Page 117 of Fatal Witness

Once they were alone, she waited while Mark went through the photos. Maybe she should stop him, tell him she needed to see them all.

“Okay, I have them separated.”

His words sent a rush of light-headedness, and Dani swayed slightly.

“I still don’t think you should do this,” he said.

“We’ve already been through this. I just need to breathe.” Dani closed her eyes and gave herself a minute of deep breathing, then she lifted her chin and reached for the first photo. It shook in her hand.

She willed her hand to stop shaking and viewed it. The photo was taken in the kitchen. She looked everywhere but at the bodies on the floor.

Dani licked her dry lips and plowed ahead, picking up another photo, similar to the first one. One by one she went through them, numbness settling into her brain until there were no more photos.

“You okay?”

“No. And it was for nothing. I still can’t remember what happened.” She looked up and couldn’t stand to see the sadness in his eyes. “I’ll be all right. I just need a little time.”

“No, what you need is a little fun.”

She tilted her head. “What are you talking about?”

“We’re going to my uncle’s place to do some rock skipping. And don’t look at me like I’m crazy.”

“You are. What if someone follows us?”

“Got that figured out. I’ll pick you up at the sally port and you can get in the backseat and lie down. That way if someone sees my vehicle leave, they’ll only see me.”

Maybe this would work. She would love a distraction. But rock skipping? Her doubt must’ve shown on her face.

“What? You don’t think that will work?”

“It’s not that. I just never thought of throwing rocks across a pond as fun.”

He grinned. “Then you’ve never been rock skipping with me. Besides, my uncle’s is the only place I can think of that would be private.”

Five minutes later, Dani lay down in the backseat beside Gem in her harness.

“Don’t get up until I’m sure no one is following us. Okay?”

“Whatever you say. Does Alex know what we’re doing?”

“Yep. I called her before we left.”

“And she was okay with this?”

“I wouldn’t say that exactly, but since it’s at my uncle’s fenced-in farm that has only one way in and one way out that you have to access through a locked gate, she agreed.”

Her instincts still said no, but the idea of getting away from everything overruled them.

56

Twenty minutes later, Mark hesitated before he climbed out of his SUV to open the metal gate. Why was he suddenly second-guessing himself? He’d waited until they were on a stretch of road with no houses and no traffic before he pulled over for Dani to get in the front seat. After that they hadn’t met five cars. No one could possibly know she was with him.

Mark climbed out of the SUV and turned in a full circle, scanning for anything out of the ordinary. Everything looked fine. He jogged to the metal gate and keyed in the code on the lock, then dragged the gate across the dirt road before he jogged back to Dani.

This should work fine. No one knew they were here except Alex. But what if it didn’t?

The passenger door opened. “You okay?” Dani asked.

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