Epilogue
One year later
Halle cradled baby Harper against her shoulder as she stood on the newly sodded front yard.
She gazed up at the two-story log cabin.
Instead of rebuilding the old farmhouse at Garret Farm, she and Owen had sprung for a modular log cabin instead.
It had been pre-built in large sections and set in place by a crane on the new foundation.
It was her dream home from top to bottom.
No matter how long she stood there, she was unable to look her fill of the spacious bay windows and wrap-around porch.
The oversized cabin was perched on a hill overlooking the newly constructed coops and chicken pens.
One of the most exciting features of all was that it was finally finished!
Today was move-in day for their family of five.
Owen had rented a small moving truck to transport the rather impressive number of belongings they’d accumulated during their year-long stay in Jen’s cottage—bedroom furniture, dishes, a coffeemaker, a toaster oven, toy bins galore, a highchair, and too many other things to name.
A delivery truck rumbled up the driveway and parked, leaving the motor idling as the uniformed driver swung to the ground.
He conferred with Owen while his fellow delivery man rolled up the door to the back of the truck.
Inside was their new set of living room furniture.
Her two-month-old daughter sucked her fingers and made hungry noises, which meant she’d be fussing to nurse again soon. It would make the unpacking and decorating more challenging, but not insurmountable, because Halle had plenty of help.
“Look, Mom!” Ryder staggered down the ramp of the moving truck and tottered toward the porch with three boxes, one piled haphazardly on top of the other. She couldn’t see his head. She knew it was him only because she recognized his voice.
“Good gracious, kiddo!” She hurried his way, hitching Harper to one shoulder so she could grab the top box from his stack.
Before she reached him, Cooper hollered at the top of his lungs as he lumbered down the same metal ramp, “Help, Mom, he-e-e-elp!”
She nearly had a heart attack watching him slowly bob and weave her way with no less than four boxes stacked sky-high in his arms.
“Owen, honey!” Halle shrieked her husband’s name to alert him about the latest pickle their sons had gotten themselves into. “The boys—”
“Are messing with their mother, which I warned them not to do.” He lunged toward Cooper, who squealed and tried to run away with his stack of boxes. He only made it a few steps before the boxes came tumbling down. Their ultra-soft landing in the grass told Halle they were empty.
Whew! The relief she felt was huge and instantaneous. The boys really had her going for a second there.
Owen wrestled Cooper to the ground and engaged him in a tickle fest as punishment for scaring his mother.
Halle should’ve known the twins would find a few laughable ways to put their new acting skills to work.
She’d sort of had it coming for letting them choose a drama program for the fine arts side of their homeschool education.
In addition to junior league baseball, they were now part of the children’s theater troupe in town.
“You little scamps, both of you!” She spun back in Ryder’s direction and found him holding his trio of boxes over his head, grunting and purposely making his face turn red. “Or should I say, Iron Man?”
He dissolved into giggles, which made him lose his grip on the boxes.
They came crashing down, but he didn’t give them more than a cursory glance.
“Look!” He pointed excitedly at his baby sister.
“I made Harper smile!” He hurried their way, with a finger hooked in each cheek to stretch his face into a comical expression.
“Honey, I think she’s too small—” Halle swallowed the rest of what she’d been going to say as she glanced down at the baby in her arms. “No, you’re right. My sweet, precious girl,” she crooned, cuddling the infant closer. “You think your silly brothers are funny, don’t you?”
Cooper sped their way, trying to make a funnier face than Ryder.
Owen was right behind him. “My beautiful girls!” He reached them and kissed Harper on the tip of her itty-bitty nose. Then he brushed his lips tenderly against Halle’s.
A man cleared his throat nearby. “Uh, sir? If you’ll just show us where to put this sofa…”
Grinning, Owen lifted his head and faced the two delivery men. “Right this way, guys.” He led them up the porch steps and through the front door he’d propped open with one of Halle’s flowerpots.
She gave a happy sigh, marveling at how much her life had changed over the past year. “Thank you, Lord, for everything,” she whispered.
Jensen and Kenny appeared around the corner of the house, lugging what appeared to be a credenza between them.
“Hey!” She waved excitedly at them. “What’s that?”
“It’s for you!” Kenny beamed a thousand-watt smile at her.
Jensen’s chest puffed out proudly as he explained, “We saw it at a resale shop and thought it looked familiar. We polished it up a bit before bringing it over.”
“It looks amazing! Like new, actually.” No wonder she hadn’t recognized it at first. They’d changed the old hall table that had once belonged to her parents from its original honey oak color to a brighter cherry wood hue.
But it was far better than something new, because the table held so many wonderful memories for her.
“I knew you’d like it,” Jensen bragged. “As soon as I laid eyes on it, I told Kenny it would make the perfect housewarming gift.”
“I love it.” She grew misty-eyed. “Thank you so, so, so much!”
They grinned from ear to ear as they carried it into the house.
The two of them were still overseeing the egg business for her and Owen, while Rex handled nearly all the planting, crop dusting, and harvesting these days.
For reasons he didn’t explain, he’d turned down a job offer from Lonestar Security.
Halle didn’t know if he was still doing contract work for the FBI, or if he was truly a farmhand now.
Not that he’d ever been just a farmhand.
In addition to everything else Rex did for them, he’d teamed up with Jen to help launch their very own Garrett Creek Farmer’s Market.
The initial investment had come from funds clawed back from the illegal sale of Garrett Farm.
Since Halle hadn’t expected to see a dime of the money, it felt like a miracle.
A verse from the Bible flitted through her mind.
Every good and perfect gift is from Above.
Though she didn’t want to think about her ex on a day as wonderful as today, James had played a vital role in making sure she got the money back.
Not only had his testimony kept the ring of smugglers behind bars, but the bank account information he shared also made it possible to return the money they’d stolen to the families they’d stolen it from.
Maybe in his own twisted way he’d actually cared for her. She might never know for sure. More than anything, she was thankful to be free of the chokehold he’d once had on her family, their farm, and their finances.
Her days were filled with beautiful things. She loved being a wife, mother, sister-in-law, and employer of the world’s greatest farmhands. Given the choice, she wouldn’t change a single thing about her life.
“Mooooom!” Cooper’s muffled holler came from inside the house this time.
Halle hurried up the porch steps to find out what new shenanigans her favorite twins were up to.
I’m sorry to bother you, April. Your personal assistant said you were on vacation, but this can’t wait. You know how important the first seventy-two hours are in these missing persons cases.
Dr. April Chandrakanta couldn’t get the frantic voice of her old friend, Gil Remington, out of her mind.
She’d replayed their conversation inside her head at least a dozen times during the long drive from Dallas.
Gil was a retired sheriff-turned-security-firm owner.
He, too, very much understood how drastically the chances of finding a missing person dropped once they’d been missing for over three days.
After receiving the call from Gil this morning, she’d probably set a record with how fast she packed her suitcase and loaded her work supplies into her car.
She was very sure she’d broken a few speed limits over the past several hours.
Lifting her tumbler of tea from the console, she took a sip to chase away the dryness in her mouth.
I’m not ready for this.
She reduced her speed as she approached the city limit sign for Heart Lake. It had been a long time since she’d last driven through the foothills of the Christmas Mountains—twenty-six years to be exact. And twenty-six years ago, she’d vowed never to return.
Yet here I am.
She was coming to town to examine a set of bones someone had deposited in the overnight drop box at the Heart Lake Police Department.
Gil’s company, Lonestar Security, was assisting with the case.
She wasn’t clear on the details yet, but she’d soon find out the why, how, and what of it.
Her heartbeat raced, fueled by a mix of anticipation and dread over what her investigation might uncover.
It wasn’t the prospect of studying human bones that bothered her.
She was very good at getting bones to tell their stories.
Nor was she overly concerned that the outcome of a missing persons case might weigh heavily on her research.
She was accustomed to working on high-stakes projects within tight time constraints.
What she wasn’t accustomed to doing was recognizing the name of the missing person. He was someone she’d known, loved, and still loved if she was being honest with herself. They had unfinished business between them, and now he might be dead.
Even worse, he might be alive…and a killer.