Doesn’t it get to them?

He was thankful there were people in the world willing to deal with death. They sought answers to help others. He wondered how it’d felt today for Gianna to be on the other side of the autopsy table, unable to jump in and perform a job she was trained to do, find the answers to her questions. It must have felt like she had her hands tied behind her back. At least they knew Seth was thorough.

Chris had watched her face as she examined the gold medallion. She’d been careful not to speak until she’d seen the other side, but her face had told Chris she connected with it. When the medallion was first highlighted in a picture, she’d blinked several times, as if trying to clear something out of her view. When she’d seen it in person, she’d pressed her lips together, her eyes widening, and her hands quivering the tiniest bit. Once she’d stated that she believed it was hers, she’d relaxed, but until that moment Chris could have sworn he’d nearly seen a cloud of tension around her.

How the fuck did her necklace end up on a dead man?

He didn’t like it. Someone was playing a fast and dangerous game, moving a murdered body into Gianna’s cabin and setting the cabin on fire. Chris firmly expected the fire would be declared arson. Everything circled around Gianna. Her necklace, her rented cabin, her life under attack. Had she been intended to die in the fire? He also believed she’d been drugged. Now that he’d spent time with her, he knew she was nothing like the confused and awkward woman he’d woken in the Suburban. She’d ingested or inhaled something that affected her.

He hoped Nora Hawes would have some answers. And he hoped Gianna wasn’t covering up something dangerous.

More dangerous than being drugged, caught in a fire, and shot at?

He watched her bite a slice of pizza and wipe the sauce from her lip. A dreamy look entered her eyes as she chewed, and he smiled. She was enjoying her food, but he was enjoying her company. She didn’t intimidate him. “Intimidate” wasn’t the right word . . . few people intimidated him, but there was an easy comfort to being in her presence that made him want to stay. Most people made him want to spend more time with Oro.

“You’ll be happy to know we got an evidence team up to the cabin early this morning,” Nora began. “Obviously we recovered the bodies and delivered them to the examiner. A fire investigator is scheduled to go up this afternoon or tomorrow.”

Gianna set down her pizza. “Did the evidence team have any opinions on arson?”

“That’s not their area of expertise,” Henry said.

“But they’ve told you something,” pushed Gianna.

Henry and Nora exchanged a look. “Several of them commented on the smell of an accelerant. But it could be from something else.”

Right. Chris could see in their faces that they were certain the fire had been arson but were holding back on using that term until they had official word.

“What did you want to ask us about?” Chris questioned.

“First I’d like the two of you to take a look at some of the photos they took this morning.” Nora glanced at his empty plate and then met his gaze. “They’re of the forest ranger.”

Chris nodded, steeling his stomach, wondering if it would have been better to look at them before he ate.

Probably not.

On a tablet, Nora pulled up a series of thumbnails and chose one, then held the screen out for him and Gianna to see. “The footprints with the blue markers . . . do you remember if they were there before you left?”

Chris was relieved to see Francisco wasn’t in the first picture she’d picked.

Gianna scowled as she looked at the photo of the snowy and ashy porch of her rental cabin. She pointed at a large indentation in the snow. “That’s where I landed when I dived away from the shot. You can see how I scrambled in the snow, and I assume this one is my boot print from when I ran. It looks like two or three inches of snow fell since I left . . . my boot mark isn’t very clear. I don’t know about the ones with the blue markers. They’re definitely more clear than mine. They must not have been made until well after I left.”

“We figured that one was yours. It matches the smaller ones in the ash in the cabin. But we have a mystery set. It appears someone walked up to the ranger’s body after he was killed.”

“Did he go in the cabin?” Chris asked.

“Yes. We’re extremely lucky Francisco took pictures and Gianna managed to grab the camera,” said Henry. “It’s clear that someone visited the cabin and both bodies after you left. Take a look.” He switched to a set of side-by-side photos. “Here’s the one Francisco took and here’s one an evidence tech took from the same location.”

Tracks littered the ashy floor in the second photo.

“Francisco wouldn’t let me walk in until he’d photographed the scene,” Gianna said softly. “I wonder if the second person knew that we’d taken photos. Did he tamper with the bodies at all?”

“Our John Doe looks the same in the crime scene photos as the ones that Francisco took. Obviously we don’t have a first set of photos of Francisco’s death.” Henry took a deep breath. “But you saw him immediately after the shooting, right? I want you to think back to that moment and fix in your head an image of Francisco. Then we’ll look at our photos.”

Gianna closed her eyes, her throat moving as she swallowed.

She sees death every day. She shouldn’t have any problem with this. Chris realized he was holding his breath and quietly exhaled, knowing he shouldn’t worry for the medical examiner in the chair next to him. But she’d talked to and interacted with Francisco in the moments before he was murdered. And been present for his death, the evidence splattered across her face and clothing.