Chapter Ten

Hayes cursed. Another body.

Hell.

They already had too many of those, but apparently, another one had surfaced. At least this time it probably wasn’t a gunned-down cop.

Well, hopefully not.

Hayes whistled to get Aiden’s attention and then motioned for his brother to join Jemma and him in the cruiser. No need for them to get a briefing from Owen while standing out in the open where someone could attempt to kill them.

“What do we know so far about the body?” Hayes asked Owen as the three of them got into the cruiser. They didn’t drive away. Not yet. Because Hayes figured they might have a new round of questions for Duane once they had more info on this latest discovery.

“About a half hour ago, the drone detected it about thirty feet off one of the advanced hiking trails,” Owen explained. “The forensic team immediately went in with scanning equipment and confirmed that it’s a human skeleton. Intact,” he added. “They’re unearthing it now and are updating me minute to minute.”

Good. That meant they could have something soon.

“How far is the body from Duane’s school?” Hayes asked.

“About three-fourths of a mile. The gravesite is much closer to Cordelia’s former residence. Less than five hundred yards, in fact, barely inside the grounds of the park. And that could be important based on some info that Reed managed to uncover.” Owen paused a moment. “Cordelia and Brooks knew one of the missing hikes, Hailey Trainor.”

Now, that was an interesting link. “How?”

“About two months before Hailey went missing, Cordelia tried to file a restraining order against Hailey with the county sheriff. Her place was in their jurisdiction,” Owen added. “Cordelia claimed that Hailey was harassing Brooks after he ended a short relationship with Hailey.”

“Brooks and Hailey dated?” Jemma asked.

“Cordelia says no, that they had mutual friends in common, but Reed found some pictures on Hailey’s old social media that indicate there was something more going on. Brooks and Hailey are kissing in one of the pictures. But on the surface, it’s not a relationship that Cordelia would have approved of. Hailey’s not in the same social or economic circle as Brooks and her.”

Yeah, that would have put Cordelia off since this would have also been about the time Cordelia was marrying Jemma’s dad.

“Cordelia didn’t get the restraining order, and she was apparently very pissed off about that,” Owen continued. “She couldn’t provide the county sheriff any evidence of stalking other than a grainy photo of Hailey taken on one of the park trails that overlooks Cordelia’s property. Hold on a sec. I’m getting an update from the forensic team.”

Owen put them on hold, and it gave Jemma, Aiden, and him a chance to process everything they’d just heard. After a few moments, Jemma was the one to break the silence that followed.

“Even if Cordelia killed Hailey, or rather had her killed, why bury her so close to her estate?” Jemma asked. “You’d think she would want to put some distance between the body and her.”

That was one of the questions that Hayes was mulling over as well. An attempt at a restraining order meant that Cordelia was adamant about keeping Hailey away from Brooks. But that didn’t mean Cordelia had murdered her.

Maybe Brooks had though.

Except if Brooks was so opposed to having Hailey around him, then why hadn’t he been the one to try to file a restraining order? Why leave something like that to his mother?

And that brought Hayes back to something he had to consider.

“Someone could be setting Cordelia or Brooks up,” Hayes spelled out.

“They’d be easy candidates,” Jemma admitted. “A lot of people in town loathe them and my father. And me,” she tacked onto that before she huffed and scrubbed her hand over her face. She was showing the same bone-weary fatigue as Hayes and Aiden were. “But there’s no known connection between Cordelia and her loser son to any of the other victims. Unless the link is there and Molly just hasn’t found it yet.”

That was a possibility, but if there was anything, Reed and his newly assembled team would ferret it out. And if it did turn out that Cordelia and/or Brooks knew all three missing hikers, then that could be enough to make an arrest. That way, if Cordelia or Brooks were also the cop killer, it’d get them behind bars while the investigation continued. But…

Hayes had to stop again and voice something that was bothering him. “Let’s say that Brooks and/or Cordelia killed those hikers.” There were some plausibility problems with that, as in no apparent motive for two of the missing people, but if that motive did come to light, then it still left them with a huge question. “Why kill a whole bunch of cops to cover up three murders?” he asked, hoping by saying it aloud, something would click for it to make sense.

“Maybe it’s apples and oranges,” Aiden suggested. “The three dead hikers might not have anything to do with the cop killings.”

“True,” Jemma admitted. “But if the killer had managed to silence me and the rest of Outlaw Ridge PD, then the missing hikers probably wouldn’t have come to light. No one would be looking for bodies or people connected to them.”

People like Cordelia, Brooks, Duane, and Royce.

“I’m back,” Owen said, putting the pause button on their speculation. “The forensic team didn’t have to dig down far to uncover the body. It’s badly decomposed, but the clothes are still intact. It appears to be a female wearing hiking boots, jeans, and a fleece hoodie. There was no ID in any of the pockets, but the hair color and size of the remains match that of Hailey Trainor.”

“Is Hailey’s DNA on file?” Jemma asked.

“No,” Owen said. “But her father’s is. He was a cop killed on the job when Hailey was a baby, and his DNA is still in the system.”

Hayes felt that emotional punch. Hell, Aiden obviously did, too, and he met his brother’s gaze in the rearview mirror. They’d both gone through hell and back after losing their mother in the line of duty, and even after all these years, it was still a fresh wound. Added to that was the loss of Hayes’ fiancée, Ella. And he was pretty sure no passage of time would be enough to shut off the flood of grief or memories. But he had to shove them aside for now.

Had to.

No way could he keep doing his job if he had to deal with their losses. Especially since now he had the concern over losing Jemma. She wasn’t his fiancée, and he wasn’t in love with her, but no way did he want to lose her to a killer.

“We’ll have the DNA comparison back in about two hours,” Owen went on, giving Hayes some mental help with stomping down those memories. “Have you found anything at the school?”

“No,” Jemma answered. “Hayes and I talked to one of the students who couldn’t verify Duane’s alibi.”

“And I talked to one who couldn’t either,” Aiden spoke up. “Duane’s sleeping quarters aren’t in the same building as the students. Duane could have slipped out any time after eight pm.”

Owen stayed quiet a moment. “Do you think he slipped out?” he pressed.

Hayes, Jemma, and Aiden volleyed glances at each other. What none of them could do was give Owen a resolute yes .

“I can’t rule him out,” Jemma finally replied, getting nods from both Aiden and Hayes about that. “But as far as I’m concerned, he stays on the suspect list. By the way, he lawyered up when we spoke to him. We can try again, or we can schedule another formal interview.”

“I’ll schedule the formal interview…for tomorrow,” Owen added, and Hayes was pretty sure he heard Ruby mutter something to Owen that had him tacking on those last two words. “That’ll give us time to gather more info and get reports from the CSIs, the forensic team, and the medical examiners. We also need to continue the search for more bodies and keep looking for links between them and our suspects.”

Hayes figured it was smart to hold back, especially since they all needed some rest. Especially Owen.

“I also want to bring Cordelia and Brooks back in for questioning,” Owen added a moment later.

There was more muttering in the background. Probably Ruby again.

“Let me call Cordelia and set that up,” Jemma suggested. “She was cooperative the last time we talked, and that might continue.”

“Good,” Owen said. “Arrange it for first thing in the morning.”

“Will do,” Jemma assured him.

She ended the call with Owen and immediately gave the voice command to phone her stepmother. It rang three times and then went to voicemail. She left a message for Cordelia to contact her right away.

“Call Brooks Winslow,” Jemma instructed her phone.

Unlike Cordelia, Brooks answered on the first ring. “What happened to her? Where is she?” Brooks demanded the moment he was on the line.

Hayes didn’t care for either of those questions. “Are you talking about your mother or your ex-girlfriend, Hailey?” Hayes asked.

“My mother,” he blurted but then stopped. “Hailey?” Brooks questioned. “Does she have something to do with this?”

“Define this ?” Jemma insisted. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure.” Brooks groaned. “Something’s happened. Something bad . My mother is missing.”