Hearts Aflame Collection IV: 4-Book Bundle (12 page)

Dougie
got
out his notepad. “Just tell us what happened.”

“Dad and I were up on the back forty, getting ready
to replace some fencing.
 
Mom and Lori were
still at school.”

Dougie
nodded encouragingly; Evelyn taught third grade, and Lori taught chemistry at
the high school.

Duke Jr. sucked in a breath. “So we got up there, and
I realized I’d left the wire cutters and the crimping shears in the barn.
  
Dad told me he’d take some measurements
while I went to get them, so after we unloaded stuff, I jumped back in the
truck and left him up there.”
 
He paused
as an agonizing realization crept over his face. “You know, if I hadn’t left
him alone, maybe he’d still be alive.”

Jade rubbed his shoulder reassuringly.
 
“We can’t know the future; you’re not
responsible.
 
So what happened when you
got back up there?”

“On the way back up, I—I heard a couple of gunshots,
but I couldn’t see anything because there was a stand of trees blocking my
view.
 
So I started driving as fast as I
could, but you know, there’s no road or even tracks up there.
 
Anyway, there was a dead wolf, and my dad—my
dad…” he gulped as his voice dropped to a whisper, “my dad was dead.”

“Dead how?”
 
Dougie
asked.

Gesturing toward his own neck, the anger started to
creep back into Duke
Jr.’s
voice.
 
“His throat was ripped out.
 
The damn wolf ripped his throat out.”
 
He thought for a moment, before continuing
indignantly, “Or wolves, there’s a whole damn pack on the BLM land.”

“So your father fired the shots?” Jade tried to
redirect his thinking.

“It must have been Dad.
 
I mean—he was all alone up there.”

“How long were you gone?”
Dougie
followed up.

“I don’t know, not long, twenty, twenty-five minutes
at most.”

Dougie
flipped his notebook shut.
 
“Do you think
you can go back up there with us?”

Carson nodded affirmatively. “I’ll go.”

Jade put a hand on Carson’s arm. “Not you, Carson,
Duke Jr.
 
We have to ask you and Harlan
to stay here.”

Carson didn’t enjoy being sidelined, but the older
man understood the deputies didn’t need a bunch of amateurs tramping around on
the scene.
 
“Oh, yeah,
of course.
 
No problem.”
   
He hooked his thumbs on the back pockets of
his jeans.
 
“We’ll make some coffee for
the ladies in the other room, look after them.”

“Thanks, Carson, I appreciate that.”
 
Duke Jr. patted Carson’s back before turning
and nodding to
Dougie
and Jade to affirm his fitness
for the mission at hand, and the three headed out.

Dougie
parked a little distance from where both Duke Sr. and the wolf were lying,
wanting to approach on foot so that they didn’t contaminate any evidence.

Jade turned to Duke Jr. “You just stay here with the
truck for now, keep warm.
 
We’ll call you
when we need you.”

Duke Jr. looked toward his father’s still form.
 
“I put that horse blanket on him.
 
It was in the truck, I—I couldn’t just leave
him lying there like that.”

“Sure, we understand.”
 
Jade wished he hadn’t contaminated things
with extra fibers and hairs, but if a wolf had killed Duke Sr., it wasn’t like
they would need to prosecute him in court.

The few inches of snow that covered the ground made
the spill of blood leaking from under the horse blanket appear all the more
gruesome.
 
Dougie
turned to Jade. “Check out the wolf…I’ll get the first look at Duke.”

It was kind of
Dougie
to
spare her the initial shock, she thought.
 
Once he uncovered Duke’s body, she could desensitize from a short
distance.
 
She had seen a number of dead
bodies in her time in the sheriff’s department, but most were people who died
at home from natural causes.
 
She’d been
on the scene at a couple of bad car wrecks, and once she had found a drunk
frozen to death at the edge of town, but this felt different: more intimate,
and more personal.
 
As she walked toward
the wolf, though, her earlier fears for
Conall
started to rise up again.
 

The wolf had definitely been shot with something big
and powerful; part of its skull was blown away.
  
To her relief, it was a much smaller wolf
than the one she associated with
Conall
, but its
blank, staring eyes were the same unusual amber color.
  
The wolf wasn’t heavy enough to leave much
in the way of footprints on the crusty, frozen snow, but from the direction it
was facing, it seemed to Jade that the shot had come from the other side of the
fence, the side that backed up to BLM land.
   
She took out her
smartphone
and began to snap
pictures.
 

“Does Duke have a gun on him?” Jade called over to
Dougie
.
 

“Not that I can see.”
 
Dougie
pushed back the wide brim of his wool
felt campaign hat and scratched at his head thoughtfully.

“Then who shot this wolf?”
 
Jade stood up and made her way over to where
Dougie
was squatting.
  
She sucked in a breath when she got close enough to get a good look at
Duke’s body.
 
“Oh
geez.”

“Sure looks to me like something tore his throat
out.”
Dougie
pointed to the gaping wound.
 
“But something about that doesn’t seem canine
to me.
 
It looks too neat.”

Jade peered at Duke’s neck; it was hard to tell much
with all the blood—which was quickly freezing—but there wasn’t the kind of
tearing you’d expect from an animal attack.
 
“Yeah, I see what you
mean,
the edges of the
wound look too clean to have been made by teeth.”

“And there aren’t any other bites on his face or
arms.
 
Get plenty of snaps.
 
I’ll call the coroner and get him out
here.
 
There needs to be an autopsy at
any rate.
 
And then we need Duke Jr. to
go through everything one more time.”

“You want me to call Wilson?” Jade asked.

“Yeah, it’s not open and shut.
 
There’s something about this that doesn’t
quite add up.”

After making their respective calls, Duke Jr. held it
together for long enough to walk them through his story again.
 
He seemed consistent, and as the father and
son were known for being close, they had no reason to suspect that Duke Jr. had
done anything nefarious.
 
Plus, Jade
thought, no one could fake either the numbness or strong emotion that Duke Jr.
alternately displayed.

Dougie
turned to Jade. “Why don’t you run Duke back to the house and when the coroner
gets there you can lead him back up here?”
 

“
It’s
okay,
Dougie
, I’ll stay up here.
 
I’ve got my long johns on, and I want to have a look around before it
gets darker.
 
The coroner will probably
be waiting down at the house; it won’t be that long.”

“Suit yourself.”
  
Dougie
settled his hat back on his head, and
with his round face, short beard, and good-natured attitude, Jade couldn’t help
but feel like she was working the investigation with Smoky the Bear.

Duke Jr. took one last look toward his father as
anger began to seep back through the numbness.
 
“It’s that damn Irishman.
 
We
never had a wolf problem around here until he showed up.
 
For all we know, he’s trapping wolves and
bringing them into the area.”

“
Com’on
, let’s get you back
to your people.”
 
Dougie
steered Duke Jr. toward the SUV, and they slowly drove off.

Jade flinched at the reference to
Conall
;
she couldn’t believe that Duke’s death was somehow his fault.
 
But Duke Jr. had made an astute observation
about timing: the hubbub with the wolves started about the same time people
first started seeing
Conall
around.
 
Shaking off the queasy feeling rolling
through her, Jade paced between the two bodies, trying to make sense of what
might have happened.
 
Then it hit her.
They needed to autopsy the wolf too.
 
If
it attacked Duke, Duke’s DNA would be in its mouth, and maybe its gut.

“Jade.”

Whirling to face the direction from which the soft
Irish lilt had come, Jade didn’t know whether to be ecstatic over
Conall’s
appearance or furious that it had taken him more
than a month to show up.

“Where the hell did you come from?”
 
Jade tried to mask her hurt as she waved a
mittened
hand in the direction of the wolf carcass.
 
“This one of yours?”
 

“Aye, one of mine.”
 
Conall’s
voice
sliced through her like a knife.
  
Then
Jade realized the pain in his voice as it softened and he repeated himself in a
crooning murmur.
“Aye.
She’s mine.”

Jade let her demeanor relax, while trying not to run
and wrap herself around him.
 
“She?”
Jade said awkwardly.

Conall
said
nothing else, and he headed toward the limp body with his graceful, flowing
strides.
 
Why did he have to look so damn
sexy? She was convinced no one on earth could possibly look as amazing wearing
a wax jacket and
Dubarry
boots.
 
Suddenly she realized that he was going to
move the wolf’s body.

“You can’t touch her!” Jade blurted.

Conall
did
not look happy as he stopped and turned to face her.
 
“What do you mean?
 
She’s mine.”

Trying to sound professional and sensitive at the
same time, she said carefully, “We have to autopsy her,
Conall
.
 
This might be a crime scene.”

“Cut her up?
 
No, I won’t stand for it.”
 
He
started back toward the wolf.

“Please,
Conall
, it’s my
job.
 
I can’t allow you to take
her.”
 
She gestured toward Duke’s corpse.
“His son has to allow us to do the same to him.”
 

“She didn’t attack him.”

“I know.
 
But
this is how we prove her innocence.
 
I’ll
make sure she’s treated with respect.”

The anguish in his face was plain to see;
Conall’s
reactions were not so different than Duke
Jr.’s
.
 
“She’s—she’s
my daughter.”

Jade blinked, trying to process what
Conall
had just said.
 
She had somehow managed to accept his remarkable transformation the
night they rescued Nicolette from the old mine, but a daughter who was plainly
an animal, well, it was a bit much to take in.

“Look, the coroner is going to be up here in just a
few minutes, and I don’t think anybody needs to see you sniffing around.
 
Duke Jr. already thinks you’re somehow to
blame for his father’s death.
 
Just…come
to my house tonight and explain everything to me.”

Conall
scuffed a boot toe in the snow.
 
“You’ll
make sure they treat her respectfully?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll stay with her while they do
it.”

“Alright then.”

“Please, get out of here. I don’t want anyone trying
to turn you into a suspect.”

Conall
studied
Jade’s face for a moment. “How do ye know that I’m not responsible for the
man’s death?”

“I know.”
 
Jade
corrected herself, “I know…you.”

Suddenly
Conall
surged
toward Jade, taking her head in his strong hands.
 
His sensuous mouth enveloped hers in an emotion-filled
kiss.
 
Everything she had felt the night
they made love spilled back over her.
 
Even through their heavy winter clothing, Jade could sense
Conall
growing hard as he pulled her body tight to
his.
 
A delicious ripple of pleasure
fluttered between her legs.
 
More than
that, though, there was an electric charge, a connection between them that went
far beyond sex, but an instant later, he had melted into the trees and was
gone.