Her Sister's Fiancé - Book #1

Chapter 25

Constable Levine frowned, stroking his mustache with a thick, meaty hand, his eyes on Ethan. "Could you not have mistaken the place?" He raised his brows, his gaze shifting about his surroundings.

"No," Ethan said firmly. "I remember that tree distinctly. There's no mistaking it." As he spoke, he moved up to the base of the tree and looked up. "There!" He pointed, and the others moved up beside him to look as well. "A freshly broken limb; that's where we were when he fell."

"Aye, I see it, lad." Levine nodded, biting his lower lip. "But that doesn't change the fact that there's no body and no sign of any struggle." Ethan looked at the ground around him, and he had to admit that there seemed to be no sign of what had taken place the day before.

"I don't understand. I left everything as it was, and there were tracks in the ground because of the rain." His frown deepened as he studied the earth.

"Well, there was a gusty rain last night. I've not seen the like in some time. It could have erased whatever traces remained." Levine commented.

"Ah, so the rain lifted up David Manuel's body and carried him off, stellar explanation for his disappearance, sir." Ethan bit back. He felt helplessness, embarrassment, and annoyance fighting within him, agitating him further.

"I never said—" Levine began, an edge in his tone.

"What are we to do now?" Lord Antrucha interrupted, his voice calm and easy.

"Without a body, there's nothing we can do. Whatever crime might have been committed, there's nothing can be done without the evidence of a body." Levine shrugged.

"So we just leave it? Drop it?" Ethan ran a hand through his hair.

"It'll go on file, and you'll be put in as prime suspect for whatever has occurred here, but we can't do anything else." Levine wetted his lips and began taking notes.

Ethan heaved a sigh, putting his hands behind his head. So this was how it ended. He would be considered a suspected criminal for the rest of his life, and there would be no way to prove his innocence. If he hadn't known Manuel was positively dead, he would have suspected the man of planning the entire thing. Now what was there to do? A hopelessness filled him, and he turned away from the others. No doubt they believed he had committed the crime and then hidden the evidence, and there was nothing he could say that might change their minds. Unless. . .

"Wait!" He whirled about, his despair ebbing away for a moment. "That farmer that saw it all, what if we could find him? What if he told the story?" Levine and Ezra exchanged a glance.

"Then, if things happened as you say, it would be put down in the books as—a—an accidental death." Levine shrugged.

"And it would have nothing more to do with me?" Levine shook his head. "That's it then, if I could just find him."

"Do you remembering anything about it? The first letter perhaps?" Ezra spoke quietly.

"A J or a G, I think." Ethan shrugged, wracking his brain. "And he might know where the body is! If we could find him—"

"First things first, let's get a name." Ezra cut him off. "What about James?"

Ethan thought for a moment. "No." He shook his head decisively.

"Jimmy?"

"No."

"Joshua?" Ethan shook his head, his despair reclaiming him. "Jordan?" Ethan gave a curt shake of his head. "Gregory?" Another shake. "George?" Another shake. "Gibson?" For a moment, Ethan paused to consider, and then he shook his head.