Katy Lee - Grave Danger

BONES OF CONTENTION

When skeletal remains are found on a small Maine island, forensic anthropologist Lydia Muir is sent to investigate. It’s Lydia’s job to determine whether the homicide happened long ago—or more recently. Island sheriff Wesley Grant seems sure the murder didn’t happen on his watch. But when Lydia uncovers the victim’s identity, someone goes to great lengths to get Lydia off the island. Wes vows to protect her, but is the handsome lawman holding something back? To help catch a killer, she’ll have to trust him—or become the next victim.

“Lydia!”

She whipped around to find where Wesley had called from. A closed door on the far side of the room. “I’m coming!”

“I told you to get off the boat. Get off now! There’s a bomb!”

A bomb?

She could barely hear him through the door, but knew she’d heard him correctly.

A sudden bang echoed in her head and trembled under her feet. The explosion blew the door out, sending her flying back into the far wall at a cataclysmic force.

Dazed and confused, she sat in a hunch against the wall and tried to form a complete thought. She told her body to move—to get to Wesley, who had been in that room. He could be hurt. He may need help. She forced her eyes to open and felt heat dry the surface of her eyes before her brain computed what caused it.

Fire.

“Lydia!”

She heard him call. But she couldn’t move.

KATY LEE

is an inspirational romantic suspense author writing higher-purpose stories in high-speed worlds. She dedicates her life to sharing tales of love, from the greatest love story ever told to those sweet romantic stories of falling in love. She is the children’s ministry director for her church as well as a leader of a Christian women’s organization. Katy and her husband are both born New Englanders, but have been known to travel at the drop of a hat. As her homeschooled kids say, they consider themselves “world-schooled.” But no matter where Katy is you can always find her at www.katyleebooks.com. She would love to connect with you.

Grave Danger

Katy Lee

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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A capable, intelligent, and virtuous woman—

who is he who can find her?

She is far more precious than jewels

and her value is far above rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her

and lacks nothing of value.

She brings him good, not harm,

all the days of her life.

—Proverbs 31:10–12

To Audrey, my oldest daughter and Pinterest professional, I love having you on my team, but what I love most is you. I especially love your ambition to reach for the stars. You call your blog Rd2Gold, but I want you to always remember, with God as your goal, guide, and guardian, your road is already paved with gold. Trust Him, sweetie, and believe it.

Acknowledgments

I want to give my editor, Emily Rodmell, a big thank you for her stellar visionary skills to make the Love Inspired stories shine. Thank you, Emily, for seeing something in my own writing during the Happily Editor After Pitch Day, too! This amazing opportunity has changed my life.

I also want to thank the Love Inspired readers who collect our books. Thank you for your wonderful notes of encouragement and for your dedication to the LI line.

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

DEAR READER

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

EXCERPT

ONE

The dark, hollow eyes of a human skull put Sheriff Wesley Grant on the spot. The sockets, though vacant of life, were filled with questions he didn’t have answers for. Unnerved by the skeleton’s perpetual stare, he averted his gaze to the finger bones camouflaged against the gray pebbled sand. The digits protruded up as though the person had clawed their way out from their oceanfront grave. A grave that had no business being on this side of the island.

Wesley had questions of his own. “Who are you, and when did you get here?” The Maine island of Stepping Stones was his jurisdiction, and if this corpse was a recent death, then it was put here on his watch. Recent dumped bodies only meant one thing.

Homicide.

But who? One of his islanders?

The thought of these skeletal remains belonging to one of his charges squeezed his chest in a vise. The weight of that scenario bore down on him like the thick, dark clouds overhead. The April rains offered a reprieve, but the cold wind still whipped at his face. He ignored the chafing on his cheeks for the suffering the guy at his feet had to have experienced.

“Please don’t let it be one of our own. I can’t let these people down. Not when they’ve done so much for me. No, this can’t be one of them.” Wes pushed the horrid idea out of his mind as he pushed his windblown strands of hair out of his eyes. He would know if someone had gone missing. He ran a tight ship here, questioning every happening and every outsider who disembarked the Sunday ferry. This skeleton had to be ancient, put here long ago, before his time. Before his father’s, the previous Sheriff Grant’s, time. Before any of the islanders’ time.

Wesley thought of the history of the island and remembered a couple hundred years ago, pirates used to sail these seas and stop off on the island to count their loot. Yes, that had to be it. He latched on to this theory quickly. This skeleton had to have been buried here by one of the eighteenth-century swashbucklers, killed by a warring foe who broached the shores. Wesley felt sure Dr. Simon Webber, the forensic anthropologist who would be arriving on the island any minute now, would confirm it. But a check of his watch only brought up another question: What was keeping the doctor?

Deputy Derek Vaughn had left over five hours ago to pick up the man the medical examiner was sending out here to assess the situation. Vaughn had been instructed to bring the forensic anthropologist over to this side of the island as soon as they arrived. It was a two-hour trip each way. That made Vaughn an hour late. Nothing new there. The deputy couldn’t follow simple orders on a good day.

Wes thumbed the radio at his shoulder and called his other deputy, Owen Matthews. Maybe he knew what was keeping Vaughn. “Matthews, what’s your location?”

The radio crackled in his ear as Wesley studied the skeleton’s pelvis that lay exposed in the sand at his feet. Most of its ribs couldn’t be seen, just the front of the rib cage protruded out of the earth. Only one hand stuck out, too. Wesley figured the other one was either still buried, or the wildlife had made off with it. Or, because the guy had once been a pirate—Wesley was sticking with this theory for the time being—there was the chance he’d lost it premortem.

The idea made him cringe and he pushed the radio again, a little harder than before. “Matthews or Vaughn, what’s your twenty?”

His radio chirped followed by Deputy Matthews’s voice. “Sorry, Wes. I’m pulling up now. Vaughn brought the doctor to the station instead. A little misunderstanding, I guess.”