Page 18 of Wild Justice

“You’re not exactly helping yourself,” Lulu said. “I’m not the coroner, but I think it would have taken someone decently healthy to do that. You look like you could swing a bat.”

“Lots of people in town could wield a blunt object. We’re going to need more than that to narrow down a killer.”

“We?”

“Well…you. And me, because newspaper reporters dig into a story.”

“I’m the sheriff in this town. I do the investigating. You report what I find,” she retorted. “Weare not a team. I will cooperate with the press because I want my office to run transparently. But I will not have civilians getting all twisted up into an open case. Seriously, Kai. It could be dangerous.”

“It could be dangerous for you, too.”

“That’s what I signed up for. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it appears that the county forensic team has arrived. Please step aside and let them pass. Don’t ask them any questions, and don’t get in their way. Are we clear?”

“We definitely are.”

He had cleared his throat a few times and was looking at the ground, probably trying to hide his laughter. She was being a hard ass, and he thought it was amusing or cute.

“I promise I’ll give you a more complete statement later today,” she said. “I’m serious about being transparent.”

“I appreciate that. If you don’t mind, I’d like to hang around and watch.”

“I can’t stop you.” She nodded towards the growing crowd not far away. “We have an audience. And believe me when I say, they are all watching closely.”

Waiting for me to fall flat on my face. As if I’d let that happen.

I’m going to find Dana’s killer, and everyone can go fuck themselves.

I promise, Dana. I’ll find the person who did this to you. I won’t fail.

5

Lulu’s hands were tight on the steering wheel as she drove toward Dana Cartwright’s family home. The parents needed to be informed of their daughter’s passing, and Lulu was the official who needed to do it.

It was still early, and there was a possibility that Gary and Carole hadn’t heard about a dead body near the lake. They wouldn’t know that it was their daughter. The deputies had managed to keep the people that had gathered far enough back not to be able to see details. The high grass had helped as well.

She hadn’t expected on her second day of work that she’d have to tell a nice, older couple that their daughter had probably been murdered. She wasn’t scared about finding the killer. It was this that made her nauseous. She had an image in her head of someone telling her own mom and dad that she’d died. It wasn’t a pretty picture.

A car had pulled up behind her, honking, before revving its engine and then pulling alongside.

Ray Ramsey and Ellen Dunphy.

They must have heard the news. Perhaps one of her deputies had called them? They were waving at her to pull over.

What in the hell…?

Lulu pulled her SUV to the side of the road, and Ray parked behind her. She stepped out of her vehicle, and he did, too, followed by Ellen. The two of them always seemed to be together, with Ellen wanting Ray to validate her almost every sentence. It was a strange working relationship, but it seemed normal to them.

“Lulu, glad we caught you,” Ray said, jogging up to meet her. “We heard about Dana Cartwright. You should have called us right away.”

As far as Lulu knew, that wasn’t part of the protocol. Of course, there hadn’t been any murders in Harper since she was a toddler so she couldn’t be sure.

“You were my next call after I informed the family.”

It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it sounded plausible. They had a reason to be concerned since she was inexperienced. If they were panicking, she couldn’t blame them. But she was determined to do her job.

“Of course,” Ellen exclaimed. “That’s how we found you. We assumed you were headed for the Cartwright place.”

The Cartwrights had a bit of property on the outskirts of town. They raised horses, had a large garden, and Carole liked to sit outside and read when the weather was nice. Gary Cartwright was one of the local large animal veterinarians in the county.

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