Guardian. Terri Reed

signaling what, she wasn’t sure. See you later? A job well done?

      They’d found the victim and would be able to give the woman’s family closure. That had to be worth something in the grand scheme of things. It hurt Alicia’s heart that anyone should have to die at the hands of another.

      Her thoughts turned to her late husband, Jeff. Had he realized in those moments after being shot while on duty that he was leaving this world? Had he found himself regretting the less honorable things in his life? Of the sweet little boy they’d made together, Charlie? Had he thought of her?

      She closed her eyes and willed the hurt and pain to dissipate.

      “We should meet Agent Gallagher at the marina,” Officer Jenkins said in a gentle tone, forcing her to focus on the here and now.

      “Will you grab the tackle box?” Alicia picked up her and Charlie’s fishing poles. She had half expected them to be gone, taken by someone either hoping to add to their own collection, or who would turn them into the marina’s lost and found. Lots of people used the rocks to fish, but apparently not today.

      A part of her wished she and Charlie hadn’t been there. She couldn’t quiet the unease inside her, but if that had been the case, no one would have known about the woman. Sighing, she knew she would have to trust God that she was where she was supposed to be today. He’d seen her through so much. She couldn’t forget that now.

      Ever so slowly, she and the two officers made their way through the trees and underbrush. She stopped by the tree where the killer’s bullet had taken out a chunk of the bark and shivered. Pointing at the hole, she said, “The killer shot at us here.”

      Officer Reynolds took a picture of the hole in the tree with his phone. He did some pointing of his own. “See these gouges?”

      She nodded.

      “The assailant must have come back and dug out the bullet,” he observed. “But we have the one from your car, which unfortunately didn’t yield any clue to the suspect’s identity.”

      They continued onward.

      A careful killer. Would he see her as a detail to be eliminated?

      Fear scratched at her mind, making her stumble over a root in the ground. She had to stay focused. The last thing she needed was to twist an ankle or worse.

      She sent up a grateful prayer that Charlie hadn’t seen the man. However, the killer couldn’t know that. She hoped, prayed, the man wouldn’t consider Charlie a threat. A three-year-old wouldn’t make for a reliable witness.

      Alicia led the way toward the gravel parking lot. They were only a few feet from clearing the forest when a noise sounded to the right that made the hairs on her arms rise. She darted behind a tree, trying to make herself as invisible as possible.

      Officer Jenkins withdrew his sidearm. “It could be anything. A bear or an elk.”

      Or a killer tracking her movements.

      Paranoid much? The killer wouldn’t risk capture by sticking around, would he?

      “Let’s hustle,” Officer Reynolds advised as he cupped her elbow and increased their pace.

      They broke through the forest onto the gravel lot. With the two officers flanked on either side of her, they made their way to the marina at a fast clip.

      The county coroner was already at the boat launch as the boat carrying Leo, True, the diver and the corpse arrived. Alicia and her escorts hung back as the body was loaded into the back of the coroner’s van. Both officers were twitchy, their sharp-eyed gazes returning to the woods as if they expected something or someone to come barreling out of the forest.

      Alicia kept the agent’s SUV between her and the edge of the forest as a shield, just in case. She was all Charlie had left. He and her father needed her in one piece and breathing.

      Leo shook hands with the diver and then, with True at his heels, he walked toward Alicia. There was a grimness to the set of his mouth and a tension in his wide shoulders that hadn’t been there before he’d gone out on the river.

      “Thank you, Ms. Duncan, for your help today,” he said. “Having you point out the victim’s body’s location saved us time. I’m hopeful the forensics will lead us to her killer.”

      “I pray so,” she murmured. “That man can’t be allowed to get away with this crime.”

      Leo’s green eyes darkened. “He won’t.”

      There was a world of determination and conviction in his husky tone that made Alicia suspect Agent Leo Gallagher was the type of man who never quit once he was on a case. For the victim’s sake, she appreciated that trait in the man.

      Jenkins caught Leo’s attention. “Sir, can I talk to you a moment?”

      Leo nodded and the two men stepped away, but not far enough that she couldn’t hear the officer telling Leo about the scare they’d had in the woods. Alicia wasn’t sure why the officer felt the need to leave her out of the conversation. She’d been there, too. She’d heard the unsettling noise. She just wanted to go back to the police station, grab Charlie and head home to the ranch.

      Leo shook hands with Jenkins and Reynolds before they climbed into their cruiser.

      “Let’s get you to your son,” Leo said as he held open the passenger door of his SUV.

      Grateful to him for understanding her unspoken desire to return to Charlie, she whispered, “Thank you. I worry.”

      “Of course you do. That’s what moms are supposed to do, right?”

      Something in his tone caught her attention as she climbed into the passenger seat. While Leo and True took their places in the SUV, she struggled to reason out the note of...not sarcasm but resentment, maybe. Hmm. It was subtle but there. She’d learned to hear the subtext in words and voices as a teacher. Doing so had helped her detect a case of child abuse at her last school.

      However, she curbed her curiosity about Agent Gallagher. Whatever his issues were, they were his and she had no desire to get roped into any type of relationship with the man, even if only one of sympathy. In less than an hour she’d be on her way home, and Leo would no longer be in her life.

      “What did you hear in the woods?” he asked, surprising her.

      She shrugged, hoping to come across as nonchalant. “Movement. But it could have been any number of things. The forests are home to many different animals both large and small.”

      He slanted her a quick glance then returned his gaze to the road. “You weren’t alarmed?”

      Her mouth twisted in a wry smile. “I didn’t say that. After what I witnessed today, being a bit jumpy is understandable.”

      “Yes, it is understandable. I have to say you’re handling everything remarkably well.”

      “Thanks. My late husband was a cop. I think maybe that has something to do with it.”

      “My condolences on your husband’s death. From the sounds of it, he was a hero.”

      She arched her eyebrows and ignored the comment about her husband being a hero. For Charlie’s sake, she wouldn’t ever dispute the assumption. She wanted him to be proud of his father. She hoped her son never learned the truth about the kind of man Jeff had truly been. “From the sounds of it? Did you do a background check on me?”

      “I wouldn’t be a very good investigator if I didn’t do my homework,” Leo replied evenly.

      “Right. Of course.” She shouldn’t be surprised. For all he knew, she could be a nutcase wanting attention by claiming to have witnessed a murder.

      Still, it made her feel vulnerable to know he had information about her that she hadn’t shared with him. Was there a file on her? What did it say? Was her and Jeff’s dirty laundry listed in the file? She shuddered as she did anytime she thought about Jeff’s