“I’m assuming you’re Gale?” he asked.
“I am. Gale Ridgeway, attorney at law. I spend a lot of time in here. Barb is a wonderful resource and a friend of the family.”
Ridgeway. Ridgeway. Where had he heard that name before?
Oh shit. The new sheriff’s last name was Ridgeway. There was some hard cider company with that name advertised around town too.
Did he offer his real name or his pen name?
“Rory,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”
Her manicured hand came out to shake his. Soft but firm. No fake nails either, but clear polish.
She screamed lawyer now that he knew, in her navy pants and blazer, light yellow and white sweater peeking through. For the hell of it, he dropped his gaze to her shoes. Yep, some killer navy power pumps on her feet.
“You look familiar to me,” she said. “But you’re only visiting in town?”
“I’m here doing research for a book,” he said. “I’d like to base some of it on an old case file.”
It was the truth. Kind of. Enough that he wasn’t outright lying, just mixing up his reasons.
He would be writing his book while he was here. He’d have to do something with his time if he ran into roadblocks. They were at least better than dead ends, which he was tired of finding.
There were only so many pictures he could take of the new condos that were erected where the rundown cabin had been that his sister was drawing that day.
He always felt that played a part in things, but no one believed him.
He’d told the police that his sister had been there. He even pulled out the sketch pad and guessed she’d gone back to get more pictures to draw from.
They’d brushed it off as the place she was going but not where she’d been killed.
He didn’t know why and it probably didn’t matter. All evidence pointed to her being killed less than fifty feet from where her body was dumped. As if someone was walking while they strangled her with her feet off the ground, then tossed her aside like a piece of chewed bubble gum out of the way.
The nightmares never let him forget. Rene watched her killer as the breath was crushed out of her body, powerless to stop it from happening.
His sister was scrappy and he knew she’d be fighting with everything she had, but there was no DNA left behind. Either she was forced into submission, which he didn’t believe, or she blacked out too quickly. Maybe the attacker’s arms kept her out of reach.
None of those possibilities ever brought him peace, only tore him apart more.
“What case file is that?” she asked.
He could lie, but it wouldn’t do any good knowing that Gale knew the woman who was going to help him. Most likely would stand here while he asked.
“The murder trial of Rene Connors.”
Gale’s features changed. Her eyes that were sharp softened, a sadness came over her face and her shoulders even dropped slightly.
“I was about her age when it happened. I’ll never forget. It rocked this town. My father wouldn’t let me out of the housewithout at least one of my brothers or a group of my friends with me.”
He swallowed past the lump in his throat. He should have been with Rene. Shouldn’t have let her go alone.
Or if he had gone in search of her when she texted she was on the way could he have stopped the murder?
None of it made any sense.
Her time of death was within minutes of her text that she was returning home.
It was as if someone was walking and saw a bug that scared them, stomped on it, and kept going.
