Page 142 of Shadows of You

Luisa glanced my way and grimaced. “There’s too much damage to the body for me to know from visuals alone. I need to get him back to the morgue.”

Hell.This was beyond bad.

“Can I run a print?” Nash asked.

Luisa nodded, motioning him over. He made a conscious effort not to look at the worst of the gore, and I didn’t blame him. This would give everyone who saw it nightmares for weeks.

Luisa lifted a single finger and pressed it to the electronic pad. Nash repositioned the scanner a few times to guarantee a complete image, then pulled it back.

One of the techs offered him an alcohol wipe.

Nash thanked him and cleaned the screen. “Let’s see if we can connect to cellular.”

We weren’t that far out of town, so hopefully, it would work.

We all waited as Nash stared at the screen. A minute later, a ding sounded. My brother’s jaw went slack. “Holy shit.”

“What?” Lawson barked.

Nash turned the screen around, and a driver’s license photo and name appeared.

Tyson Moss. Steven’s podcast partner.

* * *

Lawson guidedhis SUV down the mountain toward the rental Steven and Tyson had been staying in. “Dumb luck or related?”

It was the question I’d been asking myself since the ID came in. I wanted it to be dumb luck. It was a small town, after all. There were a limited number of potential victims.

But something niggled at the back of my mind. Something that said there were no coincidences in life.

“When they broadcasted Aspen’s location, they could’ve brought anyone here. Someone who liked John for all the wrong reasons,” I said. My fingers twitched. I’d already texted Holt and asked him to head to Aspen’s. I needed more eyes on her until we figured out how everything was linked.

Lawson’s jaw worked back and forth. “Exactly what I’m afraid of.”

“We also need to take a longer look at Oren Randal.”

Lawson’s gaze flicked to me. “You think he’s capable of this?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him. There’s a real sick rage there.”

“You’re right. I’ll do some more digging.”

He flipped on his blinker and turned into the long drive we’d been down before. The familiar van was parked in front. Lawson pulled in behind it, and we climbed out.

Lawson rested a hand on his weapon as we approached the house. I did the same. Neither of us said out loud that we could be walking up on anything. We didn’t need to.

I lifted my hand and knocked.

No sounds came from inside.

I knocked again.

“Keep your fuckin’ pants on,” Steven shouted as footsteps sounded.

A second later, the door jerked open. He looked like hell—hair sticking up at every angle, dark circles under bloodshot eyes.

The moment Steven saw us, he scowled. “I haven’t broken any damn laws, so get off my property.”

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