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L ulu’s hands were tight on the steering wheel as she drove toward Dana Cartwright’s family home. The parents needed to be informed of their daughter’s passing, and Lulu was the official who needed to do it.

It was still early, and there was a possibility that Gary and Carole hadn’t heard about a dead body near the lake. They wouldn’t know that it was their daughter. The deputies had managed to keep the people that had gathered far enough back not to be able to see details. The high grass had helped as well.

She hadn’t expected on her second day of work that she’d have to tell a nice, older couple that their daughter had probably been murdered. She wasn’t scared about finding the killer. It was this that made her nauseous. She had an image in her head of someone telling her own mom and dad that she’d died. It wasn’t a pretty picture.

A car had pulled up behind her, honking, before revving its engine and then pulling alongside.

Ray Ramsey and Ellen Dunphy.

They must have heard the news. Perhaps one of her deputies had called them? They were waving at her to pull over.

What in the hell…?

Lulu pulled her SUV to the side of the road, and Ray parked behind her. She stepped out of her vehicle, and he did, too, followed by Ellen. The two of them always seemed to be together, with Ellen wanting Ray to validate her almost every sentence. It was a strange working relationship, but it seemed normal to them.

“Lulu, glad we caught you,” Ray said, jogging up to meet her. “We heard about Dana Cartwright. You should have called us right away.”

As far as Lulu knew, that wasn’t part of the protocol. Of course, there hadn’t been any murders in Harper since she was a toddler so she couldn’t be sure.

“You were my next call after I informed the family.”

It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it sounded plausible. They had a reason to be concerned since she was inexperienced. If they were panicking, she couldn’t blame them. But she was determined to do her job.

“Of course,” Ellen exclaimed. “That’s how we found you. We assumed you were headed for the Cartwright place.”

The Cartwrights had a bit of property on the outskirts of town. They raised horses, had a large garden, and Carole liked to sit outside and read when the weather was nice. Gary Cartwright was one of the local large animal veterinarians in the county.

“I am. I’m actually in a hurry as I want to get there before they hear from someone else. Who told you, by the way?”

“I have contacts in the county coroner’s office,” Ray replied. “They called me.”

“We just wanted to talk to you to let you know you have whatever you need resource-wise to solve this horrible murder,” Ellen said, her voice shaky. “Right, Ray?”

“Absolutely,” Ray confirmed. “Whatever you need. It’s been over twenty-five years since the last murder, and we don’t want anyone to think that Harper isn’t a safe little town to raise a family and run a business. Whatever you need.”

“I appreciate that,” Lulu said. “So far, forensics has gathered any evidence, and the county medical examiner will be performing the autopsy. I’m planning to speak with several people who knew Dana as well, piecing her last day together. Confirming alibis.”

“Were there any witnesses?” Ray asked.

“Not that I know of, although one might come forward when they hear the news. Someone might have seen something that they didn’t think was important.”

Her father had always talked about how the smallest details often were the most important.

“Did you call Seth?” Ray asked. “Is he coming back?”

“No,” Lulu said, trying to keep her tone even. “My mom and dad are boarding a cruise ship this morning. I am not planning on calling him.”

“You can just call one of your dad’s friends if you need any advice,” Ellen replied. “Right, Ray?”

“Sure, any one of them can help you.”

“I think I have the situation in hand so far,” Lulu said. “I’m following the textbook down to the letter. I don’t want any questions with the investigation when I hand over any evidence to the prosecuting attorney.”

“Good plan, good plan,” Ray said, nodding in agreement. “Stick to the process. Smart.”

“You’ll keep us informed?” Ellen asked anxiously. “Let us know what’s happening. I think that would be best. Right, Ray?”

“Yes, we should stay in the loop,” Ray replied. “Just a little status report now and then.”

“That’s fine,” Lulu agreed. “Now I need to get to the Cartwrights before they hear about Dana from someone else.”

Lulu didn’t have any intention of discussing an open investigation with the town council. Ellen Dunphy was a huge gossip, and she’d wag her tongue anywhere and anytime. It would be madness to let her know about any possible suspects until Lulu was sure they were either ruled out or in. She didn’t want to ruin any lives because of this.

Ray and Ellen turned back towards town, and Lulu got back on the road. It wasn’t long, and she was pulling into the long driveway of the Cartwright place. Animal lovers, the family owned several dogs and cats who came out to greet Lulu. Tails wagging and tongues lolling, they all received their pets before ambling back to the front door where Carole was standing.

One look at the woman’s frightened expression, and Lulu knew that Carole had already heard about a dead body in town. Carole was pale, her eyes wide, and her breathing ragged. By the time Lulu reached the top front porch step, the older woman was visibly shaking.

“Mrs. Cartwright, I’m Lulu Reilly. The new sheriff in town. I took over from my father yesterday.”

“Yes, I remember you. You went to school with Billie, my younger daughter. I knew your parents, too. I heard you took over.”

Carole’s voice was barely a whisper and a bit choked. Tears were beginning to glisten in her eyes.

“Can we go inside and talk, Mrs. Cartwright?”

Carole sagged against the doorframe, the air seeming to leak from her body.

“Yes, but can you just tell me? I heard about someone finding a body by the lake. Just tell me. I need to know. Just tell me.”

There was a desperate plea in the woman’s tone that Lulu couldn’t ignore. Her heart went out to the woman who was about to get the news that no parent should ever hear.

“We did find a body,” Lulu said, moving closer and placing a hand on Carole’s shoulder. “It was Dana, ma’am. I’m so sorry for your loss. So very sorry.”

The woman seemed to crumple at Lulu’s words, the tears beginning to flow. She helped Carole into the house, leading her to the sofa and helping her sit down when Gary walked in from another room.

“Carole, who were the dogs barking?—”

The dogs were gathered protectively around Carole and Lulu, a few whining that their mistress was distraught. Gary flew across the room and sat on Carole’s other side, gathering her in his arms.

“What’s going on? What’s happened? You’re acting like someone died.”

Shit, this wasn’t going well. Or was there ever a good way to do this? It was a question she’d never asked her father or any of his cop friends.

Note to self - ask Dare or Griffin or one of the others.

“It’s Dana,” Carole’s voice cracked with emotion. “She’s gone, Gary. She’s gone.”

Carole broke down into sobs while Gary appeared shocked and disbelieving. He kept shaking his head as Lulu gently explained what had happened this morning. She had to say it several times before the truth began to sink in and reality to take hold.

“We just talked to her,” Carole said. “Yesterday morning. She stopped by, and we sat down and had coffee together.”

“What did you talk about?” Lulu queried. “Did she seem out of sorts? Angry? Sad? Did she have anything stressful going on?”

“She was tired of her job,” Gary growled. “And I don’t blame her. She was talking about getting a new one, but she didn’t know what she wanted to do. We’ve been encouraging her to go back to school. Maybe become a dental hygienist or a paralegal. Something with a future. She was never going to get ahead as a waitress at that bar.”

“Gary,” Carole said with a shake of her head. “It’s a good, honest job. There’s nothing shameful in work.”

“There isn’t, but she could have done better.”

“We talked about how the hours were getting to her,” Carole replied to Lulu. “The late nights and so forth. Dana was a morning person, so it was tough on her. We talked about her sister’s upcoming birthday, and how her car was making a strange noise. That’s pretty much it.”

“Did she have a boyfriend? Anyone she was seeing?”

“I don’t think so,” Carole said. “At least, she didn’t mention anyone, but then, we’re her parents. She might not. Her friends or sisters might know more.”

“She had terrible taste in men,” Gary said with a roll of his eyes. “Jay was a loser and so were all her other boyfriends. Not a winner in the bunch.”

“There was that nice young man from Springwood,” Carole interjected. “He was…an attorney, I think. We liked him.”

“And that was the kiss of death for the poor guy,” Gary griped. “Once we thought he was good for her, she dumped him. She only wanted men who we hated.”

A roomful of psychologists would have a field day with that behavior, but Lulu wasn’t one of them. Maybe Colt might have something to say, though. He was a professional, after all. Maybe she’d give him a call later to get his thoughts.

“She was just searching for her place in life,” Carole said, giving her husband a quelling look. “She was just a late bloomer. She would have figured it all out eventually. I think she was getting close. She had a look in her eye the last few times I saw her. She acted genuinely happy and satisfied.”

Happy and satisfied? Had Dana been…in love? Lulu made a mental note to dig into Dana’s love life. Sadly, the most dangerous person in a woman’s life was her significant other. Unless there was a serial killer in Harper - and the chances were low - strangers didn’t usually kill strangers. People killed for love or money or revenge.

Which was it for Dana?

“Can you give me the names of Dana’s friends?” Lulu asked. “I’d like to talk to them, too. It’s sometimes the smallest detail that breaks a case. I want to assure you that finding out who did this is my top priority.”

“We know you’re a good girl,” Carole said. “Your parents are such wonderful people. If your dad were here… Did you call him?”

Lulu had a feeling that she was going to hear that question a great deal over the next few days. Probably until the case was solved.

“He and Mom got on a cruise ship this morning,” Lulu replied, noting the disappointment in Carole’s eyes. “However, I can always call in one of my uncles if I need any help.”

The Cartwrights instantly seemed to perk up at the statement. Their shaky confidence in Lulu’s ability to find a killer restored at the mention of assistance.

“Of course, your father knew many well-qualified lawmen,” Gary said. “They can share their wisdom.”

Was this Gary’s way of saying she wasn’t well-qualified?

Well…I’m not. I’ve never worked a murder case in my life. They should have doubts. They’d be crazy not to. This was their daughter, and I’m a rookie. But I’m going to do it. I will get the job done.

“As I said, this is my number one priority. I will be asking lots of questions around town about Dana and the people around her. I feel like I need to warn you that often families find this disturbing and intrusive. I will try and be discreet, but I need to dig into Dana’s life. Sometimes that can get ugly, especially when it comes to finances and relationships.”

“Our daughter didn’t have any secrets,” Carole assured her. “Her life is - I mean, was - an open book. But we do understand what you mean. We understand that you need to ask personal questions, and we’re fine with that.”

“Do what you need to do to find out who hurt our little girl,” Gary said gruffly. “If you can’t, I’ll find the son of a bitch myself.”

“I beg of you, please do not try and investigate yourselves. There’s a killer out there, and we don’t want any more victims. One is more than enough.”

There were a few more questions, and the parents wrote down the names of the friends…that they knew about. At the age of thirty, Dana might have had secrets from her parents, despite Carole’s insistence that her daughter’s life was an open book.

Lulu’s gut was telling her that someone in Dana’s life had killed her. Just who might it be?

After informing Dana Cartwright’s parents of her passing, Lulu’s next stop was Dana’s home way out in the boonies. The house was at the end of a long driveway off of a side road about ten miles outside of town. It had been Dana’s grandmother’s home until she’d inherited it a few years ago.

Lulu wasn’t the easily creeped out type, but she wasn’t sure she’d want to live out here by herself. There were no streetlights for a good two miles leading up here, and at night this whole area had to bring a new definition to dark. The house had just one porch light, and the detached garage also had a lone single bulb. Surrounded by trees, the home and grounds would have made an excellent setting for a horror movie.

The forensic team was almost done here, and she was anxious to get inside. The crime scene team was looking for trace evidence of a possible murder. Lulu was looking for something far different. She wanted clues into what was happening in Dana’s life - people, places, issues.

Despite what movies, books, and true crime television would have a person believe, stranger murders weren’t all that common. In truth, less than ten percent of victims were killed by people they didn’t know. Lulu’s money was on a romantic partner, friend, neighbor, or family member. Because of that, she needed to know the intimate details of Dana’s life.

She took the mother’s declaration that Dana’s life was an open book with a grain of salt. As much as Lulu loved her parents, she didn’t tell them everything about what was going on in her life. And the older she got, the less she told them. Not because she didn’t trust them. She did, wholeheartedly. It was simply that she was an adult, and adults didn’t go running to mommy and daddy about every little thing.

Especially when it came to her love life. While her parents - especially her mother - were open-minded, she wasn’t the type to talk to her mom about a guy she was seeing and yes, sleeping with. Her dad was the type of parent who knew she had sex, but didn’t want to know the details. Her mom would have been fine with the details, but Lulu still thought it was a bit weird. She sure as hell didn’t want to know about their sex life, although she knew her mom and dad loved and adored one another after many years of marriage.

I don’t need all the minute details. I get it. They have sex. But I don’t want to dwell on that.

“It’s the garage,” the lead forensic said to Lulu, pulling her from her thoughts. “That was ground zero. I can show you.”

After pulling on her protective gear, Lulu followed the woman into the garage. Dana didn’t have much inside of it. Just the usual - her car, a few boxes of Christmas decorations, a large cooler, a few yard tools like a mower and rake, and a shelf with cans of paint and some random tools.

On the driver’s side of the vehicle was a blood pool at least a foot wide, and a few random spatters on the side of the car.

“It looks like she was killed here,” the investigator said. “And then probably carried to another vehicle parked in the driveway. There are drops of blood leading out of the garage.”

Images of what might have happened flew through Lulu’s mind, reversing and going forward several times as she played through multiple scenarios. Had someone come up behind Dana and surprised her? Did Dana have a friendly visitor who had turned not so friendly? Had Dana fought back? Or had she not even seen it coming?

“Then the killer drove her to the lake and dumped her body there,” Lulu said, mostly to herself. “Premediated or spur of the moment decision?”

“I know you’re not asking me, but it sounds like a spur-of-the-moment decision,” the investigator replied. “The victim was found the next day. You’d think whoever did this would want the body to be hidden for a longer period or even forever. But that’s just my two cents.”

“You make a good point,” Lulu conceded. “I’m not married to any particular theory yet. What else have you got from the house?”

“Not much. No broken windows or doors. No signs of any forced entry at all. We didn’t find any cell phone at the lake, and we didn’t find one here either. There appears to be a spot at the desk for a laptop, but we didn’t see one. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It’s clear if you want to go through it.”

“I do. Thanks.”

“I will say,” the investigator said with a visible shiver. “That this probably looked very different at night. No lights, no cameras. No one anywhere near enough to hear and see. It’s the perfect place to kill someone and get away with it.”

Lulu agreed, which was why she was leaning toward premeditation. But she couldn’t rule out the fact that the killer just got lucky with the location.

Did he or she kill Dana here because it was a remote location?

Or was he or she here with Dana, and the murder just happened here without forethought?

Frankly, the murderer could have dumped Dana’s body somewhere on the property. There were several acres here, most of it wooded.

If I was the killer, I wouldn’t have taken the risk of moving the body and being seen. I would have hidden it close by.

Did that mean that the murderer panicked? So many questions, and she needed to get the answers.

Lulu moved her investigation inside of the home. The crime scene techs had dusted for prints and taken samples for DNA analysis. If Dana had any visitors that night, hopefully, they left a little something of themselves behind.

Tell me about yourself, Dana. Tell me your story. I need to know you.

She started in the kitchen, looking through cabinets and the refrigerator. Like her own home, Dana didn’t look like she cooked much for herself. The freezer had some single entrees and the obligatory pizzas. The refrigerator had a few cartons of yogurt, some apples, and the usual condiments. Stuffed in the back of the lowest shelf was a twelve-pack of root beer.

There was a box of cereal in the cabinets, along with a half-empty pasta container, an unopened marinara jar, a bag of dark chocolates, and some tea bags. No coffee? There was no coffeemaker on the counters.

Apparently, Dana wasn’t a coffee drinker. But she liked a treat of chocolate now and then, something that Lulu totally agreed with. If she did cook, it looked like Dana favored low-effort meals with easy clean-up.

The tiny living room was neat and rather sparse. A couch sat against a wall facing the television. There was an end table with a lamp, remote control, and a paperback book - Pride and Prejudice , marked at page sixty-one.

The bedroom, on the other hand, was a different story altogether. Clearly, this was where Dana spent most of her time when at home. The queen-sized bed was covered with a brightly colored quilt and stacked with about a dozen cozy pillows in complementary colors. A fuzzy royal blue throw hung from one post of the headboard. The side tables were stacked with multiple books, candles, pens, and notebooks.

The dresser was strewn with perfume bottles, hair ties, scarves, socks, and a few framed photos of Dana with her friends and family. This room looked lived-in, with Dana’s personality coming out more than the kitchen and living room.

The closet and bathroom were more of the same. Like so many people with a busy schedule, Dana seemed to keep her favorite things at close hand. Her makeup was stacked on the bathroom vanity, and her most worn sweaters and jeans were folded in a stack at the bottom of her closet.

Going back to check into the dresser drawers, Lulu found what she’d expected to see. Clothes, bras, underwear, and socks. Then she pulled open the bottom drawer to find what she’d call the “single woman’s stash” or something like that - a vibrator - tucked under a few sweatshirts. Since she was wearing gloves, she reached out to flick the “on” switch, but it didn’t hum to life.

Batteries were dead.

I’m not weird. Something doesn’t seem right here. It’s not logical.

Levering up from her spot on the floor, Lulu checked the two drawers in the side tables. A flashlight, a bottle of lube, a couple of phone chargers, bottles of nail polish, and an emery board.

Am I being picky? Why would she keep her vibrator across the room hidden under clothes? I would keep it next to the bed. Right? There’s plenty of room in these drawers, and that’s where the lube was located.

Unless…she had someone coming that she didn’t want to know that she had sex toys? Her mother? A friend? A…lover? But she left the lube…

And it was a dead vibrator at that. How long have these batteries been dead? Did she not replace them because she didn’t have to? Because she had a sexual partner?

Lulu had let her own sex toys languish for months at a time when she was seeing someone. Not that she was out shagging men left and right, but she wasn’t a virgin either.

A girl’s got needs.

If Dana had been seeing someone, Lulu needed to talk to that person as soon as possible. Was her ex-husband Jay Bradford that person? He was next on the list to get a visit.

Dana, what secrets have you taken to the grave?