“Sure, yeah,” Heath said without hesitation. “Whatever we have to do. I mean, hell, it’s my ass if this all goes down wrong. You bet I’ll help however I can to keep this a secret. I take it the plan to buy the land didn’t work out.”
“Nope. This is plan B.”
Brody would’ve lectured him about the failure of plan A, but Heath always rolled with the punches. “What’s plan B, exactly?”
“Find the body and move it back onto the family land while she’s out of town. Can you come up tomorrow?”
“I can. I’ll make some calls and dig up a good metal detector tonight, then leave in the morning.”
* * *
Tori should have felt excited. There were hundreds of people gathered around the new arts-and-sciences center she’d designed. The press was there, snapping pictures and filming pieces for the nightly news. The mayor had personally shaken her hand and told her she’d done a beautiful job. This was huge exposure for her business.
But she wasn’t excited. She was…lonely. This was a big moment for her, and she had no one to share it with. She pasted the smile back on her face for the photos and fought the tears that threatened to ruin the moment.
She wanted to share all of this with Wade. She wanted him standing next to her, beaming with pride. And yet he wasn’t there. Why? Because of a stupid piece of land.
That’s what it had become to her. She had imagined that it would be a magical thing to own a piece of the earth and make her mark on it by building her dream house. But the reality was much different. Even before Wade had shown up and started throwing money around, she’d begun to have her doubts. She’d dug in her heels only because he wanted something she had.
But he’d changed his mind. Wade wasn’t going to fight her for it anymore. Why? Maybe for the same reason she no longer wanted to keep it. If this land was the only thing standing between them, he could have it.
The mayor cut the ribbon, and the crowd cheered amid the blinding flash of cameras. The dignitaries stepped back and the front doors were held open for everyone to go inside. There would be folks wandering around all afternoon sipping champagne, eating appetizers and talking about the virtues of green architecture as though they understood it.
As she watched the crowd file in, she knew she should go in with them. Answer questions. Do interviews. But she hadn’t felt so desperate to get out of a place in her whole life.
If she left now, she could be home in a few hours. Wade should still be at the farm. And then she could tell him.
Tell him what? That she loved him? That he could have the land because it was nothing but dirt and rock without him in her life? Maybe. If she could work up the nerve.
Turning away from the building, Tori headed for the parking lot and her truck. She had a few hours’ drive to figure out what she wanted to say. But she knew she had to go to Wade. Now.
* * *
It was probably thirty degrees outside, but Wade was sweating as though it were summertime. They hadn’t even started seriously digging yet. That was probably why. They hadn’t found what he was looking for so they could start digging. The afternoon had not gone as well as he’d hoped. The snow had melted, revealing a landscape just as confusing as before. No turtle-shaped rocks. No crooked trees like he remembered. Maybe his memory was faulty. Maybe he’d just been a freaked-out kid that night and the whole incident had gotten scrambled in his mind. He wished someone had gone out there with him.
They’d taken to just running the metal detector over every inch of the property. Periodically, they’d get a hit and they’d dig furiously into the frozen ground, only to find an old quarter or a screw. Heath would move on with the metal detector and Wade would stomp the ground back into place. There was another snowstorm in the forecast for tomorrow. By the time Tori returned, the evidence of their search would be buried for a few weeks and hopefully undetectable.
The sun had set not too long ago, and the darkness was making their job even harder than the rock-hard dirt. Heath had turned on the headlight on one of the four-wheelers, and they both carried flashlights, but they were getting discouraged.
“Wade, I don’t see any rocks that look like a turtle. Not even if I scrunch my eyes up and look sideways.”
“I know.” Wade sighed. Maybe this whole plan was a bad idea. Even if they could find the right place, moving a fifteen-year-old corpse couldn’t be easy. It’s not as if he would be in one piece anymore.
“I’m not getting much with the metal detector. You’re sure he still had that ring on when you buried him?”