by D'Ann Lindun
He chuckled. “Sure. Whatever you want.”
As if she were watching herself in a movie, she saw her body move to him and take the proffered baggie. With numb fingers, she opened it and took a small amount of dope on her pinky. With a gasp of relief, she sniffed the powder. Instead of the fast, healing rush she expected, she sneezed.
Powdered sugar.
She swiped her hand across her runny nose. “What the hell?”
“You didn’t think our little fuck was going to buy you more product, did you? It barely made a dent in the debt you’ve already accumulated.” He grinned his coyote smile.
His amused expression infuriated her. She raised her hand and slapped the smug grin off his face. His dark glasses flew off and across the sandy ground. “You son-of-a-bitch.”
With a smile she suddenly found dangerous, he stepped close. “That’s not nice.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
After checking in with her mom and Dani, Jamie hurried into her building, acknowledging Hattie with a nod. “Morning.”
“Good morning, Sheriff.” The dispatcher handed over a pink slip of paper. “I was just about to phone you. An anonymous man just called and said he found a woman’s body on the edge of the White Forest.”
Jamie stumbled to a halt. “Did he say anything else?”
“No. I tried, but he hung up before I could get any information. The number was blocked.”
“Are any of the other officers here yet?” Jamie scanned the brief message.
“Not yet.”
“Call Agent Varner and ask him to meet me at the corner of Ute and Highway 54. We can ride to the location together. Have Officer Carver stick close to the computer so I can send him pictures if it turns out to be a crime scene.” Jamie spun on her heel and hurried toward her Jeep.
On the way, she wondered why she’d instinctively asked for Austin to come with her. Probably because he was the only one with any real crime scene knowledge. Maybe Jenkins had been part of a few. But none of the others had ever seen a murder. She stopped her train of thought. She was jumping to conclusions. No one said a crime had been committed. For all she knew, the victim died of natural causes.
Only one way to find out. Go see.
On the way, Hattie called and informed Jamie Austin was on the way.
He was already waiting when she turned onto the corner of Ute. Jamie’s heart sped up, and her breath caught in her throat. “Knock it off,” she said aloud. “He’s a co-worker, nothing more.”
Why was it impossible to forget the brush of his lips against hers? The way her body craved more? She had to get over it. She was his associate. Not his lover. And that wasn’t going to change. Keeping that thought firmly in mind, she pulled her Jeep next to his pickup and motioned for him to ride with her.
He walked toward her in that easy, long-legged stride that made her mouth go dry.
So much for being immune to him.
She unlocked the passenger side door and he climbed inside, instantly making the interior of her Jeep feel tight. He smelled so good. Like a mountain evening. “Morning.”
“What’s going on? Someone found a body?” He fastened his seatbelt as she pulled back onto highway 54 and steered toward the mountains.
“Yes. Hattie got an anonymous tip this morning.”
“Anonymous?” He sounded surprised.
“Some man who refused to give his name. He said there’s a woman’s body at the edge of the White Forest.”
Austin made no further comment.
“Do you think this could be related to the others?” Jamie feared she already knew the answer.
He made a non-committal sound. “Maybe.”
They left Confluence behind, following the two-lane highway south, past ranches and irrigated farmland. Already, a few of the aspens on the very highest ridges had turned gold. Soon the entire mountainside would glimmer with shimmering orange and yellow leaves.
Slowing, Jamie turned off the highway and onto a narrow dirt road. She rolled down her window and the tangy scents of cedar and sage rolled in. Jamie inhaled the familiar smells, enjoying them. She had a feeling it would be a long while before she had the chance again.
A gray-brown coyote bounded into sight, then disappeared just as quickly back into the scrub brush.
She glanced at Austin. “Did you see that?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “Beautiful.”
Surprise froze her tongue for a moment. Most people around here didn’t find the scavengers beautiful. Most saw them as the enemy. Killing livestock and being general nuisances didn’t endear them to ranchers. “I suppose.”
Her mind left coyotes and turned toward the task ahead as she spotted a man standing near a barbed wire fence. They bumped over a cattle guard and stopped. The man walked toward them, flanked by two border collies. As he drew close, Jamie realized he was one of the Basque sheepherders employed by Ernesto Villalobos, a wealthy rancher. The man wore a flat, Spanish-style hat and a bright red poncho embroidered with gold thread.
She and Austin climbed out of the Jeep and approached him. Up close, he stood only about five-foot-tall and had the swarthy skin of a man who spent most of his time outdoors. He said something in Spanish to the dogs and they flopped down at his feet.
“Hola,” she said. “Do you speak English?”
He nodded. “Un poco.”
Jamie fought to remember her high school Spanish for sheep. “¿La ovejas?”
“Si, si.” He grinned, showing virtually no teeth. He gestured toward the hills. Hundreds of white dots covered the slopes.
“What’s your name?” Austin switched to Spanish. “¿Qué es su nombre?”
“Horatio Uritaga.”
“Señor Uritaga, you found a woman?” Jamie asked. “Can you show us la mujer? ¿Por favor?”
With a nod and a quiet command to his dogs, the sheepherder turned back the way he came with the border collies tracing his steps. Jamie and Austin followed down the fence line, weaving around sagebrush. About half a mile away from the road, Horatio stopped and pointed. “There.”
Stepping around him, Jamie spotted the crumpled form about a dozen yards ahead. She could tell from here the woman was dead. “Damn.”
Without commenting, Austin moved around her and walked to the body. Jamie followed silently. Horatio and his dogs fell in line last. When Austin reached the corpse, he stopped and observed in silence. Jamie moved to his side and gave an involuntary gasp. One of the dogs whined before the sheepherder hushed him.
Austin turned toward the herder. “¿Cuánto tiempo hace encontró usted ella? Hace cuanto tiempo la encontró?” How long ago did you find her?
The man looked at the sun, then shrugged. “Aproximadamente hace una hora.”
“About an hour ago? Did you see anyone else?”
“No.” He motioned toward a grazing horse. Jamie recognized the rangy roan as Sport, Kate Hollenbreck’s favorite mount, and she fought to focus. “Vi el caballo, y vine a ver si todo estuvo bien. Eso es cuando vi a la mujer.”
Jamie knew he said he saw the horse, then the woman.
“Did you touch her in any way?” Austin made gestures to get across what he meant.
Horatio looked frightened and Jamie intervened. “You’re not in any trouble. We just need to know if you turned her over or felt for a pulse.”
He shook his head. “No. No.”
“Do you know her?” Austin asked. “See her before?”
“No,” Horatio said. “Yo nunca la he visto antes.” Never before.
Although the question was directed toward Horatio, Jamie swallowed hard then answered. “I do.”
She looked into the wide, glazed-over eyes of a woman she’d known her entire life. Blue marks covered the woman’s delicate throat and blood soaked the front of her western shirt. Her brown hair splayed out around her like a shroud, and her Stetson seemed to have been tossed carelessly in the dust near her left hand. “Kate Hollenbreck. She owns the land just south of here.”
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“You can go, Mr. Uritaga. We may have more questions later. Gracias.” Austin dismissed Horatio before kneeling beside Kate’s body and studying her. “We need to let the coroner know we have a suspicious death coming in.”
The Basque called his dogs and headed for the horizon.
Jamie reached for her cell phone. Luckily she had service and dialed the coroner’s office. He picked up on the third ring. “Doc, Sheriff English here. I’m sending you a body. It may be a murder.”
“Okay, I’ll look for evidence.” He sounded surprised, but professional.
“Thanks.” She hung up and dialed her office on a secure line. “Hattie, we need an ambulance on the edge of the White Forest. Just past the cattle guard. Half mile down the fence. No lights, it’s a death.”
“On the way.” If she had questions, Hattie didn’t voice them.
Jamie hung up and turned to study the woman she’d known forever. Kate was a couple decades older than Jamie, but they knew a lot of the same people. Rancher and rodeo types, mostly. More than ten years ago, Kate had divorced her husband, Stu, and he’d taken off for parts unknown.
Next to her, Austin spoke. “Any idea what she’d be doing out here?”
Jamie shrugged. “Checking fences, cows, water. Any and all of the above.”
“Alone?”
She dragged her gaze from the bloody bodice of her friend and met his eyes. “Kate’s husband took off a few years back. They had no children. To keep her ranch, she had to sell most everything that wasn’t nailed down. She couldn’t afford much help; she did most everything by herself. Her neighbors understood and pitched in when she’d let them. She has one hand, an old man named Walter White Hawk left, but he’s ancient now.”
“Proud woman.”
“Yes.” Jamie turned away to hide her tears. It wouldn’t do to have her co-worker see her cry. “I’m going to get the camera.”
By the time she carried the Canon back and took aim at the body, she’d regained control of her emotions. Zooming in, she snapped pictures of the bruising on Kate’s face. Her ragged fingernails. Her bloody shirt. The way one leg of her battered chaps lay crooked. Everything Jamie could think of that might help.
After she finished, she let the camera rest against her chest and walked toward Kate’s roan gelding. The horse shied a little when Jamie approached, but at her quiet words, let her catch him.
“What are you doing?” Austin called.
“Seeing if there’s blood on the saddle, or if it looks like he might have thrown and dragged her.”
“See any evidence of that?”
“No.” Jamie noticed something on the ground. “Here’s something, though. Come over here and look.”
When he joined her, she pointed at a second set of hoof prints in the gray earth. “See that? There was another horse here.” She walked in a small circle, looking for human tracks. The dry earth didn’t give up any additional human evidence, but it did tell of one horse walking away toward the mountains. “Somebody rode off that way.”
“Good work,” Austin said. “We better check that out.” He walked back to the victim and stood looking close into Kate’s face. “Bring the camera over here.”
Jamie’s stomach whirled, but she forced herself to control it and moved close. “What?”
“There’s white powder there under her nose. Do you see it?”
“Yeah.” She had to lean in close, but she spotted a faint dusting of a white substance. She rocked back. “Do you think it’s cocaine?”
“Possibly. Take a shot, please.”
She did as he asked, avoiding looking into Kate’s empty eyes. Jamie had only ever seen two dead bodies—her grandparents’—and they had been laid out in their caskets when she looked into their familiar faces, not sprawled out on the red clay earth like an abandoned rag doll. As sheriff, she’d be expected to see the occasional body, but the first one being an old friend made it tougher than she expected.
“We better tarp the body,” Austin said.
“I’ll get it.” She ran to the truck, grabbed the roll of clear plastic, and together, they pulled it over Kate’s still form. Then she and Austin roped off the crime scene with bright yellow tape.
The arrival of the ambulance came as a welcome relief.
Doc Baines, the county coroner, pulled up a few minutes later in his tan sedan and parked behind Jamie’s Jeep. Slamming the car door behind him, the diminutive man walked toward them. He nodded when he grew close. “What do we have here? Or should I say who?”
“Kate Hollenbreck,” Jamie said tightly.
“Oh, my.” Much like Austin had, Doc knelt beside her body, pulled the plastic sheet back and studied the body. Apparently satisfied, he stood, dusted off his knees and turned toward them. “Is there any chance her horse bucked her off?”
Jamie shrugged. “Maybe, but I doubt it. I’ve seen her on that gelding a million times and nothing’s ever rattled him before.”
Together, they walked toward the roan. Again, he shied a little, but Jamie caught him easily and held his reins while Doc walked around him. “Do you see anything odd, Sheriff?”
Thinking she’d missed something, she shook her head. “No.”
He stepped back. “Good. Is there anything else I need to be aware of?”
“We found another set of tracks.” She led him to the markings and watched while he examined them.
“I think you’re correct in thinking you might have a homicide here, Sheriff.”
She nodded again. “I think so, too.”
“I’ll have more to go on after I do my autopsy.”
Jamie’s stomach rolled, but she forced herself to stay calm. “Thanks.”
“I’ll be in touch as soon as I know something.” He went to the ambulance and spoke to the crew before getting in his car and leaving.
Two men Jamie knew vaguely hoisted the body onto a gurney. She looked toward the mountains as the EMTs loaded Kate’s still form into the ambulance and slowly rolled away.
Austin’s voice drew her attention. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She let out a ragged breath. “Fine.”
He eyed the trail of dust the ambulance left in its wake. “Does Kate have next of kin we need to notify?”
“No. Her parents are dead and she was an only child.” Jamie walked toward the roan gelding. “I’ll ride Sport home.”
Austin grabbed her wrist. Heat seared her skin like a sunburn. “Not a good idea, Sheriff. The killer might still be out there. He could be watching us right now.”
A shudder rolled down her back. Why hadn’t she thought of that? “I’ll turn Sport loose. He’ll go home on his own.”
In silence, she took off the horse’s tack and tapped him on the behind. With a snort, he galloped away. Jamie knew he’d stop and graze, but would find his way back to his corral by nightfall. She carried the bridle toward her Jeep and stowed it in the back, along with Kate’s old saddle.
“I’ll drive.” Austin waited for her terse nod before he got into the driver’s seat.
Jamie opened the passenger’s door and climbed inside. “Is there anything else we need to do here?”
“Not now.” Austin started the Jeep and turned it around. “But I’d like to get hold of an ATV or a horse and follow those tracks as soon as possible.
“I’m on it.” Jamie reached for her phone. “Mom? It’s Jamie. Can you keep Dani overnight again? Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow after work. Thanks. I love you. Kiss her for me.” She hung up and dialed again. “Hattie? Please assemble all my deputies in the conference room in about fifteen minutes.”
Jamie stared out the window as the miles rolled by. Had she bitten off more than she could chew by becoming sheriff? Four women missing and presumed dead. A friend murdered. If it weren’t for Austin’s cool head, she wasn’t sure she could handle the pressure. She risked a glance his direction. He looked straight ahead, a muscle in his jaw working. His fingers were wound tight around the steering wheel.
Surprise and a strange relief filled her. If he didn’t give a damn, then he wasn’t the man she thought he was. And he wasn’t the man she was starting to rely on more every day.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jamie looked around the table at her deputies. “Thank you for coming so quickly.” She took a deep breath. “I called you together to let you know there’s been a murder. We have a body. Kate Hollenbreck.”
“Oh, no.” Daralee covered her mouth with her hand. “She was a sweet lady. I knew her from church.”
“Yeah, she was.” Jamie swallowed hard. “A Basque sheepherder discovered her near the White Forest, just past the second cattle guard.”
Jinx pulled a little notebook and pen from his shirt pocket. “What happened to her? Do we know?”
“Not for certain,” Jamie told him, “but it looks like strangulation.”
“I’ll check with the coroner later,” Austin volunteered.
Jamie acknowledged him with a nod. “Thank you.”
“Any theories on who did it?” Tad leaned back in his seat and glared at her.
“Not yet. That’s partly why I wanted to call this meeting.” Jamie sipped her stale coffee. “Does anyone have any thoughts on who would want to hurt Kate?”
“Boyfriend gone bad?” Daralee suggested.
“To my knowledge Kate hasn’t seen anyone since Stu took off.” Jamie twirled her cup. “She wasn’t wild, or into one-nighters.”
“I saw her partying at The Moon a few times,” Tad said. When everyone looked his way, he shrugged. “With a few other women. She danced a few times, but I never saw her leave with anybody.”
“What women? Can you name them?”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know every woman in town, but one of them was Lisa Rogers.”
Jamie’s mind flashed back to the tall, thin brunette at the book club meeting. She hadn’t seemed like a cowgirl, or someone Kate would even know, but appearances could be deceiving. “More than once?”