Free Her Grave Secrets (Rogue River Novella Book 3) by Kendra Elliot

overflowing with garbage. Zane noted that the only vehicles present were from the Rogue County Sheriff’s Office. The body had been found by two teens who’d stopped for a bathroom break . . . even though there were no bathrooms. Zane stepped carefully through the woods as he followed Carter and Stevie to the scene. Because it wasn’t an official rest stop, people simply stepped out of view of the passing traffic to relieve themselves.
    The teens had nearly tripped over the body in a small clearing fifty feet from the road. The rest area was far outside Solitude’s city limits, falling under Rogue County’s jurisdiction. Rogue County had set up lighting for the scene and had a small team of investigators crawling through the brush and photographing the corpse. Seth was already at the scene and greeted the three Solitude cops as they arrived.
    “You think this is part of the recent drug deaths?” Zane asked Seth.
    “Definitely. We found a piece of C-22 between here and the road. You’ve seen it before, right? Little red strip of tissue paper soaked with the chemical in a plastic sleeve. Someone must have dropped it.”
    “Maybe it was left by someone at a different time,” Stevie said. “We don’t know how long it was there.”
    “True,” Seth agreed. But it wasn’t mashed into the dirt; it was on the leaf of a bush and fell off as one of our team walked by. I think it was recently dropped.”
    Stevie nodded, and Zane wondered if she was searching for a way to soften the blow for JD’s brother. Or was she just being a good cop and not accepting everything at face value?
    “Did you already tow his vehicle?” Zane asked.
    “There wasn’t one,” said Seth grimly. “I doubt he came on foot. And he definitely wasn’t alone; he’s been executed. The prints in the dirt indicate he was on his knees and shot in the head. Someone was not happy with him at all. After the autopsy we’ll see if he had bacon in his system. He could have been dealing or using. I don’t know yet.”
    Stevie opened her mouth and closed it.
    “Shells?” Zane asked.
    “No. Picked up,” Seth replied. “We’ve got some pretty good footprints. You can see where the shooter planted his feet when he shot JD from the back. If we find a suspect, we’ll try to match the shoes. The database for matching shoe prints to manufacturers is fantastic. We’ll pour some molds of the imprints, and in a few days we’ll know exactly what our guy was wearing, but to my eyes they look like some heavy work boots, definitely not a tennis shoe.”
    “Anything else left behind?” asked Stevie.
    “There’s so much trash back here, we’re not sure what belongs to our scene.” Seth gestured to the area. “Don’t know why people can’t use the garbage can. There’s only two reasons to walk back here: to take a piss or do something illegal.”
    “There’s one other thing they do back here,” said Stevie, pointing at a used condom in the dirt.
    Zane groaned, but gestured at one of the forensics team to snag it for evidence.
    The three of them turned as voices sounded from the direction of the road, and the brush vibrated as people approached. Eric Hearne appeared with two Rogue County officers. “JD?” he asked in a shaky voice, looking at Stevie.
    She stepped in front of him and put a gentle hand on his chest, stopping him from moving any closer to the body twenty feet behind her. “Yes, it’s JD. Don’t get any closer until they finish collecting evidence, okay?”
    Eric looked over her shoulder. “Oh, God.” His shoulders shook. “He was shot? Who did this?” His voice rose and cracked. “Have you figured out who did it? I was just with him a few hours ago!”
    Stevie stepped closer, putting a hand on his face and guiding his gaze to hers. “We don’t know yet, Eric. We’ll find the person who did it. Very soon, I promise. Is there anyone you can think of who was angry with your brother?”
    He ran a hand through his hair and