Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
She gingerly reached for Ivy’s wrist, feeling for a pulse even though she knew she’d find nothing. She didn’t. The skin was already waxy. A fine film covered Ivy’s eyes, dulling the brightness that had always been there.
May swallowed hard and gently lifted one of Ivy’s arms. It resisted. “Full rigor mortis has set in,” she said, setting the arm back exactly as she’d found it. “I can confirm the death, but you’ll need the medical examiner to determine cause. Although it’s not hard to tell.” Her throat thickened on the last words.
Ivy was still fully clothed in the same jeans and sweater she’d been wearing the night before. The sweater was damp at the hem where the water had lapped against it. One boot remained on her left foot. The other was gone, leaving her right foot in a pink sock that looked oddly fragile against the gray rock.
Delicate. That was the word that flashed through May’s mind. Too delicate for this. She forced herself to look away from Ivy’s face and scout the area instead. The trees pressed close. The creek moved steady and indifferent. No obvious signs of a struggle showed nearby.
“We haven’t found the boot.” Jeb also looked around. “We’ll have the forensic team scour the entire radius around her, but nothing so far.”
“Okay.” May stood slowly, her knees protesting. The world tilted for a second before righting itself. She pressed her gloved hands against her thighs, grounding herself. “I can’t believe this.”
“I know,” Jeb said quietly. “Doc, I hate to ask you, but we do need to take your statement now that you’ve gotten the official part out of the way.”
Official part. As if any of this could be reduced to a checklist. She swallowed. “Okay.”
He gestured up the hill. “Let’s go up. You don’t have to come into the office.”
Trooper Paige walked toward them from upstream. “Still haven’t found the boot,” she called out. “Hopefully the forensic team will do better.” She glanced up at the blue sky. “I don’t think we need to move the body until they arrive. The elements seem to be cooperating this time.”
This time.
May looked back at Ivy once more before turning away. The breeze shifted, lifting a strand of Ivy’s hair and then letting it fall again. The creek kept moving, and the eagle cried somewhere high above.
Professional, May reminded herself as she followed Jeb back up the embankment. But her hands were shaking. Nausea rose in her, and she took a step back, pressing a gloved hand against her stomach.
“You going to throw up, Doc?” Jeb asked.
“No, I’m okay.” May swallowed rapidly. Her mouth felt dry.
“Come on, let’s go up to the road. You don’t need to stare at your friend any longer,” Jeb said, not unkindly, taking her elbow.
The word friend nearly undid her. May walked as carefully up the embankment as she had down, placing each foot where Jeb had stepped before.
The climb felt steeper going up. Her thighs burned. The wind caught her jacket and tugged at it, pushing cool air against her overheated skin. By the time they reached the top, her breathing had steadied, though her hands still trembled inside the latex gloves.
They stepped onto the shoulder, and Jeb guided her toward her truck.
“Who’s in the truck?” he asked.
“That’s Lance. He works for me part-time.”
Jeb narrowed his gaze. “Did he know the victim?”
“Everybody knew Ivy,” May said. “But he saw her at the bar last night.”
“Really? I’ll need to take his statement as well.”
May’s entire body hurt in a dull ache. How could Ivy be dead? “Lance left for the night to go fishing with his uncle and Senator Mercer. He just got back around six this morning.”
“Okay.” Jeb wiped dirt off his cheek. “I need to see if he noticed anything at the bar.”
“I don’t see that as a problem.” She stopped in the middle of the road and drew in several deep breaths. Pain ricocheted through her heart. Who would kill Ivy like that?
It just didn’t make any sense.
Ivy had been steady. Kind. Good at her job. May remembered Ivy laughing in the break room over burned coffee, and often rolling her eyes at paperwork or leaning over a patient with steady hands and a soft voice. None of that lined up with the body by the creek. Anger flushed through May, competing with grief.
Plus, she had thought, deep down, that Kyle had killed Laura, even though he hadn’t known her. But he and his crew had been fishing with Lance all night. They couldn’t have killed Ivy. They’d left when the young woman was still at the bar.
May glanced toward the truck where Lance sat watching them with wide eyes through the windshield. “This is terrible,” she said.
The words felt useless. The sky stretched overhead, painfully blue. Life continued, unaware or unwilling to pause. Behind her, the creek kept moving.