Page 15 of Snow River

Her heart was jumping all over the place.She didn’t understand why Cromwell had it in for Bear, but he obviously did.“Bear didn’t dump any body.How could you ever think that?He brought me my back pay.That’s all.”

“So what changed your mind about quitting?”

Oh crapola.That was getting into the realm of the unexplainable.The powerful feeling that she had to go back.The appearance of Bear.The dream.

She gasped out loud as a memory from that dream came back to her.We have a problem on our hands.That was what Allison Casey had said in her dream.Was the woman in the river the problem, or connected to it somehow?Maybe that was why Lila hadn’t been able to leave—the presence of her body in the river below.Even though she hadn’t seen it, her intuition worked in mysterious ways.

“What’s on your mind?”Officer Cromwell demanded.“Better come out with it or it’s gonna look bad for you.You and Bear both.”

“I…I…” She scrambled for something, anything, to say that would throw him off the scent of the truth.“Well, this is very embarrassing, but I changed my mind when I saw Bear.”

The officer’s gaze slid between the two of them.“Got a little crush?”

“Yes.I have a little crush.”Hopefully Bear would see what she was doing, but she didn’t dare to look at him.“That’s why I left, because it was so hard working in such close quarters with him.But then, when he woke me up, I realized I couldn’t run from my feelings.Do you know what I mean, Officer?Is there a woman in your life?”

He narrowed his eyes at her.“No.And you should be careful.You don’t know much about this guy, do you?”

Beside her, Bear was still as a pile of rocks.

“I’ve been working for him since April.”Not really an answer, because the truth was, hadn’t she just been thinking that she didn’t know Bear as well as she wished?

“Huh.Well, get him to tell you about Bethel sometime.Quite a story.”

Bear said nothing, but she could sense the anger roiling inside him.

“Do you have any other questions for me, Officer?”she asked.“I mean, about the case?Do you know who the dead woman is yet?”

His eyes gleamed, which told her he was the kind of person who liked knowing things that other people didn’t—and liked to prove it.“It’s public record now, so I can share that the victim has been identified and her family has been notified.”

“Who was she?Was she from here?”

“No, she was from Bend, Oregon.She was a watercolor artist doing some sketches of the forest out here.A tourist, basically.Her name was Rita Casey.Gee, I really hope this incident doesn’t ruin things for you Firelight Ridge folks.It’s just not safe out here, is it?No police, no law enforcement, just chaos and murder.”

“We’ve got you, don’t we?You’re about all the law enforcement we can handle out here.”Bear launched into the process of shepherding Officer Cromwell out the door, while Lila worked on hiding her shock.

Rita Casey.Same last name as Allison.Could that possibly be a coincidence?

9

Bear tooka few days for Lila’s revelation to sink in.That was how he generally operated—he liked to turn things over in his mind before he came to any conclusions.That was one reason why he’d been an excellent detective in Bethel—which, unfortunately, was the last thing that corrupt police chief had wanted.

He gave no thought to Lila’s explanation of why she’d decided not to leave.A crush?That was clearly a cover story and not worth the time to delve into.If she really had a crush on him, there would have been countless opportunities for her to show it.She wasn’t especially shy.So he dismissed that out of hand.

But the rest of it…the intuitive abilities, the knife throwing…that was different.

He’d asked Cromwell straight out, as he’d gotten back in his rig the other day.“I heard it was a knife that sent her into the river.Was she stabbed?Has the knife been recovered?Want me to organize a search?”

“The coroner says the angle and depth of the wound suggests it was a knife throw, and no, we didn’t find the knife.My guess is the killer yanked it from her body, and it’s probably in the Gulf of Alaska by now.Stay out of it, Bear.I don’t need anyone messing in my investigation.”

So Lila had been correct.He hadn’t doubted her.But at that point it really sank in.She’d known the cause of death before the coroner.

He’d backed away from the SUV.“You got it, Officer Cromwell.Better make it speedy, though.Looks like we have a murderer on the loose.”

“Screw you.There was a boyfriend, this was a domestic dispute, a one-off.Keep out of my case.”

That seemed like a lot of jumping to conclusions to Bear, but he got the point.Keep out.

When he’d given adequate thought to everything Lila had told him, he knocked on the door of the old hardware store.He still hadn’t told her that he’d hooked her up with the place.That was the way he generally moved…quietly, in the background, making things happen without anyone knowing.

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