His face dropped in a sympathetic expression that made her want to vomit. “You’re not in your right mind, honey.”
Anna released his hand. “You do realize that filing a false police report carries jail time in Idaho?” Without waiting for an answer, she turned to the sheriff. “We’d like to see the video.” She turned and strode through the hub of three desks to a conference room as if she knew exactly what she was doing.
Heather followed her, acutely aware of the sheriff behind her. When she sat in a dark leather chair by a well-worn table, she sighed and fought the urge to throw the crutches across the room. Stupid things.
The sheriff punched keys on a laptop, and the screen at the far end of the room lit up. Heather ducked her head to see better. A woman dressed in a dark coat like hers, with a hoodie covering her face and head, keyed a couple of cars in front of a hotel while the snow billowed down. She used crutches and took her time, and not once did her face show.
“That’s Jack’s SUV.” Heather pointed to a blue SUV. “I don’t know who owns the other car.”
“A guy named Phil Lightenship who’s in town from Helena,” the sheriff said. “Is that you?”
Heather shook her head. “No. I don’t move that well with the crutches.” The woman was good at keeping her face off-camera. “Although she’s my size and that looks like my coat. Or at least it’s close to my coat.”
Anna sat back. “You don’t have enough to arrest her, Sheriff. You can’t tell who that is.” She looked sideways at him. “I need a copy of that.”
“I’ll email it to you,” he agreed, no expression on his gnarled face. “The complainant wants to talk to you. This would be so much easier if you all agreed that it wasn’t you. What do you say?”
Heather shook her head, but Anna stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“Oh, bring him in,” Anna said, her smile shark-like. “We’d love to talk to him.”
Heather shivered.
Chapter 9
Snow fell lightly to continue covering the forest service road in the middle of nowhere. Silence abounded with peace and the sense of winter as the tree boughs filled with white around them. “I want to work on ballistics,” Quint said, putting the collar on Zena next to his truck. “She can find shell casings and the wad, but I haven’t had time to work with her lately to hunt down shells.”
His brother finished securing the collar around his puppy. “Sounds good to me. Opal here is almost ready to start with search and rescue, but she needs a little tempering first.” He patted the yellow lab on the head, and the dog yipped happily. “Or maybe a lot of tempering.” Vince grinned. “I came out earlier and shot at a tree, so there’s a shell casing to the north and the wad should be close to that nearest tamarack. Go for it.”
Quint looked down at his dog. “Sit.”
Zena sat, and her body vibrated. She wore the collar and not the search and rescue vest, so she should know what her job was today.
“Are you ready to work?” Quint asked.
She stiffened.
“Go to it. Find.” He gestured toward the trees.
The dog took off, running in a zig-zag pattern. While her main focus would always be search and rescue or finding cadavers, sometimes Quint got the chance to assist the sheriff or local fish and game with cases, and Zena was one of the best at scouting.
Vince watched the dog go as his dog played around his boots. “Are you thinking of making a job change?”
A pit dropped into Quint’s gut. “No. Well, I don’t think so.”
Vince’s dark eyebrows rose nearly to his black hair. His eyes were a deep blue, unlike the rest of the brothers. “That was uncertain. What’s up with you?”
Quint shrugged. “Find it, girl,” he called out as Zena plunged into the trees.
Vince sighed. “Quint? Give.”
Quint shoved his hands in his pockets against the freezing snow. “Someday I’m going to have to find another line of work. Not yet, but I don’t know.”
Vince rolled his eyes. “It’s the new girl, isn’t it?”
“She’s a woman and not a girl,” Quint said, easily deflecting.
“Whatever. You like her, but if she likes you, she won’t get in the way of your job. You know that,” Vince said, angling his head to better see Zena. “She’s caught the scent.”
