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Lia shook her head. Both Drew and Cord had to be eighteen, or close to it. They were seniors, after all. But neither bothered to use their brains. Assuming they had one.
“So what happened?”
“Drew said he hit an icy patch that threw him off his sled and he rolled into a ditch next to the tracks. That’s when he saw something under a bunch of old branches.”
Lia shoved away her opinion of Drew and Cord. Right now, nothing mattered but the wild claim they’d made.
“And you’re absolutely certain they found a body?”
“I can show you.”
Lia took an instinctive step backward, as if he was about to pull a rotting corpse out of his pocket.
“What?”
Wayne held up the phone that was a constant fixture in his hand. “I had to see for myself.”
“You went down to look at the body?”
“Of course.” He swiped his finger over the screen, seemingly searching for something. “Nothing ever happens in this town. I wasn’t going to miss the one nanosecond of excitement.” He turned the phone around, a hint of pride on his narrow face. “Even if it was a little gruesome.”
Lia glanced at the screen, realizing he’d pulled up a photo. She sent him a sharp glance.
“You took pictures?”
“Yep. And I posted them on my Instagram account. I’m hoping they’ll go viral.”
“Wayne.”
He hunched his shoulders in a defensive motion. “Like I said, It’s my one nanosecond of excitement. And it’s not hurting anyone. Whoever the skeleton belongs to is dead and gone.” He continued to hold out the phone. “Look.”
Lia didn’t want to look. She wanted to scurry back to her office and shut the door. Maybe then she could pretend it was just another day. A regular, boring day like every other regular, boring day.
A strange compulsion, however, had her leaning forward, studying the image Wayne had enlarged. Her gaze went immediately to the skull that peeked out of a layer of ice. It didn’t look real. Instead, it appeared to have been carved from aged ivory, with empty eyes sockets that were shadowed, as if hiding unbearable secrets, and perfectly intact teeth that appeared too large and weirdly threatening. With a shudder, Lia forced her gaze to take in the rest of the skeleton. Or at least what was visible.
The upper torso was covered by what appeared to be a weathered leather jacket. She hissed, enlarging the picture until she could see the gold badge that had dulled over the years but remained unmistakable.
“Oh my God.” Lia pressed a hand to her heaving stomach. Any hope of returning to her office and acting as if everything was normal was replaced with a burning urgency to take some sort of action. She didn’t know exactly what that action was going to be, but she couldn’t sit around and do nothing. “I need you to cover the store for an hour or so,” she muttered.
“Okay.” Wayne climbed onto the stool behind the cash register. “But if you want to take a look at the skeleton, it’s too late. The mayor is there and he won’t let anyone near the place. He’s such a jerk.”
Lia bit her lip. The mention of the mayor jolted her sluggish brain. That was what she needed to do. Speak with a law official. Unfortunately, Zac Evans, who’d proven to be an outstanding sheriff, had left Pike a week earlier to take his wife on an overdue honeymoon. He refused to tell them where he was going, only that it involved a cruise ship and that he was shutting off his phone and refusing to think about work until after the holidays.
Good news for him. Awful news for her.
For now, Pike was without a full-time sheriff, and until Zac returned, the local mayor was filling the position. Tate Erickson was barely capable of performing his duties as mayor, let alone taking on the sheriff ’s job.
Still, what choice did she have?
“I’ll be back later.” She scurried to the back of the narrow building, using the private staircase to head up to the apartment above the store.
It was a wide-open space arranged with a living room and kitchen and bedroom with an attached bathroom. The furniture hadn’t changed since her mother moved out. The leather couch and chairs were worn and sagging in places, but they were comfortable, and that was all that mattered. Grabbing her purse, Lia slid a heavy parka over her casual jeans and bright red sweater before pulling on a thick stocking hat. She’d cut her strawberry-blond hair into a short, pixie style that was easy to take care of but did nothing to keep her warm. Then, heading back down the narrow staircase, she left the building to climb into the SUV with PORTER GROCERIES painted on the side. Once a month she delivered groceries to the customers who were housebound.
Driving out of the alley, she turned away from the center square and headed toward the outer road. The streets were slick from the most recent snowfall, but she was too impatient to creep along at a cautious pace. She slid past the old drive-in, where the framework of bare wood from the screen had managed to survive. Next to it was an indoor skating rink that hadn’t been so lucky. It had collapsed years ago. Farther on was the bowling alley, which had been converted into a charity shop.
At last, she turned onto a narrow path that led toward the rolling fields that surrounded Pike and drove until she reached a curve in the road. She parked the SUV and switched off the engine. Ahead, she could see the barricades that had been put up along with glowing yellow police tape. A shiver raced through her as she watched the thin plastic flap in the stiff breeze.
Climbing out of the vehicle, Lia headed toward the short, heavyset man in a brown uniform standing guard against the gathering crowd.
