Part 6 (2/2)
His glare would have struck sparks off flint. ”Make sure you get permission at the next place, sweetheart. People around here value their privacy.”
Cait gave him an insincere smile. ”So you've said. I'll let you know when I need your help again. I a.s.sume you're still at the sheriff's beck and call?”
It was like baiting a tiger. He had that same still watchful air prior to pouncing. ”Caitlin.”
Her flesh p.r.i.c.kled. How could a man's voice manage to sound silky and menacing at the same time?
”You'll want to be very careful.” The first step in her direction was meant to be threatening. The next would have had any woman in her right mind making tracks.
She held her ground, stiffened her spine.
”You're on an isolated piece of property.”
She could smell the alcohol again. Not on his breath. More like it was coming out his pores. How much had he drunk? He didn't seem intoxicated. He d.a.m.ned sure didn't appear impaired.
He just seemed lethal.
”No one around to help you.” Another half step. Alarm pulsed through her veins. Every muscle in her body tensed. ”With a man you really don't know very well.”
Coolly, she lifted a brow. ”Worried about me? Don't be. I've taken down bigger men than you without breaking a sweat. Back off.”
”Or what?” One of his arms snaked around her waist, the hand skating down her spine. Lower.
”Sharper, if you don't take your hand off my a.s.s, you're going to be picking your teeth out of the dirt.”
”So you've had training to take men down hard. Think that makes you tough? Lots of us had training.” His words filtered through her anger, piquing her interest. But that interest was fragmented by the recognition that he hadn't moved his hand. And his face was far too close to hers. ”Here's the thing about toughness, though. No matter what you think you're prepared for, there's always something that smashes everything you think you know to h.e.l.l. Everything you think you can handle.”
”I'm warning you, Sharper.” But even she heard the shake to her voice. His words were summoning a memory she'd spent a lifetime locking away. The darkness eeked out. Swirled through her mind.
”You find out how tough you are when you're dodging men's body parts after an IED detonates.” The edge to his voice was razor sharp, each word nicking skin and drawing blood. ”Or when you inhale the pink mist, all that's left of the guy who was the closest to the explosive. One of the toughest guys I knew swallowed his gun last night because, hey, guess what? Toughness didn't mean s.h.i.+t when they sent him home minus his legs and half his face. Ever see what's left of a guy who eats his gun?”
The past sprang forth like a great fanged beast, snarling and tearing through the gauze of the present.
She was eight again. Fingers in her ears. Cowering under the desk until the weapon went off. Choking back strangled sobs as she crawled out. Did what she had to do.
Just get the gun. Remember what I told you. Don't look at anything else. Don't look.
But of course she had. How could she not? And the image had been seared on her retinas, branded across her memory ever since.
”Blood spatter everywhere. Bone fragments in the chair cus.h.i.+ons. Caught in the drapes. Gray matter on the desk. On the gun.”
The gun she'd had to pick up. The one she'd had to hide in the special place he'd shown her.
She wasn't sure how much time stretched out before she became aware of the change in Sharper's gaze. On his expression. It was another long moment before she realized she'd spoken the words out loud.
Mortification warred with panic. She wrenched herself from his grasp. Easy enough since he'd dropped his hands, stepped away, still surveying her carefully.
”Cait.”
”I have to get back.”
With swift movements, she straightened the straps on her shoulders and turned. Began striding rapidly away. And slowed, her steps faltering. Looking over her shoulder, she found him watching her. ”I'm sorry about your friend.”
Then she headed toward her vehicle, leaving the man behind to stare silently after her.
a Uploaded by Coral a
Chapter 6.
”Cait , where are you?”
”Coming up on the morgue, why?”
Barnes's voice held a note of excitement she didn't recall hearing before. ”Good. I'm already there. See you in a few minutes.”
Disconnecting the phone's blue tooth, she gave a shrug and turned off into the morgue parking lot. She drove to the back of the building, the area closest to the lab accommodations.
It had started to mist again on the outside of town. Which mirrored her current att.i.tude to perfection.
Her mood dark, she got out of the vehicle, loaded down with pack and purse and computer bag. Locking the door behind her, she jogged to the building.
Barnes started speaking as soon as she was in the door. ”One of our deputies found this in the forest wrapped in a towel, about four miles from Castle Rock.”
This turned out to be a saw. Flecks of blood still marred the stainless steel blade. And, she peered closely, there were splinters of what would surely turn out to be bone embedded in the towel.
”Looks like an E-Z Saw. The kind used for splitting the pelvic bone of large game.” She looked at Barnes. ”Did the officer happen to notice a blood spill near the site where he found this?”
The deputy shook his head. ”That's why I brought it to you. He said this was wedged under some rocks. It's a long shot, but I figured you could test it. At least see if the blood is human.”
Mentally readjusting her schedule, she nodded. ”We can do that and have results by tomorrow. We already know some sort of saw was used to decapitate the victims. I need to examine the marks on the vertebrae and try to identify the family of instruments they came from anyway. I can do that before testing for latents, I guess.”
”If I know the specific tool, I can start looking at purchases made around here recently. Maybe we'll get lucky and find the perp that way.”
She smiled, saying nothing. Cait had a feeling things weren't going to be quite that easy, but Barnes was right about one thing. The tool marks were going to be valuable information. Once they found the offender, they could link him to the crimes if he still had the saw in his possession.
”Kristy,” she called.
Her tech showed up in the doorway of the other room. Cait blinked once. Beneath her lab coat, the woman was clad in an eye-popping s.h.i.+rt of electric blue and fuchsia. ”Bad lighting when you were getting dressed?”
”Bite me,” Kristy suggested cheerfully. ”Steve bought it for me. We went to a country fair last night outside Springfield. He said it matched my electric personality.”
”Were you by any chance sticking a screwdriver in a light socket at the time?”
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