her back into his arms and just held her. Contentment swept through Savannah. She wanted nothing more than to stay like this forever.
Zach pulled away but held on to her shoulders, forcing her to look up at him.
“Look, I know we’ve done things backward since you came back, but this is something real, Savannah.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “I …”
“Don’t say anything yet. I know we’ve got a lot of other issues facing us, including finding your parents’ killer. When I get back, we’ll go over what little evidence we have together and come up with a plan. Okay?”
She nodded mutely.
“Stay here. I don’t want you out alone until we catch this bastard.”
She nodded again.
His soft kiss felt like a promise and a new beginning. As he stalked out the door, Savannah slumped down into the first available chair. Yes, they did have a killer to catch. With Zach and her sisters working the case, she had no doubt they would be successful. But then what? There were issues he didn’t even know about yet. Things that could bring them together or drive a wedge between them that nothing could heal.
Her eyes caught sight of the inept police report. First things first. There was a killer out there who’d not only taken her parents’ lives, but had almost taken Gibby’s. They had to find him.
Her grandfather’s letters were now her only recourse. She had read through the ones immediately following her parents’ deaths all the way up to three months after. But had anything happened after that?
When Bri and Sammie arrived, they could read through them all. For now, she would continue reading in hopes she could find something else.
Energized by the thought, Savannah poured herself another glass of iced tea and headed to the guesthouse. If it was the last thing she did, she would find more evidence that would finally bring peace to her and her sisters and justice for her parents.
Warning bells blasted like cannons through Zach’s mind as he glared at the middle-aged, gray-haired woman standing at her front door. “What the hell do you mean you didn’t call in a report?”
Ethel Mae Hendrix backed up warily, staring at him as if he had two heads. “Just what I said, Chief. I haven’t been home all week. In fact, I wasn’t supposed to be home until tomorrow but I got done with my business and came back early.”
Zach had stopped listening. Grabbing his cellphone from his pocket, he punched in Savannah’s number as he ran back to his car. After the fifth ring with no answer, Zach hit the gas and began to pray. He was on the other side of town, which meant it could take up to seven minutes before he reached the Wilde house.
As he continued to call Savannah’s cellphone, he grabbed the radio mic. “Hazel, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here, Chief. What’s up?”
“We got any units close to Wildefire Lane?”
“No … Something going on?”
“That call you took from Ethel Mae. Can you check the number, see where it came from?”
“Sure. Hold on.”
While he waited, he pressed the redial number on his cell and once again it went to voice mail. Where the hell was she? He refused to believe anything had happened to her. Dammit, it was broad daylight and this was Midnight-fucking-Alabama, where everybody and their brother knew what you were doing before you even did it. No way would anyone be stupid enough to try something.
“Chief, can’t trace the number. Looks like it might’ve come from one of those throwaway cellphones.”
“But it was definitely a woman who placed the call?”
“Yes, definitely a woman. Sounded like Ethel Mae to me.”
Or someone who’d disguised her voice to sound like Ethel Mae. Hell, were they looking at this all wrong? Was Maggie and Beckett Wilde’s murderer a woman? How was that possible? It would take an enormous amount of strength to hang an unconscious man. No way would Beckett have been alive and willingly hung himself.
The radio crackled again and Hazel’s voice said urgently, “Chief, there’s a report of a fire over on Wildefire Lane.”
Shit! Pushing ninety on a curvy two-lane road might seem insane, but if anything happened to Savannah, insanity would be the least of his problems.
Savannah lowered the letter she’d been reading and inhaled deeply. Was that smoke? Taking another deep breath confirmed her thoughts. Yes, there was a definite hint of smoke in the air. Someone was probably burning off woods or yard clippings.
She turned back to the letter.