were gone and that was tragic news. It was his job to find their killer, but how did he also prevent another murder, and Tori’s at that? His insides twisted up in knots. Tori was an FBI agent and had faced dangerous situations in her job, but that didn’t make him feel any better about her safety. On-the-job danger was one thing—someone actively trying to kill her was another.
Finally he came upon the sign for the trailhead and boat launch at the bottom of the falls. He parked at a gravel parking spot near the river, just down from where it spilled over Graveyard Falls. On weekends and during tourist season, the place would be crowded. People liked to hike along the narrow path between boulders, to get closer to the waterfall and watch the majesty of the beast, as well as feel the spray hitting their faces and getting them wet.
Tori reached for the door. He touched her arm and she held back from opening the door. “What is it?”
“Before we get out, there’s more I want to say.” Before finding Tori’s kayak with a bullet hole or two in it messed with his head. “My working theory has been that the murders are drug-related. Sarah’s boyfriend, Mason Sheffield? Turns out he had some priors. Mostly the usual stuff with drugs. Maybe he was dealing or stole something. Sarah got involved with the wrong guy. It happens, Tori, you know it does.”
She shifted in the seat to face him. “So they take out a group like that? And the law comes down on them?”
“I agree. That wasn’t smart.”
Tori shook her head vehemently. “I’m not buying your theory. Or rather, I’m not ready to settle for it.”
Ryan held his temper in check. Did she realize she’d insulted him? But he was curious, too. “So let’s have it. What do you think happened?”
“Killing several people in a group out camping could be a ploy to take the focus off just one murder.”
“You brought that up earlier. That doesn’t mean drugs aren’t involved.”
She stared straight ahead and heaved a sigh. “It’s not like Sarah to date someone who was into drugs.”
“I hear you. I didn’t want to believe it, either, but in the world we live in, our loved ones are getting involved in dangerous things left and right. And family ignores it, chooses not to believe it, or somehow they live in complete ignorance.” He drummed the console between them. They needed to get out and find the kayak. This wasn’t getting them anywhere.
“If it was all stuff from years ago then I can see Sarah giving him a second chance,” Tori said. “Maybe he wanted to change. Maybe she was helping him to get clean.”
“I can see that, too.”
When Tori said nothing more, he finished what he’d started. “Bottom line is that, regardless of the reasons, the murders are heinous crimes that make no sense. But even if we manage to find answers, making sense out of the murders won’t bring Sarah back. It won’t change anything.”
“Is this your way of suggesting I stay out of it?”
He shrugged. “You have a job and a life back in South Carolina, Tori. It’s my job to solve this. Staying here won’t bring her back.” He braced himself for her reaction and when it didn’t come like he expected, he released the breath he’d held. The truth was that he understood why she felt she had to stick around and try to find Sarah’s killer. If he were for some reason assigned to another case and removed from this one, he would still work to solve Sarah’s murder. He wanted to make sense out of her death, too.
“Look—” she released a sigh “—murder can never be resolved, not really. Finding out who did this and why will be enough for me. But nothing we’ve said here explains why someone shot at me.”
She was right. Taking her out, too, made no sense. But if that was what had happened, then he doubted the danger was over. He knew she wouldn’t leave until the murderer was caught, which meant he would have to figure out how to protect a capable special agent who didn’t think she needed protection. And the worst part?
Ryan feared he would fail.
Making their way to the falls, they trekked alongside the fast-moving river, Tori leading Ryan, who trailed a few paces back. The roar grew louder with their approach. The force of the falls up ahead compelled the river forward, causing it to be swift and dangerous. The memories of the moment Graveyard Falls pulled her down and over lashed at her insides.
She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she could keep up the search for her kayak, and stopped to watch the river. While swirling in that vortex, she’d feared she would die.
Had Sarah known she was going to die? What were her last thoughts? Tori hated to think of the terror her sister must have endured. Had Sarah also spoken someone’s name in those moments before her death? And if she had, whose name would she have said?
A loved one’s?
Or the killer’s?
A shudder crawled over her.
“You okay?” She was freed from her musings by the arrival of Ryan’s sturdy form next to her.
“Sure.”
Tori shook off the morbid thoughts and started hiking again. She turned her focus instead to this path next to the river and the unbidden memories floating to the surface. She and Ryan had hiked this trail on multiple occasions when they were seeing each other. Probably like the young couple who had pulled her from the river earlier in the day.
Back then, it had been just the two of them. Hand in hand. Falling deeper in love with each passing day.
And they’d shared more than one amazing kiss right here when no one else was around. Her chest grew tight.
Was he thinking about those kisses, too? She hoped not, but when she glanced over her shoulder and caught his pensive gaze, she knew where his mind had gone—to them as a couple before she left.
Pain cut through her at how different things were now. Instead of a couple in love enjoying a nature walk, they were now joined together only by the need to find a killer before he struck again. Was that why she’d said his name earlier? Because he was the investigator on Sarah’s case? Tori had thought she was going to die, and maybe she’d wanted to somehow let Ryan know that her death hadn’t been an accident. She’d thought of him—her last coherent thought before the greatest struggle of her life, and then, she’d huffed out his name when she came to.
If she hadn’t said his name, they would probably be here together now anyway, since she would have gone to him to report the attack on her as soon as she left the hospital. That she’d said his name shouldn’t matter so much, but it bothered her and she wanted to know why. She would have to think about that later, though. Much more pressing matters needed her attention.
She hiked forward, closing in on the falls.
The flash of color on the other side of a rocky outcropping drew her attention. “There. I see a kayak.”
“Fortunately it’s not across the river,” he said. “Are you sure it’s yours?”
“It looks like mine, and if it’s not, then that could mean someone else went over the falls.” She didn’t think that was the case.
Spotting the kayak exhilarated her. Now they were getting somewhere. Not that she feared he doubted her words—not anymore, at least—but the kayak with a bullet hole or two in it would go a long way to boost her theory, one she hoped Detective Bradley was also formulating.
They made their way around boulders and roots, and then to the edge of the riverbank where the broken kayak had wedged between rocks. Tori gasped at the sight. She wrapped her arms around herself.
That could have been her body. Broken and lifeless.