Page 14 of Lana

He parked in the lot and then led her to the trails. It was one mile to the site, and neither said a word.

He used the map on his phone to make sure he was heading in the right direction. As they neared the site, he slowed down a little. He wasn’t sure if it was his own anxiety that made his feet move a little slower, or the feeling that he needed to protect her.

He stole a glance at her as she looked ahead. Her eyes were like those of a soldier: brave, focused on the mission.

She was not a woman who needed protecting, yet he felt he wanted to protect her regardless.

He stole another look at her, but this time she was looking at him. “What?” she asked, like she was ready to run if he said danger was ahead.

“Nothing,” he said with a gentle shake of his head.

They walked a few more steps before they were at the edge of the trees. The small path in front of them led through the woods into the opening.

“Last chance to back out,” he said, searching her eyes.

She shook her head. “Show me.”

Mitch took a calming breath and then stepped forward. She fell in line behind him, and that protective feeling rose in his chest. He prayed no more bodies had been strung up since they’d taken the last lot down, but he couldn’t completely rule it out—they still had no idea who the killer was.

As the woods began to open up, Mitch’s eyes swept over the trees, but he saw nothing sinister and exhaled a sigh of relief. Admittedly, the killer would’ve had to be incredibly stupid to come back here, given park rangers were monitoring this area, but still—anything was possible.

He turned to face Zoe, her eyes on a nearby tree. “You can see where the ropes were tied,” she said with a slight tremble to her voice.

Mitch followed the line of her finger. A ring around the tree revealed where the rope had rubbed it, likely due to the weight of the corpse and the added tension of the wind through this part of the woods.

“Where was she?” Zoe asked, but her voice betrayed her—it sounded like she really didn’t want to know.

Mitch turned back to the trees. “Between these two trees,” he said, pointing. He looked back to her as her composure broke. She pressed her lips together as her eyes welled. She shook her head slowly like she couldn’t believe it. If Mitch hadn’t found the bodies, he’d have had a hard time believing it too. A tear ran down her cheek.

She took a step forward, and then another. He watched as she walked to the tree and pressed her palms against it, leaning forward like she was out of breath. When her body shook, he realized she was crying.

His heart went out to her, but his feet stayed still. He was the local sheriff, and didn’t want to overstep his boundaries, but she was also a grieving woman at the site where her murdered sister had been found.

He walked forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, like he would any grieving family member. “I’m so sorry,” he said.

She seemed to nod her head like she heard him, but he couldn’t be sure if she had.

Eventually she stood upright, shaking her head. He could never have predicted the words she’d say next.

“I’m the reason she ran away... and I think I know who killed her.”

CHAPTER8

MITCH

Mitch’s eyebrows wove together. “What?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

“I think I know who did this... I got her a job, and she started hanging out with the boss’s son. A real rich prick. From there on, we lost touch. We had a big argument and she disappeared shortly after. I promised my parents I’d take care of her...” Zoe looked away, swallowing hard. “I promised them, but clearly I wasn’t there for her when she’d needed me most. Lana was the kind of person who was always okay. She seemed to rebound from everything life threw at her. When our parents died, she was the stronger one—she coped better than I did—or at least that’s what I’d thought. I’d always put it down to her carefree, resilient spirit. I always admired how Lana did whatever she wanted to do, not what was expected of her. But maybe it was all an act and she wasn’t okay, and I didn’t see it. Then she got mixed up with the wrong crowd...” Zoe visibly swallowed. “I was too forceful, too controlling during our last conversation, and now I have to live with that.”

Mitch already knew they hadn’t spoken for a period before Lana disappeared—he’d read it in the report. But the detail about the boss’s son was interesting. “We’ve all said things we shouldn’t have, or been in a situation we wished we’d handled differently,” he said after a moment. “That doesn’t mean Lana’s death is your fault.”

She shuddered as she inhaled deeply, then gave a resigned nod, but Mitch thought she was still carrying more blame than she should. Zoe kept her eyes diverted and he wondered if she might be thinking she was weak, but his thoughts were going in the opposite direction. She’d lost everyone she loved within a few short years. The fact that she could get out of bed every morning showed her strength. The fact that she had come to see the place her sister was found showed him she was a warrior. She was stronger than she knew. He would bet his life on it.

“Tell me more about the boss’s son,” Mitch said, his eyes on the trees to give her what little privacy he could.

In his peripheral, he saw her wipe her hand hastily across her cheek.

“The word was he was an entitled, drug-abusing, trust-fund baby. He didn’t work for the company, so I’m not sure how they even met, but she only started hanging out with him after she got the job. Maybe he was loitering around the office, pretending to be useful,” she said with a good dose of disgust.

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