Page 42 of Cold Case Murder Mystery

“Scare who, I wonder,” Brooke said quietly. Her gaze was on her brother. “Me, because it’s my car?”

That, Zeke figured, had been everyone’s initial thought.

“Or you, Royal, because you were at the rental?” she questioned.

Royal’s expression went even more grim. “Not a soul knows I’m here.”

“Did you checkyourcar for a tracking device?” Zeke asked. Because even if this somehow connected to Brooke’s work, who would just... scare her like that? Without some kind of direct threat, there was no reason to know who or what was behind what was happening. No way to react any way when you didn’t knowwhyyou were being scared.

For a moment, Royal’s face registered some surprise. “Well. No.” He got to his feet. “I’ll go look right now.”

Brooke stood. “I’ll drive you.”

“Brooke.”

Zeke tried not to grimace at the fact he and Hart had said her name at the same time.

“He shouldn’t go alone,” Brooke said, stubbornly to Zeke’s mind.

“I’ll go with him,” Hart said, pushing to his feet to stand next to Royal. “We’ll take the cruiser. Check in with where the deputies are at on the investigation while we’re there.”

Brooke frowned, but she didn’t mount an argument. And to Zeke’s surprise, neither did Royal. Zeke supposed he’d have to count it as a point in Royal’s favor that he was willing to head out with a cop. Another point in his favor was that he’d been willing to consider Zeke’s suggestion in the first place.

“I’ll drop Royal back here after we’re done. If we find a tracker, we’ll look at it from a law-enforcement angle this time.” Hart eyed them all with a kind of censure. As if they should have come to him in the first place.

“And I’ll let Laurel in on everything,” he continued. “More eyes until we get a clearer perspective on what this is. But you’ll need to get back to the caves tomorrow, Brooke. We’ve got to determine if we’re looking for another murderer there. We have to treat this as two concurrent cases we’re working on. Not one or the other.”

Zeke could read the guilt all over Brooke’s face. No doubt because she had a skull at her lab here on his property and she hadn’t told either of the detectives she’d smuggled it out of the station.

Zeke would have to givehera point for still not saying anything. He knew it went against her rule-following nature.

Royal and Hart departed and then Brooke and Zeke were left together. She got up and began to clean the remnants of pizza, so Zeke did the same. She didn’t say anything. She was quiet and withdrawn and he just... hated it.

“It’s totally possible this thing doesn’t connect to you, Brooke,” he offered, hoping to get that tenseness out of her shoulders.

“It was still my car they were tracking. And bombed. Maybe Royal is at the heart of it, but I think I connect. And even if I don’t, I can’t feel okay with my brother being the target. No matter how much trouble he’s gotten himself into.”

“But if it doesn’t have anything to do with you...”

She shook her head, her mouth wobbling just a second before she firmed it, straightened her shoulders, as if going to battle. “He’s my brother, Zeke. What am I going to do? Just set it aside and ignore it? Pretend I’m not scared because he’s a target and maybe I’m not? I can’t. Could you?”

“No.” He understood too well the reality of having your sibling in danger. He’d done a lot of things to keep Carlyle safe, and still he’d worried about her every step of the way. Hell, he still worried about her, even knowing she was in a good place over at the Hudson Ranch.

But Brooke worrying, being miserable, tied him into knots. He hated seeing her so damn sad. He reached out and rubbed a hand down her back, some pathetic attempt at comfort.

She didn’t pull away. She even leaned into him a little bit.

And he just... had to help somehow.

“Let’s see if Granger has a minute to talk. He helped you with Royal’s lawyer, right? He’s got some insight into Royal’s charge and prison time. Maybe he can tug a line on something the cops can’t. Make a connection we haven’t seen. Granger and Shay are good at that.”

Brooke hesitated. “I hate asking them to get reeled back into things they purposefully left behind.”

Zeke laughed and gave her shoulders a squeeze before releasing her, because he needed his distance, or he’d want to... Well.

“They don’t mind, Brooke. You know, Granger and Shay and a couple others jumped in to help my family when we finally found my mother’s killer.” Zeke thought about the gunshot wound he’d received for the trouble. About how close Carlyle and Mary had been to getting hurt. At how beat up Walker had felt after.

But they’d survived, because they’d worked together and because North Star had been there to help. Even after disbanding.

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