Avery nodded. “The one wearing the black ball cap?”
Grant nodded. “I swear, she looked familiar. When she turned away, I could see she had a long black ponytail sticking out of the back of the cap.” His pulse quickened, and he reached out to start the engine. The woman with the ponytail had left the parking lot, heading east.
“They think I was on my way to the Medical Examiner’s office.” Avery met Grant’s gaze.
He handed her his cell phone and backed out of the parking space. “We need directions to the M.E.’s office.”
Avery unlocked the screen without asking for his password and clicked the map application icon. Seconds later, she had the directions. “Takes five minutes to get there.”
Grant pulled out on the street heading east.
“Do you think someone is really passing herself off as me?” Avery shook her head. “Wouldn’t the sheriff have asked for her identification, her credentials?”
“Not if Agent Bradley got there first and vouched for her.” Grant turned onto another road, following the directions the map was giving him. “How long have you known Bradley?”
“A week,” Avery said. “We went to a barbecue at my boss, Paul Fletcher’s, house, the first day I arrived. Come to think of it, she’s been busy wrapping up another case and has been out of the office a lot. She was supposed to arrive the day after me.”
“Is it possible she would mistake someone with similar hair color and build for you?” Grant asked.
“I suppose it’s possible.”
“And you’re new in the San Antonio area. She wouldn’t know a lot about you.”
Avery glanced down at the map and back up, her mouth set in a grim line. “Turn right at the next street. The M.E.’s office is a little past the edge of town.”
Grant turned the corner and pressed his foot to the accelerator. Moments later, he pulled into the small parking lot of a brick building that was that burnt mustard color popular back in the 1970s. He parked next to a back SUV similar to the one the woman in the ball cap had driven out of the sheriff’s parking lot. He’d only caught a glimpse of the woman’s SUV. He couldn’t be sure this was hers. There was only one way to find out.
He shoved open his door at the same time Avery opened hers.
Together, they entered the M.E.’s office.
“Be ready,” Avery whispered, “in case she tries to run.”
Grant was ready, his muscles tense, ready to corner the woman pretending to be Agent Avery Hart.
Chapter 4
Avery’s pulse pounded through her veins, her senses on alert, her gaze shooting right then left as soon as they entered the building.
A short, round woman sat at a desk, her fingers pausing over the keyboard as she glanced up through thick-lensed glasses. “Ah, Agent Hart, weren’t you just here? Did you forget something?”
“Uh, yes, ma’am.” A quick glance at the nameplate leaning on a stand at the front of the desk, Avery addressed the woman. “Ms. Peterson, is the Medical Examiner busy? I have...another...question for him.”
“I’m sure he has time for you. Just go on back.” She waved a hand toward a door to the side of her desk.
As Avery and Grant walked past her, Ms. Peterson said, “You should wear your hair down, instead of in a ponytail. It’s such a pretty shade of black. Almost blue.”
“Thank you,” Avery said.
She smiled. “Did you get it from your father’s side or your mother’s?”
“I really don’t know,” Avery responded, more interested in getting to the M.E. than answering questions. “I was adopted.”
The woman’s hands hovered over her keyboard. “Were you? I guess there are a lot of things you wouldn’t know if you don’t know who your biological parents are. One of my cousins adopted a baby boy. They spent a year going from doctor to doctor until they finally diagnosed him with cystic fibrosis. It’s one of those hereditary diseases they might’ve identified sooner if they’d had a family history available.” She shook her head and went back to her keyboard, murmuring something about her cousin’s struggles.
Avery pushed through the door the woman had indicated and started down a short hallway.
Once they were both in the hallway, Grant moved up beside her.
