Page 28 of No Unturned Stone (The True Lies of Rembrandt Stone 2)

He nodded and got up. “Did you get crowd shots?”

“Yes, she got the crowd shots,” Silas said, and his tone sounded like he wanted to add, you moron.

Rem’s eyes narrowed.

He seemed to be gritting his jaw as he turned away from Silas, took a breath. “From the direction of the prints, and her body, and even where we found her backpack—about ten feet from her body in the woods—it seems she was running from the road, across the lot. She wasn’t at the restaurant—we asked the patrons and no one had seen her, although the owner, Teresa confirmed she’s a waitress here. Said she was on shift later this morning. So…maybe she was in a car, about to go in, and got out on the sidewalk and ran instead.”

“What tripped her?” Eve said.

Rem pointed to a crack in the driveway, but then shrugged. “Maybe she was tackled.”

“You said she had bruises on her neck, as if she might have been strangled?”

“Just a guess,” Rem said. “We’ll have to wait to get the coroner’s report.”

“How did she die?” This from Burke, who came up to Rembrandt.

Rembrandt seemed to flinch. “I don’t know.”

Burke stepped away with his radio.

; Eve turned, trying to track the steps Rembrandt had suggested.

“Eve.”

She drew in a breath as his voice followed her.

“How are you?”

She peered at him and frowned. “How are you?”

“I’m—oh, you mean the fight this morning?”

He laughed, his blue eyes sparking, and aw, she was such an easy target. “Naw, we were just boxing.”

“I meant your wound,” she said and tore her gaze away from him before he conjured up more memories than she could deal with. Good thing, really, that it was just a few.

The dangerous few.

“Oh. Yeah. Uh…”

“We haven’t talked since the hospital, so—”

“You came to visit me in the hospital?”

“Yes. Don’t you remember?” She stared at him, nonplussed.

He made a face. “I was a little…out of it. Not in my right mind, maybe.”

Oh. Oh.

Then he wrapped his hand around his neck. “I said something stupid, didn’t I?”

“No. You just…you acted like…” Now she was thirteen, her crush declared in front of the entire school.

“I’m an idiot, Eve.” He’d dropped his voice, though, glancing over his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I should’ve reached out.”