Gina Cresse - Devonie Lace 03 - A Deadly Change of Heart by Gina Cresse

place in any of the newspaper stories and I knew I’d never get Detective Sam “Always” Wright to cut loose with any information.  Jason walked about ten yards ahead of me, whistling as he enjoyed the scenery.  I spotted something yellow hanging from the branch of a tree near the trail and stopped.  “Hold up, Jason,” I called.
    It must have been a remnant of the yellow crime-scene tape the police string up around areas that are under investigation.  This section of trail was about twenty yards from the cliffs.  We walked over to the edge and peered over.  The foamy surf gurgled around the jagged rocks protruding from the ocean floor.  I felt a little dizzy looking down and took a step back.
    “Her body must have been found on those rocks,” I concluded.  “I wonder if she fell here, or if her body was washed up on the rocks with the high tide?”
    Jason glanced up and down the coast and studied the rocks below.  “She fell from here,” he stated, as if he’d seen the whole thing happen.
    “How can you tell?” I asked.
    “Because it’s high tide right now.  The rocks are well out of the water.  For her to have been on those rocks, she would have had to come from above, because the ocean wasn’t going to wash her up on them,” he explained.
    I backed away from the edge and turned toward the trail.  “I just want to look around, see if there’s anything weird here.”
    Jason followed me.  “You’re not gonna find anything.  That yellow tape means the police already went over it with a fine-toothed comb,” he said.
    I crossed the trail and scanned the ground on the east side of it.  “Maybe.  If that yellow tape was the corner marker of where they searched, I’ll just look a little further.  They could have missed something,” I said, hopefully.
    Jason took up the search a few yards north of my position.  We wove back and forth, kicking the leaves and dirt around whenever anything out of the ordinary caught our attention.  We managed to turn up a few empty beer bottles, a couple candy wrappers, and a knotted mess of fishing line.  I checked my watch.  We’d been searching for nearly an hour.  I finally concluded that Jason was right.  We weren’t going to find anything.  If there was something to be found, Detective Wright most likely had it in his possession, and I’d never know anything about it.
    “You were right,” I admitted.   “ I guess we may as well go home.”  I started back toward the trail.
    Jason caught my arm and turned me the other direction.  “The trail makes a turn back there.  Remember?” he said, pointing.  “If we cut through these trees, we’ll get to the car sooner.”
    My eyes followed the direction of his outstretched arm.  “Are you sure?” I questioned.
    “Yes,” he stated.
    “But — “
    “Are you going to argue with me?  The girl who can’t find her way out of San Diego unless she keeps the ocean on her left shoulder?”
    I didn’t say a word.  I just fell in step behind Jason and followed his lead.  He was right.  I can barely navigate my way out of a mall parking lot.  I followed closely and gawked at the trees as we passed.  I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t notice that he’d stopped.
    “What’s this?” he pondered, just before I plowed into the back of him.  I just about knocked us both to our knees.
    “Jeez!  Sorry.  I didn’t see you stop,” I apologized.
    Jason knelt down and inspected the black fabric protruding from the ground.  I squatted down next to him.  “What is it?” I asked.
    The black fabric was about an inch wide and it was Velcro.  He pulled on it and the remainder of the fabric came up with it.  It was about a foot long and a couple inches wide.  It looked like a series of small quilted pillows, but it was heavy.  “It’s a weight,” Jason concluded.  “A wrist or ankle weight — like runners wear.”
    I took the black object from him.  “Runners?  Diane was running