Page 16 of Forever Gone

Selena reached for a notebook and opened it to a clean page.

“What sort of scene?”

“A woman’s been killed at the old Montgomery place.” Cheryl paused, and a trace of strain entered her voice. “It’s pretty brutal, by all accounts.”

Selena picked up her pen.

“I’m on my way.”

CHAPTER THREE

By noon, the road to the old Montgomery place had narrowed to a strip of patched asphalt between the trees.

Selena drove with the window cracked, following the directions Cheryl had sent. The temperature had climbed since morning, but the woods held on to the coolness of early fall. Red had begun to spread through the maples. Poplar leaves flashed yellow whenever the breeze turned them, and dry leaves skipped across the road ahead of her tires.

The route stirred memories she had not visited in years.

Mr. Montgomery had been considered a character even by Harlan County standards. He had lived alone on the property, hunted through every season the law allowed, and mounted much of what he killed. Deer heads, foxes, raccoons, birds of prey found dead along the roadside. As a child, Selena had once watched him unload a black bear from the back of his truck while three men outside the hardware store argued over whether it was as large as he claimed.

When money became tight, he sold his taxidermy pieces in Elmsview. They had appeared in diners, hunting cabins, pawnshops, and the front windows of businesses that had no obvious need for a glassy-eyed bobcat. Her father had refused to buy one, despite Mr. Montgomery offering him a mounted pheasant at half price.

The man had been gone for years. The property had remained.

Selena turned from the paved road onto gravel. The trees opened around a sloping meadow, and a narrow bridge crossed a stream at the bottom. Beyond it stood a dark timber cabin with a rusted metal roof.

Two sheriff's vehicles and the county coroner's van were parked outside. Yellow tape ran from a porch post to a tree near the drive. A car sat apart from the official vehicles, its trunk closed, and its front end pointed toward the bridge.

Deputy Arnold Shaw waited beside the tape.

He smiled as Selena stepped out, then came forward with one hand extended.

“Great to see you, Selena.”

She shook his hand. “Good to see you, too, Arnold.”

He had not changed much since the last case. Blond hair still escaped beneath his campaign hat, and the attempt at stubble along his jaw remained uneven. He seemed more comfortable in the uniform now, though the eagerness beneath it had not disappeared.

“How are you settling in at Eagleton?” he asked.

“I’m doing fine. Slow and steady.”

Arnold glanced toward the woods as if checking that no one else could hear him. “Shame you couldn’t get a place in Elmsview, nearer the sheriff’s department.”

Selena smiled. “Connor would’ve loved that.”

“I’ve been telling him to drop in and see you. He keeps making excuses.”

A familiar weariness moved through her. “Sounds like Connor all right.”

Arnold’s smile weakened. Perhaps he had expected more amusement from her. He lifted the tape so she could pass beneath it.

“What do we have in there?” Selena asked.

The cabin door opened before Arnold could answer.

Connor stood in the doorway.

For a second, neither of them spoke. He wore his uniform shirt with the sleeves buttoned at the wrists, despite the warmth, and his hat cast a shadow over the upper half of his features. Three weeks had passed since Selena accepted the Eagleton post. They had spoken once by telephone about jurisdictional contacts and exchanged two emails that could have been generated by attorneys.