Chapter One

Wrapped in a heavy wool blanket and surrounded by light bird chatter, I tapped my feet in the sunbeams streaming onto the porch. Spring was busy chasing winter away, so Molly and I were cuddling in my rocker. An English setter, she was too big for my lap, but we loved the togetherness. Her solid frame and my beanpole build made us unlike in appearance. Father had always contended most people looked like their dogs, yet we were like nonidentical twins with matching personalities that made us soul mates.

My dear dog had started it all.

Her barking had broken the news.

Her alarm had propelled me up to the ledge.

Staring up at the tall barn on the flat rock, I could not stop thinking about what had happened there and the story I had to tell about it. When a turkey hen and her chicks started to parade across the back lawn, I tried to focus on the trail their feet swiped in the dew, but my gaze flew back up the hill. The damage to the barn was still there to be seen. The hole in its roof was a yawning mouth. The broken rafter stuck out like a tooth. The stack of shingles clung to one lip. I could not, of course, see the ladder, and the players had all disappeared.

I found Nate facedown on the ledge, skull exploded.

Blood around a lumpy yolk of brain.

Sunny side up on a hot stone skillet.

Tears from a rim of rainwater gathered along the eaves were now dropping and exploding on the granite below. The height of the barn always worried me.

Luke was crouching at the edge of the roof.

Dull eyes, black hair, ruddy cheeks.