Page 9 of Savage Secrets

“Hi, Opal.”

Opal looked up from her hands knotted in her lap to see the kind, white-haired secretary of the police department smiling at her over the tall desk in the lobby.

“Hi, Michelle.” Opal moved forward.

Working at a precinct in a small town hadn’t made the woman as jaded as she would be in other parts of the country, and she offered a smile laced with sympathy.

Opal gave her a small nod to accept the unspoken gesture even as her mind whirled. Many times throughout her years of working as a ranger, she’d sat in this lobby. It wasn’t unusual for her to bring a trespasser in or need to give a statement about some crime or other committed on state lands.

Typically, those infractions involved driving an ATV without the proper registration or getting mouthy with her when she handed them a ticket for fishing without a license. But she was here to talk to the police about her father…about what they’d found—or hadn’t.

The receptionist gave her another close-lipped smile. “We were all shaken up when we heard about your father. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks.” She was still caught off guard by the threat of tears, rising so suddenly to the rims of her eyes, and she quickly dropped her gaze. She hoped it also stopped the flow of the conversation she’d doanythingnot to have.

The urge to make a run for the door flared inside her. She shifted her boots on the old tile floor to steady herself.

“Opal.” The male voice made her stomach give a small lurch.

The officer stood in the open doorway, looking all business like, which was good. If he’d given her a smile even close to the secretary’s, Opalwouldhave made a break for the door.

She followed him into his office.

He waved at a chair that wasn’t much better than the hard plastic one in the waiting area, but she supposed they didn’t want the people they interrogated getting too comfortable.

She sank down with the desk between them and folded her hands in her lap again.

“How are things going for you?” Officer Raoul eyed her with a spark of condolence in his eyes.

She sucked in a quick breath. “I’d like to just stick to the reason you called me, if that’s all right, Officer.”

He dipped his head in a nod of understanding. “I’ll get right to the point then. We’ve processed all the fingerprints from the crime scene that night.”

“And?” Her heart took off at an erratic beat. This was it—when he told her the name of the man who’d killed her father.

“All the prints we found belonged to your father.”

“You think the murderer was wearing gloves?”

He nodded.

Her spine was so stiff that the muscles began to protest, and she hunched her shoulders. “Okay. What’s next?”

“We’re still questioning people.”

“That’s all?”

“We’ve got a few leads. There are crimes against the Gracey family and some that took place on the neighboring ranch.”

“Yeah. Arson.” She wished the ranch had burned instead of her father losing his life. Agitation gave her voice a knife’s edge.

Officer Raoul leaned back in his chair and gave her a look that she might call embarrassed. “I wish I had more for you. I really do.”

“I wish you’d just called me to give me this update rather than have me come all the way down here. I had to get a last-minute babysitter!” As soon as the words burst out, remorse set in. She raked her fingers through her hair. “I’m sorry. It’s just so damn frustrating, notknowinganything.”

He gave her a long look that told her some fatherly speech was forthcoming. She saw it often enough from her older male coworkers to recognize the signs. “Are you sure that staying on the ranch is the best idea?”

“Best idea for my mental health or my safety?”

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