THREE SETS OF LIGHTS bobbed and wavered as they ascended the hill like banners of a tag team making its way to the house. Three sets of lights; three cars. Sydney had called only the authorities... and Benno.
The hooded fleece sweatshirt she’d pulled on hadn’t chased away the chill that had invaded her vary spirit. Perhaps Benno could. She didn’t understand why he affected her so deeply. She wasn’t a feckless woman to hop from one man to the next so quickly. She only knew he made her feel safe.
In the woods, a dead man awaited them.
She was still shaking, her teeth were still chattering; she wrapped her arms around herself as the cars pulled up the drive.
Benno was the first to exit his vehicle. She rushed to him as Officer Mick Brickman followed right behind. He would be the one to show, she thought dispiritedly, even though he hadn’t taken the call. His attitude was all she needed right now. And last – as she should have expected – was Martha. How could things be worse?
Then Benno’s broad shoulders blocked her view as they surrounded her. Letting out a sigh of relief, Sydney touched her forehead to his beard-stubbled chin. She needed this, his support. She needed him.
“Are you okay?”
“Now I am.” With Benno there, everything would be all right and she would be fine. “Thanks for coming.” She hadn’t been certain he would take anything she said seriously after the photo fiasco.
“So where’s this corpse?” Brickman demanded.
For once, Martha said nothing, merely hung behind the officer and waited.
For what? And why did she seem so nervous?
Sydney pointed to the copse of trees southwest of the house. “Over there.”
“What are we waiting for?” Brickman asked, flicking on his flashlight as he strode off.
Martha moved more quickly than Sydney thought possible for a woman in a too-tight skirt and high, backless heels. “Wait for me, Brick,” she demanded, giving Sydney a sly look as she minced passed. She caught the officer by his upper arm and played the helpless female. “A horrible killer might be lurking in the woods.”
“Not unless he returned to the scene of the crime,” Sydney stated calmly. “The body was already stiff.”
Martha made a choking sound and moved closer to the policeman’s side. Brickman stopped, and with his flashlight, signaled Sydney to take the lead. Benno stayed right beside her, lending her his strength.
“You’re sure you don’t have any idea of who the victim could be?” he asked.
“Not a clue. I told you I didn’t know anyone in this town.” Sydney hesitated, then softly added, “He had to have been the man from my dream.”
Benno didn’t say anything, but the muscles of the arm that brushed hers tightened. The forested area loomed closer. She grew desperate to make him believe her.
“I assumed the dark-haired man was you because I knew you, not because I saw a face,” she went on. “I told you it was all confused, that one minute I was the hunted, the next a dark-haired man.” Remembering the dried blood on the victim’s shirt front, she swallowed hard. “He was shot twice, once in the stomach, once in the chest, exactly as I dreamed it.”
“What’s that?” Martha asked. “You dreamed this man was murdered and then it actually happened?”
“Something like that,” Sydney mumbled, hurrying on.
“Bri-i-ick.” Martha whispered loudly enough for Sydney to hear. “I don’t think she’s all there, you know what I mean?”
Officer Brickman merely grunted.
Sydney wished she hadn’t said anything, not until later when she could have discussed the situation with Benno alone, but how was she to know Martha had the ears of a cat? She supposed she should have guessed.
As the gap closed between them and the corpse’s resting place, Sydney slowed, felt her feet grow heavy. Her stomach rumbled. Heaven knew there was nothing left to throw up, but she was being threatened once more. She took a deep breath and kept going, wielding the flashlight she’d brought from the house in an arc until the beam caught a glimmer of pale material. The man’s shirt.
Still several yards away, she stopped cold and pointed the beam. “There.”
Brickman and Martha swung by. Benno gave her an intense look before going after them. She couldn’t stand over the victim just yet. Actually, she wished she never had to see the dead man again. And yet his ordinary face frozen in a grimace of fear or pain would be forever burned into her memory.
“Eeehh!”
Sydney jumped at Martha’s scream.
“What the hell?” came Benno’s voice.
“Chrissakes!” Brickman hissed at the same time.
Sydney’s stomach was tied in knots as she slowly approached the others. They were all three staring at her as if she had sprouted horns and a tail. Even Benno. Sydney’s heart beat wildly as she realized how deeply disturbed he was, and not just at seeing a dead man.
“You recognize him?” she asked. That had to be why his expression was a combination of horror and sorrow.
“This is it, Brick. You can’t ignore what’s in front of your eyes. This was no accident. Kenneth was murdered. Now you have to arrest her.” Abruptly Martha flew at Sydney, fingers with nails like claws leading. “Murderess.”
Sydney jumped away as Brickman grabbed Martha’s arm, stopping her from following.
“What? I didn’t–”
”Don’t deny it. You killed my brother.”
Confused, filled with a growing feeling of horror, Sydney looked to Benno, who was strangely silent, his features twisted into an expression of sheer grief. Her heart beat wildly in her chest and she squeezed the flashlight so tightly her fingers went numb.
Brickman said, “Don’t tell us you didn’t know the dead man. This is your supposed, beloved husband.”
“No, my husband was Ken–”
”Kenneth Lord,” Benno finished for her.
He was looking at her as if she’d lost her mind. The truth hit her then... too much for her to take in. The air squeezed out of her lungs and her vision went fuzzy as Sydney’s knees buckled under her.