Manhunt in the Wild West. Jessica Andersen
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brisk, businesslike tone when she said, “I’m glad you’re here. Chief Mendoza wants me to come out front and say a few words for the cameras so we can sneak the van in the back way while the newsies are distracted.” Sara slipped out of her fall-weight wool jacket and held it out, revealing a jade-toned skirt suit that perfectly complemented her shoulder-length, honey-colored hair and arresting amber eyes. “Take this in case you’re waiting long.”
The mid-October day was unusually cool, thanks to a sharp breeze that brought frigid air down from the snow-covered Rockies. It was just another change in the unusually unpredictable weather they’d been having lately. The mix of snow squalls and torrential downpours had triggered landslides in Bear Claw Canyon as well as the hills west of the city, taking out roads and at one point even prompting evacuation of the Bear Claw Ski Resort, which was just starting to gear up for the winter season.
For the moment, though, the skies were clear, the wind sharp. The Rocky Mountains were a dark blur on the horizon, well beyond the huge wilderness of Bear Claw Canyon State Park, which formed an unpopulated buffer between the city suburbs and the ARX Supermax prison.
Chelsea shivered involuntarily, though she couldn’t have said whether the chill came from the wind biting through the thin scrubs she wore over her casual slacks and shirt, or the thought of how little actually separated them from an enclosure housing two thousand or so of the worst criminals in the country.
She took Sara’s coat and drew it over her shoulders. “Thanks.”
The garment was too long everywhere and she didn’t have a prayer of buttoning it across the front, mute testimony that Sara was tall and lean and willowy, whereas Chelsea was none of those things.
Five-five if she stretched it, tending way more toward curvy than willowy, Chelsea wore her dark, chestnut-highlighted hair in a sassy bob that brushed her chin, used a daily layer of mascara to emphasize the long eyelashes that framed her brown eyes, and considered her smile to be her best feature. If life were a movie, she would probably play the best friend’s supporting role to Sara’s elegant lead, and that was okay with her.
Some people were destined to do great things, others small ones. That was just the way it was.
Within the ME’s office, Chelsea was good at the small things. She was the best of them at dealing with the families of the dead, mainly because she genuinely liked people. She enjoyed meeting them and learning about them, and she liked knowing that the information she gave them often helped ease the passing of their loved ones. She might not be saving the world, but she was, she hoped, making the natural process of death a bit easier, one family at a time.
At the moment, though, she didn’t particularly care if the incoming bodies were tied to people who had loved them and wanted answers. As far as she was concerned, monsters like the four dead men didn’t deserve autopsies or answers. They deserved deep, unmarked graves and justice in the afterlife.
“I wish the prison had kept the bodies,” Sara grumbled, her thoughts paralleling Chelsea’s. Then she sighed, clearly not looking forward to the impromptu press conference. “Okay, I’ll go do the song and dance and leave you guys to the real work.”
The snippiness implied by her words was more selfdirected than anything—as the youngest chief medical examiner in city history, and a woman to boot, she’d found herself doing far more politicking and crisis management than she’d expected, when Chelsea knew she’d rather be in the morgue, doing the work she’d trained for.
The two women had only met the year before, when Sara had pulled Chelsea’s résumé out of a stack of better-qualified applicants because she’d been looking to build a young, cutting-edge team that combined empathy with hard science and innovation. That had been great until six months later, when the young, aggressive mayor who’d recruited Sara had stepped down in the wake of an embezzlement scandal, and his old-guard deputy mayor had taken over and promptly started undoing a large chunk of his predecessor’s work.
Acting Mayor Proudfoot hadn’t yet managed to disassemble the ME’s office, but he was trying. That had Sara, Chelsea and the others watching their backs at every turn these days.
“We’ve got this,” Chelsea assured her boss. “You go make us look good, okay?”
Sara shot her a grateful smile and headed inside. When the door shut at her back, Chelsea glanced at Jerry. She grinned at the sight of the assistant’s obvious discomfort in the sharp air. “Dude, your nose is turning blue.”
Dark-haired and brown-eyed, the twenty-something Florida native was having a tough time adjusting to his first cold snap, having moved to Bear Claw just that summer to be with his park-ranger girlfriend. But Jerry was a hard worker and an asset to the team. He didn’t accept her invitation to bitch about the cold, instead saying, “The van’s late. Wonder if the driver got lost or stuck in the media circus or something.”
Chelsea pulled out her cell and checked the time display, frowning when she saw that he was right, the transpo coming from the prison was a good fifteen minutes overdue. “Maybe I should call the prison dispatcher and see if there’s been a delay.”
“Never mind. I think I see them.”
Sure enough, a plain-looking van nosed its way into the alley, then spun away from them and started backing toward the cement loading dock, its brake lights flashing as the driver struggled to navigate the tight, unfamiliar alley, which was made even tighter by an obstacle course of trash bins and parked vehicles.
Unmarked and unremarkable, the van looked like nothing special on first glance, but a closer inspection revealed that it was reinforced throughout, with mesh on the small back windows.
Through the mesh, Chelsea could see one of the guards’ faces. His eyes were a clear, piercing blue, and a thin scar ran through one of his dark eyebrows, probably tangible evidence of the dangers that came from working within the ARX Supermax.
As the van’s rear bumper kissed the rubber-padded lip of the dock, the guard’s eyes locked on Chelsea and another shiver tried to work its way through her. This one didn’t come from the cold or unease about the prisoners’ bodies, though; it was a sensual tremor, one that tempted her to rethink the “career first” vow she’d made in the wake of yet another near-miss of a relationship.
The guard’s eyes hadn’t changed and he hadn’t moved, but suddenly her breath came thin in her lungs and she had to lock her legs against a wash of heat and weakness, and an almost overwhelming urge to see the rest of him. In private.
“Wow,” she said aloud. “Note to self: take Sara up on her offer to bring her brother around for a look-see.” Chelsea might’ve sworn off serious relationships, but there was no doubt her body was telling her that it was time for some recreational dating.
“’Scuse me?” asked Jerry, who looked confused.
“Just talking to myself,” Chelsea said as the van came to a stop and the guard disappeared from the window. She felt a little spurt of disappointment to have their shared look broken off, followed by a kick of nerves that she’d see the rest of him in a moment. Not that she was likely to follow up on the attraction, if it was even reciprocated. His direct, challenging stare warned that he’d probably be too intense for her, too unnerving.
She liked her guys the same way she preferred her Tex-Mex and curry: a little on the mild side, satisfying yet undemanding. She might be drawn to the other kind of guy, the tough, challenging sort she liked in her books and movies, but that was where her inner wimp kicked in. She didn’t want to date a guy she couldn’t keep up with.
And that was so not what she was supposed to be focusing on right now, she lectured herself as the driver killed the engine and emerged from the vehicle, carrying the requisite paperwork. Moments later, the back doors swung open and two other guys jumped down and started readying the body bags for transfer into the morgue. The men were wearing drab uniforms with weapon belts, and hats pulled low over their brows, making them blend into a certain sort of sameness…except for the blue-eyed guard, who Chelsea recognized immediately, even from the back.
He