That… She hadn’t expected that.
“What?” Drennan shook her head, no longer seeing the woman’s face but a blur of white lab coat and darkening at the edges of her vision. She was holding her breath. Forcing herself to breathe through the surprise, she focused on capping the Q-tip Dr. Yarrow had swabbed and adding it to the sample cart. She’d just taken a pregnancy test yesterday morning and gotten her own confirmation. Her boss couldn’t have known before her. Right? “How did you…”
“You’ve been more tired lately.” The medical examiner didn’t miss a step in their routine, inspecting the inside of the victim’s mouth for wounds, missing teeth, crowns that might identify her or disease. The light coming from his magnifying glasses turned the woman’s skin a waxy white. “Eating a lot more, too. I noticed you’ve been favoring more fresh fruit and vegetables.”
“You concluded that I’m pregnant from all that?” Was that even possible? A new workout routine could end with those results.
Dr. Yarrow notched his head up to put her in his direct line of sight. The brightness of the light on his glasses skewered her vision. “Well, I might work with the dead, but I’m still around the living plenty. And I remember when my wife was pregnant. You wouldn’t believe her cravings. Who voluntarily eats cottage cheese with watermelon?”
She didn’t know what to say to that. She hadn’t planned on telling him for a few more weeks and only because she’d need to take some time off after the baby came. Their work here wasn’t strenuous, but she’d wanted to give him plenty of time to hire and train a new assistant if that was what he needed.
“Did you photograph these bruises on the back of her neck?” The medical examiner tilted the victim’s head to one side, exposing the purple and blue marbling at her nape.
Drennan took as much of a cleansing breath as she could in a too-small exam room with a decomposing body that’d been out of the freezer for nearing two hours. “Yes. I already uploaded the photos to your laptop.”
“These look like a handprint. Like someone held her down and squeezed.” Dr. Yarrow straightened with all that grace she’d never been able to achieve, even as a little ballerina, and tore his gloves free. He scratched at his nose with one thumb, his attention locked on the body. “Considering how long she was in the water, I can’t imagine we’ll get clean fingerprints off her skin, but the size of the handprint is a start. You said you couldn’t find her ID?”
“No, and there are no missing person reports at this time. I was going to expand to other departments in the state, maybe even into Mesquite and Arizona to see if any of them filed a report matching her description later today.”
“Something might come up on the X-rays. It’s possible she’s had surgery in the past and has a pin or plate with a serial number we can use. This is the fourth homicide I’ve seen in asfew months coming out of that park.” The medical examiner’s eyes narrowed on their victim, and he removed his magnifying glasses. “It’ll take a few more hours to finish the autopsy and at least three weeks for the crime lab to return the toxicology on the samples we’ve collected. I don’t want to wait that long. Go back to the scene. See if you can find anything that tells us who she is. Make sure you take enough water this time and the waterproof gear. It’s in the corner.”
Back to the scene? Up the near three miles of incline and into water that looked like an algae breakout? And possibly run into the man she’d admitted to wanting more from? Oh, hell. Dread settled in the pit of her stomach, and a rush of acid charged into her throat. She swallowed it back, but like the thick oily feeling in her blood, it clung. This was her job. Her only source of income unless she wanted to burn through her savings. There were no other options from this point. She’d given them all up when she’d resigned from her position in the ER. No one would hire her back after what’d happened.
Drennan peeled her gloves free and tossed them into the biohazards wastebasket. Her breath shook on a long exhale. “I can do that.”
She could. She’d done it once before. This time, she would be more prepared.
It took about twenty minutes to reach Zion National Park’s front entrance and even less to park and catch the shuttle to the Grotto, where the Emerald Pool Trail began. Her legs burned from overuse on ascent, especially given the weight of the waterproof gear. Was Harvey assigned to patrol this trail today?
Her breath sawed in and out of her lungs with a burning at the back of her throat as she attacked the steplike boulders leading into the upper pools. Wasn’t it rare for this area to be so empty of hikers? She’d bypassed a few on the ascent, but they’d been coming down from the pools. She’d expected a fewhikers on the shore angling cameras up toward the hundred-foot waterfall blowing every which way from gusts as she donned the waterproof one-piece and boots. But this was good, too. There wasn’t anyone to get in her way as she dredged the few-foot-deep pool.
“Ugh.” Yeah. She was going to have to get in that water. For hours. Not how she intended her day to go. Drennan took her first step, surprised by the silt that gave way under her weight. She extended both arms for balance, then carefully tipped forward to get a better look into the murky water. Maybe she should’ve given Harvey or the other rangers a heads-up she’d come out to search the scene. They could’ve at least ensured she wasn’t attacked by a pond monster, but the idea of seeing Harvey so soon after their last conversation… She needed time.
Piercing the surface with her net, she dragged the apparatus along the bottom of the pool. Coming up empty. There had to be something here. A phone, a wallet, the victim’s ID very clearly identifying her remains. “Come on.”
A shadow crossed the surface of the water to her left.
Drennan turned to warn the hiker not to get closer.
Lightning exploded across her vision. Along with the pain.
And then she was lost to the Emerald Pools.
Chapter Twelve
He hadn’t been this nervous since reporting for basic training.
Harvey memorized the property through the windshield of his SUV. The Office of the Medical Examiner wasn’t in a hospital or attached to the police station as other towns might’ve set it up. Nope. This one was in a freaking funeral home.
The bright white exterior was almost enough to convince him there weren’t horrors waiting inside. Greek-like columns upheld the second story over an open walkway lining the entire structure with rows and beds full of pastel flowers and thick green shrubs. The property as a whole had obviously been well taken care of and designed to create a sense of peace in the visitors who walked through those elaborate double doors at the front.
Having the ME’s office inside a funeral parlor made sense in a town with less than twenty-five thousand residents. Sort of. Both the ME and the funeral director handled remains. They both needed access to exam rooms, used refrigerators to stop decomposition and had all the tools that came with preparing a body for burial, but he couldn’t shake the prickling dread at the back of his neck at the thought of walking in there. Not even for any big reason but a thousand little ones.
Most recently having to visit another funeral home on behalf of a man he honestly should’ve left to the state to bury.
But he wasn’t here for that. He was here for Drennan. To apologize. To give her the respect she deserved. Because she was right. What he’d done—kissing her to convince her to givehim what he wanted—was inexcusable, and he wasn’t that man. Truly. Every cell in his body hated the idea she felt as though he’d turned her into a challenge to be conquered instead of the beautiful, caring, compelling woman she was. And she’d called him out on it, refused to get caught in self-imposed rules or used as a tool in some greater design. And, damn if that wasn’t one of the sexiest things he’d ever seen, her putting him in his place.
I was just hoping for you.
