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“Okay. Peter, I’ll give you our coordinates as soon as we reach the spot where we smelled the odor the worst.” She and Nate backtracked and then headed to the river. She gave Peter the GPScoordinates. “We’re going to swim across the river and make sure there’s no one injured over there.”
“Okay, I’m getting an investigative team together as we speak.”
“All right, thanks.”
“Be careful crossing the river.”
“We will be.”
Kayla wanted to wait for the sheriff and his men to come to investigate this, but because Nate was a private investigator and a reserve deputy sheriff in case of emergencies, she knew he had to check it out and learn what he could. If someone was in need of help, she also wanted to assist. He was an excellent swimmer, and so was she, so she didn’t worry about the two of them navigating the river, though that could always be a hazard too.
They left their walking sticks on the ground and pulled off their backpacks. She tucked the satellite phone in his backpack while he removed his shirt. They kept their hiking boots on in case there were any submerged logs or branches, jagged rocks, broken glass, even fishing tackle stuck in the rocks and hidden in the river. Then he gave her a hug and kiss, and she gave him a heartfelt hug and kiss back before they entered the water.
They began to wade into the river until it was deep enough and then started to swim against the strong currents.
She felt awful that anyone would have died outhere. As she swam across the river, she watched Nate fight the strong current like she was doing. He kept looking back over his shoulder to make sure she was okay. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Just go. I’ll get there,” she called out to him. But he wasn’t taking any chances and continued to glance back to ensure she was still making it. She loved him for it.
Then he stopped and treaded water, fighting the current. “I’m waiting for you.” He looked ready to return to rescue her if she needed it.
He didn’t need to. She was getting there. As soon as she caught up to him, he swam toward shore again, more slowly though, trying to stay with her.
Before she reached the shore, she belatedly worried that they might run into a predator eating the remains.
After fighting the current for about twenty minutes, he finally reached the targeted shore and climbed out. “Do you see anything?” she called out to him. Bare-chested, wet, his shorts clinging to him… Despite the situation, she thought how sexy he looked.
He motioned to the woods. “The odor gets stronger in that direction. The person must be in the woods.”
“Okay.” As soon as she was close to the shore, he stepped into the water to help her out and pulledher into his arms and hugged her tight. She took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”
“Yeah. Let’s get it done.”
They headed into the woods and could smell the odor of decay grow stronger.
“Do you see the body yet?” she asked as she and he started looking in different directions, but they were staying within sight of each other. She was also smelling for any sign of anyone else.
“Not yet, but it’s somewhere near here.” Then a few minutes later, he said, “I found him over here, covered with twigs, leaves, and pine needles. He’s…uh, in a bad state of decomposition. You don’t need to see this.”
“Are you sure you can’t use my help?” She wished Nate hadn’t seen the victim either.
“No. Not on something like this. There’s nothing you could do anyway. I’m just looking for evidence to see if I can learn who the victim is and trying to determine what happened. I don’t think anybody else is over here.”
“You’re right. I don’t smell any sign of anyone else either.”
“Just the one man and he’s wearing a black ski mask.”
“In this heat?” She couldn’t believe it.
“Yeah, it’s chilly at night, and if he was trying to stay hidden from whoever shot him before he expired, wearing the ski mask could have hidden his face better.”
“Shot him? Someone murdered him?”
“Yeah. I can see three gunshot wounds.”
“Oh, that’s awful.” She frowned. “It still seems odd that he had been carrying a ski mask during the day in this heat unless he had been up to no good. Can you tell how and when he died?”
“It looks like he died about a week ago, though the doc will have to confirm the actual time frame of his death. It appears he was shot twice in the chest and once in the leg.”
“Okay, well, that isn’t good. That means we have a murder on our hands.”
