Page 4 of Deadly Justice
A bright-blue SUV sat in the driveway. He pulled in behind it and cut the engine. For a moment, he sat staring at the place. Like everything else in town, the house looked smaller than he remembered.
Hearing a dog barking frantically, he pushed out of the driver’s side and walked up to the front door. It opened before he reached it.
“Quiet, Bruno. Cam is a friend. Friend, okay?” Looking frazzled, Evie opened the front door. “Hi. Come in.”
“Hi.” He stepped across the threshold and held out his hand for the dog to sniff. Bruno was huge, probably weighing close to a hundred pounds. Evie, on the other hand, looked thin. She still had the long curly red hair he remembered, although she currently wore it pulled back in a ponytail. “I’m sorry to hear about your mom. That must have been tough.”
“Thank you.” Her smile didn’t reach her blue eyes. “It was hard, but she died peacefully in hospice. I find solace in knowing she’s in a better place now.”
He nodded. Once he would have agreed with her, but he’d fallen away from his faith over the years. Losing more than half their team in Afghanistan had made him question God’s so-called plan.
Yet he knew several of his teammates were believers. Even Di, who’d carried a chip on her shoulder throughout their two tours overseas, had recently gotten married in a simple church ceremony, seemingly having accepted Jesus as her savior.
“Would you like a soft drink?” Evie asked. “I don’t have anything stronger, I’m afraid.”
“Water is fine. I don’t drink.” He tucked his hands into the front pockets of his jeans as he watched Bruno follow Evie to the fridge. “I really appreciate you calling to let me know about the human remains you found.”
“I’m not sure you should be thanking me.” Her tone was dry as she handed him a bottle of water. “I wanted you to know, but I hate dredging up memories of the past.”
He drank the water, searching her gaze. “I didn’t hurt Skye.”
Evie flushed. “I know you didn’t. But I admit, I’m feeling guilty over the way we just let it go. Maybe if we’d kept pushing...”
“We were eighteen and not working in law enforcement.” He sighed and dropped into the closest kitchen chair. “But I know what you mean. It never sat right with me to simply chalk Skye’s disappearance up as her leaving town without telling anyone.”
“Exactly.” Evie took the seat across from him. Bruno nudged her, then stretched out on the floor beside her. “The police won’t say for sure if they think the remains are Skye, despite the way I recognized the scrap of fabric among the bones.”
He grimaced and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Did they say anything about the investigation? I’m surprised nobody from the Grand Haven PD has called me yet.”
“They haven’t said anything to me either.” She blew out a heavy sigh. “You probably made this trip for nothing.”
He lifted a shoulder and drained the rest of the water. “It doesn’t matter. I happen to be between jobs at the moment.”
“Oh? What do you do?” The question was polite enough, but he sensed a reservation in her expression. He belatedly realized she was assuming he was jobless.
“After getting out of the army, I joined a private security firm, Grayson’s Guardians. I just got back from a job in Denver, Colorado, earlier this week. I let my boss know that I’m not able to take another assignment for a while.”
“Oh, that sounds interesting.” Evie smiled more warmly now. “I’m on a leave of absence from my nursing job at the hospital in Grand Rapids.” She waved at the house. “I’m trying to get the place ready to be sold.”
“I always knew you’d be a great nurse.” He smiled back, recalling their lifeguard days with fondness. At least, until the day Skye had gone missing.
Evie stood and reached for his empty water bottle. She turned and tripped over Bruno a split second before a shot rang out, shattering the window over the kitchen sink.
Without hesitation, Cam threw himself on top of Evie and Bruno, his heart pounding as he grimly realized how close Evie had been to being shot and killed.
And somehow, he was convinced the reason she was in danger was because of how she’d found Skye’s remains.
2
Squashed between Cam and Bruno, Evie tried to understand what had just happened. Had that really been gunfire? Had someone purposefully fired a gun at her?
“Stay down,” Cam ordered, as he pressed to his feet. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Wait, where are you going?” Evie shifted her weight off Bruno. The dog scrambled to his feet, as if determined to join Cam in hunting the person responsible.
“To find the idiot who fired that shot.” Cam didn’t look at her, his attention riveted on the broken window over her sink. “Call 911. I’ll let you know if I find anyone.”
Before she could protest again, Cam headed out the back door. Bruno stood glancing at her, as if asking permission to go along with him. Swallowing hard, she put a hand on his head. “Stay, boy.”
