Page 15 of Obsession

“Nothing new, just the hole by the backhoe. Do you know why anyone would be digging around the slave cemetery?”

That had puzzled her last night. “No. Any type of excavation here at Mount Locust is strictly forbidden.”

“That’s what I thought,” Nate said. “I’d like you to take me through what happened again, this time showing me your movements.”

His request wasn’t unexpected, and Emma had been rehearsing the events in her mind. While the sheriff opened the recorder app on his smartphone, she glanced at Sam, and the memory of his arms wrapping around her last night rocked her heart. Why was she torturing herself this way? Shuttering her thoughts, Emma focused on Nate and took him through her actions, ending with jumping off the porch.

“Then I crawled to the woods there,” she said, and walked the path she’d taken. Scuffled leaves helped retrace her steps as the men followed.

“This is where I hid,” she said when they reached the live oakwith limbs that dipped down to the ground. A curtain of moss swayed in the light northerly breeze.

“He wasn’t trying to be quiet,” she said, remembering the heavy footsteps. “He fired at me again, and there should be a bullet in one of these trees. Then I heard the sirens. That’s when he took off.”

“Do you think it could have been more than one person?”

She thought a minute. “There was really no way I could tell.”

The sheriff shut off the recorder and motioned to Chris, who was holding the metal detector. “Let’s see if we can find that bullet.”

He raised it, sweeping up and down the nearby tree trunks. When it went from silent to full sound midway up the trunk of a basswood tree, he stopped. “Should be here.”

After a brief search, Sam found the bullet embedded a good eighteen inches higher than Emma’s five-foot-three height.

“Either your shooter was a bad shot or he didn’t mean to hit you,” Sam said. “This is twice he fired over your head.”

“So he was just trying to scare me?” If so, he’d done a good job.

“Or scare you off.” Nate ran his hand over his short hair. “Get a trajectory on the bullet,” he said to Martha.

“Trey’s still using the laser kit,” she replied.

“Budget cuts.” The sheriff spat the words out. “Don’t see how the county expects us to do our job without the proper tools.” He turned to Sam. “Don’t suppose you have one?”

Sam shook his head. “We have the same problem. I don’t even have one trajectory kit.”

The sheriff shook his head. “Might as well see what Trey’s found. Tie a ribbon around the tree, and then see if you can find any cartridges with the metal detector.”

Martha and Chris stayed behind while Emma, Sam, and Nate trekked back to the inn, where Trey was finishing up his work. Her gaze followed the white line that stretched from the post to a tree two hundred feet away.

“You find where he stood when he fired the shot?” the sheriff asked Trey.

“Yep, and according to the laser and this cord, he was about my height.” Trey jerked his head toward the bare white oak tree where he’d attached the string. “There’s a marker on the ground where the leaves are disturbed. The cord hits me about shoulder high when I stand by the marker.”

“Good work.”

He held out a piece of metal. “Got this out of the post. Looks like a .22 long rifle.”

“Does that mean he used a rifle?” she asked.

For the first time, Trey’s eyes met hers, his expression going from unreadable to concerned.

“Not necessarily. There are semi-automatic pistols that fire .22 longs, but I’d say this time a rifle was used.” Trey rolled his shoulders and turned to the sheriff. “If you don’t need me, I’m heading back to the jail.”

“Good work, Trey, but I need the trajectory for another bullet before you leave.” The sheriff pointed in the direction they’d just come from. “The bullet is in a tree east of the live oak. It has a ribbon around it.”

Trey glanced at Emma, his brown eyes soft. “I’m glad he didn’t hit you,” he said.

“Thanks. Me too.” She hugged her arms to her waist. Trey could be caring, and he wasn’t really a bad guy, but she just didn’t see a future for them.

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