Undercover Hunter

by Rachel Lee

  He laughed again. The car started without a problem, but it didn’t warm up at all before they reached the construction trailer just west of town. Masters General Contracting sported a low-key black-and-white sign. The gravel parking lot had been mostly cleared of snow and the tires gripped it well enough.

  “Why did you choose Wyoming?” he asked as he parked.

  “Wide-open spaces, mountains, and not a whole lot of people.”

  “Sick of people?”

  Half of them, she thought, but self-censored. “Not really. I couldn’t think of a bigger change of pace, and I needed one.”

  “I bet you did.”

  They climbed out and headed for the steps leading up to the door. The trailer was skirted, and the steps weren’t rickety at all. The guy had managed to bring a sense of permanence to what was probably only a stopgap.

  Inside, the trailer was warm. A man in a sweatshirt and jeans sat at a desk with a computer in front of him and the inevitable stack of papers beside him. He rose immediately, smiling. “Luke Masters. You must be DeeJay and Cade Denton.” He shook their hands warmly and immediately offered coffee.

  DeeJay didn’t even want to unzip her parka yet. “Thanks. It’s cold out there. I was wondering why anyone would want to ski in this.”

  “Maybe not in this weather,” he agreed. “Although you can cover your face up pretty well. But this isn’t typical.”

  She couldn’t help herself. “Is there any typical weather anymore?”

  Luke Masters surprised her by laughing. “Shh. Don’t inform my employers. We’re getting lots of snow, and that’s what I tell them about.”

  She noted he had a slight limp as he headed for the coffeepot, once again leaving her to wonder if all the men in this place were sporting injuries.

  He caught her look as he brought the pot back to the desk where three mugs, sporting his business name, were already arrayed. “Took a fall last winter up on the mountain. The leg is fine, it just objects to cold weather.”

  They sat around the desk, and Luke began his pitch.

  “I can show you plans and drawings to give you an idea where we intend to go. I have photos of the artist’s renderings you can keep. I can take you up on the mountain so you can see where we’re cutting the ski slopes and get a breathtaking view or two. But unfortunately I can’t take you inside what we’ve built yet. It’s very much a hard-hat area. We’re using the winter to work on interiors, but they’re a long way from looking anything close to finished.”

  DeeJay slipped into her role. “Do you really intend to be open next fall?”

  “Barring anything unexpected and major, yes. We won’t have fleshed out all the plans, though. We’ll be starting fairly small and expanding with demand but all the basics will be there. The resort hotel, a few of the restaurants, some of the shops. And of course the main slopes. We can always add a few more later if we need them. And once the weather improves in the spring, we’ll give the town a face-lift.”

  “I was hearing some concern about that.”

  He nodded. “We don’t want to change the place. It has its own character—it’s a working town, not a place created as a tourist venue. We think that’ll give it its own charm. People who want only the ski village experience can stay up on the mountain for that.”

  “Good thinking,” DeeJay said approvingly. “Of course, that may be a bias of mine. Too much plastic loses the real charm.”

  “Well, people who come up here to ski can go down there and meet actual cowboys and so on. See what a real Western town is like.”

  Cade stirred. “What about corollary construction? Condos, houses and so on?”

  “We’re not looking toward much of that. Part of our charm is that we’re pretty much surrounded by protected land, state and federal. So we won’t develop any unnecessary sprawl.”

  “Unless it happens down below.”

  “That’ll be up to local zoning boards. Up here, we’re shooting for pristine. Surrounded by wilderness.”

  A few minutes later, they zipped up again and piled into the crew cab of Luke Masters’s truck. He assured them their sporty little number couldn’t make it. “We have construction roads, but the winter’s done a number on them already, mainly because they were built in a hurry. We’ll need four-wheel drive.”

  The climb up to the site was breathtaking. DeeJay leaned against her side window and stared out as deep forest repeatedly gave way to sprawling vistas of the mountains and valley below. For all her complaints about the cold, this was the reason she had wanted to be out here: the wilderness and the beauty. Too bad it had collected some of the worst ugliness known to man.

  Up at the construction site, Luke showed them around briefly, then told them to wander where they liked as long as they didn’t come inside and avoided the evident obstacles of heavy equipment and mounded earth.

  “The slopes will be up that way,” he said, pointing to the north. “They’re pretty much laid out and ready. We wanted to see how they’d hold up over a winter.”

  It was Cade who asked the important question. “We heard about those boys. Where were they found?”

  Luke’s face darkened. “You’re not going to write about that.”

  “Hell, no,” Cade answered firmly. “But from what we’ve been hearing in town, I’m just curious. That’s all it is. But, no, that’s not part of the story. We’re here to say good things, and since you’re only halfway through development, I don’t know how we could say anything bad yet.”

  Luke visibly relaxed. “It’s terrible what’s going on. Frankly, we’ve got some nervous investors, too. I hope they catch the creep soon. Hurting those boys...” He shook his head. “He better not come up this way. But you can follow that cut line over there if you really want to see.” He pointed. “Not much to it now, though. The cops cleaned it up pretty well. Look about halfway up the slope and to the right.”

  Then he went inside, waving to a man who climbed out of a truck. There were half a dozen vehicles up here, probably belonging to people hard at work inside.

  Cade and DeeJay wandered around a bit, pausing to pretend to take photos of the view.

  “It’s breathtaking up here,” DeeJay remarked.

  “Fabulous. And I can’t believe I just made myself out to be one of those curiosity seekers who gather at an accident or crime scene.”

  She felt the momentary touch of amusement. “They disgust you, too?”

  “Always.”

  “Well, at least you know you’re not one of them for real.” She looked up the slope Luke had pointed out, a wide swath cut through the trees. “We’re going to wish they had a ski lift installed.”

  “I don’t doubt it. Ready?”

  Since no work had been done on the slope, other than clearing it, the slog was a hard one through fairly deep snow. At least the underlying layers had hardened, but the top layers were fresh powder.

  “The skiing is going to be great,” Cade remarked. “And next time I get a brainstorm like this, remind me they make snowshoes.”

  The laughter bubbled out of her, but the higher altitude left her a little breathless and cut it off faster than her amusement died. By the time they were about a quarter of the way up, both of them were breathless. Each step was getting harder.

  “I’m surprised they don’t have snowmobiles up here,” he said.

  “We could turn around and get one from somewhere, I’m sure.” It was sounding like a better idea all the time. Lifting her feet so high to take the next step was reminding her of a few muscles she hadn’t used in a while.

  Cade turned around and looked backward at the resort. “God, this is going to be a beautiful place to ski.”

  “It would be a beautiful location to do anything.” She frowned faintly, the most she could do when her face felt frozen. Reachi
ng up, she unrolled her ski mask to cover her face and tucked the end inside her jacket. “I need a few.” She hated to sound weak, but she wasn’t used to the altitude and the cold air. Her body felt warm, even a little too warm, but breathing was almost painful.

  “It’d be a good place to make snow angels,” he remarked almost absently.

  She looked at him, taken again by his amazing aquamarine eyes. He, too, had rolled down his ski mask and was scanning the area with an intensity it didn’t seem to deserve. They hadn’t reached anywhere near the place the bodies had been stashed.

  “What?” she asked finally.

  “The woods,” he said obscurely.

  “What about them?”

  “It’s been bothering me from the start. Admittedly we’re plowing through snow here, but consider how far we’ve had to come. Bringing those bodies up here was risky, yes, but it was also hard to do. Unless the guy is a mountain goat, anyway. And we’re walking up a cleared slope. He didn’t have that available to him five years ago.”

  DeeJay looked around with fresh eyes and realized he was right. “He couldn’t have carried them for sure. So he must have driven them. But how?”

  “ATV, I suppose. But wouldn’t that need some kind of clearing anyway to get through?”

  “We need to talk to someone who really knows these mountains. And we need something better than a road map. Topography. Trails.”

  “Agreed.” He looked at her again. “Should we continue or head back?”

  She looked up the slope. “My nightmare hike. I’m wondering how much we could tell from the scene after all this time.”

  “Maybe we found out all we need to know. I’m a hiker from way back, and I’ll be honest with you, my mind didn’t present a truly clear picture of the obstacles our perp faced to get those bodies up here. Even one at a time.”

  “Add to that that once the site was found, the cops were all over it. If there was ever an original trail, we won’t be able to pick it out, especially under all this snow.”

  He nodded. “So what’s your gut instinct? Will we learn any more up there, or should we conclude that now that we’ve seen the general area we can work with photos and talk to someone who knows his way around up here?”

  She hesitated, but she fully appreciated that he was letting her make the decision. She really liked him right then. She sighed and tugged at her ski mask. “These things get wet from our breath. Lousy design.”

  He laughed quietly. “Got a better one?”

  “Short of a snorkel hood, no.” She turned around slowly, taking in everything, absorbing details and making judgments. “Let’s get under the trees,” she said presently. “I want a better feel for what he was actually up against.”

  “Fair enough.”

  They plowed across the slope to the darkened area beneath the trees. Overhead a blue sky was beginning to fade, as if thin clouds might be moving in. Soon the light would become flat, making it all more difficult.

  The earthmovers that had carved out the slope had left mounds of dirt just before the woods. DeeJay wondered if they would clear that away later or leave it. Where the heck would someone put all this rock and soil anyway? Use it for filler elsewhere on the resort?

  They clambered over the mounds. Beneath the trees, the snow wasn’t quite as deep, giving her a better sense of the terrain and the difficulties.

  “He was one determined guy,” she said finally. Even on an ATV without snow, working through the trees would have been a slow process. The forest was thick, dense with undergrowth in places. “He must have had a trail.”

  “Well, we know where it ended. The question is where did it begin?”

  “We aren’t going to figure that out now.” She turned, and as she did so, her boot caught on something, maybe a root and she started to fall.

  Instantly, strong arms caught her and the next thing she knew she was pressed against Cade’s chest. Layers of down prevented it from being in any way intimate, but when she looked up into his eyes, no amount of down could prevent the hot arc of hunger that speared through her.

  A flare in his gaze seemed to answer her.

  “Cade?” she said breathlessly, the question almost lost as the treetops stirred in a sudden wind. It didn’t matter. She didn’t know what she was asking anyway.

  “Damn,” he said quietly. Apparently, he knew the answer because he leaned in and kissed her. Damp wool got into the mix but DeeJay hardly noticed. His lips were cold, but his breath was warm, and she instinctively tried to open her mouth to welcome him.

  A sharp pang of desire shot through her, and her gloved hands instinctively rose to try to grip his upper arms for support. An ache rolled through her, and the merest touch of his tongue against hers electrified her.

  Then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over.

  They pulled back quickly, at the same time. “No,” she said, adrenaline surging, filling her with a flight-or-fight response. Men didn’t touch her. Not anymore, not without asking first.

  “Not good,” he agreed, his words tripping over hers.

  It might have been comic if she hadn’t been left feeling hungry and bereft. It was ludicrous, she told herself as she waited for the rising tide of passion inside her to ease. Ridiculous. Bundled up like Inuit on a frigid mountainside, what could they have done anyway?

  And it was wrong, so wrong, to risk their professional relationship on something like this. They had to work together, and everything else could just go hang.

  “DeeJay?”

  “Mmm?” Talking seemed difficult.

  “Clouds moving in. I think we’d better get off this mountain.”

  By the time they reached the foot of the slope and trudged toward the resort, she felt frozen to the very bone. Except for one kernel of white heat between her legs.

  Nothing seemed capable of freezing that.

  Luke Masters drove them down the mountain a short time later. “I see you didn’t get up to the crime scene,” he remarked.

  “No, but we learned you’ve got some great snow for skiing here,” Cade answered smoothly. “Hell, I’d pay to ride the lift to the top just to take in the view.”

  “I was hoping for that reaction. We may have to make some of our own powder at times, mainly in the early winter and spring, but mostly I think nature is going to take care of us. And it is beautiful up there.”

  “The way you angled that one slope we were looking at is amazing. It opens up the view.”

  “Some of that was necessitated by geology, but it worked out well. All the slopes have great views.”

  DeeJay decided to speak even though her lips still felt frozen despite the heat blasting inside the car. “Are you going to be open the rest of the year for hikers?”

  “We’re thinking about it. But we need to work things out with the forest service. Like I said, they surround us, pretty much. You might want to talk to someone there about that.”

  “They would have people who know those mountains like the backs of their hands?”

  “Absolutely. Some of them live in them year-round. Craig Stone might be the best person to talk to. He ranges all over those woods constantly and has for years.”

  He dropped them at their car, excusing himself to get back to work but making sure they exchanged cards. “Any questions, call me. Oh, wait, I promised you those photos of our plans.”

  They were in their car, waiting for it to warm up, when he darted back out of the trailer with something that looked like a large portfolio. “I’ll need these back,” he said, “but they’ll give you the best idea. In the back there’s an envelope of smaller photos you can keep.”

  “Don’t I feel like a sham,” Cade said as they drove back toward town.

  “Yeah. I always wind up thinking of that line about how undercover cops have
to lie.” She slid down a bit in her seat. “He was a nice guy. I didn’t like lying to him.”

  “I think he’ll understand once we solve this case.”

  “Needs must. And speaking of needs, food and heat are on the top of my list right now.”

  “You wanted a chicken Caesar salad tonight, right?”

  “That’s for later. Right now I want as many calories as I can tuck in.”

  He laughed and headed them toward the diner. The kiss on the mountain seemed to have been put firmly in the past, an aberration.

  Except to DeeJay, it didn’t feel like an aberration at all. It tingled through her with an awareness that wouldn’t quit, and a drumbeat of desire for more. Not good. She needed to cut it out, to be ruthless with herself as she had in the past. As ruthless as necessary. Everything else aside, her aversion for men, her own rape, none of that seemed as important as not screwing up her first partnership in her new job.

  “Do you want to call this Craig Stone at the forest service?” he asked. “Or should I?”

  “I’ll do it.” Despite being worn-out from the fruitless climb up that ski slope, the need to take action of some kind was still riding her. She hated how slow cases could move sometimes, like they were just marking time as they waited for a break. It was even more frustrating because right now they were dealing with a ticking bomb. Nobody could be certain when the killer would act again. The bomb could blow up right in their faces.

  She dried to drag her thoughts back in line. “So you hadn’t really thought about how hard it would be for him to get the bodies up there?”

  “No,” he admitted. “In retrospect that seems stupid, but I hadn’t. The crime-scene photos didn’t give me a real sense of the surrounding terrain, and I guess I was assuming there had to be a road nearby. A track of some kind.”

  “Maybe there was. This Stone guy should know.”

  “I hope so. There’s enough mystery surrounding everything without wondering if our perp is capable of levitation.”

  That drew a laugh from her, and finally she let go of the tension inside. It had been just a kiss, after all. One little kiss and not a very big deal at all because of the cold and the quickness with which they had ended it. No reason to get all tied up in knots about it.