Page 61 of Into the Fall

“Rebecca Lennox?” My heart skipped a beat. Micah and Rachel’s mom? What? Why? My thoughts were racing. Rebecca Lennox died years ago. Cancer, if I recall correctly. So, what was her luggage doing in the well? Were those her remains? None of that made sense. “The Lennox family is local,” I finished lamely and turned to face Connor, who was awake, his eyes wide as he listened. “They own the land where the remains were found.”

So much for confidential information. I should have taken the call elsewhere.

“Okay, getting DNA from a surviving relative for a potential match would be useful, even if we are just ruling Rebecca out. For all we know, this could be some otherpoor soul,” Tally explained. “As standard, we’ll run any DNA we find results for against the Combined DNA Index System.”

Connor waved his hand.

“Hang on,” I told Tally, then covered the phone.

“CODIS will have DNA in the system for Rebecca’s son, Micah, from his time in the prison system,” Connor said.

Of course. I repeated the information to Tally.

“Good to know,” she said.

“Let me know if you need anything else.”

“I will.”

“Thanks, Tally. I appreciate it.”

A connection to the Lennox family and the ranch? They’d need to be told, and maybe they could shed some light on what had happened to Rebecca. My mom would know as well, and Dad if he was lucid. The implications were staggering that a woman who had died of cancer had ended up in a well. None of that made sense.

“Micah and Rachel’s mom?” Connor said from behind me.

I placed my cell on the nightstand and turned to sit cross-legged, looking down at him sprawled in my bed. “How much did you hear?” Only the end part, maybe?

He winced. “All of it. Body, female, ID Rebecca Lennox. I can’t help if I have good hearing.”

I sighed because I didn’t want him to have heard all of that. I didn’t want him to interfere or get protective of the family that had taken him to their hearts. I didn’t want to leave the bed. I wanted to go back to the last orgasm. Orhell, maybe before it, so I could experience it all over again.

“Is Rebecca Lennox in your files?”

“What files?” Connor blinked at me as if butter wouldn’t melt.

“The files I know for sure you have on every single person and their family who might, in one way or another, come in contact with Quinn?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh,thosefiles.”

“Yes,thosefiles.”

He tugged at me until I fell onto him, carding his fingers through my hair and kissing the tip of my nose. “Shower, teeth, coffee, and then we’ll look at what I have. Yeah?”

I let myself lie in his arms for a few more minutes, sliding down a little so I could press my ear to his chest, lulled into peace by the steady thump of his heartbeat.

I really didn’t want to get up.

We walked into the diner,the smell of fresh coffee and bacon wrapping around us like a warm blanket. Noah greeted us with a smile, handing over two steaming cups of coffee as if everything were normal. As if I wasn’t scrambling inside, trying to piece together how someone from my town might have ended up in that well on the Lennox Ranch, along with a suitcase full of memories. The bones could belong to someone else, sure, but my gut was telling me otherwise, and I’d learned long ago to trust that feeling.

Connor and I exchanged the usual small talk withNoah, acting as if it were just another morning, even though my mind was a whirlwind of questions and half-formed theories. Noah handed us a basket of baked goods, still warm from the oven, and a bowl of crispy bacon—Connor’s weakness.

As we headed upstairs to the apartment above the diner, juggling coffee, baked goods, and bacon, I couldn’t help but tease him a little. “I’m surprised you’re not the size of a house living this close to Noah’s cooking.”

Connor grinned, his eyes twinkling with that mischievous glint I’d come to expect. “It’s all about balance, Sheriff. A little indulgence here, a lot of cardio there.”

We laughed, but as soon as we stepped inside his apartment, the mood shifted. Connor set the food on the kitchen counter, then grew serious, walking over to a door I hadn’t noticed before. He pushed it open, revealing a room with a desk against the far side, a laptop perched on top, flanked by two printers. Several pinboards were stacked against the opposite wall, covered in maps, notes, and photos, all meticulously organized. The air in the room was still, the kind of stillness that made you think twice about disturbing it.

Connor walked over to the window, cracking it open to let in some fresh air, but he shut it as quickly when a blast of wintery wind rushed in, making the curtains billow. “Winter’s happening way too fast,” he commented, frowning.

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