Chapter 2
“It’s her…it’s Kenna.”
The words scraped out of Gabe’s throat as he stared at his friend twisted against the sand, as if the beach itself had rejected her. Drenched clothing plastered to her body. Hair straggly. Sand and weeds clinging everywhere.
They might call it an accident. Say she drowned.
But he knew better.
Kenna would never go into the water and leave Lucy behind.
Someone had killed her. There was no doubt in his mind. The only questions were who and why? Something he had no answer for.
Why, God? Why Kenna?
He didn’t expect a reply. He sucked in air, bent forward, and planted his hands on his knees, concentrating on the simple act of staying upright.
“I’m so sorry, Gabe.” El rested her hand on his shoulder.
The touch should have helped. Instead, it made everything real. Final. All he wanted was to shrug her off and sink into the sand until the crushing weight in his chest lifted.
But he didn’t. That would be rude. Revealing. And he didn’t allow himself that kind of weakness anymore.
He straightened, her hand sliding free, and forced himself to look again. The sight of Kenna lying lifeless sent nausea rolling through his gut. He squeezed his eyes shut.
The loss could still take him down. He’d lost military friends before, but no one as close as Kenna. Since she’d had Lucy…
“Lucy!” His eyes snapped open. “Where’s Lucy? Tell me you found her.”
“We don’t know.” El spoke softly, but frustration weighted her words.
“You don’t know?” The words flew out before he could stop them. “I thought you were a good detective.”
She flinched.
His fault, and he hated causing her pain, but finding Lucy came before anything else. Anyone else. Before manners. Before guilt. Even before finding Kenna’s killer.
Don’t take her from me too. Please keep her safe and bring her back to me.
El’s jaw tightened. “There’s a car seat on the dock. Odds say it belongs to Lucy.”
“Her seat is missing from Kenna’s van.”
El nodded, but it was halfhearted. “I found a phone by the water, likely Kenna’s. We’ll get it to our tech team as quickly as we can. We should know more soon, but right now we don’t have other leads. Mina’s organizing a ground search with K-9s and a dive team for the water.”
“Why aren’t you searching?” His voice sharpened. “Doing something?”
“I am doing something.” She crossed her arms, fire flashing in her eyes.
He’d gone too far.
Get a grip.
If he kept pushing, she’d freeze him and his team out of the investigation. Then where would he get answers? About Kenna. About Lucy.
“I’ve been securing the crime scene,” she continued. “Procuring necessary resources. Making sure evidence is preserved so we can figure out what happened here.”
“I’m sorry.” He forced the words past his pride. “You didn’t deserve that. I know you’re doing your job.” He paused, tamping down the rage clawing at his chest. “Have you found anything that might tell us where Lucy is or how Kenna drowned?”
Pain flickered across El’s face before she masked it. “A few things bother me. First, the car seat. If it belongs to Lucy, why would Kenna remove it from the van and bring it down here?”
“No idea. But if it has a blue plaid cushion and big Bluey sticker on the back, it’s hers.”
El winced. “I saw the sticker earlier.”
Gabe froze. He’d expected the confirmation, but hearing it left him hollow.
What had happened to the people he loved?
“Do you have a picture of Lucy?”
“Sure.” He got out his phone, swiped a few times, and studied the sweet four-year-old’s face. She had curly red hair and a ready smile that spoke to her outgoing personality. Her eyes were lit with joy, so full of life. Now, where was she? Had she died? Did someone have her?
He ignored the swell of emotions threatening to bring tears, swallowed, and looked at El.
“Can you text it to me?” she asked.
He tapped his phone screen to take care of it.
Her phone soon chimed. She checked her screen and smiled, but it was soon replaced with a frown. “Is it okay if we circulate this picture for law enforcement and an Amber Alert? Maybe to the media if we don’t make progress on finding her right away?”
He nodded. “You should know, when I found Kenna’s van, I climbed down in the ravine to check on them, but the van was empty.” He tried to think like she would. “Lucy’s favorite stuffed animal was on the backseat. She never went anywhere without it.”
El cocked her head. “Okay, say Kenna had nothing to do with bringing the seat here and someone else brought it. But who and why?”
“If the stuffed animal was left behind, it had to be someone who didn’t know them well. Maybe someone planned to pick them up by boat.” He shook his head. “But that makes no sense. None at all. Kenna was coming to see me. No need for a boat.”
“Was this a normal trip or did she have a special reason for visiting today?”
“We don’t have a normal routine, and it’s easier for me to go there than for her to bring Lucy here.
Oddly enough, she was just here last weekend.
Spent the night on Friday and went back on Saturday afternoon.
It was a spur-of-the-moment visit. but not like this one.
” He told El about the voicemail. “She called me around six. Do you want to hear it?”
El nodded and stepped closer to him. He played the message. Kenna’s anguished voice squeezed his chest until even the smallest of breaths hurt.
El’s expression darkened. “After hearing her panic, there’s no way she would’ve made a side trip to the lake. Do you know anything about the danger she mentioned?”
“Not a clue. I want to see the car seat up close.”
“I can’t allow that.” Her tone softened. “I shouldn’t have even let you identify her at the scene. It’s time for you to step outside the perimeter.”
He glanced at Kenna again, searching for answers that weren’t there.
El stepped in front of him to block his view. “There’s nothing you can do here. Looking at her won’t help. It’ll only make things worse.”
She was right, but how could he leave his best friend lying there all alone? Soaking wet. Cold. Tangled in seaweed and covered in sand. She needed him. Needed him to find who did this. Needed him to find Lucy.
“I can’t leave her,” he said hoarsely. “Can I stay until they take her away?”
El bit her lip. “There’s nothing you can do for her, Gabe.”
“I know. But I can’t go.” His voice broke. “If you want me out of here, you’ll have to arrest me and haul me away.”
Her expression softened, and she looked up the hill. He followed her gaze to see the ME arriving with her assistant carrying a backboard. Visions of the morgue flashed through his mind. Cold, dark, wrong. No place for Kenna. For his best friend.
El turned back to him and pointed across the beach. “I understand. Take a seat on that rock. But don’t move until I tell you. Understood?”
He nodded and scanned the beach, desperate to do something—anything. He pulled out his phone. “I’m calling my team to start searching for Lucy.”
She scrubbed a hand over her face. “I can’t give any of you access to the scene.”
“Trust me, I know that, but there’s plenty of wooded areas you haven’t secured. We’ll search for Lucy there.”
She hesitated, then nodded. “Go ahead, but promise you won’t interfere once we begin our search.”
“I promise.” He meant it.
For now.
In a few minutes? Maybe not so much. If interfering was what it took to find Lucy, he’d do it. No matter the cost.
El kept Gabe in her peripheral vision as she stood beside Dr. Faye Briggs. The county’s new medical examiner pulled on gloves, pink nails disappearing beneath latex. El had met the ME only once in her six months on the job, but she’d heard good things about the doctor’s skills.
Her assistant, Theo, walked toward them from the lake, thermometer in hand. In his early twenties, he had a stocky build and was new to the job and the town.
El moved closer to the doctor, aware of Gabe’s gaze tracking her every move.
She shrugged it off and watched Dr. Briggs squat by the body, insert a thermometer probe into the liver, then stand and look at her assistant. “What did you get?”
He held out his thermometer. “Air temp’s fifty degrees. Water, forty-six.”
Dr. Briggs nodded sharply, her focus lingering on the lake.
“Tell me you have the time of death,” El said.
The ME turned to her. “I’d like to give you that, but the water’s cold enough to stall everything. Plus, from what you said, our victim was exposed to the elements on the beach for an hour or so. That compounds things.”
“So, no estimate then?” Disappointment crept into El’s voice.
“I can give you my best estimate, but don’t hold me to it.” She looked at her thermometer. “Liver’s at eighty-eight degrees and rigor hasn’t set in. Plus, there’s no lividity yet. I’d say she’s been dead less than three hours, maybe two.”
That made sense. Rigor mortis—the stiffening of muscles after death—often helped determine the time of death. Lividity occurred when blood settled in the body after the heart stopped.
Plus… “We know she left a voicemail at six p.m., so that fits with this timeline.”
Dr. Briggs nodded then glanced toward the lake. “If she drowned, it happened not long before she was discovered.”
El checked her watch. 10:07. “So Kenna died between seven and nine p.m.”
“Yes,” Dr. Briggs said. “I’ll have to confirm that in the autopsy, but it gives you something to go on now.”
El jotted it down. “You said if she drowned. I’ve been questioning that. The welts.” El pointed to Kenna’s neck and waited for the ME to bristle at the observation.
The doctor studied her. “We’ll be working together on this investigation and future ones. I’m always willing to hear a lead detective’s theory. Also, call me Faye.”
Pleased, El nodded. “And I’m El. It’s short for Elaina.”
She turned her attention back to the body. “Well, El, if you’re thinking strangulation, I can agree with that. At least preliminarily. The blood has seeped into the surrounding tissue, so the bruises occurred perimortem.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”