Page 31 of Close Quarters

Alex hesitated, his eyes moving between them, until he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t turn it over yet. Let us at least try.”

Seb’s mouth flattened. He stared at them a moment longer, his expression hard. “You get the weekend. If you don’t have anything by Monday morning—or something else happens—I’m calling the FBI.” He looked at Katie. “Agreed?”

She nodded. She could work with that. “Agreed.”

“Okay. In the meantime, my deputies are now your best friends. One will be stationed with you at all times, even here in the hospital. Neither of you goes anywhere alone, even here. If one of you leaves the lab and then the other needs to leave as well, you have to wait on one of my deputies to get here to escort you.”

“Seriously?” Katie crossed her arms and glared up at him. “We really need shadows?”

“Someone tried to shoot you. Twice. Yeah. You do.”

She growled under her breath. Seb bent his knees to look into her eyes.

“You’ll behave, yes? Because I can still take away the case if you won’t follow my rules.”

“She’ll be good.” Alex stood. “We’ll be careful.”

“Good. Gentry’s sitting just outside the lab doors. I need to get back to the station. Call me if you need me.” He turned to leave, but paused, looking back. “And let me know when you’re ready to head for Pueblo.”

They nodded, and he left with a wave. Katie frowned, watching his tall figure as he walked out of the lab. This sucked.

She knew how to make it better, though. Find out what the bad guys were so eager to hide.

“Come on.” She looked at Alex. “Let’s take another peek at that body.”

Alex tried not to stare at Katie as she sat cross-legged on the bed. She munched on loaded nachos as she studied the open file in front of her. They’d worked several more hours before calling it a day. After stops for clothes and food, they checked into their hotel room. Katie locked herself in the bathroom to take a shower as soon as they walked inside. Now, she sat across from him in her miniscule pajama shorts and loose top. At least she had a sports bra on under the shirt. He could see the strap peeking out from the neckline, which shifted lower every time she reached for something. She was trying to kill him.

But two could play that game. He’d taken one look at her attire and excused himself to take a shower as well. When he returned to the main room, he wore only his navy blue lounge pants, deliberately leaving his t-shirt in his bag. It had been worth it to see her face. Twin pops of color brightened her cheeks, and those big hazel eyes of hers grew dark as she stared at his bare chest. She didn’t take the bait, though. He knew she found him attractive. The feeling was mutual. But for some reason, she was reluctant to get involved.

She drove him nuts. A week ago, he would have said no way to a relationship, but something changed in the last few days. He found her sass invigorating now instead of annoying. He had a feeling their dinner the other night was to blame. Getting to know her better altered the way he viewed her, and he liked what he saw.

Cheese sauce from her nachos smeared on the corner of her mouth as she took another bite. Her tongue darted out to lick it away, and Alex stifled a groan. He shifted, bringing his knees up to hide his reaction to her. He needed a distraction.

“Let’s go over what we know.”

She looked up and sighed. “Okay. Where do you want to start?”

“The victim. White thinks she was about fifteen when she died but can’t really tell me how long she’s been in the ground.”

She frowned. “Based on the style of clothing she had on, I’d say she’s been dead fifteen to twenty years.”

“That makes sense. The Paulsons started their operation about twenty years ago. Maybe they pulled up stakes early on and were afraid to leave her body behind, so they moved her with them.”

Katie shuddered. “Those two are sick.” She pushed her nachos away. “I’ll try some fluorescence techniques tomorrow and see if I can pull some style numbers off the tags in her clothes. I can cross-match them with the brand and maybe get a year they were produced.”

He nodded. “I told Seb to go back ten years for his missing persons search, but I’ll tell him to expand it another ten in the morning. What else did you notice?”

“There wasn’t any blood on her clothes. Did you or White find anything to indicate cause of death?”

“No. She had some old fractures in several bones, but they all showed some degree of remodeling.”

“Okay. Can you get me a sample of her femur? I’ll run it for drugs. Unless the levels are off the charts, it won’t tell us if that was the cause of death, but it can definitely tell us if they were involved. It can also tell us more about her. What kind of water she drank, nutrition—that sort of thing.”

“How long will it take?”

She frowned. “It’ll be Sunday before I can run tests on the sample. It has to soak in methanol for about eighteen hours first. But once that step is complete, drying and testing will only take an hour, maybe.”

Alex closed his now empty to-go box and rested his arms over his bent knees. “We’re cutting Seb’s deadline really close.”

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