She blushed. "Good morning, Kyle."

"Are we ready?" Janey asked.

"Yep. I need to grab the report, and then we can be on our way."

Hayden's eyes widened and she shifted her weight forward some. "You're going to the crime scene, right? The guy Kyle found is big news around here, but you probably see stuff like this all the time in the city."

Janey met his gaze for a brief moment, and a type of silent communication passed between them. He went to retrieve the file while she responded to Hayden's question. "Yes, we see quite a few murders, unfortunately."

"What's it like?" he heard Hayden ask. "I've never seen a dead body before." Then she paused. "Well, except for at a funeral, but it has to be different, right?"

He didn't give Janey time to answer. "Got it. We should probably get going."

"It was nice meeting you, Hayden."

"Sure. Maybe I'll see you tonight at the hog roast," Hayden called as they left.

Once they were outside, he heard Janey chuckle.

"Sorry about that. Hayden's lived here all her life and is a little starstruck about the big city."

"I could tell," Janey said as they reached his county-issued SUV. It was what they would be taking to the scene. "Crazy thing is, I remember when that was me."

Kyle stopped and stared at her. "Which part?"

Janey climbed into the passenger seat without answering.

He waited until they were on their way and tried a different approach. "Somehow I can't see you being like Hayden."

A smile pulled at the corners of Janey's mouth. He hadn't fooled her. She knew exactly what he was doing. "You'd be surprised."

"Hmm. Now you have me curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat, you know."

It was his turn to laugh. "You're a hard nut to crack, Janey Davis."

She didn't say any more until he'd pulled up behind another deputy's SUV. Noah had posted someone overnight to be sure nothing was messed with. He was taking it personally that a murder had happened on his turf.

They both got out and walked over to where Ethan stood leaning against the hood of his vehicle. He straightened when he realized Kyle wasn't alone. "Morning, ma'am."

"Janey Davis, I'd like you to meet Deputy Ethan Price. Ethan, this is Detective Davis from the Indianapolis PD," Kyle said.

Ethan removed his hat and gave a little bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Detective."

"Thank you." Janey seemed pleased with Ethan's southern manners. For some reason, that irritated him.

"Anything new overnight?" Kyle asked.

Ethan shrugged and resituated his hat on his head. "A few cars slowed down to get a better look, but no one stopped."

"Where did you find the body exactly?" Janey asked, not wasting any time.

"Over here." He took her to the spot in the ditch where John Doe had been lying. "His leg was extended out toward the road, which is what drew someone's attention and prompted them to call it in."

She nodded and knelt down. "Mac said the guy had been dead for at least twelve hours before you found the body."

It didn't feel right to stand over her, so he bent down, balancing his weight on the balls of his feet. "That doesn't narrow it down much."

"No. But it does tell us that whoever dumped the body is most likely familiar with the area."

"Why do you say that?" he asked.

Janey met his gaze and stood. He followed suit.

She turned in a circle, taking in their surroundings. "How far is the highway from here?"

"At least twenty minutes. And that's if you're not entirely paying attention to speed limits."

"This isn't exactly a well-traveled road, correct?"

No, it wasn't. It was one of those back-country roads that didn't even have a center line painted on it. There was no need since ninety-nine percent of the people who used it were local. "You think whoever it was had to know where they were going."

"I'd almost guarantee it. This is too remote to be random. If it were off a main road, I could see it being a convenience thing, but not here."

Before he could formulate another question, Janey was striding away from him. She halted a foot or so away from the edge of the cornfield, looked to both sides, and then turned to her right and began walking. He jogged to catch up. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm not sure."

Kyle remained silent, letting her do whatever it was she was doing. After fifty paces, she spun around and headed back in the opposite direction. They were about thirty feet on the other side of the crime scene when she stopped.

"What is it?" he asked.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves. After slipping them on, she pushed a few of the cornstalks out of the way.

A second later, a huge grin spread across her face. She looked up at him. "We may be in luck."

He moved to see what she'd found. There, a few feet inside the cornfield, was a bunch of empty beer bottles. "I doubt it's related. Probably a bunch of high school kids."

"Exactly." She released the cornstalks and faced him. "And if they come here often, which from the looks of it, they do, then they may have been here the other night." She paused. "We may have witnesses."

3.

Janey and Ethan took pictures and put the beer bottles in plastic evidence bags while Kyle called Sheriff Jenkins. There had to be at least twenty that appeared to have been recently discarded. It was wishful thinking that the kids had been around when the body was dumped, but at the moment it was the best lead they had.

She'd dropped another glass bottle into a clear plastic bag when her phone began to vibrate. She held her bag out to Ethan. "Can you take this?"

"Yes, ma'am."

His formal reply had her grinning. She removed her gloves and dug her phone out of her pocket. Paul's name flash across the screen. "Miss me already, huh?"

Paul laughed. "Something like that. Have you found anything?"

"Well, I'm standing in a cornfield surrounded by empty beer bottles. Does that count?"

He was quiet for a long moment. "Okay, I'll bite. Why are you standing in a cornfield surrounded by empty beer bottles?"

"They're about thirty feet from where Kyle found the body, probably left by some teenagers. I'm hoping we can get an ID off the prints and that one of them saw something."

"Kyle?" he asked, and she could hear the wheels turning in his head.

"Deputy Reed."

"I see."

Janey made her way out of the cornfield and walked another ten feet or so away from the vehicles to get a little privacy. "It's a small town. Things are laid back here. You know how it is."

"If you say so." She knew he didn't believe her.

"Aren't you supposed to be celebrating your parents' anniversary today?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"We're heading over to the reception hall in about half an hour. Ma wants to look over everything and make sure the caterers didn't screw something up. She's not used to other people doing the cooking."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Janey looked across the two-lane road at the wide expanse of soybeans that went all the way back to a row of trees about a mile away. Then her gaze fell on Kyle. He was still on the phone, nodding at whatever was being said. She couldn't read the expression on his face. He looked somewhere between frustrated and resigned.

"Janey? Did you hear me?" Paul asked.

She averted her eyes from the distracting deputy. "Sorry. I was thinking about the case. I don't know if this is the same person or not. I mean why dump one victim behind a dumpster in an alley and the next in the middle of nowhere two hours away?"

Paul didn't respond right away. "Maybe they knew it would be another jurisdiction and were hoping no one connected the dots."

"Maybe."

"You don't think so?" he asked. Paul had taught her to trust her instincts.

"I don't know. Something feels off. The change in location bothers me. Why here?"

"He or she is familiar with the area?"

"I thought about that," Janey said. "It's possible."

She heard a muffled voice in the background and then the sound of Paul sucking in a lungful of air. "Janey, I need to go. I'll call you later."

"No, he won't," Megan said in the background.

Janey chuckled. "I'll see you on Monday." She slipped the phone back into her pocket and went to see what, if anything, the sheriff had to say about what they'd found.

Kyle and Ethan were loading the bagged evidence into the back of Ethan's SUV when she approached the vehicles. "Everything all right?" Kyle asked.

"Yep." She ignored the question in his eyes.

Ethan closed the back and locked it. "I think that's everything. I'll get it back to the station so they can start pulling the prints." Without waiting for a response, he walked to the driver's side of his vehicle and opened the door. "Hope to see you at the hog roast tonight, Detective Davis." He climbed inside the SUV and was off before she had a chance to answer him.

Janey couldn't help but laugh. In less than four hours she'd been asked if she was going to this pig roast-hog roast-whatever they want to call it, by three different people. What was so special about cooking a pig that had everyone in this little town so fixated on it as if it were some huge, not-to-be-missed event?

She felt Kyle come up behind her, and her amusement swiftly turned to something else entirely. "We should stop by the diner and grab some lunch."

"I'm not hungry." Her words came out as not much more than a whisper.

He stepped closer and her body went on alert. Not from fear, but from anticipation. "Neither am I, but it's a good place to ask around to see if anyone knows who might have been in that field the night before last."

"All right." She took a deep breath and turned to face him, trying to shake off the torrent of emotions swirling around inside her. "Let's go."

She managed to take two steps before he put his hand on her arm to stop her. Sure, she could have pulled away, but the feeling of his warm hand on her bare skin had her temperature rising.

Kyle came up behind her again, but this time, he stood close enough that his chest was touching her back. He leaned in so his mouth hovered right above her ear. "Don't run away from me, Janey."

"I'm not."

"Aren't you?" He didn't move an inch.

"We have a job to do. I'm trying to catch a killer." Again, she could have easily walked away-his grip wasn't all that tight-but she didn't. Something was keeping her rooted to the spot.

"Don't try to change the subject." He skimmed the palms of his hands down her arms, leaving tingles in their wake. "We have plenty of time to get to the diner, and the fingerprints will take a while. This is about you and me."

She swallowed. "There is no you and me."

Her words hung in the air for a long moment before he spoke. "Come with me tonight. Let me show you a good time."

"And then what?" She had no idea what prompted her to ask or even what kind of response she was hoping to get.

"And if, after that, you don't want anything to do with me, I'll back off."

They stood there for what felt like forever, not moving. She closed her eyes in an attempt to get her bearings. What would it hurt to go on a date with him? Chances were good that after this weekend she'd never see him again. His life was here in Liberty. Hers was two hours south in Indianapolis.

Janey turned around to face him. They were standing so close, she had to tilt her head back in order to look him in the eye. "One date."

He smiled. "That's all I'm asking."

She held his gaze, searching for any deception. She didn't find any. "Deal."