HEATHCLIFFE TOOK A walk, or rather a limp, through the woods after breakfast, enjoying the silence of the place as well as the crisp, clean air. He had an idea he might run into Nita out there. She’d told him she might go for a run after she prepped for the day’s activities. His cell phone rang and he turned it off, knowing who it was without looking at the display. Guilt ate at him, but he wasn’t ready to face the happy couple yet.
Heathcliffe didn’t see Nita, but he did run into somebody he wasn’t nearly as pleased to see. He inclined his head to the man dropping down from the ledge of rocks which ran along the creek. Peyton’s property was cut nearly down the middle by a wide creek that interspersed a low line of hills.
Heathcliffe’s destination had been the creek. He’d spotted it that
