Mia arrived next to him and scanned him for injury. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Then why the look?” She scanned his face for a hint.
His expression held something she’d never seen in the brilliant blue before.
Fear. Raw and primal.
Dread settled into her stomach. “What are you not telling me? Is there something in there?”
He grimaced, and looked as if he was waffling between telling her or not telling her he’d discovered something.
She stepped to the side. Peered ahead. Gasped. Sucked in a cleansing breath but pulled in a horrid foul stench that made her eyes tear up. “Oh, no. No. No.”
Panicked, she turned to run. Got stuck in the sludge. Lost her balance.
Ryan snagged her hand and drew her into the protective shield of his arms alongside Bandit. She not only let Ryan hold her, she clung to him and laid her head on his solid chest, his heart thumping at a rate matching her accelerated speed.
He was right in not telling her what he discovered.
She didn’t need to see the body trapped under the stack of wood.
18
Ryan had been stroking Bandit’s soft fur for the past thirty minutes while rocking on the lodge’s front porch. Mia had gone in to change her grubby clothes, something Ryan desperately needed to do. He’d cleaned Bandit up with the hose and changed his bandage, but Ryan couldn’t leave until Russ took their statements and released them.
Ryan wanted to do that right off the bat, but Russ insisted on evaluating the gruesome scene. He stood by the victim, snapping picture after picture. Ryan was glad to wait here. He didn’t need to see the body again. He was fixated on the discovery almost as if his mind had taken pictures he would never be able to erase.
Two legs, calf down, jutted from intact bales lying perpendicular to the body. Wood resembling dropped pixie sticks lay on top. Khaki trousers and expensive leather loafers were the only visible clues to the victim’s identity. The fire hadn’t reached the body, which should make identification easier. Either the man died before Jessie entered the barn or the body was hidden there after the fire. The ME was working on providing the answer.
The lodge’s main door groaned open. Ryan swiveled in his chair as Mia emerged. She’d changed into blue jeans and an orange T-shirt from Oregon State University. Her wet hair shone in the fading sunlight, but her red-rimmed eyes held a haunted look.
I know You’re watching over her and waiting for her to turn to You. I pray she does and You bring her the comfort I can’t provide.
Ryan stood, setting Bandit on the floor. The dog slunk under the chair and curled up as best he could with his cone. Ryan would’ve turned back and held the pup, but Mia needed Ryan more.
He crossed the porch and pulled her into his arms. The fresh scent of her apricot shampoo tugged at his senses and memories assaulted him. Kissing her here on this very porch. Wanting to be with her always. Forever. To take away her pain and anguish over her father. Ryan had failed to do that then, and now she was suffering even more.
Why hadn’t he dragged her away before she’d gotten a look at the body? Since she’d arrived back in Shadow Lake, he’d come up short when she needed his help the most.
She eased out of his arms and stared at the barn. Ryan followed her gaze to see Russ headed their way. He had to take their statements, but now that Ryan got a look at Mia’s anguish, he wished it could wait. It couldn’t though. Good policing meant getting the details from witnesses while the facts were fresh in their minds. And Russ was a great law enforcement officer so he would insist on it. Ryan only hoped they would see the kinder, gentler side of his brother.
At the base of the steps, he swiped his boots covered in muck in the grass before he looked up at the porch. “Let’s get those statements over with. I need to hear in your own words what happened.”
Hoping Mia wouldn’t have to say much, Ryan described how the wall fell, knocking debris from a pile and revealing the body.
Russ took a few steps toward them. “You concur with that, Mia?”
She seemed to freeze in place, unable to speak.
“Let’s sit down.” Ryan took her hand and urged her toward the chairs.
She dropped onto the seat as if it was too much effort to stand, but she launched into her story, spilling it along with fresh tears. “I also checked for a padlock and chain on the door where I got stuck during the fire. They were missing.”
“We looked at the other door yesterday,” Ryan added. “They were missing there too.”
Russ trained his gaze on Mia. “You said earlier that this lock and chain trapped you in the barn, but did anyone else see them?”
