“Why would he call us about the girl and then disappear?” Ellie’s mind raced. “Unless he didn’t just witness the girl’s fall.”
Cord worked his mouth from side to side and trailed his flashlight across the ground where Roman had pitched his makeshift tent. He didn’t like Ellie’s train of thought. If Roman had pushed the girl, Cord had missed the signs. But he saw no blood or a weapon. Although some criminals stuck around to insert themselves into an investigation or watch the police, it had never occurred to him that Roman might be one of those.
“He seemed a little off, but at his age and with a limp, he couldn’t possibly climb that ridge.”
“He could have driven her up there then driven down here after he pushed her.”
Cord shook his head. “I didn’t see a vehicle anywhere when I arrived. Besides, he was a frail man, El. If the girl fought him, it’s more likely he would have fallen over.”
“True. But if she was unconscious?”
“The same. He didn’t appear strong or steady enough on his feet to have carried her.”
“Then why run off?”
“I don’t know. He was homeless, so he might be hiding out for some reason, either from the law or his family. Maybe he didn’t want to get involved or talk to the police.”
“That’s possible, although he did call it in. Still, I need to talk to him.”
“I’ll look around and see if I can find him before I head to the top of the ridge.”
“I’ll call the local law then wait here for the ME and ERT.”
“There’s not much law in Mystic,” Cord said. “A tiny sheriff’s office in town, minus a sheriff, and one cell, which I heard is designated as the town drunk’s. A deputy is in charge now.”
“Got it. It could be a shitshow,” Ellie said. “Glad you called me.”
He grunted. “I’ll let you know if I find Roman or anything at the top of the ridge.”
Dammit. He shouldn’t have dismissed Roman so quickly, and he should have considered that Roman might disappear. Instead, Cord had felt sorry for the old man.
Could he have been blinded by memories of what it was like being homeless and living in the wilderness?
He zipped his jacket then set off into the woods, calling the man’s name. He couldn’t have gotten too far, not with his bum leg. But there were miles and miles of untamed land.
He spent the next half hour combing the area, but footprints ended in some bushes near the river.
If Roman had a boat, he could be long gone by now. Dammit.
Cord thought the old man was a good Samaritan. But could he have been involved in the girl’s death?
FIVE
Ellie phoned the local sheriff’s office and received a voicemail. Obviously, no one was on duty manning the phones this time of night. Maybe Mystic had such low crime rates, or more likely a low budget, that it didn’t have resources to keep the office staffed and relied on 9-1-1.
After listening to the voicemail options and learning the deputy’s name, Jerry Rouse, she left a message relaying that a body had been found at Midnight Ridge and that she was at the scene, waiting on the medical examiner and ERT to arrive.
While she waited for his return call or for him to show up—she didn’t know how things worked around here—she studied the scene with a detective’s eye. The broken pink and white beaded bracelet bore letters and almost looked childlike. She shifted the letters around in her mind and came up with Siri or… Iris. Hmm, was that the girl’s name?
Body face down, consistent with a jump. Broken bones, obvious. Blood loss severe and not surprising with the height of the jump. And she definitely smelled of whiskey and a lot of it.
The multitude of black crow feathers beneath the girl disturbed her. As she studied the feathers, she realized some of them were laid out in a pattern like a bird’s wing.
The sound of an engine in the distance cut into the night, and she walked over to the parking lot. A local Mystic deputy’s car was parking, the driver cutting its lights as he got out.
In the silhouette of the full moon, she saw a gangly man in a deputy’s uniform and a thick gray coat stalking toward her, a scowl on his rugged face and unshaven jaw like some kind of mountain man facing a standoff with a wild creature, not a fellow investigator.
He also looked pissed.
