Page 5 of Cold Case Discovery

But he shook her off and lifted his cell to his ear. He’d have to call in Bent County. To get a dig team, the coroner. Who’d likely have to call in a forensics team from somewhere farther afield.

Chloe’s mind was whirling. Too many things at once. She had to focus. Tap into cop brain. She’d been through a million crises in the past six years of being a cop. She knew how to compartmentalize.

A seventeen-year-old cold case’s first huge lead being your boss slash hookup buddy’s mother’s bones on your family’s property?

Okay, the situation was new.

“They’ll send out the detectives, a few deputies to zone it off. Get in touch with the coroner,” Jack said.

“Gracie Cooper. We know her. She’s good.” Which, it wouldn’t matter if she wasn’t. She was the Bent County coroner. But it seemed a tangible thing to hold on to.

“There’ll be a lot of questions for Ry.”

“He’ll hold up,” Chloe said, with far more confidence than she felt when it came to her brother. But she’d make sure she kept him in her sight, and as long as she did that, she could make certain he held up.

Right now he was pacing from Jack’s truck to some point just beyond, then back again. He raked his hands through his hair. He muttered to himself.

But he didn’t run. She’d give him that in this moment. While keeping an eye on him to make sure it stayed that way.

Chloe didn’t let her mind go to all the things this could mean. She didn’t ask herself why—why now, why here, why anything. She focused on the next steps.

Jack would need to go tell his family. He could wait for some clearer confirmation. After all, that ring—even if it had been his mother’s—wasn’t irrefutable proof the skeleton belonged to Laura Hudson.

Chloe had to suck in a careful breath. She could still picture the woman all these years later. Because Mrs. Hudson had been the kindergarten-room mom since Chloe had been in class with Mary, Jack’s little sister. Laura had embodied everything a mothershouldbe, and nothing Chloe had ever seen a mother be, so she’d been fascinated.

But worse than that memory was the fact that this discovery affected not just Jack but also Mary, one of her closest friends. Anna, their other sister. All those Hudsons.

They’d worked so hard, but the answers had always eluded them. And Chloe had never considered what it might mean—good and horrendously awful—if they finally got them.

She looked at Jack in the shadowy dark. No matter what it meant, he shouldn’t be here. He needed to be with his family.

“I’ll oversee this, then have Ry drive me back to my place. You go home.”

“We both know your brother’s license is suspended. You’re not having him drive you anywhere.”

“Fine. I’ll have someone appropriately licensed drive me home.”

Jack shook his head. Stubborn no matter what. “I don’t like that.”

“You’ve got bigger things to deal with.” He’d want to tell his family before anyone got word of this. Heneededto.

He swallowed, looked hard into the dark—the opposite direction from where that set of bones lay in the ground.

The ground ofherfamily’s ranch.

Would he be okay driving home on his own? Even if it wasn’t confirmed, it waspossiblethat this was his mother. He probably shouldn’t be driving anywhere by himself.

This is Jack Hudson you’re talking about. Still, the idea of him driving by himself back to the Hudson Ranch after this... It didn’t settle right.

“Maybe one of your brothers—”

“I can handle a two-mile drive.” He snapped it out like an order. Boss to subordinate. But that wasn’t really him, even when theywereworking, so she just nodded.

He needed to feel in control. She wasn’t going to take that away from him in this moment. This horrible, awful, impossible moment.

“Then go,” she told him. Because he didn’t need to see the whole production once Bent County got out here. He didn’t need toseeany of this.

Still, he hesitated. She couldn’t begin to imagine all the reasons he might have, but she reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. Friend to friend. Coworker to coworker. And, okay, whatever else they were when no one was around.

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