Following the Evidence by Lynn Shannon

Author:Lynn Shannon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-04-06T01:20:49+00:00

TWELVE

By noon, the coolness of the morning had morphed into a warm spring day. Reed rested on a rock under the shade of an oak tree. The radio on his hip crackled and various voices and codes filtered out. Shifts were changing among the deputies and troopers assigned around the property.

Sadie had cleared almost half of the wooded acreage. There was no sign of Bonnie.

Emma threw a ball, and Sadie streaked after it. Reed’s gaze scanned the field, lake and tree line. Nothing moved. He was probably being overly cautious. After all, Sadie was likely to be the first one to let them know if a stranger was nearby. He reached inside his backpack and pulled out a bottle of water.

“Let’s take a break for lunch.” Emma dropped down next to him. Her cheeks were flushed with exertion, and the color brought out the gold flecks in her eyes. “Sadie needs a rest.”

The dog joined them. She collapsed in the grass, panting, her fur shining in the sunlight.

“It looks like she’s smiling,” Reed remarked.

Emma laughed, pulling a small cooler out of her backpack. “She is. Sadie loves to work. The playtime afterward doesn’t hurt.”

Reed’s cell phone beeped, and he checked the message. “I got an email from your uncle’s attorney, Emma. Owen wouldn’t have received any money under Jeb’s will unless he’d been sober for a year. But there’s another trust.”

Her forehead wrinkled as she waved a hand to shoo away a fly. “From Aunt Rachel?”

“Yep. Apparently, she inherited some money from her parents and set it aside for Owen. He gained access to it when he turned thirty-five. His birthday was four days before Charlie was hired.”

“Well, I guess that explains where he got the money.” She took a long drink of water, her gaze drifting over the field. In the distance, the lake sparkled in the sunlight. “You know Owen taught me to fish right over there.”

“I remember. I’m sorry, Emma.”

She let out a breath and tilted her head. “I’m not the only one with a connection to this place. Bonnie loved to fish here, too.”

“Yes, she did. Bonnie convinced Judge Norton to let us cut through his property from ours to get here.”

The large clearing and the lake sat on the border of intersecting properties. Joshua was to the north and Judge Norton was to the east. Jeb’s land extended to the south and west. Back when Reed was a teenager, everything bordering Jeb’s land had belonged to the judge.

Emma removed her sandwich from the plastic bag. “Cookies.”

“What?”

“Bonnie used my grandmother’s recipe and baked Judge Norton a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Judge Norton was hooked on them. He agreed to let her cut across the property, as long as she would keep baking them for him.”

Reed laughed. “I should’ve known he wrangled some kind of bargain out of it.”

“Judge Norton’s the one who inspired Bonnie to become a paralegal, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he did. But her ultimate dream was to be an attorney.”

Bonnie had been working and saving money for law school.

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