Page 87 of Taken Away

Aubrey’s gaze drifted past Burke’s shoulder to the towering wall of glass. The Victorian sat beyond the vines, sun gleaming off its slate roof and white trim like a postcard.

It wasn’t a postcard anymore.

It was a crime scene.

Burke cleared his throat, the sound low and rough in the quiet.

“I need to get back to the station,” he said. “Call the state bureau, get my CSI folks rolling, pull Kincaid’s full file. We’ll start a formal case build this afternoon.”

He looked from Bennett to Aubrey and back again.

“In the meantime, I want both of you staying reachable. No trips to Asheville. No surprise flights back to Philadelphia. If I call, answer. If my deputy shows up, talk to him.”

Aubrey nodded automatically, her thoughts struggling to catch up.

“Okay,” she said. The word scraped out of her throat. “What… what are you doing first?”

“Scene reconstruction,” Burke said. “We treated that house like a natural-death scene the first time. We’re not making that mistake twice.” His expression hardened. “We’ll start with Mabel’s bedroom. Trace, prints, fibers—any sign the original walk-through missed.”

Bennett’s hand curled into a fist at his side.

“You’re going back in there today?” he asked.

“Soon as I can get a team up here,” Burke said. “I’ll call you when we’re on the way. I’d like one of you on-site when we process.”

Aubrey’s stomach dipped.

“You want me there?” she asked.

“I’m not going to drag you through every camera angle,” Burke said. “But this is your house now. If my techs need access to anything or have questions about the property, I need somebody on-site.”

Aubrey thought of the perfectly made bed. The stack of books on the nightstand. The carefully arranged throw pillows.

Before.

“Alright,” she whispered.

Burke adjusted his hat, then paused.

“There’s one more thing,” he said. “Until my people finish a first pass, I don’t want you talking to the staff about ‘murder’ or ‘homicide’ or what the Medical Examiner found. No theories. No porch stories. No pointing fingers at anybody. Let my deputies take their statements clean.”

“You want me to lie to them?” Aubrey asked.

“I want you to tell them we got new information and the sheriff’s office is following up,” Burke said. “And that’s it.” His eyes met hers. “The less they hear from you before I talk to them, the better chance I have at getting what they actually remember.”

Bennett gave a short nod.

“We can handle that,” he said.

Burke studied him for a beat, then Aubrey.

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I have a time on CSI.”

He turned toward the door, then stopped and looked back at Aubrey.

“And, Aubrey?”

She forced herself to meet his gaze.