“Uh… Isn’t that a woman’s voice?”
Jez went from a five to an eleven on the alert scale in a heartbeat.Brax was talking loudly, too loudly, unnaturally so, and a female voice replied.Trees rustled as they came closer.The birds fell silent.Then Kermit fucking barked.
“Go,” she said to Spider and Sin.
Spider scooped up the potted plant, Sin tossed Jez a bag of dog treats, and the two of them melted into the trees right before Brax and Grey walked into the clearing alongside a woman Jez recognised as Special Agent Laura Rimer.She’d aged two decades in the past ten years.Back when she worked on Ruby’s case, she’d been a wet-behind-the-ears detective trailing behind her partner, and now she walked in front of a younger guy wearing a state trooper’s uniform.He had the look of a military grunt—white-wall haircut, stiff bearing, vaguely intimidated by a congressman who influenced his paycheck.
Rimer focused on Jez, and there was a momentary hesitation before recognition dawned.Then her gaze dropped to the body lying on the ground.Fuck.Usually in this situation, Jez would just shoot her way out, but today, that would only make things worse.There were too many people involved.Plus Grey got so damn judgy.
Jez’s phone buzzed, and she checked the message.
Echo
The cops got an anonymous tip—caller claims they saw Justin near Burr Hill.
Now she fucking warned them?When had the tip come in?Had someone watched them arrive and then sent the cops to catch them in the act?
Jez
When?
Echo
Last night.
Okay, so the cops were just slow off the mark.Rimer cleared her throat and folded her arms.“Ms.Knight?”
“Thank goodness you’re here, Detective.We were about to call you.”
“Sure you were.”
“What exactly are you suggesting?”
Rimer ignored that.“I oughta arrest you for interfering with a crime scene.”
Jez opened her mouth to respond, to point out that it had taken them over twelve hours to act on their tip-off, but Grey got in first with a not-so-subtle reminder that he’d been to law school.
“Title 18.2 in the Code of Virginia states ‘If any person without just causeknowinglyobstructs any law enforcement officer.’I’m sure Jerry had no idea what she’d stumbled across when her dog found this plastic-wrapped package.”
Such a polite “fuck you.”
“What he said.”
“You think I don’t know what you’re doing?”
“You’ll have to explain.”
This time, she took the bait.“You’re meddling in another investigation to cover for your friend.”
“Another investigation?”
Okay, yes, Jez messed with investigations all the time, but not on Rimer’s cases.Nobody had touched Ruby’s body.Nobody had tampered with evidence.They’d all been too damn horrified.
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“No, I don’t.But I do know that when Justin first reported Amie Carlson’s disappearance last week, the police didn’t much care.What did you expect us to do?Forget about her?Leave her out here to rot?”
“Back up and get the hell out of here.Koch, we need a cordon.”
