The Nymph's Curse: The Collection (33 page)

Aura wasn’t sure if it was the question, or the fact that one of the women they’d found had been his ex-wife, that made him more uncomfortable. It amazed her that he could be so distant when it came to investigating the deaths. If she had been married to one of the victims she would have had a hard time dealing with their dead body, but Dane seemed to take it in stride.

Dane looked up from his tablet and scratched the thin layer of stubble that grew over his tanned chin. “I only got a chance to get a look at the second victim, the one under the tarp. We still haven’t managed to come up with any identification. Have you had anyone come in who can ID her?”

The woman shook her head. “Not yet. We haven’t released Angela’s name to the public either. We still need to notify her mother and father. Have you had the chance to talk to them?”

“She doesn’t have any that I know of. She said they passed away when she was in high school.” He stopped scratching. “Did you manage to find the cause of death?”

Dr. Redbird picked up her clipboard and flipped through some pages. “As you know, Angela was missing her hand.” She looked over the clipboard and eyed Dane. He nodded and her gaze slipped back down to the paper. “From the tests we’ve run I can say with one hundred percent certainty that the hand did belong to Angela Burke. I assume this is
your
Angela, correct?”

“My brother’s Angela … but yes. I knew her.”

“I’ll take that as a positive identification.” The doctor wrote something down. “About the hand … From what I’ve seen on both the body and the hand itself, it seems as if the wound was caused perimortem, or at or around the time of death. There were no signs of healing and the body showed staining on the radioulnar joint where the hand had been removed.”

Dane’s pen moved furiously over the paper. “Can you tell what exactly removed the hand? It looked a little indistinct in the water.”

“The margins were, as you said, indistinct. It clearly wasn’t removed from the body with a sharp object.” The doctor scanned further down her clipboard. “The peripheral tissue on the hand and the arm showed no level of edema — which could mean that the tissue didn’t have time to swell after the appendage was removed.” Dr. Redbird reached over and patted his arm.

Dane seemed to go rigid under the woman’s touch.

“If it makes you feel better, the hand could have been removed after the time of death. She might not even have felt it.” The doctor dropped her hand.

“That’s nice.” Dane seemed to squirm away from her as he went back to his notepad.

“Oh … yes, I also located some interesting traces on the wrist tissue of the body. There were what appeared to be yellow and green nylon fibers. I’m hypothesizing that it’s possible they belonged to some type of rope — though they could come from a carpet or rug — it’s hard to tell without more time.”

Her assertion was met with the scratch of Dane’s pen. “So what exactly was the cause of death? Officer Grant didn’t seem to think there was any evidence of blunt or sharp force trauma. Did you find any evidence of a gunshot wound that he may have missed?”

“No … No gunshots, but both women had clear defense wounds on their forearms and hands. But aside from those wounds, and a few bruises to the necks and torsos, I didn’t find any direct evidence that would indicate the cause of death.” She flipped the page on the clipboard to a little diagram of a body surrounded by notes. “Neither presented to me any evidence of a natural death. It’s strange. But once we get the toxicology reports they could tell us what the cause of death might be.”

She pulled out a manila envelope from the back of the clipboard and handed it to Dane. “Here’s what we have so far, so you can take a look.”

“What about the phone?” Aura said.

Dr. Redbird stared at her with disdain, as if Aura had interrupted a private interlude that was happening between her and Dane — one that Aura had no right witnessing.

Dane flipped the manila bag in his hands and shook his head as he subtly reminded Aura to remain silent. Something flashed in his eyes. The light wasn’t anger or frustration … no. It was something different, something primordial and animalistic — as if he was her master.

“The purple phone. Pink flowers. Did you find any data that would be helpful in the investigation?” Aura asked as she smiled mischievously over at Dane. He should have known by now that he couldn’t make her submit to his will.

Dr. Redbird nodded. “The phone’s in the bag. You’ll need to sign it out before you take it back to your station.” The doctor motioned to Dane’s envelope. “We weren’t able to pull any prints, but we finally got it working. There was a video that you might find of some interest.”

“Great.” Dane took a step between the doctor and Aura, stopping her from interloping again without his permission.

“Yes,” Aura said, stepping to his side. “We’ll make sure to take a look.”

She was a nymph. A Mustang. Wild and free. No man or god would ever be her master.

Painfully slowly, the purple cell phone flickered to life. The background was a picture of horses running through a meadow, their manes flowing in the wind.

“Is it on?” Aura leaned over the computer that sat bolted over the center console within the patrol car. “Oh. Great. Here, let me take a look.”

“Aura.” He pulled the phone back so she couldn’t see it. “Do I really need to remind you who is the investigating officer?”

She sat back and pushed her arms over her chest. “Okay,
investigating officer
. Investigate.” She motioned to the phone with a sardonic grin.

Little circles lined up over the screen and above them read
Draw pattern to unlock
. His cheeks burned. If he was back at the station, one of the IT guys could have shown him how to bypass the pain-in-the-ass lock. Except he wasn’t at the station; instead, here he was locked in the patrol car with a woman who seemed to want to show him what an idiot he could be.

Aura’s smile widened as a knowing sparkle lit up her blue eyes. Why did she have to look at him like that? All he was trying to do was find out who was behind the murders, where Natalie was, and if they had more victims — yet, all Aura seemed to care about was the need to chide him with her sexy little sneer.

He tried a few swipes to unlock the phone then begrudgingly handed it over. “Here.”

She reached over to him and as her fingers wrapped around the phone, she accidently twisted her finger around his. Her hand was warm, too warm — as if she was nervous about being in an enclosed car with him.

Her cheeks flushed a faint pink and she pulled the phone out of his fingers. “Thanks.” She tapped the screen and the main screen opened. “You have to do it like this.” She tapped the precise code in and handed him the phone.

“Thanks.” He took the phone and opened the phone log. “It’s says here that the last call was to you. It looks like it was only fifteen seconds long. Does that sound right?”

“I just heard a woman talking and then the phone line went dead. I tried to call her back, but it went straight to voicemail. So I tracked the phone’s GPS, which led me to Shirley Mountain, but that’s as close as I could get her location.” Aura nodded. “Let’s find that video — maybe we can find more. Or what she was doing up on the mountain.”

“Yeah, the video.” He couldn’t tear his gaze away from her smoldering pink lips, so pink that they silently begged to be kissed. What would it have been like to finish what they had started back on the grass of the Diamond?

He tapped the screen until he found the newest video.

“You son of a bitch, Shawn!” a dark-haired woman yelled.

“Why the hell did you run from me?” a man’s voice answered.

It was hard to see anything as the grainy video bounced around and must have been shuffled around in the owner’s grip.

“You lied to me … to us. And now you want us to do
what
?” The woman’s voice carried an edge of terror.

Was
Shawn
the man they were looking for?

The video moved jerkily and for a second, in the background, was a large chestnut-colored bay standing beside a scratched up tree. The horse’s nostrils were flared and its eyes wide. The video jerked down and there was a woman’s shrill scream.

The video stopped.

He couldn’t dismiss the feeling that they had just been witness to the beginnings of a homicide. Hopefully they hadn’t just witnessed Natalie’s murder.

From the little amount of scenery that he’d seen in the video, it looked like the clip had been taken somewhere here in Montana. He stared down at the phone. The date matched when Aura said she’d last talked to her sister. The chills spilled down his spine.

“Was that Natalie’s voice?”

“No … I don’t think so.” Something about Aura’s wide eyes reminded him of the bay in the video — she had the same big eyes, the same flowing hair — and the same look of terror.

He swallowed down the bitter taste that filled his mouth. “Do you know any guys named Shawn?”

“That’s … that’s her ex-husband.” Her face blanched.

“What else haven’t you told me?”

She stared at him for a long minute like she wanted to tell him something, as if something burned inside of her, begging to be released.

“All I know was that she was seeing a new guy. I think his name was Ryan. She hadn’t said anything about Shawn — but I guess it’s possible that he didn’t like the idea of her dating someone new.”

Finally, a suspect.
“Do you know where Shawn lives?”

“I don’t know where Shawn’s living now … the last time I saw him was about six months ago in Flagstaff.” Aura reached over and put her hand on his leg. “I know Shawn — I don’t think he would ever do anything like this. He might get angry, but he’d never kill anyone.”

His heart jumpstarted in his chest as her fingers brushed the inside of his thigh. “Aura, you’d be surprised what a man could do when he’s angry.”

She squeezed his leg. “There are very few things that can surprise me.”

“What’s Shawn’s last name?”

“Gunner.”

He typed the name in to the computer as he tried to ignore the fact that her hand was still resting on his thigh. The man’s information popped up on the computer screen, but that was it — no criminal record, no major red flags. From a scan of the man’s background he seemed like any other civilian — he held a standard nine to five job in Flagstaff, owned a house and a silver GMC truck. Nothing that he’d expect to find on a murderer, but then again he’d learned to never trust what that little black screen said. There were plenty of people that had skeletons piled up under their mattresses.

“What about this Ryan? Do you know his last name?”

Aura nibbled at her lip. “I think it’s Patrick.”

Dane scanned down, Ryan popped up. He clicked on the contact. “Patrick. Ryan Patrick. Here it says he lives in Somers.” His gut clenched with excitement at their first truly strong lead. They could have someone that would know more about Natalie’s disappearance.

He punched the name into his computer that rested between the two front seats of the patrol car. Ryan’s name and last known address popped up onto the screen. Dane’s stomach dropped as he read the familiar address — of the Diamond.

“Is Ryan a ranch hand for Zeb?”

Aura’s hand clenched tight on his thigh. “I don’t know — I guess it’s possible. She never really talked about what he did besides bronc riding. They’d only met a few times and then talked online.”

“Your sister dates men she meets online?” His internal alarm squealed.

“It’s nothing like that. She met him at a rodeo a few years back, when she was married and he was only a friend. They’d kept in touch. He’s moved around a bit until he found his way up here to Montana. I knew he worked as a cattle hand, but I didn’t know he worked for your brother.”

He dropped his hand to Aura’s and wrapped his fingers around hers. The warmth of her skin seeped into him, warming the layer of ice that had formed around his heart at the time of his divorce and had only thickened since. “We’ll find Natalie. We’ll get whoever is going after these women.”

“Promise me.” Aura leaned close to him and the scent of her floral perfume wafted from the soft-looking skin of her neck.

“What?” He stared at the little hole at the base of her throat.

“Promise me that you will do everything in your power to find my sister.” She moved closer and her lips stopped next to his.

“I’ll never let anything happen to you.” He took in a long breath, breathing in her essence. “I’ll do anything to protect you.”

He couldn’t stop himself. He had to possess those lips that were so close to his. He took her lips with his, tasting the sweetness of her lipstick as he ran his tongue against her full bottom lip. Blood raced through him making his body quiver to life. She took control of the kiss, pulling and sucking on his flesh. Desire flooded him. He needed to feel her against him.

“Dane … ” she said, her moist breath caressing his lips. “I … we … need to go. Natalie.”

He closed his eyes. She was right. They couldn’t be doing this. He needed to keep his objectivity. There was a case to be solved.

He followed Aura back to Somers, keeping a comfortable distance between the patrol car and her truck. If only he could keep this kind of distance between them all the time, there would be none of the questions that seemed to be on a constant roll through his mind. There was no way he could have a relationship with her. There were too many speed bumps — she was no longer a suspect, but she was still a vital part of the investigation. If something happened — something more than what had already transpired — the investigation would be compromised. That wasn’t a risk that he could take. There were possible lives at stake.

Two and a half hours later and arriving back at Somers, he rolled up next to her at the only stop light in town. He motioned for her to roll down her window.

“Let’s go to the Diamond.”

She nodded and slid her window shut. Dane followed her down the snow-covered road that led to the ranch.

The patrol car bounced down the long winding driveway until he pulled up to the white house where Zeb’s truck was parked. The porch stood unoccupied — at least this time they weren’t met with his brother toting a firearm. Hopefully he would be as welcoming when it came to them asking for access to the Forest Service land.