Boris didn’t seem convinced. His sturdy body bristled with excitement and he stood to attention, his ears pointed and his eyes bright.
As Spencer straightened, he noticed that the earth around the tree had been disturbed, as though it had recently been dug up. Shining the flashlight beam wider, he caught a glimpse of something more alarming. A few feet away, he could see what might be a shallow grave.
Before he could investigate, the slightest sound behind him made him turn to look. It was enough to ensure that the blow meant for the back of his skull caught him on the side of his head. As he fell forward onto the sandy ground, he dropped the flashlight and its beam illuminated Latimer standing over him, a rock in his hand.
Letting go of Boris’s line, he managed to utter one slurred word. “Leave.”
The dog’s instinct would be to remain with his handler. Overriding that was one of the hardest things to teach a police dog. Even now, as Latimer raised the rock again, Spencer couldn’t be sure what Boris would do. Would he obey and go for help, or stay and try to save his master?
It was his final thought before pain seared through his head and darkness engulfed him.
* * *
Stretching sleepily, Katrina reached out a hand for Spencer. When she found that his side of the bed was cold, she frowned and sat up. It was still dark. Where could he have gone at this time?
Doubt instantly flooded her. Was he regretting getting so close, so fast? The hints he’d dropped about wanting to make love to her all the time had sounded like he wanted a long-term relationship. Was this his way of backing off, of telling her that what he actually wanted was only physical, and his sweet-talking her was just a part of that?
She knew what was happening. Her old trust issues were too raw to lie down and die completely. When she was with Spencer, she felt sure of him. It was at times like this that the doubts crept in and prodded her. What she needed was to feel his arms around her.
Maybe he was in the living room, working on his laptop. She slid out of bed, pulled on her clothes and headed through to the other room. The small house was too quiet for him to be anywhere else and she frowned. She checked her cell phone but there were no messages. Surely, he would have let her know if he’d had to go out in the middle of the night?
With almost perfect timing, the display on her cell lit up. Every other thought went out of her head when she saw who the message was from. Eliza...
I need you. Come quick. Where we used to hang out as kids in the park. E x
Hope bubbled up inside her like an underground spring rising to the surface. It was exactly the sort of message Eliza always sent when she was in trouble and she wanted money from Katrina.
The easiest way to get to the place where she and Eliza used to play was to enter the park using the old gates on Western Drive. She remembered how they used to sneak in that way as kids and how her grandpa would scold them and ask how he’d know where to start if he needed to come looking for them.
But it was nighttime, and Eliza’s message sounded urgent, so Katrina was going to take the quickest route, even if it wasn’t the safest. Before she headed out to her car, she spared a thought for Spencer. He’d been so worried when she’d gone to the store without letting him know where she was. Although she had no clue to his whereabouts right now, she sent him a message letting him know that Eliza had been in touch and that she’d gone to meet her. That should reassure him.
After pausing to find a flashlight in one of the kitchen cabinets and to put on boots instead of her sneakers, she set off. Because of the time, the roads were quiet and she reached her destination in minutes. It was only as she left her car and looked up at the old gates that the first doubts hit her.
She was alone in the early hours of the morning, about to enter an isolated but enclosed outdoor space, and if Spencer didn’t pick up her message, no one knew she was here. It was taking recklessness to a whole new level.
Inside her, caution went to war with her responsibility to her sister. The time she’d spent agonizing over her twin’s welfare had taken its toll on Katrina’s own well-being. She had to know how her sister was, for her own sake as well as Eliza’s. She’d come this far; the final few steps would be easy.
The night air was stifling and sticky, and sweat coated her skin as she followed the tracks. The route from the main entrance was familiar, but her childhood memory soon kicked in and she easily found her way to the dip in the ground where she’d seen the kids several days earlier.
Shining her flashlight around, she picked out the trees she and Eliza used to climb. And over there was the big willow tree. They used to sit beneath its overhanging branches and tell stories about princesses and knights. But there was no sign of her sister. Instead, the silence was unnerving. She turned in a circle, trying to pick out a figure in the darkness.
There! A faint movement caught her attention and she heaved a sigh of relief.
“Eliza?”
She took a step back, stumbling slightly on tree roots a
s Kenyon Latimer appeared in the circle of her flashlight with a gun in his hand.
“Sorry to disappoint you.” His grin made her flesh crawl. “But I did warn you not to poke your nose in.”
“I don’t understand.” Katrina looked around her wildly. Could Spencer have been right all along when he speculated that Eliza might be the one who was threatening her? Was her sister working with Latimer? “Where’s Eliza? That message came from her cell phone.”
“You mean this one?” He held up a familiar pink, sparkly cell. “I had fun reading her messages. She sure knew how to play you, twin sister.”
From nowhere, it felt as if an invisible gale was blowing, pushing Katrina back, numbing her brain and forcing her body to slow down. Despite the summer temperatures, her teeth chattered as though she was chilled. “You did know her.”
“Yeah, I knew Eliza.” He looked over his shoulder. “We had a good thing going on for the short time she was at the ranch. I even liked her. I thought we could have made something of the start we had.”