Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Silence hit the space between them.
“You went to see May at ten o’clock at night?” Ophelia asked.
Ace’s jaw tightened. “Yeah. I had a question for her.”
Ophelia pursed her lips. “What was your question?”
Tension struck at the base of Ace’s skull. “Sorry, that’s private doctor and patient information. Privileged and all of that.”
“You went to see the doctor at ten at night for a private matter? I can see a cut above your eye and a smaller one on your lip. Is that why?” Ophelia asked.
“No. The cut above the eye happened earlier in the day when Tyler hit me, and I hit him back. The cut on the lip happened around nine last night, when Tyler was pissed Laura had moved on to the flannels, and he got snarky. He punched my mouth, and I tossed his ass outside. If he came back after I left, I’m unaware of that.”
“How long were you at May’s?” Brock asked.
Ace thought back. “I was there for about half an hour, and then I left. That’s all.”
“And then?” Ophelia prodded.
“Then I went home. I didn’t see Laura after I left the bar,” Ace said.
Amka nodded slowly. “That’s true. Laura was still here after Ace left.”
Candy shifted anxiously beside them, wrapping her arms tight around herself.
Brock exhaled and handed back the phone. “All right. I’ll start canvassing, and I need to speak with people at the campground. She might’ve wandered off. If we don’t get good answers, we’ll have to start a search.”
Candy’s head jerked up. “Laura wouldn’t have wandered off.”
Ophelia shoved her phone back into her pocket. “Is there any chance she slept in your tent and left early?”
Candy shook her head. “Her sleeping bag wasn’t touched. My migraine meds do knock me out, and if she’d come back, I might not have heard her. But her sleeping bag wasn’t touched. Nothing was. She definitely did not come back to our tent last night.”
Ace’s stomach dropped. Alaska was a terrible place for a person to get lost.
Brock’s radio crackled at his hip. He lifted it. “Yeah. It’s Brock.”
“Sheriff.” Panic edged the entire word. “It’s David Laurence.”
Every muscle in Ace’s body locked.
“Hey, David,” Brock said quietly. “What’s going on?”
David’s breath panted out loudly over the radio. The guy was in charge of all road maintenance for the town, regardless of weather. “I was out walking my dog near Two Trout Creek, and I found a body.”
The tavern went completely silent.
Brock closed his eyes briefly and then reopened them. “Is it a young blonde woman?”
“Yes, Sheriff.” Another pause from David was punctuated by his ragged breathing. “And it doesn’t look good.”
Chapter Six
May slowly climbed out of her truck, her boots hitting the muddy road that ran by the creek. Apparently it had rained a bit earlier, and she hadn’t heard it. After Ace had left, she’d slept rather soundly, having torrid dreams about that innocent kiss. She forced her mind away from the sexy rogue and looked at the wilderness around her.
The stretch ahead had been blocked off with crime scene tape tied from one tree to another. The yellow strip snapped in the rising wind. She ducked under it without hesitation and started down the road.
The air felt heavy, wet, and alive. This was Alaska in July, unpredictable and stubborn. The sky had turned a deep gray with the clouds stacking fast. A summer storm meant lightning and possible forest fires, so hopefully the rainfall would be a good dumping. They shouldn’t be having rain this late in the season, but Mother Nature never asked permission.
May’s rain boots sank with each step as she followed the road for half a mile. The mud clung and released in slow pulls. The creek roared somewhere ahead, louder than it should’ve been. The wind slid down from the hills, a warning against her skin. She rolled her shoulders, tension already creeping in. She hated this part. Always had. Death didn’t scare her, but the violence behind it sat wrong.
“Hey,” AWT Dutch Reddick called out as he strode up from the embankment. His movements were steady and sure despite the uneven ground. “Thanks for coming, Doc. Sorry you had to walk, but we kept getting looky-loos, so I blocked off the entire roadway.”
May stopped. “No problem.”
Up close, Dutch looked every bit his eighties with his weathered face and unruly gray hair. He must’ve ditched his usual hat in a nod to the rapidly increasing wind. “It’s good to see you,” he said.
She forced a smile for his benefit. Truth be told, the mystical Alaska Wildlife Trooper was one of her favorite people, and she liked when he stayed in town. “We’ve missed you.”
He shrugged, his blue eyes as steady as the mountains around them. “Yeah, I missed you, too. I’ve been hunting all over hell and back for what they’re calling the Glacial Butcher. How stupid is that name?”