“But I don’t understand why.” Olivia shook her head. “I don’t know him. I haven’t set foot in Mercy in twenty years, and I hadn’t even met the chief before the morning Adam’s body was discovered.”
“I don’t have the answers.” Erica shook her head. “Jake will get to the bottom of this, I have no doubt, but in the meantime, you need to be careful.”
“Shit,” Olivia muttered sourly. “I just want a peaceful life.”
“Here.” Erica reached into her pocket and pulled out a business card. “If you need anything, call me.” She finished her coffee and stood. “I should be getting back.”
“Erica,” Olivia called as the other woman prepared to leave. “It’s getting late, and I haven’t eaten yet. Would you like to join me? I mean, if you’re going to be my attorney, then we might as well get to know each other.”
Erica pursed her lips as she stared thoughtfully at Olivia. “I’d like that,” she replied after a moment.
Olivia grinned. “You can fill me in on you and Jake.”
“I didn’t say there was a me and Jake,” Erica replied.
“Honey,” Olivia laughed, “you didn’t have to.”
Brody coasted along the dark road, singing along loudly to the radio. Dropping off the West car was his last job of the day, and he was more than ready to go home to Cassie. His stomach growled, and as he tried to ignore the hunger pangs, his headlights illuminated a dark-colored car parked at the side of the road with the hood propped open.
Sighing at the thought of being late for dinner, he swung in front of the car and hit the brakes. It was cold and dark, and he couldn’t, in good conscience, leave someone stranded.
Hopping down from the cab, he grabbed a flashlight and headed back along the road, but as he reached the vehicle, he realized it was empty. He shone the flashlight around the car but he still couldn’t see anyone. Looking away from the car, he directed the light toward the canopy of trees that led into the woods, but it was too dense to see anything.
He called out a few times, but there was no answer. An uneasiness unfurled deep in his gut, and he reached into his pocket to grab his phone, only to realize he’d left it in the cab. Turning, he made his way back along the road, having every intention of calling his brother at the police station. After what had happened to Adam, it paid to be cautious.
But even if nothing untoward had happened and the driver had simply wandered off in search of help, he knew it was easy to get lost in these woods. In the dark and with the temperature rapidly falling, whoever it was could be in real trouble.
He reached out toward the handle of the door. The push, when it came, was so sudden and with so much force that his head smashed against the window of his door, leaving a spider web of cracked glass with a large bloodstain at its center.
Dazed, Brody fell back against the ground, his flashlight tumbling from limp fingers. He fought down a wave of nausea rising in his throat and tried to stand but was pushed roughly to the ground. His vision wavered, and the buzzing sound in his ears roared.
He felt his wrists being bound together tightly with cable ties, the thin plastic biting cruelly into the soft flesh of his wrists. He blinked, struggling to see through the blood dripping into his eyes, even as the panic began to churn sickly in his belly, but in the darkness all he could make out was a dark figure. He opened his mouth to yell in alarm as a booted foot descended toward his face, and his last thought was of Cassie before the darkness consumed him.
10
Olivia was jerked abruptly from a very pleasant dream by an insistent pounding on her front door. She reached out and fumbled for her phone, which was sitting on the nightstand. It was barely seven thirty in the morning. She grimaced and hauled herself out of bed.
She pulled on her thick robe, and stomped angrily down the stairs, her thick socks absorbing some of the noise. Why the hell couldn’t everyone leave her alone? A quick glance through the peephole had a flush of irritation surging through her veins.
Muttering to herself, she swung the door open and, with her hands on her hips, glared at the woman standing on her doorstep.
“Do you people actually have any real work to do or is this how you treat all new residents of Mercy?” she ground out between clenched teeth.
“Ma’am.” Deputy Helga Hanson nodded, her expression neutral. “Chief Walcott asked if you’d be so good as to come down to the station and answer a few questions.”
Olivia appraised the tall, athletic-looking woman in front of her. “What the hell does he want this time? I’ve already answered all his questions regarding Adam Miller, and I explained what happened with the guy who collapsed in front of my car. There really isn’t anything else I can add.”
“It has nothing to do with those two incidents.”
“Then what?”
“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss that.”
“And this couldn’t have waited until a civilized hour?” Olivia said coolly.
“I’m afraid not, ma’am. Chief says to bring you in ASAP.”
“Am I under arrest?”
