Page 56 of Obsession

“None here yet.” Sam turned off the Trace onto I-20. “You can turn on the GPS anytime.”

Emma opened her app and tapped on her mom’s address. A very British accent directed them to exit onto I-55 north. She remembered Nate talking about how strapped his department was for funds. “I didn’t realize the county had money to conduct two tests.”

His face colored. “I told him I’d pay for one of them.”

Her heart warmed. “I can’t let you do that. I’ll pay for it.”

“No, you won’t. It’s already taken care of, and it wasn’t much money, anyway.”

She ducked her head. Somehow she would make it up to him. “If Nate sends the tests in on Monday, do you think we’ll hear something by the end of the week?”

“I hope so.”

Emma had to live a whole week without total certainty the grave they’d found belonged to Ryan.

28

Emma stared down at her hands. She’d shredded the tissue, leaving little pieces of it on her dressy jeans. “Rats,” she muttered and used her hand to smooth them away.

“What’s wrong?”

“I have tissue lint all over my jeans.” Tears sprang to her eyes. The closer they got to her mother’s place, the more dread she felt. What if she let something slip about Ryan?

“Try one of the latex gloves in my console,” he said. “They work pretty good to get lint off my clothes.”

Emma grabbed a glove and tried to wiggle it over her left hand, huffing a breath when she couldn’t get the glove on.

“Hey, what’s bothering you?”

“Nothing.”

“Doesn’t sound like nothing to me.”

“I can’t get the glove on, and I’m tired of trying to do everything with my left hand, and ... I can’t get Ryan off my mind.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll help you get the glove on when we stop, and we can talk about your brother, if you’d like.”

Emma didn’t want to discuss Ryan. She wanted to quit thinking about him, but she heard herself ask, “If it wasn’t my brother buried in the grave, how did his ring get there? If it is him, who killed him? And how about Mary Jo? She was found three milesaway, and her killer hadn’t tried to bury her body.” She caught her breath and turned to Sam. “What if Ryan killed her and lost his ring when he dug the grave?”

“But he didn’t bury her. Coon hunters found her body.”

“Maybe they found her before...”

“Then whose body was buried at Mount Locust?”

Emma leaned back against the seat. “I’ve thought about this until my brain is mush.”

“We’ll get it figured out,” Sam said. “I don’t believe he killed anyone, and I’m pretty sure it was his body buried in the grave, which I think the DNA test will confirm.”

Her left hand curled into a fist as a flash of anger burned in her chest. “Then I want to track down whoever killed him and make him pay,” she said. “And I will if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

“Absolutely not!” He held his hand up. “You are staying out of the investigation. This person is dangerous and you are not trained.”

He was not locking her out. “You’re saying you don’t want the private investigator’s report?”

Silence filled the cab. “Emma, you could get hurt, or worse.”

The report was the only leverage she had over him, and she wasn’t above using it. “If I’m with you all the time, I don’t see how you’re going to investigate without me,” she said with a satisfied grin.

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