Ryan McWallas

The Shawnigan Creek Stone Bridge had been closed since sunrise. Police tape stretched between cedar trunks. Patrol cars crowded the logging road. Reporters stood beyond the barrier, already building stories from fragments. A body had been found beneath the bridge. I spotted Ryan before he saw me. He stood near the creek with a notebook open, listening to nobody. Detectives spoke. A forensic team moved around him. Ryan kept watching the water. 3 weeks earlier, he had arrested Julie Mores for arranging the murder of her parents. 4 months earlier, he had married her. A year earlier, he had left me. The newspapers treated those facts as a puzzle. Ryan treated them as evidence. When he finally noticed me, there was no reaction. "You crossed the tape." I looked at the bridge. "I was told you are here" His eyes narrowed slightly. The same look he used when someone said more than they meant to. A reporter shouted a question from the road. Neither of us turned. The creek rushed beneath the stone arch. Cold. Fast. Loud enough to swallow a conversation. "Did she confess?" I asked. Ryan closed the notebook. "Why?" "I was curious." "No. You weren't." For a second, I thought he might leave. Instead he studied the bridge. The victim had been found face down against one of the supports. A fisherman had spotted a boot in the water before dawn. Another family was already receiving visitors from the police. Another house would stay lit all night. Ryan spoke without looking at me. "You came for an answer." I didn't ask, I waited. "So?" A forensic technician waved him over. Ryan started walking. Then stopped. "Julie lied to everyone. I gave evidence in court"