Brock seemed to vibrate in place. “Where’d you go?”
Ace so didn’t want to go into this, but he wasn’t lying to his brother. “I went to see the doc.”
Silence hit the space between them.
“You went to see May at ten o’clock at night?” Ophelia asked.
Ace’s jaw tightened. “Yeah. I had a question for her.”
Ophelia pursed her lips. “What was your question?”
Tension struck at the base of Ace’s skull. “Sorry, that’s private doctor and patient information. Privileged and all of that.”
“You went to see the doctor at ten at night for a private matter? I can see a cut above your eye and a smaller one on your lip. Is that why?” Ophelia asked.
“No. The cut above the eye happened earlier in the day when Tyler hit me, and I hit him back. The cut on the lip happened around nine last night, when Tyler was pissed Laura had moved on to the flannels, and he got snarky. He punched my mouth, and I tossed his ass outside. If he came back after I left, I’m unaware of that.”
“How long were you at May’s?” Brock asked.
Ace thought back. “I was there for about half an hour, and then I left. That’s all.”
“And then?” Ophelia prodded.
“Then I went home. I didn’t see Laura after I left the bar,” Ace said.
Amka nodded slowly. “That’s true. Laura was still here after Ace left.”
Candy shifted anxiously beside them, wrapping her arms tight around herself.
Brock exhaled and handed back the phone. “All right. I’ll start canvassing, and I need to speak with people at the campground. She might’ve wandered off. If we don’t get good answers, we’ll have to start a search.”
Candy’s head jerked up. “Laura wouldn’t have wandered off.”
Ophelia shoved her phone back into her pocket. “Is there any chance she slept in your tent and left early?”
Candy shook her head. “Her sleeping bag wasn’t touched. My migraine meds do knock me out, and if she’d come back, I might not have heard her. But her sleeping bag wasn’t touched. Nothing was. She definitely did not come back to our tent last night.”
Ace’s stomach dropped. Alaska was a terrible place for a person to get lost.
Brock’s radio crackled at his hip. He lifted it. “Yeah. It’s Brock.”
“Sheriff.” Panic edged the entire word. “It’s David Laurence.”
Every muscle in Ace’s body locked.
“Hey, David,” Brock said quietly. “What’s going on?”
David’s breath panted out loudly over the radio. The guy was in charge of all road maintenance for the town, regardless of weather. “I was out walking my dog near Two Trout Creek, and I found a body.”
The tavern went completely silent.
Brock closed his eyes briefly and then reopened them. “Is it a young blonde woman?”
“Yes, Sheriff.” Another pause from David was punctuated by his ragged breathing. “And it doesn’t look good.”
Chapter Six
May slowly climbed out of her truck, her boots hitting the muddy road that ran by the creek. Apparently it had rained a bit earlier, and she hadn’t heard it. After Ace had left, she’d slept rather soundly, having torrid dreams about that innocent kiss. She forced her mind away from the sexy rogue and looked at the wilderness around her.
