Page 1 of Outlaw Ridge: Griff
Chapter One
----- ? ----
I didn’t kill her. Prove it.
Deputy Lily Oliver stared down at what was written in the dead man’s letter. The paper was soft at the edges from how many times she’d unfolded and refolded it. Bobby Ray Moore’s handwriting was sharp and deliberate, each stroke pressed deep into the page. Like he knew this would be the last thing he ever said.
And it was.
This letter was Bobby Ray’s final message to the outside world. And he’d sent it to her.
Why?
That was the question repeating in Lily’s head as she sat at her desk in the now quiet bullpen of the Outlaw Ridge PD. The letter was front and center, right in the middle of the cold case files spread around her like a jigsaw puzzle without a picture to guide her. The desk fan stirred the corners of her reports, and the faint scent of dust and old paper clung to the air.
Most of the building had cleared out hours ago as her fellow dayshift deputies had left to go home, but she’d stayed behind. She couldn’t walk away. Not yet.
Across the room, the swing shift deputies, Mickey Morales and Jacob Thornton, sat at their desks pretending to beimmersed in their own work, though Lily could feel their sideways glances.
The town was already talking.
Bobby Ray Moore had been dead a week, succumbing to cancer, and now Lily was digging up the murder that everyone believed had already been laid to rest. The one that no one wanted questioned. The one that people had thought was dead and buried along with the victim, and now Bobby Ray himself.
And it could stay buried,she reminded herself.
She could move on to one of the other numerous cold cases she was responsible for. But those six words were etching away at her like acid.
I didn’t kill her. Prove it.
Footsteps echoed behind her, and she looked up just as Deputy Griff Abrams walked in from the break room, a fresh cup of coffee in hand. He, too, was a day shift deputy who should have been home hours ago, but here he was, no doubt working on something that had its teeth in him as well.
Their gazes met for a second, maybe a heartbeat too long for a mere glance. But then, Griff had a way of catching her attention—and not just because of his dark brown hair, always a little tousled like he couldn’t stop running his fingers through it, or those cool gray eyes that missed nothing.
Along with being her fellow deputy, Griff was also an operative with Strike Force, the elite investigations and security team that had stepped in after most of the Outlaw Ridge PD was wiped out nine months ago. Nearly the entire department had been rebuilt from scratch, and she and Griff were part of that rebuild.
He wasn’t local, and she had no idea if he was planning to stay in Outlaw Ridge. But in the meantime, he and a handful of other Strike Force operatives had brought experience, tacticalsupport, and access to resources that small-town cops didn’t usually get.
He didn’t stir the pot. Didn’t gossip. He just did the job, cleanly, thoroughly and without fanfare. And sometimes, when he looked at her, Lily couldn’t help but wonder what he saw.
Tonight was one of those times.
He walked over and sat down across from her, tipping his head toward the letter. “You knew him?”
She didn’t expect the question, not in that low, even tone that somehow managed to cut through the late-night stillness.
“Bobby Ray?” she asked. “Yeah,” Lily added when Griff nodded. “Sort of. He was five years older than me. Lived a few streets over. My dad used to hire him to fix things around the house.”
She dropped her gaze back to the case file.
“He was quiet. Polite. Kept to himself. He used to bring his little sister with him sometimes. Wouldn’t let her out of his sight.” She hesitated. “He didn’t seem like someone who’d snap. But people change.”
“You mind giving me the big picture?” he asked, taking a slow sip of his coffee. “What exactly put him away?”
Lily exhaled and leaned back in her chair. Her gaze drifted down to a black-and-white crime scene photo of Hannah Cole, the victim who had haunted this town for fifteen years.
“Hannah Cole was found strangled in the creek just outside town. Her car was parked nearby, keys still inside. Bobby Ray had worked with her at the feed store the summer before. People said he had a thing for her. She wasn’t interested.”
She paused again, flipping to a page in the file with the forensics summary.
