It was a loop of rope, purple and green—exactly the colors of the rope fibers that were found in Ronnie’s strangulation marks. How had Luke and the others missed this? It wasn’t that far from the crime scene.
I pulled out a pair of gloves and tugged it from the trash. Luke needed to see this as soon as possible.
The rope was quickly and securely stored in the trunk of my car within a plastic grocery bag from my trunk. I took off the gloves and included them in the bag before slipping behind the steering wheel, sitting in a puddle of my own making, and starting the engine.
My disappointment in not finding Ronnie’s wife was squelched though when I noticed a piece of paper tucked under one of my windshield wipers.
Meet me tonight. 8:30. Here. Come alone.
The handwriting wasn’t distinguishable as male or female, but the message was clear.
6
My tires squealed as I pulled up to the shop and dashed back into the training room. Completely breathless and still reminiscent of a drowned rat, I came face to face with the two gorgeous and still unknown-to-me rangers.
“Oh, sorry,” I said between gasps for air. The two bad boys of the group stood before me with looks of amusement on their faces.
“Nice to meet yeh, Rylie,” the scruffy one said in a distinct Irish accent. “I’m Seamus, and this here’s Dusty.”
“Sup?” Dusty lifted his chin slightly.
Seriously, how many hot guys did they hire here? They could have their own calendar.
“Yeh probably won’t see us much. The reservoirs aren’t our jurisdiction,” Seamus said. “But join us on patrol every now and again to learn about the trails, if yeh like.”
Behind him, Antonio’s eyes shifted from a very chatty Nikki to giving Seamus’ back the evil eye.
“I’ll do that, thanks.”
They both nodded and left as suavely as they’d come. If they were looking for someone to complement their GQ brand, they’d definitely want Nikki over me. I sighed and returned to my seat, happy my tardiness had gone unaccounted for.
“Hey, I’m having another Avs party this week if you want to come,” Antonio said to Nikki in a louder than necessary voice. Then he turned to the room. “And Brock and Shayla, you can come too. The more the merrier.”
“Isn’t your wife going to be there?” Nikki wrinkled her nose.
He ignored her and glanced over at me. I looked away. If he thought I was going to beg for an invitation, he was sorely mistaken.
By the time training had finished, I was unimaginably chafed and exhausted. The last thing I wanted to do was have Shayla over to hem her clothes before I needed to sneak out and meet whoever had left that note on my car. But I had promised.
“I’ll just follow you, okay?” As we got into our cars, her cheerfulness almost made me smile.
It was no surprise my mother was all too happy to show off her mother-of-the-century skills and was instantly bustling around taking Shayla’s measurements. While they worked on that, I took a hot shower and changed out of my disgusting water-logged uniform and into a pair of comfy jeans and a white t-shirt in hopes that Ronnie’s wife wouldn’t see me as the woman who her husband had flirted with, but more of an ally. At least until I could figure out if she was the one who killed him.
“Mom?” I called when I came up the stairs.
“Just in time. We’re all done with Shayla’s measurements, and I thought we could sit down and have some lasagna before I get to work on the alterations. They shouldn’t take me too long.”
I looked at the large clock on the wall. I still had time before I had to meet Ronnie’s wife. “Okay. Do you mind if I throw my uniform in the wash?” I secretly hoped she’d wave her magic mom wand again and my uniform would be back to its like-new status in the morning.
“Go ahead. But make sure to use the right settings and add some other clothes to make a full load.”
I did exactly as she asked. There were two things for which my mother didn’t have grace: people who talked badly about her family and doing the laundry the wrong way.
“Do you find it frightening that Rylie found a dead body at the reservoir?” Mom asked as we dug into her homemade lasagna. Dad didn’t say anything, but I could tell he was listening intently.
“Not really,” Shayla replied. “My mom is a retired police officer so I’m sort of used to it.”
“Shayla wants to be a police officer too.”
Shayla beamed at me.
“Only if I lose some of this weight. Heck, I might need my uniform to be taken in by the end of the summer.”
“You’re perfect just the way you are,” my mother cooed. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
“Why can’t my mom be as nice as yours?” Shayla asked.
I shrugged. If only she knew. “Maybe you should tell your mom how you feel. Maybe she’d lighten up some.”
“Nah, she’s hard core. Way tougher than I’ll ever be.”
“I think you’re tough. I mean, look at how you took that pepper spray course. You killed it.”
My mom’s eyes widened at the mention of pepper spray, but she didn’t say anything.
“At least I was better than Brock, right?” She smiled.
“I don’t think that’s giving yourself enough credit.” I laughed. “Brock was awful.”
“Do you think he’ll make it to the end of the season?”
“I don’t know. They probably need the warm body more than they need someone to be able to take a hit of pepper spray. Plus, he knows the code book backwards and forwards.”
“That’s true. He does.” Shayla seemed to be cheering up. “And I heard him talking to Seamus. You know, the cute Irish one? I think they’re going to take him with them on the trails a bit more this summer. It sounds like the trail rangers are way more
