Page 11 of Only Girl Alive

Once she could step onto the walkway again, she did. The heat of their gaze remained on her back and she refused to turn around. She was a police officer and not a woman they could intimidate.

“Abomination,” bellowed a deep loud voice, but she didn’t know which one said it.

Eve let it go and continued to the SUV. Her family had disowned her many years before. It just hadn’t been brought home until today.

She drove from the parking lot and managed to avoid squealing tires. After several deep breaths to gain control and a few blocks between her and her stepbrothers, she turned into a fast-food establishment that had a drive-through. She sent a quick text to Clyde to let him know she was bringing food. While waiting for the order, she pictured her stepbrothers’ faces. Foolishly, she had never thought she’d see them again.

She had never known what happened to her siblings besides Aaron. When Eve first left, she’d mourned for them and hated her mother for taking her away. It took several years for Eve’s polygamist mindset to change. Wasted teenage years that should have been good memories. She could call her mom right now but this was not a good time. It never was.

Her former life had just joined her present one and there were too many unanswered questions. For now, she would stop thinking about her mother and their pending conversation and concentrate on the murders. She gave herself a mental shake. This was something she had done since her promotion to head of the team. She was getting good at it.

With food for everyone, she headed back to the crime scene. She decided not to mention the interaction or lack thereof with her stepbrothers. The church always staged something for their benefit. They couldn’t help themselves. This time, her former family was the weapon. Her stepbrothers were now her adversaries and there was nothing she could do about it.

Her thoughts turned to Elijah’s body, and how he tried to escape death. The homicides had to be solved through solid investigative work so the family found justice and others weren’t in danger.

By now, the team would be fully into processing the scene. Eve was running behind on her end but they excelled at their jobs and would do whatever was required until she returned.

Their lunch was eaten in the van. They reviewed the steps taken while she met with Aaron.

They were solemn and disturbed by what they’d found, as they always were when a child was involved, especially when there was a chance that others were still in danger.

When they had her up to speed, Eve gave them an overview of her discussion with the county attorney.

“Did he toss you out of his office?” Collin asked between bites.

“He was too busy hoping I’d ask questions about his new wife,” she said, and immediately regretted it.

“A new wife?” Bina rolled her eyes. “Be careful.” Her expression turned serious. “The way he looks at you gives me the creeps. It’s not right.”

“No, it isn’t,” Ray added with the same look Bina had.

“Aaron is a polygamist,” Eve said to throw them off the truth. “He looks at all women that way.”

“It goes beyond that,” said Collin. “He doesn’t look at Bina in that manner, nor has he stared at female techs when they’ve helped us.”

Aaron’s infatuation was not something Eve wanted to debate. She would not explain his harassment of her as a child. It was enough that her team knew of their mutual dislike. They had learned this on their first case when Eve and Aaron went toe-to-toe. They’d stood by her that day and every time she’d faced him down since. Of course they noticed how he looked at her, his fascination with her hair, his antipathy over her clothing. He did little to hide it.

Eve understood her team’s comments though. They usually remained silent about her past. On the rare instances she instigated the conversation, their questions were always considerate even if she saw the incredulity in their eyes. By now they knew these discussions were hard for her and they respected her privacy.

“Aaron Owens is not our concern,” said Clyde, ending the discussion.

Relief filled her; he always had her back. It wasn’t just Eve and her team who admired Clyde. Clyde’s reputation was solid among his peers, his expertise in homicide investigations respected.

When Eve put her team together, she had interviewed more than twenty candidates. She was in the powerful position to enforce equal justice to the entire fundamentalist community regardless of gender or religion and she knew her team would need a diverse background. Two out of three people in Utah were Mormon. Finding the right investigators to oversee felonies within the polygamist community and bring the guilty to prosecution would take an open-minded approach.

She hired Collin for his non-fundamentalist Mormon background. He would be able to deal with male church members who wouldn’t cooperate with her. Even though he wasn’t a worshiper of the polygamy sect’s prophet, his Mormon roots gave him a bit of standing in their eyes. If he abided by the covenants of the Book of Mormon, the fundamentalists felt he would most likely attain one of the two lesser kingdoms of heaven.

Collin and Ray came as a team and she liked that they were friends. The fact Ray was Hispanic and Catholic didn’t matter to Collin. She’d heard them arguing about the strange aspects of both their religions. Impartiality was key to her team’s success and with the two of them, that was exactly what she got.

Bina’s interview for the job was a bit touch and go, but there was something there and Eve couldn’t get the young detective off her mind. She mentally chose someone else but, before making the offer, she contacted Bina again and asked her in for one last interview. Eve simply couldn’t help herself.

“Tell me why you want the job?” she asked after they sat at Eve’s desk.

“You want the truth or the interviewee response,” Bina leveled.

“The truth, please.”

“I’m tired of not getting recognition for my work. I put in longer hours than anyone in my current division. Others take credit when I solve a case and no one says a word in my defense. I deal with the same shit day after day and I want a change.” She shrugged. “That may be the wrong way to put it. I want to work on a team that stands up for each other and where everyone works just as hard.”

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