Page 3 of The Deputy's Secret Double

Price squinted, like it would help him back into his memory.

After a moment, he remembered vaguely that the person she was referring to was in fact him.

He sighed, all dramatics.

“Fine, you got me there,” he said. “Ask your favor.”

Price had known Blake since the two were kids and, between them, they pretty much knew the whole of Seven Roads, Georgia. From Becker Farm to the old popular smoking spot for seniors behind the steel mill, they had both done time in the small town and knew it in and out. Even Blake leaving for a decade or so and then marrying a transplant hadn’t thrown off her ability to adapt once again to the town’s people and ways.

That went double for her managing the contract work she had been doing for several law enforcement agencies around the state while keeping an eye on the local sheriff’s department. She had been a one-woman army before coming back. Now, she had her own troops and was unstoppable when she wanted to be.

However, unlike Blake’s life trajectory taking her away from Seven Roads before ultimately coming back to town, Price hadn’t left McCoy County for more than a week in total since he’d been born at its hospital.

Nineteen years after that, his daughter had been born in the same hospital. Since then, all thoughts of crossing the county line had come to a halt.

There was some rustling on the other end of the line. Blake must have been moving around. She didn’t try to lower her words though.

“Can you go look in Josiah Teller’s backyard?”

Price pulled the phone away from his ear and eyed it for a second. He put it back against his ear.

“Say again?”

Blake didn’t undercut her request with any more sighs. Now she meant business. He straightened on reflex as her tone shifted completely away from friend to a former sheriff on a mission. Favor or not, the change was no joke.

“Josiah said something dug a hole in his backyard but he’s sure it was a human who did it, not an animal,” she said. “He called the nonemergency line at the department but, given the case I dealt with back in Alabama with burying things, I have all cases involving any kind of potential burial flagged for me and Liam. He has a press issue to deal with and I have the kids out with me now or else I’d go out there myself.”

Blake had built one heck of a résumé before returning to Seven Roads, not to speak to what she’d done since she had been back. Price had followed her career like he had been reading a comic book. He knew about the case that had left an impression with her when it came to burials too.

So he didn’t voice his concern that it was Josiah Teller who was the one who had called it in.

“You want me to go make sure it isn’t anything fishy,” he summarized instead.

“Yeah,” Blake replied. “I’d send someone else out there who’s on duty, but everyone is tied up. Plus, I trust your judgment.”

Price knew he was a likable guy. He was confident enough in himself to claim a good personality. But to have Blake trust in him meant a lot more than simply being liked. His chest swelled with pride at it.

He nodded to the phone.

“I’ll head that way in ten. I’ll call if it’s anything worth mentioning.”

Blake said thank-you and didn’t keep him on the line past that.

Price went straight to the shower, grabbed some pain meds for his headache when he got out and was at Josiah’s front door ten minutes after that. There were pros to living in a town as small as Seven Roads. The commute time was almost always snapping-your-fingers quick.

Price knocked on the front door of the two-story, pulling on a professional smile despite nothing on him being professional at the moment. He was dressed in his jeans, tennis shoes and the worn baseball pin-striped button-up he’d had since he was twenty. He had a hat on to cover his still-wet hair but contemplated taking it off. Just because he was off duty didn’t mean he should be too slouched since he was doing a favor for the sheriff.

When no one answered after a minute or so, Price’s impatience won over his concern. Instead of leaving, he went around to the backyard. The privacy fence was high, but the side yard gate was open.

“Josiah?”

All the houses in the two-road neighborhood were situated on decent-sized lots. Josiah’s was no exception. His yard stretched long and wide. There were no trees, but a hammock was set up between two in-ground posts near the patio.

There was no Josiah.

There was a hole.

Price walked over to the disturbed dirt and looked inside of it.