods in the middle of the night?”
Oh shit.I swallow hard. “I was looking for my dog. People trespass all the time.”
“Like your childhood neighbor? Thomas Noah Peterson?”
I blink a few times. “Who?”
The handler shakes his head. “Take her to the house and let someone else worry about this. Trail’s too hot to ignore.”
“I’ll go to the house,” I say quickly. “I’m freezing.”
They both eye me, and then the dog breaks into a wild bark, bounding at the end of the leash.
“We need to conduct a search of the property. Get yourself to the house and stay put.” With that, they jet off toward the woods, and before I even make ten steps further, at least ten more bodies break into a jog to join them, their flashlights causing a strange cadence.
I keep expecting someone to say something to me, but no one does, and so I make my way back toward the house, eyeing the inside through the back kitchen window. I see my mother sittingthere at the table, and a police officer standing over her, clearly asking questions.
I can’t get my stuff. I’ll have to leave without it.
I take a deep breath, letting the cold cut through me as I head for my car. My thighs ache from the moment with Noah in the ravine, and the one before then, too. He thinks that this is over between us, but it can’t be.
It can’t.
The panic makes my chest ache and my head go light, but somehow, I make it to my SUV, pulling open the driver’s side door. I havenoidea if I’ll be able to get down to the docks, the only place I can think Noah might run. Anywhere else is going to get him onto a main road.
And I’m sure there’ll be law enforcement there.
I exhale slowly, and then start the engine. My hands lower slowly, and I take a mental inventory of what I have—letters, wallet, blanket. That’s it. That’s all I can leave with.
My gut twists with fear and dread, the mixture making my stomach nauseous, as I put the SUV in reverse, and make my way down the driveway. No one stops me.
