Up In The Pines by Katie Jennings

Author:Katie Jennings [Jennings, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, crime, suspense, Contemporary, thriller, montana, romance
Publisher: Sapphire Royale Publishing
Published: 2017-06-22T18:30:00+00:00

THEY WOULDN’T LET Lark into the ambulance, so she stayed behind. She stared after the flashing red and white lights as they took Russ away and tried to let the knowledge that he was in good hands comfort her.

For the moment, there was nothing more she could do.

Night had fallen, but she insisted on taking a flashlight and returning to the crime scene anyway. Thinking of going back to the station without Russ made her physically ill, so she decided to investigate what had happened to him instead.

Lloyd joined her, but mostly stood by holding up a bright flashlight while she wandered around the area. She searched for animal tracks first, thinking of the cougar. It certainly had looked like a cougar attack, though it seemed odd that the animal would’ve left Russ alive and in one piece. She did spot some tracks, likely cougar, that looked relatively fresh.

Weary and emotional, she sat down on a fallen tree trunk. Russ knew what to do when approached by a cougar. Except that, for some reason, he hadn’t drawn his firearm. It had remained holstered to his waist. Had the cougar surprised him? Come out of the trees and knocked him flat on his back, where his head struck the rock and knocked him unconscious?

If that was the case, then why hadn’t the cougar finished him off?

Something shiny caught the light of Lloyd’s flashlight, an object half-buried about ten feet away from where she’d found Russ. She walked over to it, gently digging it out of the earth.

It was a silver belt buckle, oval in shape with a cowboy recklessly riding a rodeo horse on it. Along the top, in bold letters, was the inscription, ‘Champion Bareback Rider 1975.’ Time had corroded the metal, leaving it tarnished.

And there, caked within the crevices, was what looked like dried blood.

Lark’s hands shook as she rose to her feet. She turned to Lloyd and showed him the buckle.

“Put this in an evidence bag, please.”

He carefully took the buckle from her and headed for the cruiser. Lark took one last look around, wondering how the forensics team could have missed something like that.

Unless, of course, the buckle hadn’t been there until now.

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