and held up the yellow crime tape for me to duck under, waiting patiently until I’d done so. Even though he was about a foot taller than me, he was much more graceful as he moved under the tape. How many times had Nick done this?
Did I really want to be a prosecuting attorney? Maybe I should consider doing civil work with Uncle Gino.
Thank goodness I’d changed into tennis shoes and jeans at the spa. I walked over the uneven ground toward the tent, my head hurting and my hands shaking. Questions should’ve been ripping through my head, but I couldn’t concentrate. Finally, we reached the tent and Nick opened the flap facing the lake.
My stomach rolled. I swallowed down bile and leaned to see inside, which was lit by several camping lanterns. Randy Taylor lay partially on his side and stomach, his jeans and white shirt muddy. His left arm was bent at an odd angle, his chin was purple, and his one visible eye was closed with the remainder of his face hidden by the rocks. His hair was still in a man-bun, and he looked young. Very. “How did he die?” I asked, unable to look away.
“Somebody bashed his head in,” Nick said, dropping the flap and turning me away. “My guess is rock but could be bat or brick.”
My stomach lurched and I gagged.
“Whoa.” He pulled me away from the body with an urgency that had my feet slipping on rocks, so he grasped my arm to steady me. I let him.
Detective Pierce snapped from the other side of the tent. “Get her away from the crime scene.”
Man, I wanted to flip him off. Instead, I took several deep breaths and stumbled back toward the yellow tape, Nick’s hand on my arm somehow reassuring. “Dick.”
“Yeah,” Nick agreed, holding the tape up again and letting me through, seemingly oblivious to the rain molding his gray T-shirt to what looked like very cut muscles. “You needed to see that. No more covering for Devlin or the Lordes, and no more investigating on your own.”
I couldn’t exactly argue with him, considering my dinner was about to come up. I regained my balance and turned, looking up at his implacable face. “Is this my fault?”
“No.” Nick sighed. “It’s the fault of whoever killed him. They’re starting to tie up loose ends.”
Aiden couldn’t have done this. Randy Taylor and Scot Peterson had been killed, and both were being investigated for drugs. Sure, Randy was dealing with pot, and who knows what Scot had been in to—if he had been guilty. “So, the shooters in the brown car outside the courthouse the other day were aiming for Randy.” At least they weren’t trying to shoot Aiden.
“Maybe. We keep racking up bodies, so who knows,” Nick said grimly. “The connections are weak. Pictures of Aiden having a drink with Scot Peterson, probably representing the Lordes. Randy Taylor selling drugs—maybe for the Lordes. This is all conjecture, and I can’t prove a bit of it.”
I shuddered. My peaceful town was becoming a different place all of a sudden. “Why here and why now?” I murmured.
Nick’s gaze sharpened. “What do you mean?”
I gestured toward the lake I’d played in for decades. “Here in northern Idaho. Why are we all of a sudden having drug deaths? We’re not a big city, and it’s not easy to get here.” Seattle was the closest big city at about a six-hour drive, and Canada was two hours away. “We’re not exactly a great route to anywhere else.”
Nick coughed, his gaze warming. “You’re more than a pretty face, Albertini.”
Something heated inside my chest. “Um, thanks?” So he figured out I wasn’t a moron. That was nice. He thought I was pretty. “Want to continue that line of thought?” What did he mean? What wasn’t he telling me?
“Not really.” He looked back toward the innocuous white tent. “Though you’re right. The answer to why here is easy. The answer to why now—I haven’t figured that out yet.”
My mind mulled it all over, and I didn’t like the answer I found. The Lordes were here. That’s the why of the place—maybe. But why now?
Nick let me work it out. “Yeah. The Lordes are here, so that explains the location. But why now?”
I squinted up at him. “Why do I get the impression you’re not telling me everything you know?”
“Because I’m not telling you everything I know,” he said, shifting until the lights were behind him and I couldn’t see his face. “I