Page 82 of Among the Innocent

“I’ll have someone stationed outside your house,” Dalton told her. “But Willa, you mustn’t meet this man again. No matter what.”

Willa slowly nodded. “I won’t.”

“How does he contact you? Does he mostly call or text?” Leah asked.

“He texts me usually.”

“Good. That helps. Stay here while we arrange to have an officer see you home.” Leah squeezed Willa’s arm. “You did the right thing.”

They stepped out into the hall and moved out of earshot. “When he reaches out to her, we’ll arrange a meet,” Leah said.

Dalton turned toward her. “That was brave of you to tell her your story. I’m not sure she would have believed us if you hadn’t opened up.”

“Thanks to you. I don’t know if I would have talked about what happened if you hadn’t been there with me.”

While Leah sent the Amish women on their way, Dalton arranged for two of the tribal police to follow them home.

The burner phone given to Willa rested in the plastic evidence bag.

“I’ll dust for prints, but I’m guessing all we’ll find are Willa’s and her mother’s.”

Leah watched the buggy disappear while heat vapors rose off the street, reminding Leah of the day this had all begun again. The first time she’d met Dalton. The day she showed up at the Zooks’ home to find their pasts were about to collide dead-on with a killer.

Now, it seemed as if things were quickly coming to a head, but would she survive another showdown with John? Though she’d thought herself strong, Leah realized she’d been living in fear. Knowing somehow John would come back. Finish what he started all those years earlier. But she was different. She wasn’t that scared little girl any longer. She wasn’t about to let the man who had ruined so many lives escape his reckoning this time.

“Chief, we have a situation.” Sugar’s tone was the first thing to alert Dalton something was wrong.

Dalton faced his senior dispatcher. “Go ahead.”

“A couple of hikers found a body up in the mountains. Tribal police are on their way there now since the mountain territory falls in their jurisdiction, but I thought you would want to know.”

“What do you know so far?” Dalton’s eyes met Leah’s. A tempest of doubt raged in hers.

“Not much. Two people out hiking stopped to take in the view and saw a body instead. They were shaken up pretty bad. Not sure if it was a man or woman. They said all they saw were legs.”

Dalton rose and retrieved his weapon. “We’re on our way there now.”

“Do you think he’s killed someone else?” Leah whispered as she followed him outside.

“We don’t know that yet. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Dalton climbed inside Leah’s cruiser. “Is it normal to have hikers die up in the mountains?”

She shifted his way. “Not usually. But it does happen every couple of years or so.”

Dalton slipped on his sunglasses against the glare of the day.

Heat waves rose off the hood of the vehicle as they headed toward the mountains. Was the deceased person just a coincidence? If this case had taught him anything, it was thateverythinghad meaning.

He eased the cruiser to a stop at the trailhead, where multiple police and rescue vehicles were parked. He and Leah started up the mountain trail.

“This is one of the easier paths,” she said with a frown. “It’s wide, and I can’t imagine anyone falling unless they were intoxicated.”

They walked some distance before they reached the spot where the body was found. The tribal chief spotted them and came over.

“Have you been able to identify the deceased yet?” Leah asked.

Chief Perez shook his head. “There was no ID on the body. He’s a white male with dark hair. Average build. About your height.” The chief indicated Dalton.

“Any cause of death yet?”

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