Page 129 of Rangers Unexpected Return

“Of course not.”

“I was making sure you didn’t wander off. You’ve only been in town two days. You don’t know where anything is.”

“That almost sounded like concern.”

“It wasn’t.”

Max looked up at me.

“Don’t say it,” I muttered.

Judy folded her arms. “He didn’t.”

“He has a very judgmental face.”

“He learned it from me.”

This time she smiled.

A real one.

It disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.

For half a second, the years between us disappeared.

Then she looked away.

So did I.

Because we weren’t teenagers, and this wasn’t Washington. We weren’t standing behind her parents’ garage wondering if we had the courage to kiss.

There was a killer in Eagle River.

And he had chosen Rylie.

I took Max around the outside of the house. He sniffed beneath the windows, moved along the foundation, and stopped near a gate leading into the backyard.

His body went still.

“What is it?”

He lowered his nose to the ground and followed a scent to the side of the garage. There were several partial prints in the dirt, but the ground was too dry to hold anything useful.

One print was deeper than the others.

A boot.

Large.

It could have belonged to Sheriff Tate or Trigger. It could have been there for weeks.

Max sniffed the wooden gate and let out a low sound.

Not a growl.

A warning.

I crouched beside him. There was a narrow scratch near the latch where the paint had been disturbed. I touched it with one finger.