Touch of Betrayal, A Read Free Page A

Half the time I couldn’t tell if he was teasing me or telling the truth. I glared.
    He grinned. Definitely teasing me.
    No matter. I needed to put my fingers to work since my property had suddenly turned into a fresh crime scene. Gloves would be good, but since I didn’t have any handy, I wrapped my hands in a couple of the baggies. No point stepping on the chief’s toes by contaminating the evidence before they started to work on the case. And there would be no mistake about this. I intended to be part of the team. My property, therefore my dead body. He’d just have to find a way to handle it.
    I sidestepped and calculated the direction the curled bones were facing. Hard to say with so little of the remains showing, but it looked like the DB’s head would be to my left, so I paced off three feet, hunkered down, and held my hands over the ground. There should be something for my fingers to pick up. I cleared my mind by focusing on the light kick of the spring breeze that lifted the hem of my t-shirt and brought out a thin layer of chill bumps on my back. After a few deep breaths, I closed my eyes and lowered the pads of my fingertips to touch the dirt.
    The explosion hit my internal video screen first. I ignored it and moved deeper into the earth energy. Sun shining. Warmth spreading through the ground, nourishing the roots of the eucalyptus I’d asked Harlan to plant a while back. Down here in the earth, the trees were just beginning to reach for the damp of the spring rainstorms that had hit central North Carolina the week before. They were fighting to survive. Just like me.
    I shook off the thought, calmed my breathing, and followed the images coming through my fingers. Millie. Skirting along the edge of what Harlan always referred to as the Asian Plot. I was about twenty feet from the eastern edge of the property line, so the images fit with Millie’s appearance. But what was she doing?
    The sound of car engines and tires crunching on gravel broke my concentration. I stood, slipping my hands out of the baggies and pocketing them. It wouldn’t do to shake the chief’s hand with the telltale proof of my butting into the crime scene on full display. I eased the cramps from my legs, stretching tall, as I prepared to face the man who headed the Apex Police Department. It was a small force, but Chief Hayes was seasoned, and had solid instincts—better than a lot of the hotshots in larger districts.
    Two squad cars came to a sedate stop in the parking area. Funny, somehow it continued to surprise me the house wasn’t still standing, Millie in the kitchen stirring a batch of her famous soup. The woman had a way with herbs, and I could almost smell the fresh basil and rosemary she favored.
    Hayes parked his SUV next to the black and whites, waved in my direction, and then stopped to have a few words with Pierce. They started toward me, two very different men who somehow managed to wear identical macho frowns on their faces. It had to be a guy thing.
    The chief’s team followed behind, pulling on gloves, tired expressions drawing their faces into tight masks. Exactly what I would look like if someone told me I had to dig up a corpse that had been buried for more than a year—and then find out who killed him.
    No way was I waiting for Hayes to make the first move. I stepped into his path and stuck out my hand. “Morning, Chief Hayes. Welcome to my crime scene.”
    His hand engulfed mine. The chief was a dichotomy—his elegant bearing and sparkling dark eyes in sharp contrast to toned muscle, deep mahogany skin, and a shaved head that screamed tough-to-the-core. “Everly. What have you done to disturb my crime scene?” There was a layer of steel behind his words.
    I freed my hand from his grasp. I’d been careful to shield for incoming images—something I’d been practicing since my marriage. I’d gotten fairly good at it, and now wasn’t the time to trespass into the chief’s personal stuff. “Didn’t see