Page 65 of Cold Case Murder Mystery

He’d spent most of his adult life trying to make that all right. Solve it, like it was a problem. When all it had ever been was a tragedy. One that he’d had no control over.

Not his fault.

Walker pounded him on the shoulder. “What the hell?”

Zeke shook his head. “Didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. How’d you find us?”

Walker jerked a thumb at Cash.

Carlyle’s fiancé shrugged. “Carlyle and I track each other’s locations. When she disappeared, I figured she’d gone to see you, but after a while I realized she wouldn’t let you hit the cave alone. But when the cops hadn’t seen you guys, we checked it to see where she was. Lost service here and there, so couldn’t pinpoint an exact location at first, but we got close, then your friend found us.”

Zeke scoured the scene. Granger and Gabriel stood just a ways back from where Brooke knelt next to Royal. Betty was with her, clearly working on Royal.

She was okay.Okay.

Carlyle sauntered over, wrapped an arm around Cash’s waist but looked up at Zeke. “Just going to stand there staring at her?”

Zeke scowled at his sister. “Giving her a minute with herinjuredbrother.”

“Give her ashoulder, dipshit.They’re going to cart him out of here the minute they get a stretcher in. She’s going to need support.”

When Zeke didn’t immediately jump to action, Carlyle made a disgusted sound. “If she walks out on you, you damn well deserve it.” Then she gave him a physical push with her free hand.

Zeke grumbled, but he moved over to the scene around Royal. They had him up in a sitting position and Betty had already wrapped a bandage around his arm.

“Nice save,” Zeke offered to his old boss.

Granger shrugged. “Only because you two got me started on looking into that lawyer Brooke paid. Led me to Jeremiah, which didn’t sit right. Started keeping tabs on a guy who visited the alleged Jeremiah in jail weekly without fail and that led me here.”

Two EMTs with a stretcher appeared and gently but firmly moved Brooke out of the way. Zeke reached out and helped her to her feet. Once she looked up at him, she simply fell into him.

He wrapped his arms around her, held her. Up to this point, he’d kept every feeling as much on lockdown as he could, but too many rushed through him now with her in his arms. The kind of relief that threatened to buckle his knees.

“Everything’s okay,” he told her, holding her close. “Everyone’s going to be just fine.”

She nodded into his chest. “He’ll be okay,” she said, and he knew she was saying it to reassure herself, not because she knew it was true. But it would be true.

They were all going to be okay. He rubbed a hand down her back and promised himself he’d make sure of it.

Chapter Twenty-One

The detectives let Zeke give her a ride to the hospital, but Brooke wasn’t allowed to see Royal right away. Instead, she had to let a nurse poke and prod at her head, then bandage her up. Once she was done with that, she had to answer what felt like a zillion questions from Laurel in a meeting room at the hospital. About what happened in the cave.

Brooke really hated recounting it. She would no doubt have nightmares about Leon Rogers for some time. And she still had work to do down there. With three murderers spanning three generations... no telling what unsolved disappearances she might be able to help solve.

“So how does all of that connect to what happened on the outside?” Laurel said, turning her attention to Zeke, who held Brooke’s hand under the table they were sitting at.

He hadn’t left her side. Hadn’t gone more than a few seconds without having one of his hands touching her in some way. It gave her the strength to go on when what she really wanted was to curl up somewhere and sleep forever.

Except when she closed her eyes, she still pictured Leon and shivered.

“I don’t actually think there’s a connection,” Brooke said before Zeke could. “Two separate issues just happened to merge.”

“I agree with that assessment,” Zeke said. “The problem people I ran into were connected to her brother, his old life. They wanted to use Brooke as a kind of revenge. I think they were following her, waiting for a chance to get to her. When the cave-in happened and we came to try and help, we just happened to run into them trying to get to her.”

Laurel rubbed a hand to her temple. “This is a hell of a case, you guys. That should hold us over for now. I’m sure we’ll have more questions as the case—cases—continue, but if you want to go check on your brother, Brooke, we’re done here.”

They all stood, and Laurel gave her a friendly pat on the back. “Get some rest, Brooke. You did good today.”

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