Free RAVEN'S HOLLOW by Jenna Ryan

an opening wide enough for an emergency vehicle to get through.”
    The driver from Cove Towing made an anxious sweep of the woods. “Not sure I wanna picture emergency vehicles when I’m standing in the middle of the hollow. Lots of folks hereabouts swear this is a haunted place, and near the bog most of all.”
    Eli tugged on the chain to secure it. “You’re letting Rooney’s wild stories get to you, Brick.”
    “Nothing wild about your stepsister’s death. A believer would say there’s possession involved. The guy she dumped two weeks before had Blume blood.”
    Brady glanced at Eli. “The guy she dumped also had an alibi for the time of the murder.”
    “Yeah, but who gave him that alibi? His own ma, that’s who.”
    Rain began to spit from a nasty-looking sky. Eli figured they’d be soaked in a minute whether he pursued this or not. “Her ex’s name was Cal Kilgore, Brick.” He turned to his cousin. “Is Cal still in the Cove?”
    “More out than in,” Brady told him. “He built a cabin in the north woods and got himself a forge. Last I heard, he was making specialized metal products and selling them to a wholesale outfit in Bangor.”
    “How often do you see him?”
    “Three times in the last fifteen years. And not much more than that before he left town. He was older than Laura by about five years, so that’d put him around forty-two these days.”
    Interesting, Eli reflected. Not necessarily relevant, but worth a back-check.
    He heard a squawk from the tow truck, which signified an incoming call, and noted the instant expression of relief on Brick’s face. “Looks like we’re about to lose some of our muscle.”
    Dragging on a rumpled jacket, Brady grinned. “Happens a lot in this spot.” He nodded at the tree. “You can tell me to mind my own, but seeing as your truck was stuck on the Cove side, how is it you wound up spending the night in the Hollow?”
    Eli drew off his work gloves. “It’s a long story. Short version, I hitched a ride with Sadie.”
    His cousin’s brown eyes registered surprise. “Sadie was out on this spit-slick road in last night’s storm? Why?”
    “She got a crank call at the newspaper. It pissed her off.”
    “That’d make sense if Ty’s office wasn’t in exactly the opposite direction from the one she must have been taking.”
    “Think it through, Brady.”
    “Just did. Clever avoidance of an ex.” He sighed when Brick waved an arm out his window and roared off. “As predicted, there goes a third of our muscle. Do you hear a siren?”
    “Yep.”
    Brady tucked his wire-rimmed reading glasses inside the jacket and murmured a semi-amused “Let the fireworks begin.”
    With his more ornery cousin still a good distance away, Eli returned to his truck and used its mechanical muscle to drag a large branch off the road.
    The prospect of a second confrontation with Ty didn’t bother him. But spending the better part of the morning with his mind caught between a threat and a kiss? That just plain sucked. It also irritated him that not one but both things scared the hell out of him.
    He’d tried for a relationship once, with an entertainment journalist...and where in hell had that disaster of a memory crawled in from? She’d messed up; then he’d messed up, and they’d both paid the price for it. End of nightmare.
    Eli squeezed his truck through the new opening and was prepping the chain again when Ty squealed to a halt. Surly and spoiling, he strode over to plant his booted feet less than eighteen inches from where his cousin crouched.
    “Problem?” Eli asked, not looking up.
    “You didn’t leave the damn bird.”
    “Yeah? Where was I supposed to leave the damn bird, Ty? On your desk in an unlocked police station?”
    “Raven’s Hollow isn’t the back of beyond. We have an evidence room with an automatic lock.”
    “Right.” Now he looked up. “Did you expect me to shoot out the lock to gain access to the room? You left before us, Chief, and