Chapter 61 Louise
LOUISE
Six months later…
Idrained the last of the coffee I’d picked up at the gas station on the way into town. I took a deep breath, my stomach churning, my body pumping with adrenaline that I knew from experience wouldn’t ease until sleep finally came.
Here we go.
I pushed out the door.
“Well, well, well. Mornin’, sunshine.” Detective Tommy Darby emerged from the woods behind a line of squad cars, a few trucks, and an ambulance.
I recognized Jessica Heathrow’s Tahoe immediately. It was never a good sign to see her vehicle anywhere at two in the morning.
Darby slapped a hand on my back. “Is this your earliest call yet?”
“Yep. Lucked out, I guess,” I said as my boots sank into the dirt, soggy from days of rain.
“This is our third case together, right?”
“Fourth.” But who’s counting?
“Well, I hope you skipped breakfast for this one. It’s a doozy. This way.”
Darby led me down the driveway, weaving around the vehicles.
He lifted the yellow do not cross tape as we stepped onto the lawn.
A rusted trailer sat a few yards away under a flickering streetlight.
Inside, the trailer was lit up as bright as day.
I scribbled my name on the sign-in log as Darby began the update.
“Around one thirty, dispatch got a call from the neighbor about gunshots. Three, to be exact. Lieutenant Colson responded—he was on call and closest. Appears to be a home invasion gone bad. The homeowners engaged the intruder, and intruder shot them both. Husband and wife, around seventy years old.”
“Any trace of the intruder?”
“Not yet.”
We stopped at the concrete blocks that led to the front door.
“Hey, guys, Lou’s here. Everyone out so she can photograph.” He turned to me. “Don’t forget your booties and gloves—and you’re definitely gonna want a mask.”
I patted my bag. “All set.”
He smiled. “You’re damn alert for it being two in the morning.”
“Always am.” Now, anyway, I thought with a smile.
The uniformed officers moved out, nodding at me as they passed, and one said, “She’s all yours.”
I slipped into my booties and pulled on my gloves and mask, getting that weird tingle of excitement as I stepped inside the house.
I still couldn’t believe I was Berry Springs’ new forensic photographer. Some days were tough, but every day I felt like I was doing something that mattered. Something that changed lives, helped people during their lowest lows.
And I loved every second of it—and I was good at it.
I did my job quickly, efficiently, then stepped aside to let the rest of the team work. Tomorrow we’d regroup at the station.
The woods were beginning to lighten as I pulled up the driveway.
Home.
I was tired and wired.
The smell of fresh coffee tickled my nose as I pushed through the front door.
The sight of Ryder, his shirt off and mug in hand, tickled my stomach.
His smile lit the room as he crossed it.
As had become habit, he kissed my nose, then fell to his knees, lifted my shirt, and kissed my belly. Growing belly, I should say.
Still smiling, he stood and handed me the coffee. “Decaf.”
“I’ll take it.”
“I added sprinkles.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.” His smile fell. “How’d it go?”
“I didn’t throw up.”
“Hey, all right!” He gently patted me on the back. “Good job. Our little baby and I are proud of you.”
Ryder took off my coat, hung it on the rack, and helped me into the living room. I didn’t need the help, but he insisted, as he’d insisted on doing everything for me while I wasn’t working. He’d also insisted that I move in with him, marry him, and make a football team of babies with him.
Two of three, done. We’re still working on the football team.
After Ryder saved my life on Hollow Hill, Miles was arrested and taken into custody, where it was confirmed his fingerprints were on the pendant Ryder had given to Maci twelve years earlier. With that solid evidence damning him, Miles’s confession followed soon after.
Maci was Miles’s first murder, with his friend Leon Ortiz. Miles was the missing person from Maci’s crime scene, the one who took the necklace.
Miles went on to lure eight—eight—unsuspecting high-risk teens into meeting him, where he would then rape, torture, and kill them.
Most he met online, stalking them for months before befriending them, offering help and gaining their trust. He’d met Kara at the Sunshine Club where he’d worked, alongside me, while he hunted.
His deep-seated disdain for women stemmed from lifelong issues and embarrassment caused by his adulterous mother, Back-Seat Betty. He’d been bullied because of her, while living in a loveless home.
After he was arrested, Miles admitted to following Margie through the woods that day after Austin left for the shooting range—thinking Miles was still asleep—then having his way with her before strangling her to death.
Miles was locked in jail, where monsters like him should be, waiting for a conviction that would hopefully send him away for life.
From that day forward, Ryder never left my side.
We’d packed up my apartment together and I’d moved in with him the next week—and immediately began renovations and decorating with his full blessing.
He was a completely different man, each day a chink of armor falling off. The old Ryder was finding his way back.
I was treated like his queen, and he, my king. Not a day went by that Ryder didn’t tell me how much he loved me, and how grateful he was that I’d pushed my way into his life.
He’d asked me to marry him in the observation room not long after I moved in. Two weeks later, we found out I was pregnant.
Ryder lowered me onto the couch in the living room, now decorated with dark leather furniture, hand-crafted tables, candles, and plants. Warm and homey.
He took the seat next to me and asked for all the details about the crime scene I’d photographed, as he always did when I got home. He knew it helped me to relax—to recap everything, talk it out, cry if I needed to. After that, we switched topics.
“When do you leave?” I asked, grabbing his hand.
“Tomorrow. Max will be by every day to check on you.”
“I don’t need your brother to check on me.”
“I know.” Ryder leaned down and kissed my knuckles.
I combed my fingers through his hair. I loved his hair. “Where to this time?”
“Mexico. That’s all I know. It’ll be my last job until after the baby comes.”
“Astor’s cool with that?”
“He didn’t have a choice. I had it written into my contract when I signed back on to work with him. All future babies give me eight months off. In lawyer terms, of course.”
I smiled. “You love being back, don’t you.”
He nodded. “I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. Just like you feel.”
“What’s in Mexico?”
Ryder frowned. “Not Roman, that’s all I know.”
“What do you mean? Did something happen to him?”
Ryder shrugged. “He took an op and fell off the grid a week later. No one knows why or where he went.” He waved a hand in the air, dismissing the subject. “Anyway, I’ll find him. Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
He pushed to his feet. “Organic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches coming up. Grape or strawberry this time?”
“Apricot.”
“Ooh, feeling saucy. All right. Be right back.”
As I watched Ryder stride into our kitchen, my gaze shifted to the framed picture on the wall. Our first kiss, captured when I accidentally dropped the camera in the snow.
Home.
Home with my husband.
Home with our baby boy in my belly.