Krewe of Hunters 2 Heart of Evil by Heather Graham

floodwaters rising. She looked as she had looked, reaching out for him and yet trying to warn him of something horrible and dark that loomed behind him. Her fingers had slipped through his…
    He couldn’t let that happen now.
    He raced across the grounds, hearing earth and gravel crunch beneath his feet. “Ashley!” he called her name.
    She stopped; she stared at him with huge blue eyesthe size of saucers, like a doe caught in the headlights of a car.
    She still saw him as a pariah.
    â€œAshley,” he called again. She screamed and started to run away.
    They hadn’t parted that badly. She wasn’t seeing him, she realized. She was still imagining whatever nightmare had caused her to run.
    She turned just as he reached her, and they collided and fell to the ground. She struck out at him from below, and he caught her arms, perplexed and yet aware that she could deliver a solid blow if she chose. She seemed to be fighting for her life.
    â€œAshley! It’s me. Jake. Jake Mallory!”
    She went dead still. He realized that she was trembling violently.
    â€œAshley, it’s Jake. Come on, Ashley, whatever else, you’ve known me all your life! It’s Jake. What is it, what are you running from?”
    Her trembling subsided.
    â€œI found him,” she said. “I found him.”
    â€œFound who, Ashley?”
    â€œCharles. Charles Osgood.”
    Dead. She’d found him dead, of course. No one acted like this unless they had seen something really terrible. Certainly not Ashley Donegal.
    â€œWhere?” he asked, easing back.
    He wanted to fix things for her. This was Ashley. Certainly, one of the most beautiful women he hadever known and once loved. He wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be all right….
    But it wasn’t, of course. She had found a dead man.
    He rose quickly, taking her hand to bring her to her feet. “Where, Ashley?” he asked again, his tone quiet but authoritative.
    She blinked and seemed to gain possession of herself again. “The graveyard. The family vault,” she said.
    â€œAnd he is dead? You’re certain?”
    â€œOh, yes.”
    He pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911, and carefully gave the address and the situation. Ashley stared at him while he did so. If Jackson Crow was already on the case, then they had federal jurisdiction. But they needed a medical pathologist out here now, and, naturally, they’d have to work closely with the local police.
    â€œGo on inside,” he told her. “The police are coming.”
    She shook her head. “I’m with you. I’m not moving. I mean, I’m not moving if you’re not moving.”
    â€œSomeone needs to tell your grandfather.”
    â€œHe’s smart—he’ll figure it out when he hears the sirens.”
    â€œWhen he hears the sirens, he’ll be worried about you.”
    â€œI’m staying with you!”
    He wondered if she was actually so shaken thatshe was afraid to head for the house herself—afraid, perhaps, of everyone on her property now.
    â€œAll right, but we need to keep a distance from the actual…scene,” he said.
    â€œCorpse,” she said dully.
    He walked back to the cemetery. She hadn’t released his hand. She wasn’t going to.
    They had to part momentarily to slip through the gate without opening it further, and Jake was loath to make any changes to the scene. A stone cherub seemed to follow their passage through the rows of vaults, shimmering beneath the moonlight.
    He didn’t have to ask her to lead him; he knew exactly where to find the Donegal vault.
    It was the largest, the most ornate and the most beautiful in the graveyard. When they turned the corner in the center to reach it, he stopped, trying to take in everything that he saw before the local authorities came to assess the situation.
    There was the vault. Cherubs and gargoyles guarded the iron-gate doors