“The old Morgan place.” The trooper looked around with interest. “Been a while since I was back here. You dig up something we should know about?”

“So it seems.”

“It’s the Fitzgerald place now,” Maggie cut in briskly.

The trooper touched the brim of his hat and started to make a polite comment. His eyes widened when he took his first good look at her. “Fitzgerald,” he repeated. “Hey, aren’t you Maggie Fitzgerald?”

She smiled, though the recognition, with Cliff beside her, made her uncomfortable. “Yes, I am.”

“I’ll be damned. You look just like your pictures in all the magazines. I guess there isn’t a song you’ve written I can’t hum. You bought the Morgan place.”

“That’s right.”

He pushed the hat back on his head in a gesture that made her think of cowboys. “Wait till I tell my wife. We had ‘Forever’ played at our wedding. You remember, Cliff. Cliff was best man.”

Maggie tilted her head to look at the man beside her. “Really?”

“If you’ve finished being impressed,” Cliff said mildly, “you might want to take a look at what’s down by the gully.”

Bob grinned again, all amiability. “That’s why I’m here.” They began to walk toward the gully together. “You know, it isn’t easy to tell what’s from a human and what’s from an animal just by looking. Could be, ma’am, that you uncovered a deer.”

Maggie glanced over at Cliff. She could still feel the way her hand had slid into the hollow opening of what she’d taken for a rock. “I wish I could think so.”

“Down here,” Cliff said without acknowledging the look. “The going’s rough.” In a smooth, calculated move, he blocked Maggie’s way before she could start down. It forced her to pull up short and grab his arm for support. “Why don’t you wait here?”

It would’ve been easy to do so. Much too easy. “It’s my land,” Maggie said, and, brushing by him, led the way down herself. “The dog started digging in this pile.” She heard the nerves in her own voice and fought against them. “I came down to pull him away, and that’s when I saw …” Trailing off, she pointed.

The trooper crouched down, letting out a low whistle. “Holy hell,” he murmured. He turned his head, but it was Cliff he looked at, not Maggie. “It doesn’t look like you dug up any deer.”

“No.” In a casual move, Cliff shifted so that he blocked Maggie’s view. “What now?”

Bob rose. He wasn’t smiling now, but Maggie thought she detected a gleam of excitement. “I’ll have to call the investigation section. Those boys are going to want to take a look at this.”

Maggie didn’t speak when they climbed up the slope again. She waited in silence while the trooper went to his car to radio in his report. When she did speak, she deliberately avoided the reason they were all standing outside in the middle of the afternoon.

“So you two know each other,” she commented as though it were any normal remark made on any normal day.