That shut her up. She looked into the rearview mirror and met Fin’s eyes. The look he gave her suggested he’d heard Nash’s comment and was in sympathy with him.
She’d come home to get her life back on track, find normality, but what she’d found were people who saw more than she’d given them credit for, and she wasn’t sure what to do about that.
Chapter13
Fin had organized grid searches, and today he was leading a party that was moving higher up the mountain. It was overcast, one of those days where the sun fought and lost the battle to shine. In these conditions, it would be easy to miss something, and they’d had a light dusting of snow, so things weren’t going to be easy. They’d trekked in for two hours at dawn and were now an hour into the search.
“Stay in sight of the man left and right of you!” He called the reminder down the line.
Everyone was tired, cold, and some were cranky.
“I’m hungry,” Lint Hauge called to him.
“Lint, you could eat a cow and be hungry twenty minutes later,” Luke yelled back. “You just ate your sandwich, so stop your moaning and this will get done quicker.”
Lint grunted something uncomplimentary.
“I’m telling Aunt Jess you think her boy is a shithead.”
“How the hell did you hear that from here?” Lint asked.
Digging around in his pack, Fin passed chocolate bars down the line. “Now shut up and search,” he said.
Another hour passed, and he blocked out everything but what needed to be done. He was in charge of everyone out here today, this was his territory, and he knew it better than most. A slip could cause a broken bone or worse.
“Buzz has just shot off the trail, Fin,” Joe called to him. “He’s barking like crazy. Could be nothing.”
“Everyone stay where you are. I’ll go and look. The mist is rolling in, so when I get back, we’ll head down.”
“Well, hallelujah,” Lint said.
Fin made his way through the trees, leaving behind the talk from the other men and following Buzz’s high-pitched barking. The dog was good at finding things, but usually wounded animals were his specialty, or something caught up a tree.
“Steady, boy.” The dog was digging frantically at the ground. Placing a hand on his head, Fin used his boot to nudge the fallen trunk aside. He found a half-covered trench in the ground. Deep enough that whatever was in there would have stayed buried if something hadn’t dug it up.
Dropping to his knees, he looked in and saw the remains of a body. Buzz whined at his side. There was little doubting animals had been here.
“Lint is about to riot if you don’t get back soon,” Joe said from behind him.
“You know how that decomposed rat made you hurl up the contents of your stomach that day in the stables, Joe, because you’re weak and pathetic when it comes to anything that smells off?”
His friend nodded, then shot a look to the opening Fin crouched before.
“Trust me when I tell you this will be way worse.”
Joe moved closer and pulled up his jacket to breathe through.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Fin added as his friend dropped down beside him and looked into the shallow grave.
“Well, hell.” Joe crawled back and away from the hole. He then staggered to his feet and backed up a few steps.
Fin watched him suck in a few shallow breaths. “You didn’t have to look.”
“I was trying to be brave. Turns out I’m not.” He looked green. “I don’t know much about decomposition, Fin, but I think someone somewhere told me it takes at least eight-plus years to complete if the body is not embalmed.”
“When in hell would you have had a conversation like that?”
“I dated that funeral director lady, remember?”
