Page 82 of Fatal Witness

They passed a sign that read “Watch Out for Falling Rocks.” She glanced out the window at the mountainside. “Does that happen much—falling rocks?”

“Sometimes, especially after a rain.” He checked his rearview mirror to make sure Hayes was still behind them.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“When Laura was sick for so long, and then died, Keith talked about how God gave him peace. And you seem to have that same peace even though you went through terrible times in Afghanistan. How do you get that peace?”

He gripped the steering wheel. He hadn’t been expecting that. How to explain it to Dani? “You’d have to have known me when I came home from Afghanistan to understand. I was seriously messed up.”

Mark slowed for a deer bounding across the road and sorted his thoughts.

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“No, I need to. Seven years ago, I was in my last year before I mustered out of the service. There was a guy at the base who trained dogs like Gem. I started working with him and the dogs. Saved my life.

“He was a Christian and got me started in a Bible study about how to have peace. He also made me see how good God had been to me.” Mark laughed. “That took a while, but the more I studiedmy Bible, the more I understood what he was talking about.” He glanced at her. “Does any of that make sense?”

“I want it to,” she said. “How was God good to you?”

Mark didn’t have to think hard on that one. “He got me out of Afghanistan in one piece.”

“But it was bad that you had to go in the first place, and evidently bad things happened to you over there.”

“Being a Christian doesn’t mean we won’t encounter bad things. I’ve learned that the bad things that come my way make me depend on God more.”

She bit her lip. “You sound like Keith.”

He hesitated. “I don’t know where you are where God’s concerned, but when life gets overwhelming for me, I talk to God about it, give him whatever it is that’s bigger than I can handle. I usually start repeating a verse in one of the psalms—‘Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you’—and that gives me peace.”

“I’ve never felt the peace Keith talked about his God giving him.”

“Maybe that’s the problem,” Mark said quietly. “You have to make him your God.”

39

Alex parked in front of Peterson’s Grocery. Nathan was meeting her at Pete’s Diner for lunch in half an hour, which gave her time to interview Kyle Peterson. And she didn’t look forward to it.

As a kid, she’d been scared of Kyle. He’d been close to thirty when he came back to Pearl Springs to help his grandfather in the store, and he was always so grumpy, talking mean to the kids who came into the store—never when a parent was around, though. Kyle no longer frightened her, but she still didn’t like to shop at the grocery when he was there.

She liked his grandfather, though, even if he had tattled to Gramps that she’d pranked him. Alex climbed out of her SUV and entered the store, smiling at the jingle of the bell over the door that had been there as long as she could remember. Mr. Peterson was behind the counter in his usual place, and the store appeared not to have any customers at the moment.

Or any sign of Kyle. If he wasn’t here, she could talk to Mr. Peterson. The older man’s memory was sharp, and he might’ve heard something around the time of the Bennett murders. “Good morning, Mr. Peterson. Do you still keep Prince Albert in a can?”

He laughed. “Actually, I do. Can’t tell you how long I’ve had it, though. Not many people roll their cigarettes these days.”

“Do you still get calls telling you to let him out?”

“Been years since that happened. Can’t say as I’m sorry either,” he said with another chuckle. “But it’s good to see you looking as lovely as ever.”

She grinned. “And you need new glasses.”

He leaned on his cane as he shuffled to the cash register. “Bah! You know you’re the vision of loveliness.”

She wished. Now Dani, on the other hand ... “You might not be Irish, but you certainly have the gift of gab.”

He laughed. “Oh, but I am—on my mother’s side. Now what can I do for you?”

---