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An hour later, Hayley and Scotty stood in Roselawn Cemetery, the dirt beneath her feet dark and moist and smelling of moss, evidence of a freshly dug grave. A few sparse bouquets decorated the space below the engraving on the headstone.
NATALIE TERESA MATTHEWS
BELOVED WIFE AND DAUGHTER
And two dates that were painfully close together. According to the bogus newspaper clipping they’d brought along, Natalie had passed away unexpectedly. Few details were given about the death, except that she’d been young and vibrant and still mourning the loss of her husband, Nick Matthews, a decorated Navy SEAL. If a twenty-eight-year-old, otherwise healthy young woman assumed room temperature while sitting in her house, with no obvious external cause, there should’ve been an investigation, autopsy, questions raised. But it seemed that there’d been none of the above.
The whole thing smelled distinctly like a cover-up.
“Well, I guess that’s it, then,” Scotty said from beside her.
And that was the other thing. For a guy who supposedly was an old friend of Natalie’s, he was taking this far too well. Yeah, he’d seemed genuinely shaken at the house, but now he showed all the sorrow of a bowling ball.
“Don’t you think it’s odd?” Hayley held a hand above her eyes to block out the sun.
“What’s odd?”
“All this.” She gestured with her free hand around the grave site. “Too abrupt for my tastes.”
Scotty gave her some serious side-eye, his expression unreadable. “Death can be abrupt. You don’t always see it coming.”
“No.” She stepped back and walked over to a nearby oak tree. “I mean afterward. When something like this happens, there’s usually a bunch of paperwork involved, trails leading to what happened and when and how. I didn’t find anything during my search. The official records don’t even show that she’s dead. If not for the newspaper clipping, I’d think this gravestone was for someone else who just happened to have the same name. I didn’t see anything like this in my search, and I ran itthis morning.”
“Search? I thought she was your aunt?”
“She is,” Hayley said, flustered. He got her normally detail-oriented mind all discombobulated.Way to blow your cover.“I meanwas. I mean, I did some checking on things before I went to the house, and there was nothing on file.”
He blew out a breath, head lowered as if in reverence, then joined her near the tree and slid his aviator sunglasses back into place, hiding his mesmerizing blue eyes. Now, when she looked at him, all she saw reflected back was herself. She leaned against the trunk and faced away from him.
Scotty placed his hand above her head and leaned his weight on it. “Maybe you’re still grieving over the loss of your dear family member and you need time for your investigative skills to rebound, Red.”
She snorted. “Same as you’re grieving over your close friend’s demise?”
“People grieve in different ways.”
She scrunched her nose and kicked an acorn with the toe of her sneaker. “This won’t help me find what I’m looking for at all.”
“And what exactlyareyou looking for?” He slid the glasses halfway down the bridge of his nose and looked at her over the rims, all piercing eyes and overwhelming presence, like he believed he could simplywillher to tell him whatever he wanted to know. “Must be pretty big if the FBI’s involved.”
“What areyoulooking for, Scotty?” she turned the question back on him, refusing to allow him to get the upper hand again. “What’s your real connection to…to my aunt?”
His firm, full lips compressed into a thin line, and he stepped back. “Can we stop lying, please? Natalie didn’t have any nieces or nephews.” After raking a hand through his hair, he met her gaze. “I’ll come clean if you will.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He stepped closer, and she looked away.Busted.“Fine. You go first.”
“I’m part of SEAL Team Ten. Nick’s team. He died on a mission—but he wasn’t taken out by the enemy. At least, not the enemy we were there to fight. It was a sniper attack, a single shot. Nick was the only target; none of the rest of us were touched. Someone knew we’d be there. Someone who had it out for Nick. We’re on suspension while the mission is under investigation to figure out what the hell went wrong, but we’ve been sent on a covert op under the authority of a high-ranking naval officer to get some answers as to who came after Nick and why. Natalie had some confidential files that we believe were downloaded onto an e-reader. That’s what I was looking for in the house today. We believe those files might lead us to Nick’s killer.” He crossed his arms. “And you?”
“I work for the FBI Cyber Division. My boss wanted more information on the death of Nick Matthews, and I thought the fact that his wife disappeared right afterward was fishy, so I figured I could earn some bonus points by digging a little further. I don’t believe Natalie’s dead, by the way.”
“Neither do I. Too convenient. And that article was vague as hell.” He hiked his chin. “If I can find her location, that would be a bonus. Care to elaborate as to where you think she might be?”
“Not really. Is there a reason why you brought me all the way out here to talk about this instead of spilling your guts at the house?”
“Actually, yes. My guess is that place is under surveillance. Most likely by whoever planted that.” He pointed to the newspaper in her hand. “I’d say a guy by the name of Becks.”
“I see. Is there any reason why this Becks guy wouldn’t follow us here?”
