Scorched (23 page)

Another lie. She was getting annoyed now.

“What brings you to town?” she asked. Her stomach knotted as she awaited the answer.

“Business.”

The knot tightened. She gazed out at her daughter and felt a wave of bitterness. In four short weeks he’d managed to turn her life upside down.
He
was the reason she couldn’t sleep at night.
He
was the reason her nails were bitten down to the quick.
He
was the reason she’d spent her last three lunch hours race-walking to the public library to use the computer, because she was afraid of the one at her own desk.
Her own desk.
She couldn’t even be comfortable at work now.

She looked at her brother. Did he have any idea that she’d spent the past week researching David Kaczynski?
Did he have any idea how much legal wrangling that man had gone through to save his brother from the death penalty? As it was, the Unabomber would be spending life in prison because David Kaczynski had hired a top lawyer to negotiate with the FBI before turning his brother in. Marissa couldn’t afford a top lawyer. And she sure as hell didn’t want her name, and Leila’s name, to go down in history in connection with a monster.

But Adam was oblivious to her turmoil because the prospect of her turning him in had clearly never entered his mind. All their lives, they’d trusted each other. He trusted her now.

What he didn’t seem to realize was that this thing—whatever it was—was a bit different from him covering for her so she could sneak out of the house and meet her boyfriend.

“What do you want, Adam?” she said, and heard the tremor in her voice. He wasn’t here for money, obviously. And he couldn’t possibly think she’d help him in any way.

“I need a favor.” He looked at her with calm dark eyes, and she felt a shiver of fear. “It’s very simple, really.”

•   •   •

It was high noon when Elizabeth finally emerged from the motel lobby. Her gait was as businesslike as ever, but her eyes looked tired. She walked over to the car where Derek had been sitting for the past four hours, listening to Frost clack away on his laptop.

She opened the door and waited.

Derek slid out. He shook his stiff legs as Frost buzzed down the window and reached over from the driver’s seat to hand her a key.

“You know, it’s a good thing I like handcuffs,” he said.

She took his arm. With a quick
snick,
she removed the cuffs.

“You’re free to go,” she said, then turned and passed a crisply folded paper through the window to Frost. “Your itinerary. I booked you on the four-thirty to San Diego.”

Derek flexed his hands. Then he planted them on his hips and glared down at her.

“That’s all?”

“I said, you’re free to leave.”

He didn’t move.

“Unless, of course, you want to tell me where Lieutenant Brewer is. Won’t save my ass, but it would help the investigation.”

Derek looked her up and down. Some of her hair had come loose from her ponytail and the sleeves of her white blouse were rolled up. The middle button had come undone, but it looked as if she’d been too busy to notice.

“That’s what I thought.” She ducked her head down and peered into the car at Frost. “You want anything from the vending machine before we go? I’m going to grab a Coke.”

“I’m fine, thanks.”

She turned away, but Derek caught her arm.

“Where are you going?”

“Salt Lake City.” She shook off his grip. “I’ve got a five-fifteen flight to San Antonio.”

“What’s in San Antonio?”

“My home office. I’ve been pulled off the case.” Something flickered in her eyes, and he could have sworn it was shame.

“So that’s it?” he asked.

“That’s it.” She brushed a lock of hair out of her face and gazed up at him. “That’s what happens when you drop the ball one too many times. You get benched.” She looked off into the distance. “But, hey, I’m lucky I didn’t get fired.”

He felt a surge of annoyance. Four damn hours he’d spent in the back of that car, cooling his heels and absorbing the air-conditioning just so she could prove a point. Why the hell should he feel bad about this? He shouldn’t. If she’d been better at her job, they wouldn’t even be here. And he was supposed to be on leave, for Christ’s sake. Instead, he’d spent the past three days tangled up with this woman. It made no sense, but he couldn’t seem to untangle himself.

“I’ll drive you to the airport.” He took his keys from his pocket and watched the shock come over her face. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Uh,
thanks,
but no.”

“Why not?”

She shook her head and jerked the car door open. “You know something? You SEALs, you have so much pride about this loyalty you have for each other, but you take it too far.”

“Is that right?”

“That’s right. Your friend is wanted for
murder,
Derek, not a fraternity prank.”

“Gage didn’t murder anyone.”

She tossed her head. “He had motive, means, and opportunity, and his prints were recovered from the crime scene.”

“That doesn’t mean he did it. This thing is a setup.”

She scoffed. “How would you know?”

“Because I know Gage. I know him better than I know my own brother. Look at your evidence again. You guys got something wrong. And meanwhile, while y’all are busy chasing your tails, the person who really did this is getting away with it.”

She shook her head and looked away. “Blinders. It’s amazing.”

He waited for her to meet his gaze again.

“Let me take you to the airport.”

She smiled and shook her head. “God, you’re stubborn.”

“Let me take you.”

The smile disappeared. “Thanks, but I’ll pass. Have a safe trip home.”

•   •   •

Gage had spent most of his career trying to avoid ending up in a body bag, and the reality was even worse than he’d imagined.

He’d always figured if he ever ended up in this situation, he wouldn’t really be aware of his environment. At the moment, he was not only aware of it, but pretty damn creeped out by it. He couldn’t stop thinking about the stale air surrounding him, the utter darkness, the smell of hot plastic. The fact that he
was on his way to get tossed into a shallow grave wasn’t helping.

“Are we there yet?”

“Quiet!” Kelsey snapped from the front seat. “We’re approaching the gate.”

From the cargo space of the Explorer, Gage heard the window buzz down, followed by Kelsey’s muffled voice as she exchanged pleasantries with the guard. Gage held his breath. This was the moment of truth. If the guard decided to check out her cargo, they were blown. If the guard decided to give her crap about her vehicle—which lacked a Delphi Center parking tag—they were blown. If the guard happened to know she was wanted for questioning by the FBI, they were blown.

There were at least a dozen different ways today’s little covert op could get blown to hell, but Gage had been willing to risk all of them. Kelsey felt adamant that the evidence in her possession would not only clarify what was going on, but exonerate Gage of Blake’s murder.

And Gage felt adamant that he wasn’t letting Kelsey out of his sight right now, which meant she wasn’t going anywhere—even her own workplace—without him.

And so here they were, sneaking into a crime lab, with Kelsey playing the role of herself and Gage playing the role of a donated cadaver. Gage hoped that because it was Sunday they stood a better chance of getting away with this crazy scheme.

The SUV moved forward, and Gage waited a good thirty seconds before opening his mouth again.

“Did it work?”

“I told you it would,” she said. “They’re accustomed to seeing me come and go with bulky deliveries. They used to check everything, but they got burned once, so now they pretty much wave me through.”

“Burned?”

“What’s that?”

He lifted the corner of the tarp Kelsey had meticulously folded and taped around him to resemble a body bag. She’d even stenciled the initials of the local ME’s office down the front to make it look authentic.

“How’d they get burned?” he asked.

“Well . . . you probably don’t want to hear this. It’s a bit macabre.”

“I’ve spent the last forty minutes impersonating a stiff, Kelsey.”

“Well, I would have thought the skeletons would gross them out. I bring them in from time to time after I do recoveries. But that didn’t seem to bother them much. I guess they figured it was part of what they signed on for when they applied to work here. I mean, we’re a full-service forensic lab, but locals know us best as a body farm. Anyway, it was the fingerprint workshop that did it.”

They hit a bump and Gage’s head knocked against the side of the SUV.

“Sorry. You okay?”

“Tell me about the fingerprints.”

“I was driving up from the ME’s office and our fingerprint expert asked me to bring up some samples she needed for a training workshop. So I loaded them up in the cooler.”

“You’re talking severed hands?”

“Three of them. I tried to warn the guard, but I think he thought I was kidding. He lost his lunch right there on the sidewalk.”

“I don’t blame him.”

“I think it was the number that freaked him out. You know—
three
instead of two or four.”

“Yeah, I doubt that’s what did it.”

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but he hardly even talks to me anymore, just waves me through. Okay, we’re here.”

She rolled to a stop and Gage waited for her to open the cargo door and give him the all clear.

Patience,
he told himself. His patience had been stretched thin since yesterday, and getting almost no sleep and even less sex in the past twenty-four hours had done nothing to improve his mood. They’d spent all of last night on the road.

The door squeaked open. “Looks like we’re clear. Hold still, though—I don’t want to cut you.”

He heard the tear of duct tape as Kelsey sliced open the makeshift body bag with the box cutter she’d purchased this morning at Home Depot, along with the rest of their supplies. She had insisted on buying everything alone, while Gage waited—again, patiently—in the SUV. She didn’t believe it was smart for a man suspected of murder to be seen buying a box cutter, a tarp, and a roll of duct tape, and Gage had to admit she had a point.

Now she peeled back the thick layer of plastic. Gage sat up and took a deep breath.

“Damn, it smells worse out here.”

“We’re in the bone yard.”

He got out of the SUV and stretched his arms over his head as he looked around. They were on a dirt road in a wooded area. Through the trees he glimpsed the imposing Greek-style building he’d seen only in photographs. With its tall white columns, the Delphi Center looked impressive, but Gage knew from Kelsey that even its massive size was misleading. The center was actually twice as big as it looked because of underground levels that housed a ballistics lab, a microbiology research center, and Kelsey’s domain—the Bones Unit.

“Here.” She handed him a pair of dirt-caked work gloves. “Put these on.”

Gage followed directions as he glanced around. She’d pulled up to a ditch, which would account for the smell. He was pretty sure he could guess what had been unearthed from the hole there recently, probably using the various shovels and trowels he saw littered around the area.

“Grab some equipment,” she said, picking up a spade and a tackle box that someone had left near the pit. “If anyone notices the security cam as we walk in the back door, they’ll assume we’ve been out here digging all morning.”

“Long time no see.”

They turned around. A man was leaning against a nearby tree.

CHAPTER 14

“Hi!” Kelsey was chipper. “How’s it going?”

The man stepped into the sunlight, and Gage immediately recognized him. This was Kelsey’s lanky field assistant, Aaron. Gage had met him several summers ago, and he could tell that the guy’s opinion of him hadn’t improved.

Gage stepped forward and nodded. “Aaron, good to see you again.”

The guy looked him up and down, then turned to Kelsey. “Where have you been?”

“Oh, you know. Around.” She was still doing cheerful. “What brings you in on a Sunday?”

“Setting up a few things for a class tomorrow.” He eyed Gage suspiciously.

“How long have you been standing there?” Kelsey asked him.

“Long enough. Can I talk to you a minute?”

Gage leaned against the SUV and watched silently as the guy led her a few feet away to have a private conversation, which he no doubt expected Gage to overhear.

“A phone call would have been nice, Kelsey.”

“I’m sorry.” She squeezed his arm and Gage’s gaze narrowed. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”

“Yeah, well, you did. I’ve been taking my cues from Mia, though. She suddenly stopped worrying, so I figured you were okay.”

“I’m fine. It’s just been crazy lately. A lot of unexpected travel.”

“What’s with Lazarus Man?”

Kelsey turned to look at Gage. “Nothing, he’s just visiting for a few days.”

Aaron gave him a hostile look over Kelsey’s shoulder. Not for the first time, Gage wondered if they had a history together. The man didn’t strike him as Kelsey’s type, but he was around a lot, which was more than Gage could say.