Vic was right, of course. It would have been much smaller twenty years ago, the stones not so elaborate or technology-enhanced. She did see a few toward the front, probably early ones, that were more modest. But she experienced no flood of thoughts, no buried fears unearthed. The cemetery triggered no memories.

She decided to check the death dates on the smaller stones to be sure they would have been here twenty years ago. She darted away from the house and into a row of them just as she heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. Dane’s van turned into the driveway and parked in front of the vet clinic.

Tess ducked behind a gravestone and huddled there, waiting for him to go inside. When he got out of the van, he was talking on the phone. She heard him say something about a meeting. He carried a satchel with him, probably a vet bag with medical supplies. To her surprise, he didn’t go into the clinic or his house but walked into the cemetery just a few rows from her.

She crawled behind another stone and put her back to it, sitting on the ground with her knees up to her chest. Not talking, but with the phone still to his ear, he walked past the spot where he could glance down and see her. Tess scolded herself for wishing Gabe was with her. He said he’d be waiting when Dane returned ready to serve him with the warrant and search his house, so where was he? Not that she wanted him to find her here meddling in his plans.

She wondered if Dane was heading for the cornfield. Could he be meeting someone there? Or what if he had something in his satchel to take through the field and leave in her yard? No, probably not in broad daylight.

She wasn’t sure where he was. He could double back and see her. She debated making a run for the cornfield but it was a tall maze in there if she didn’t go in the direction toward home.

She knew she should phone Gabe to tell him that Dane was here, but she was done working with Gabe.

She heard Dane speaking again. He sounded upset, but he was far enough away that she couldn’t catch his words until he shouted, “No!”

A single bang sounded. Tess jumped so hard she hit her head on the stone she was pressed against.

Tess knew she shouldn’t have come here on her own. She wanted to get out of here. Let Gabe and Vic take over. Dane’s voice had stopped, so he must have ended the call, but that didn’t help her pinpoint where he was. She decided she was going to make a break for it.

She got to her feet carefully and yanked the child’s backpack up on her shoulder. Bent over so her head didn’t show above the stones, she started toward the field, glancing at each cross row to be sure Dane didn’t see her.

She’d made it to the last row of tombstones before the field when something caught her eye. Dane Thompson was sprawled on the ground with no one else in sight. Was it a trick to get her to come closer?

She tiptoed two steps nearer. It looked as though he’d hit his head. She saw blood on the corner of a tombstone. Could that have caused the sound she’d heard?

“Dr. Thompson, are you all right?” she asked from about ten feet away. When there was no response she crept closer.

There was blood on the bottom corner of the stone, but as she looked carefully she saw it was spattered all over it, even in the grass!

Horrified, she moved closer. A gun—some sort of old pistol—was in his outstretched hand. She didn’t see his cell phone, but a scarlet-speckled note lay on the slick grass. As she moved around the bloody stone, she saw blood on his neck and shoulders, and half his head was gone.

21

Tess’s hands shook so hard she could barely dial Gabe’s cell number. After she’d said she was on her own, she needed him. Now. He picked up on the first ring.

“Tess? I tried to call you earlier. You home? Vic and I are almost to Dane’s place to serve him w—”

“I came to look at the pet graveyard from his house. I’m here. He—he— I think he killed himself—in the tombstones by the cornfield. Gabe, there’s blood everywhere.”

“Don’t move. We’re close.”

As tears poured down her cheeks, she heard a siren. Thank God they were nearby.

Although she’d declared her independence from Gabe, she did as he said and stood her ground, though she couldn’t bear to wait near Dane’s body. She’d disliked and feared him but had never wished for this.

The siren came closer and stopped. Two doors slammed, bang, bang, but not as loud as the gunshot. Why didn’t she know it was a gunshot?

Gabe’s distant voice called out. “Tess!”

“Over here!”

He and Vic came running but went straight to Dane. Vic bent over to look closely but neither man touched him.

“One shot through the forehead,” Vic said. “Look at that old weapon. He collect them or something?”

“I don’t know,” Gabe said, “but we’ve got the warrant to find out. Suicide? He must have thought we were going to arrest him this time. But who could have told him about the warrant?”

“Stay here. I’ve got to check his house. Nobody move!” Vic said, then ran toward Dane’s house and kicked in the front door. He returned moments later. “No sign of any girls inside, but we need to do a thorough search of the property.”

“I’ve called in help,” Gabe said. “See if you can read that note without touching it while I talk to Tess.”

“Yeah, Tess,” Vic said. “She’s got some explaining to do.”

Gabe approached Tess, who was frozen in shock. He put his arm around her waist and walked her a few tombstones away from the gruesome scene.

“It was suicide, wasn’t it?” she asked them, her voice shaky, as she sat down on the edge of a tombstone.

“Gun’s in his hand, but first impressions are never good enough,” Vic said. “Got to be sure. The angle of the wound looks unusual for a suicide.”

Gabe stooped beside her, his elbows on his bent knees. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“You need to tell Marva,” she said.

“I know. But I don’t want her to see him this way. I’ll notify her, but it should be in person. Tess, tell me everything you saw. Did he see you, confront you?”

“No!” she insisted as he took out a small notepad and pen. “I looked at these tombstones from over by his house, trying to remember if I’d seen that view years ago, but nothing clicked. I saw him drive in, talking to someone on the phone when he got out of his van. He was carrying a satchel, like a medical bag.”

“You sure?” Gabe asked. “There’s not one near him.”

“There isn’t?” she said, craning her neck to look past him. Vic was still hovering near the body, but he stood and came closer. “Maybe he dropped it or hid it. But yes, I’m sure. That is, I thought that’s what it was, but maybe it was a case for his pistol. The only thing I could pick up from his distant voice was something about meeting someone.”

“Now? Later?”

“I don’t know. He shouted ‘No!’ right before I heard the shot, but I didn’t realize what the sound was at the time.”

Gabe and Vic exchanged looks. They were both furiously making notes. Her stomach went into freefall. Surely they didn’t think she had something to do with Dane’s death—that she came here to confront him.

Gabe sat beside her on the edge of the tombstone. She wished she could hold Gabe’s hand, but when she reached out to him, he didn’t touch her. “Just keep calm,” he said. “We’ll have to test your hands—standard procedure. Go ahead. Anything else you remember?”

She shook her head and blinked back tears she dared not brush away. “That’s all. Oh, after the shot, when I didn’t hear him anymore, I was going to sneak back into the cornfield to go home. That’s when I glanced down a row and saw him slumped. I went closer—blood, his head...” She gasped and started to hyperventilate. “But—about my hands,” she said, “I didn’t touch him, don’t have blood on them.”

“We see that,” Gabe said. “It’s for gunpowder residue.”