Page 44 of High Density

She shoves her chair back from the table and gets to her feet.

“We should get going,” she directs at the sheriff. “It’s already getting late and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover yet.”

Ewing stands up as well. “What time were you planning on heading over to the grounds tomorrow?” he asks me.

“Around eight thirty or so? That way I can catch Frankie when she gets in.”

“Frankie?”

“My assistant,” I clarify for the agent.

“I thought that was Logan,” she returns.

“He works during the summer months. He’s a veterinary student. Frankie is my full-time assistant.”

“Gotcha,” Stephanie confirms as she leads the way to the front door. “In that case, I’ll be here at seven with our tech guy to get you miked, and we can be out of here before she arrives. We need to keep this investigation quiet. You two can’t share any of this information.”

“Of course,” I agree.

I follow them out with JD close on my heels. They’re about to get into the dark SUV they both arrived in when Stephanie swings around.

“Oh, you mentioned something about taking samples from the dead cow, do you still have those?”

“They’re still in my truck, let me grab my keys.”

I dart inside and grab my keys off the hall table. The vials of fluids I took are still in the cooler bag in the back of my truck. With everything going on, I’d almost forgotten about them.

I hand them to the agent.

“I was going to get them tested.”

“We can bypass a lab,” she says, heading to the back of the SUV and popping the tailgate. “I have a portable chemical analysis device in my kit.”

The back of her SUV is outfitted with an impressive storage system, holding a large number of drawers in all sizes. I’m a little jealous. The twenty-dollar plastic storage drawers, I thought I was so clever to pick up for the back of my truck, suddenly seem inadequate.

The portable spectrometer she pulls from one of the drawers consists of two devices. Both fit in your hand. One is a scanner the size of a deck of cards, and the display monitor looks more like a fat cell phone.

“Did you label them?”

“I did.”

She opens the cooler bag and pulls out one of the vials, holding the scanner against it. Within seconds the results display on the small monitor.

“Positive for cocaine,” Stephanie shares.

Even though it’s not really a surprise, the confirmation still sends shivers down my spine.

JD

“I’m gonna stay here.”

“All right.”

I should’ve known Pa wouldn’t question me or be surprised. He probably already expected as much, even though he wasn’t aware of the circumstances. Now he is.

“In case it wasn’t clear, I’ve been asked not to share what I know,” I tell him. “I’m telling you so at least someone knows where I am and why.”

Plus, my father isn’t a talker on the best of days. He’ll take a secret to the grave.

---