“These bones are smaller than the average male, and the pelvic bone is much broader, nature’s way of preparing the female body for childbirth.” The hiker swiped at her face. “I’mstudying to be an anthropologist. Gathering data from bones such as gender, age and socioeconomic status is part of the job.”
Callen didn’t know what to say to that or what to think about the kernel of desperation building in his chest the longer he studied the remains. What kind of man hoped his sister wasn’t still alive and suffering at the hands of whoever had abducted her? That she’d found peace like this with a beautiful view? “You can go back to your friends if that makes you more comfortable.”
They didn’t have to wait long for the law enforcement division to arrive on the scene. One of Simpson’s rangers, a woman he hadn’t met yet, isolated the three hikers on the trail to get their statements while the man himself stretched out a hand to Callen at the boulder just before the flat area where the body had been found. “Anyone touch the remains?”
“Not while I’ve been here, but there are a lot of treads inside the perimeter.” Callen shook his head as the shame took hold. “Including mine.”
“We’ll need an imprint of your boots to rule out any involvement.” Simpson crouched in front of the skeletal remains. “Agent Perry is taking the lead on this one. Seems this might not be the only victim expected to turn up in Zion.”
No. Callen hadn’t heard him right. It wasn’t possible. “Agent Perry?”
Simpson pointed down the boulder path. “FBI incoming.”
But there she was. Every ounce the woman he remembered. And for the first time since he’d stepped onto the trail, cold worked through him at the sight. It’d been a year, but she hadn’t changed. He could still feel the sensation of that long, dark hair she’d pulled back between his fingers, recall her wide smile anytime he’d looked her way. Her gasp when he’d gotten down on one knee with a diamond ring in his hand and the one after that when he’d gotten her into bed. No matter how many timeshe’d tried to forget, she was still there. Haunting him every hour of every day.
Agent Maeve Perry.
Lauren’s best friend.
His ex-fiancée.
And the woman who’d compromised the missing person investigation that’d torn apart his family.
Chapter Two
She wasn’t going to survive this.
Special Agent Maeve Perry did everything in her power to focus on the remains sitting against the red rock wall as though the victim had merely sat down for a break from hiking and not on the man currently staring at her as though she could burn where she stood.
“Agent Perry, Ranger Russell.” Simpson motioned between her and Callen. “He responded to the report and set up the perimeter.”
“We’ve met.” Callen didn’t say anything more, didn’t even seem to breathe, as he turned toward the skeletal remains. Dismissing her altogether.
“Nice to see you again.” It’d been one year. Almost to the day. She swallowed the thickness coating the sides of her throat at that last memory of seeing Callen in person. He’d worn that same expression he had now. Nothing had changed in that regard. He still hated her. Still blamed her for what’d happened. And she’d let him. Because it was her fault the investigation into Lauren’s disappearance had stalled. She’d been the one to lose track of the one piece of evidence that might’ve led the FBI to finding her best friend, and she’d paid the price for it. Was still paying the price for it.
But Callen didn’t need to know all that. She’d run out of explanations and apologies. There was nothing left to say between them, and nothing she could do to prove how sorry she really was.
Except find Lauren.
She knew the statistics. Lauren had last been seen after a town hall meeting in Springdale after presenting an argument for bringing more development into the tourist town. Witnesses from the meeting itself had stated the meeting hadn’t gone in her favor. Places like this, built solely for tourism and to support a national park rather than the citizens themselves, preferred to keep the small town culture they were known for, and Lauren had left that meeting frustrated and upset. Within twelve hours, her vehicle had been located abandoned along the Virgin River, nothing but Lauren’s notebook inside. She never went anywhere without that thing, and Maeve had always given her a hard time, but that one piece of evidence had told authorities her best friend hadn’t left her vehicle willingly. And Maeve had been the one to misplace it. The chances of bringing Lauren home had lessened every day since, and now it’d been almost a year since the FBI had any kind of lead. The case was dead in the water.
Until now.
Sweat pooled under her arms and at the back of her neck despite the near freezing temperatures closing in. Zion was beautiful in winter, almost desolate and unaltered. The way a national park should be. Apart from the set of bones staring back at her. Maeve lowered herself level with the skeleton’s eyeline. Her jeans stretched uncomfortably. Not her usual uniform when working a case, but these were unusual circumstances. “Has anyone moved or touched the remains?”
“My rangers know how to do their jobs.” Ranger Simpson crossed his arms over a broad chest that could probably move a mountain if up for the challenge.
“I believe you. Everyone in my office has heard of the work you and your law enforcement rangers have done in the past year to catch a wide array of violent offenders.” Maeve tugged a set of latex gloves from her jacket pocket and snappedthem on before raising the skeleton’s right hand. No fractures or metal pins indicating surgery that might make getting an identity easier. The bones had been stripped of all identifying characteristics, too. Dental was their best bet, but she didn’t have the equipment here. She’d have to have these bones transported to the nearest medical examiner in Hurricane. Maeve moved on to the opposite arm, taking everything in. “Seems to be quite an uptick in crime around here, though. Why is that, do you think?”
“You’re asking why criminals are flocking to Zion?” Callen’s voice cut through the noise in her head, and her stomach bottomed out. There’d been days she couldn’t wait to hear that voice, relied on it to get her through the day. The warmth and tone, the ability it had to soothe even the most brutal cases she worked. But she didn’t feel it now. All that was left felt cold and distant. Hard. “Seems like a question for the criminologists. Not some agent who can’t do her job right.”
Every cell in her body screamed to argue, but she couldn’t. There was no argument, and she’d known coming here would aggravate the no-contact peace they’d sustained since Callen had broken their engagement.
“I miss something?” Simpson’s attention pressed between her shoulder blades, but she wouldn’t be the one to break professionalism here.
“No.” Maeve continued her mental catalog of potential identifiers. While the ME was better suited for the job, there was a desperation building behind her sternum that she couldn’t unknot. Something. There had to be something here to clue her in to the connection between Lauren’s disappearance and the missing person investigation that’d brought her all the way here to Zion National Park. “Your victim is female.”
“We already knew that.” Callen shifted his weight between both feet, one of his tells she wished she didn’t rememberthat said a storm was about to erupt. “The female hiker who found her is studying to be an anthropologist. Got anything else that would actually help us, or are you just here to assert jurisdiction?”
