Page 145 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

Because he wanted to know where her mother was.

As she reached the neighboring house, she took a deep breath and screamed. She screamed as loudly as she could, praying the sound would carry. To whom, she had no idea.

Maybe one of these houses was occupied.

Salcito was gaining on her.

She had to find something to defend herself with. But there was nothing. Nothing.

She ran toward the trees on the other side of the house. Managed to get out of the yard and into the woods again.

But Salcito was close.

Too close.

She snatched up a fallen branch covered in snow.

She turned, took a swing.

But the branch was longer than she’d realized. It whacked a tree trunk nearby, vibrated with the impact, and fell from her frozen fingers.

Salcito dove and tackled her.

She landed in the snow. She inhaled to scream, but his hand clamped over her mouth.

He glared down at her. “You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

There was nothing on this road. Nothing but tracks, which were already being covered by the quickly falling snow. Garrett had been slowly following those tracks on the narrow road in the thick forest, keeping his window open, hoping to hear something, maybe see something.

Aside from the low hum of his engine, the world was silent.

Until he heard a scream.

He pressed the gas harder and went higher up the hill, past houses, until the road ended in a cul-de-sac.

The tracks led to a house.

He parked, jogged up the driveway. Somebody had driven into the garage, but footprints led around the back.

He crept that way, staying as quiet as he could.

In the distance, he heard a lowthwack.But he couldn’t see anybody. Where was she?

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Aspen stared up into the furious face of Brent Salcito. The man she’d met at church the previous Sunday, the man who’d bought her pastries at Cuppa Josie’s…that man was gone.

This man didn’t wear a mask of kindness.

His eyes were bulging. His lips drawn back in a sneer. He straddled her, holding her arms over her head in a tight grip. She struggled to wiggle away, but he outweighed her and overpowered her. His other hand clamped down on her neck.

He squeezed.

“You’re right,” he said. “I can explain away the knife and the jacket. It’ll be clear I hadn’t been the one to kill her and bury her, or I wouldn’t have hidden those things with her body.”

Aspen gasped for breath, the world darkening around her as Salcito’s fingers pressed against the arteries in her neck. She tried to wiggle out of his grip, but he was too strong.

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