“Officer Hannah is here to discuss some new details in the drowning case.” Ben led me to the banquet hall.
Luke sat at one of the tables looking far too relaxed—and sexy. Flashbacks of all the times his arms had wrapped around my waist from behind sent shivers down my spine. A feeling of suffocation quickly followed. Surely he wasn’t the same person as he was in high school, he’d probably learned by now to give his girlfriend breathing room. Though I didn’t know if I even deserved another chance with him after everything that happened with us. Everything I’d done wrong.
His easy grin broke into a wide smile when our eyes met, and I locked my knees so they wouldn’t betray me and leave me lying in a heap on the floor. Had he always been that good-looking?
“Hey, Ry,” he said.
“Hi, Luke.”
Ben cleared his throat, breaking our connection, allowing me to take a breath.
“You have some updates for us?” Ben asked as we sat.
“Yeah, looks like it wasn’t an accidental drowning after all.” Luke exchanged his smile for a concentrated frown. He looked down at his cell phone and continued. “From the medical examiner’s notes, looks like Tilsdale’s cause of death was strangulation by the same purple and green rope found attached to the catfish cage. His lungs contained no water. He was dead before submersion.”
“So this was murder,” I said more to myself than anyone else. “But how did we miss the strangulation marks? I checked for a pulse and didn’t feel or see anything.”
Ben’s face drained of color.
“To be fair, it was dark and he was in a cage and slimy. We didn’t catch it either.” Luke tucked his phone back into the pocket of his shirt. “And since this is now a murder investigation, I’ll need to ask you a few more questions.”
When Ben didn’t speak up, I said, “Of course, whatever we can do to help.”
“I need to interview each ranger working the day you found the body.”
“Kyle and Antonio opened, and Rylie and I closed,” Ben replied. “You don’t think one of us . . .” Ben started but seemed to choke on the words.
“I don’t think anything right now,” Luke said. “I’m only here to do my job.”
“I’ll start,” I said. “Where do you want to do this interview?”
Luke looked around the expanse of the room. “Is there somewhere that isn’t so . . . large? An office maybe?”
Ben nodded and led us through the main park office to a hall of individual offices in the back of the building.
“I’ll start with Rylie, and then I’ll come find you,” Luke said to Ben. “We shouldn’t be long.”
Ben unlocked one of the doors leading to a modest office space. No pictures of family or trinkets littered the desk—only a small monitor, a keyboard and two chairs facing one another.
“This will be just fine.” Luke offered me the more comfortable chair while he took the one opposite. The moment the door closed, his face widened into a smile. “How have you been, Ry? I can’t believe you’re here—I barely recognized you dressed like that.”
I dropped my gaze and tried to control my smile. I couldn’t tell whether my heart was racing because he was staring at me or because he was about to interrogate me.
“I’ve been, well, okay, I guess . . .” I picked at the hangnail on my thumb. My manicurist hated when I was under a lot of stress. She was always saying, “You no pick pick pick,” in her Korean accent.
“I heard about you and Troy.”
“Word travels fast.” I couldn’t meet his eyes. “Looks like you’ll have to take sides. Don’t worry, I won’t be offended if you choose his side. I know the two of you played football together and went to academy together and—”
Luke reached across the desk and grabbed my hand.
“How could I take his side after what he did?”
I looked up into his deep brown eyes and frowned. “How do you know what he did?”
“He’s been a tool since grade school. Plus, I’ve heard the rumors. Sucks that you lost your job and had to move in with your parents. I’m sure you miss the fire department a lot.”
I nodded.
“Either way, you know I’ll always be on your side.” He ran a hand through his luscious brown hair. “We may have lost touch, but you’ve always been special—important to me.”
And he had always been important to me too. We were high school sweethearts, prom king and queen, and when he proposed on graduation day in front of the entire senior class, I’m sure he thought it was a guaranteed yes.
But it hadn’t been.
And as I sat across from him now, I could almost see that same look on his face—the one that indicated his heart breaking in front of ninety-seven of our closest friends.
“Anyway . . .” He looked down at his notebook and sat up a bit straighter. His heartbreak face melted into his professional face, and I knew what was coming next. “Can you tell me everything you remember about Ronnie Tilsdale?”
“Well, I haven’t been here very long. Today’s only my second day.”
“That’s okay, just start from the beginning.”
I took a breath. “I had an interview with Ben on Thursday, and then I worked with him on Sunday, yesterday, for the closing shift.”
Luke sat back and listened, nodding his head as if taking in every detail of my story. He had been a good listener when we dated too.
“Yesterday, I saw Ronnie with his wife. She was about as friendly as a mama moose.”
“How do you mean?” Luke leaned forward and made a note in his notebook.
“When he started talking to me, she got out of the truck—all eight feet, three hundred and fifty pounds of her—and put him in his place. She looked like she was going to punch him.”
Luke made another note. “Did Ronnie say anything that might have been important?”
“When Ben asked, Ronnie said he knew Dave and Clark fished back in the cove. I think
