by Emily James
Guilt bloomed in my chest. He was the unlucky one. At least I was still alive.
And I had to pull myself together. Any minute now, the other tour guests would return to the clearing. The kids shouldn’t see this.
I reached for one of the blankets we kept in the sleigh for the guests, but stopped before my fingers hit the fabric. As much as I might want to spare them, I couldn’t cover Drew’s body. It’d contaminate any evidence. I shouldn’t even go near him since nothing I did could bring him back. Not with that much blood.
My head spun slightly. All that blood. I leaned against the sleigh. I needed to pull myself together and make sure Russ had called the police. Now we really did need them.
I grabbed my walkie-talkie. “Russ? Over.” The two words shook more than I would have liked.
This time it was a curse rather than a laugh that preceded Russ’ response out of the handset. “What’s going on out there? I’m headed to you, and I got Elise. She’s on her way with a couple of officers.”
My breathing came a little easier. I hadn’t realized it’d been such a struggle until my lungs loosened up and I could breathe normally again.
“Did you find the girl?” Russ asked.
A scream ripped through the air behind me. I swung around. Kristen stood at the far edge of the clearing, covering Riley’s eyes with one hand, the other hand pressed over her own mouth.
At least they’d found Riley. That was clearly the only thing that was going right today.
By the time Russ led Elise and the other Fair Haven police officers into the clearing, everyone had returned except for Drew’s girlfriend. I’d gathered everyone else in the sleigh so as to contaminate as little of the scene as possible.
I slid down and strode toward Elise and Russ, keeping my gaze away from where Drew lay. Seeing a body never got easier, no matter how many I was exposed to.
Russ’ face was paler than usual, and his barrel-shaped body plowed through the snow directly for me. “What happened to no body this time?” The words barely seemed to make it out past his gritted teeth.
All I could do was shrug in reply. He passed by me and climbed up into the driver’s seat of the sleigh.
Elise had her notepad out, and instead of giving me a hug, she gave me a look I couldn’t interpret—her eyes a little too wide and darting in the direction of the other officers. Elise always tended to look like someone had put her freshly washed clothes into the freezer rather than the dryer, but today, each of her movements had an extra level of stiffness to them.
The first time we’d met, less than two months ago, had been in a similar situation. She’d been the responding officer, and she’d immediately suspected me because I’d been the one to discover Noah, our former groom-mechanic, unconscious and covered in blood. She’d even wrongly accused me of having a relationship with him. We’d sorted out a lot of misunderstandings since then, and I now counted her among my closest friends in Fair Haven, so I knew we couldn’t be back to I-think-you’re-the-murderer.
I also knew from when I’d shown her some of the photos Drew had already taken that she didn’t know him. That meant it wasn’t personal.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the other officers who’d come with her. The one closest to us was Quincey Dornbush. He looked past me without so much as a smile or any sign of recognition. Something was definitely up, more than just another body discovered by me.
I didn’t recognize the third officer. Fair Haven had a larger police force than most small towns thanks to the way the population swelled in tourist season, but I still knew every officer on the force by sight. Turns out that tended to happen when you were dating the county medical examiner.
The third officer had to be the new police chief. His bearing definitely said I’m in command here. He had the same clean-shaven cheeks and short haircut of any other male officer, but his long face and narrow nose reminded me a bit of a fox. His gaze took in Drew’s body, everyone gathered in the sleigh, and finally me.
The muscles at the edges of his eyes tightened. “The call we received said there was a missing child. This looks more like a murder.”
Talk about getting off on the wrong foot. I was so far off I wasn’t even sure the foot was mine by this point, and the way Elise and Quincey were acting suddenly seemed like a secret code flashing Warning.
Problem was, I didn’t know what to watch out for. He’d been brought in to see if the corruption on the police force extended beyond the former chief and to clean up the problems that had shown up once the old chief was gone. So were Elise and Quincey worried I’d seem too friendly and bring them under suspicion from a man doing his job, or was the new chief a danger because he was looking for a scapegoat and didn’t care who that might be?
I’d rather be safe and protect them. I kept my gaze steady on the new chief. “We went out looking for the missing girl. When we came back, I found Drew’s body.”
Nothing about his expression changed. “Was the girl found?”
I nodded.
“Has everyone returned from the search?”
All but one. Everyone else had been speculating about what had happened to Drew’s girlfriend, but I’d been actively trying not to think about it. Trying not to think that she might also be dead somewhere out in the woods. Or that she might have been the one to hurt Drew. Even with my overly active imagination, I couldn’t come up with any other reasons she wouldn’t be here. It was a stretch even for me to think she’d fallen and sprained an ankle at the same time as someone else murdered her boyfriend.
I’d been calling her Drew’s girlfriend in my mind because it reminded me why I hadn’t ordered her to stay away, but we had been introduced. I knew her name. “Holly Northgate, Drew’s girlfriend, hasn’t come back yet.”
I didn’t believe she was coming back, but adding the yet gave her the benefit of the doubt at least. I didn’t want to unfairly cast suspicion. For all I knew, she could be another victim.
“Dornbush.” The new chief looked back over his shoulder. “Go back to the car, and call in Cavanaugh and the crime scene techs and a bigger team to look for Miss. Northgate. Scott, I want you to stay here with the body until they arrive.”
Quincey got back on one of the snowmobiles. Elise’s spine straightened further than I thought was possible for a human being, and for a second, I thought she might salute.
“Yes, sir,” she said.
She moved a few feet toward Drew’s body, but stayed far enough away to protect any footprints or other evidence.
The chief’s expression still gave nothing away. It was like trying to read words covered over with permanent marker, but it told me more about him than he probably realized. He hadn’t treated me like the murderer because I’d found the body. He hadn’t hinted that Holly might have killed Drew. That suggested he didn’t like to jump to conclusions, and he didn’t want to give away what he was thinking because he suspected everyone until he had reason not to.
He poked his chin toward the sleigh. “Gather everyone here, please.”
I waved for them to join us, and they piled out of the sleigh. The bitter wind had already turned Kristen’s face splotchy, and the older man who’d stayed with his wife during the search rubbed his bare hands together and stamped his feet. Even the teenage girl huddled beside her dad for extra warmth—though it might also have been for comfort, considering she’d seen a dead body. Red rimmed her eyes like she’d been trying not to cry.
Kristen’s husband—his name was Shawn—had zipped their little boy inside his jacket for extra warmth as soon as they’d gotten back to the sleigh, making him look like an overgrown kangaroo with a joey in its pouch, and Kristen had wrapped her scarf around his little face. I’d donated mine to help keep Riley warmer as well. She shivered in the circle of Kristen’s arms.
We’d all been out here twice as long as expected. On a normal tour, we’d have been drinking hot chocolate and enjoying maple syrup treats at the sugar shack. Hopefull
y calling us together meant the chief would also let us go.
As soon as the group got within speaking distance, Shawn started chastising the chief about keeping his children out in the cold, and Kristen held his arm, clearly trying to calm him down. The teenage girl added something as well, but I couldn’t catch the words, only the snark in her tone.
“I’m Chief Owen McTavish.” The chief called over top of it all. “I need all of you to come with me.”
I tapped the screen on my phone for the fifth time. Five thirty-six in the evening. I’d been alone in one of the interview rooms for nearly a half hour now, waiting for someone to take my statement. In a larger city, I would have thought the wait was some sort of delay tactic to shake me. Here, it was more likely that they simply didn’t have enough officers to search for Holly, secure the scene, and talk to all the potential witnesses. At least I was finally warm.
But the delay could cause me a major problem. I’d taken Velma to the vet for her spay yesterday, and I needed to get her today before they closed at six or she’d be stuck there over the weekend. Mark had planned to pick me up right around now with his truck so she didn’t have to squeeze into the back seat of my car.
I tapped his name from my contact list.
Are you still at the scene? I’m stuck at the station. What do we do about Velma?
I hit the send button.
The bar had barely zipped along the top of the screen, signaling that it was gone, before the door opened. Chief McTavish came in, carrying a small pile of files.
My mouth dried out and my tongue plastered itself to the bottom. The files couldn’t be a good sign. He’d never bring statements from the tour guests into the room to take my statement. He hadn’t seemed to suspect me earlier, and I couldn’t imagine what anyone might have said to change that. So what was this about?
He seated himself across from me and gently laid the files down on the table in front of him.
For a full thirty seconds, he looked at me, like he was trying to invade my brain and pull the truth from me by telekinesis. “Miss. Fitzhenry-Dawes.”
I opened my mouth to ask him to call me Nicole, but stopped before it came out. My instincts said that what other people would interpret as a gesture of goodwill, he’d see as me trying to create a sense of trust so that he wouldn’t question me as carefully. I had nothing to hide, so I settled on, “Chief McTavish.”
The twitch at the corners of his lips told me that he saw right through that as well. Not surprising, since he’d been sent here ostensibly due to his powers of observation and high moral character.
“I apologize for how long we’ve kept you here, but I ran into a problem when trying to assign an officer to take your statement. All of them had a conflict of interest.” He folded his hands on top of the files. “Not only are you dating my county medical examiner, but it seems you also once dated Erik Higgins, and you and Dr. Cavanaugh now frequently socialize with Higgins and Elise Scott, who I recently discovered is also Dr. Cavanaugh’s cousin.”
A mixture of amusement, frustration, and befuddlement rolled across his face. As a newer resident myself, I knew how overwhelming it could be to step into the interconnections that tended to form in Fair Haven.
Since there hadn’t yet been a question directed at me, though, I held my peace. For once, I think my parents would have approved. They were always telling me not to give the opposing side anything they didn’t already have. And this was starting to feel a lot more like an interrogation about the condition of Fair Haven PD and a lot less like a statement-taking for Drew’s murder.
The emotions cleared from his face. The look he gave me wasn’t exactly unfriendly. Shrewd might have been the best descriptor. “My only other on-duty officer is Quincey Dornbush, and it seems he and his wife have also been to your home for dinner. I understand that small towns tend to create a situation where everyone knows everyone else, but you’re not even originally from Fair Haven. You’ve managed to insert yourself deeply into my department in a very short period of time, Miss. Fitzhenry-Dawes.”
And there it was. He’d been sent here to clean up any corruption on the Fair Haven police department, and he thought I might be a contributing factor.
Part of the tension building between my shoulder blades gave way. Now that I knew why I was being treated differently, I could at least manage the situation. Neither I nor anyone I’d befriended on the force were part of the corruption and cover-up that had happened under Chief Wilson’s leadership. The sooner we cleared that up, the sooner he could focus on solving Drew’s murder and finding out if anyone in the department was corrupt.
But what could I say that wouldn’t increase his suspicion of me? Trading on Uncle Stan’s name wouldn’t work the way it had in the past. Chief McTavish was an outsider.
Perhaps that was the answer. He was questioning my relationships because I’d only moved to Fair Haven a few months ago. “My uncle lived in Fair Haven for ten years before his death, so when I took over his maple syrup farm, I also inherited his friendships in a sense.”
Chief McTavish opened the top file. “His murder was the first investigation you took part in here in Fair Haven?”
I laid my gloves on the table and smoothed them flat. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but I suddenly felt guilty. “Yes.”
“If it wasn’t for the fact that you weren’t in town when he died, I might have suspected you of orchestrating these murders because you wanted the glory of solving them. But then in two of the three cases, the murderer confessed.” His voice had hardened. “So it seems you only inserted yourself into the investigations after the fact.”
When I’d first returned to Fair Haven and helped investigate the murder of the local animal shelter manager, I’d technically been a consultant, not a nosy civilian, but mentioning that to Chief McTavish didn’t seem prudent. Plus, it might get Erik in trouble.
At the same time, I wasn’t about to let Chief McTavish chastise me for helping solve murders that might otherwise have gone unsolved—like my uncle’s. I wasn’t my parents’ daughter for nothing. We might fight on different sides anymore, but their genetics still built my backbone. “I passed along information that the police found useful in all those cases, yes.”
He spread the file folders out. There were four. He tapped the first three with his pointer finger. “The department appreciates your help on these three cases, but I want to be clear that we’ll be handling this new case”—he hit the fourth file with his finger and kept it there—“without civilian involvement.”
Civilian. Technically, that’s what I was. I wasn’t a police officer. I didn’t have any special skills that necessitated the department hiring me as a permanent consultant. I shouldn’t be involved in any more police cases. A normal person shouldn’t even want to be involved. Isn’t that why I’d come here? To escape from a life full of criminals?
But my chest felt a little hollow at the thought, like I couldn’t remember where I’d put something important and urgent.
“Are we clear?” Chief McTavish asked, his gaze firm and unyielding.
“We’re clear,” I said softly.
My phone beeped with a text message notification. My fingers itched to check it because the vet’s office was going to close any minute, but I could guess what Chief McTavish’s reaction would be if I did.
He opened the fourth file folder and pulled out a picture. He slid it across the table to me. “Now that we’re on the same page, I have a few questions for you about what happened today. Do you recognize these gloves?”
The picture showed a close-up of blue-and-white striped gloves. They were stained with red. “Where did you find these?”
I realized my mistake as soon as the words were out of my mouth.
Chief McTavish gave me the slow you’re-not-listening head shake. “I thought we understood one another.”
Right. I wasn’t allowed to ask questions because I was a witness like any other. They answered questions. They didn’t ask t
hem.
I glanced at the picture again. They were too small for men’s gloves. I closed my eyes and saw Holly with her cell phone in the air, waving it around trying to catch a signal. I opened my eyes. “They’re Holly Northgate’s.”
3
If unfulfilled curiosity killed the cat, then my nine lives were about to run out. It took another half hour before Chief McTavish finished listening to my statement about the afternoon and discovering Drew’s body. He didn’t show me any other pictures, and his other questions didn’t even hint at what they suspected had happened. Through the whole interview, I wanted to ask about whether they’d found Holly yet, but I knew what my answer would be. None of my business.
I headed to the lobby. It was empty except for the receptionist at the front desk, and I didn’t have a ride home. Like everyone else, I’d come in a cruiser, and it seemed Fair Haven’s officers were out returning the others to Sugarwood and their cars.
I’d have to call someone for a ride. Technically, Chief McTavish should have assigned someone to take me home, but I certainly wasn’t going groveling to him for anything. I’d rather walk.
Pride goes before destruction, a tiny voice in the back of my head whispered. If the reprimand had come from a real person, at least I could have made a face at them. Since it was my own conscience, all I could do was reluctantly admit I was being petty. It shouldn’t have even bothered me as much as it did to be excluded from the investigation.
I pulled out my phone, and it blinked at me, reminding me I still had a waiting text message from Mark.
Velma’s with me. We’ll be out front when you’re done.
I smiled at my phone. I should have known not to worry about how I’d get home.
Mark’s new black truck waited by the curb. I climbed in and leaned over for a kiss. A whine came from the backseat.
Mark’s lips quirked up, showing off the dimple that always sent a warm flare through my stomach. “I think she’s jealous,” he said.
