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“Sure.” He followed on her heels. Not as close as she’d come to expect. He was keeping his distance, and her skin heated despite the drop in temperature down here in the canyon and shade.
She watched her step as she climbed, but every movement took something out of her she couldn’t really afford to give up. Agony was tearing at the edges of the bullet wound. Not to mention the stab wound beneath her Kevlar, but she wouldn’t let it get to her. She just had to get through to the other side.
Maverick pressed into her leg as though she was about to collapse. Seemed Baker wasn’t the only one doubting her capabilities today.
Jones offered her a hand as she summited the last few feet to man-made flat ground and dragged her upward. “Wasn’t expecting you to make it out here today. You good?”
“Fine. How’s it going here?” she asked.
“The excavators you recruited from Deer Creek and Ponderosa should be here this afternoon.” The combat controller pointed out over the ridge that hadn’t been put there naturally. “Right now, the bomb squad is digging to recover any other pieces of the device.”
Jocelyn angled her head back to take in the view above. She shaded her face against the onslaught of rain pecking at them. A massive chuck of rock had broken away from the canyon wall, leaving the outline of an oversized bite. Her foot sank deeper into the shifting earth. “How long are they estimating the cleanup will take?”
“A couple months at least,” Jones said. “The rains make it more difficult, but we’re moving as fast as we can. The Bureau of Land Management sent in a geologist. From what he can tell, the threat of more rock coming down on us has passed, but we’ve been instructed to keep on alert. Just in case.”
Shouts echoed off the canyon wall that’d always stood as a protection to this town, and the pain inside of her intensified. Jocelyn clamped a hand on her shoulder.
Jones’s gaze cut to Baker, then back to her.
“Joce, maybe you should take a break.” Baker stepped into her line of vision. “The pain meds Dr. Piel gave you are in my pack in the car. I’ll get you one.”
“No.” The muscles in her jaw ached under the pressure of her back teeth. She bit back a moan and squeezed her eyes tight, waiting for the pain to pass. It didn’t, and she couldn’t stop the tears from pricking at her eyes. One deep breath. Two. The burn receded slightly, and Jocelyn dared to remove the pressure of her hand. Straightening, she faced both men. “I don’t...need it.”
Maverickgruffedbeside her. He’d always been able to tell when she was lying.
“All right, then. Captain Pennymeyer is waiting for us in the command tent.” Jones took the lead, cutting across the makeshift camp.
The sound of shovels, wheelbarrows and heavy breathing cut through the patter of rain as residents, Fire and Rescue and two deputies Jocelyn recognized as Alpine Valley PD worked to dig out the affected houses.
The combat controller held the flap of the pavilion open for them, revealing a grouping of cops inside. The Albuquerque bomb squad. The man hunched over the laptop in the center straightened at their approach. His once muscular frame had gone soft. Too large on top, not enough stability in his lower half. The effect said while the officer in charge ran his department well, he wasn’t usually out in the field.
“Chief Halsey. I’m Captain Pennymeyer.” The bomb squad’s commanding officer extended his hand past Jocelyn to meet Baker’s. “We’ve managed to uncover several materials used in the device detonated at your station to compare with those recovered here.”
“Grateful to have you.” Baker shook before withdrawing. There was an invisible bond between cops and military units. She’d had that once, on tour, but having a captain of the bomb squad blatantly disregard her presence only added to the pulse in her shoulder. “This is Jocelyn Carville from Socorro Security. She saw the device before it detonated inside the compound.”
“Then by all means, Ms. Carville, tell me if we got this right.” Pennymeyer maneuvered around the standing desk he’d created toward a long table covered in plastic. Pieces of wire, motherboard and mud-coated plastic had been separated and studiously labeled for study. “Your statement said you saw the device tucked up into the rafters of the home. That right?”
Her mouth dried as she took in all the fractured pieces that’d once made a whole. The intricacy and placement of every one of these materials had nearly destroyed an entire town. “Yes.”
“Did you see anything specific?” the captain asked. “Were there any wires leading away from the device? A countdown clock, or maybe you caught the branding on the battery before it went off?”
Her mind went blank as pain clawed down her arm and into her chest. She clung to her sling with her free hand as the world tipped slightly. Scouring the table, she tried to make all these tiny pieces fit into a puzzle her brain was desperate to put together. Had she seen the branding on the battery? Heat flared into her face and neck. “I don’t... I don’t know. I only got a glimpse of it before I ran for the patio door.”
The captain stepped off to one side, and it was only then that she realized a blueprint of Marc De Leon’s compound had been tacked to the flexible wall above the table. “Your statement reports you saw the device tucked into the rafters of the kitchen. Is that correct?”
Her heart rate rocketed into overdrive. She’d already been through all of this. The last reserves of her control bled dry. “If you’ve read my statement, why are you asking me again?”
Silence enveloped the tent, all eyes on her.
She tried to breathe through the pain, but it wasn’t working this time. It crescendoed until it was all she felt. Consuming her inch by inch.
Captain Pennymeyer directed his attention downward to his table of explosive goodies. “We’re just trying to get the most accurate information, Ms. Carville. It’s been known that victims caught in an event like this tend to remember more a couple days after they’ve had time to recover.”
“I’m not a victim.” A barb of annoyance poked at her insides.
“Of course. I didn’t mean...” The captain’s face flushed, and his oversized upper body seemed to deflate right in front of her. “I apologize. I didn’t mean any insult. I understand you’ve been through something quite traumatic.”
Baker inched closer. “Will you give us a minute, Captain?” He lowered his voice. “Let’s get some air.”
