That’s where the excitement was coming from. New knowledge would hopefully provide new leads.
“I’ll keep an eye on that box while you bring the other to your car,” Barb said.
“Thanks,” he said, grabbing the first. It’d take him days to sort through this. Might be better than digital so he could write on it, or not. It’d feel like old school detective work, but might give him a break from staring at a computer nonstop again.
When he returned for the second box, Barb was still standing there smiling. “Do you plan on talking to anyone in the area about this?”
“It’s my plan,” he said.
She looked around as she had last time he was here. “Just be careful. You seem like a nice guy and all.”
The second warning from her. “Why be careful?”
“It’s like I said,” Barb whispered. “Some people don’t like the past dug up. It hit our community hard and most have moved on.”
“Got it,” he said.
Well, he hadn’t moved on and he could guarantee it hit him a lot harder than anyone else in the community.
After the second box was in his SUV, he drove back to his rented ranch, unloaded the boxes onto the kitchen table and stared at them.
Why was it so hard to open the first box and start?
Not long ago he was excited.
But the grief. It was there too.
He knew this was going to happen. He knew he’d struggle.
Taking that first step was going to be the hardest.
He’d start small. He’d just said how happy he was it was paper, but he was going to scan it all into his computer anyway. It was how his mind worked.
Three hours later, his butt was numb and his fingers were chapped from feeding the papers in twenty at a time.
The fucker jammed on him more times than he could count too, but it was done, saved, and his computer shut down.
He needed air more than he needed a deep dive into his sister’s murder.
Odd, considering that was why he was here and what had been fueling his life for the past decade.
Rory grabbed his phone and the key to the house he was staying in, then took off toward the path they suspected his sister had taken the night she was murdered.
He started at the cabin his family had rented that summer, turned right and made his way toward the property she’d been snapping pictures of on her phone. Where he landed was a cluster of condos. One of them was Gale’s. She hadn’t said which one and he hadn’t asked, but she’d seen him taking pictures.
He was positive Rene had stopped here before attempting to return. He’d clocked it prior, ten minutes based on his sister’s stride. She walked fast to keep pace with him when they were side by side. This was ten minutes, when he got the text that she was coming back.
Five minutes back and he was right about where her body was found.
The bush was still here that her body was thrown behind broken and limp.
His heart raced, his palms were slick, head pounded, and that familiar bubbling twisted in his gut. A sick, queasy feeling he knew no amount of time would ever chase away.
He inhaled, his lungs filling, then pushed the air out as if he was blowing all his pain with it. Nope, hadn’t worked.
“Can I help you?”
Rory turned quickly and noticed an older man on the side of the road.
