My heart hammered against my ribs.
Lily hadn't fallen down the stairs at Arthur’s house.
She had run here.
She had found this receipt, and Arthur had chased her down.
He had cornered her on this ridge and thrown her down the ravine to get the locket, but it had snagged on the roots in the dark.
Suddenly, a loud crack echoed through the woods.
I killed my flashlight instantly and dropped flat into the mud.
At the top of the ridge, three large SUVs pulled up to the cabin.
Their high beams cut through the trees, illuminating the falling rain.
Four men stepped out of the vehicles, carrying heavy red plastic jerry cans.
They weren't here to search the cabin.
They were here to burn the evidence to the ground.
I lay perfectly still in the freezing mud, watching the men pour gasoline over the wooden porch.
The heavy smell of fuel mixed with the wet earth, suffocating the air around me.
If they torched the cabin, any proof that Lily had been here tonight would turn to ash.
Arthur’s story about her falling down the stairs at his house would become the only official timeline.
I crawled backward into the thick brush, moving silently until I reached the tree line.
I recognized the man barking orders on the porch.
It was Miller, the head of Arthur’s private security detail.
He was a disgraced ex-cop who specialized in making Arthur’s problems disappear.
He was standing near the edge of the ravine, shining a powerful spotlight down into the darkness, looking for something.
Looking for the locket.
I didn't have a weapon, just my heavy steel flashlight and forty years of fighting dirty.
I circled around the back of the SUVs, staying low.
One of Miller’s guys walked toward the rear of the closest vehicle to grab a flare.
As soon as he stepped out of the headlights, I moved.
I grabbed him by the back of his tactical vest, clamped my hand hard over his mouth, and dragged him violently into the shadows of the pines.
He struggled, reaching for a radio on his belt, but I drove my knee into his side and brought the heavy base of the flashlight down on his temple.
He went limp immediately.
I quickly patted him down, pulling his radio and his cell phone from his pockets.
Before I could move toward the next guy, the cell phone vibrated in my palm.