To Trust a Friend. Lynn Bulock

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СКАЧАТЬ it boils down to is that the state and the federal parks people are arguing over who should be handling this case. The land where everything was found is right on the border of the park where it meets some state property.”

      Kyra groaned. “Don’t tell me they’re going to take this away from us now.” The hardest work of recovering the evidence had already been done, and amazingly the media hadn’t caught wind of things yet. Even though she felt a little overwhelmed by the task at hand, she didn’t want to let go of the challenge just yet. Without media attention she could probably get a good week of work in and be much closer to identifying these kids.

      There was a little more silence from Allie while papers rustled. “Not exactly. It kind of looks like they want to let you handle the investigation and run it out of the state lab, but give you some help.”

      “Oh, great. I’ve had federal government ‘help’ before and it can get mighty tricky. In fact, I can only think of one really helpful federal employee I’ve ever met…” Kyra’s words trailed off as she felt her cheeks flush pink. Thinking about that particular person stirred her up more than working with these bones. She definitely didn’t want to turn around and face Allie right this minute, or even prolong this particular train of thought long enough for her perceptive assistant to ask who she was talking about.

      “Well, I hope his name is Joshua Richards, then,” Allie said, causing Kyra to raise her head quickly, banging into the bright light she’d lowered to give herself some aid in seeing distinctions in the bone. “Because that’s who they’re sending to help you.”

      What was that old phrase? Kyra asked herself as she rubbed the back of her head where it had struck the stainless-steel lamp. Oh, right. Be careful what you pray for, because you just might get it. “No one can tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor,” Kyra muttered under her breath. Maybe next time she would frame her request for help a little more specifically.

      She realized that Allie was still standing behind her, waiting for some kind of answer. She tried to calm herself down. “That’s okay, I guess. I know him, anyway, and he’s a good investigator. Or at least he used to be.” There’d been some talk of a personal crisis a while back, before she’d left the university, but Kyra couldn’t remember exactly what had happened. They’d grown close during an investigation a year ago, and then drawn apart just as quickly. “So how quickly should I expect this help, anyway?”

      “Soon. It looks like the lieutenant sent you an e-mail instead of a letter because they expect Agent Richards by the end of the week.”

      “But it’s already Wednesday,” Kyra said, trying not to let her voice rise any higher toward panic pitch. She needed more than a day or two to prepare mentally to work with Joshua Richards again. He was attractive and disturbing and she didn’t need to deal with either of those things right now.

      “Very astute, Dr. Elliott,” a deep voice drawled from the doorway. Kyra bumped her head on the light overhead for the second time in less than ten minutes, which was definitely going to leave her with a sore spot. So much for that day or two to prepare, Kyra thought. Joshua was here now whether she liked it or not.

      TWO

      Josh looked around the sterile space that passed for Kyra Elliott’s office. “So, you took this job voluntarily?” he asked, trying not to sound skeptical. The whole building was new, but had no charm or personality. Everything was concrete and steel, probably easy to keep clean and contamination-free, but even starker than he remembered Kyra’s university lab being.

      “I most certainly did,” she answered, chin stuck out as if asking for an argument. “They were looking for someone to expand their forensic anthropology department and I was drawn to the prospect of doing criminal work full time.”

      He turned that over in his mind, trying to make sense of it. Kyra hardly looked old enough to have her doctorate in forensic science, much less be a sought-after expert in her field. Sure, he’d used her skills when he’d needed some off-beat knowledge for the FBI more than once. And he probably owed her a great deal for helping put his personal quest to an end. Still, she looked more like an undergrad in biology with her willowy frame and huge green eyes. He even remembered one case they’d worked on together in Indiana where they’d almost been denied entrance to a restaurant with a bar attached because the manager had to be convinced that Kyra was really over twenty-one.

      “I guess I could ask you the same thing,” Kyra said, drawing his attention back to the present. “Did you actually volunteer for this particular assignment?” Her brow furrowed as she leaned back in her high-backed desk chair, and then she smiled slightly. “You didn’t, did you? Joshua, what did you do or say to somebody in the bureau to get you shunted over here?”

      Joshua felt his cheeks flush. “You don’t want to know,” he told her, meaning every word of it. He had no desire to tell Kyra all the stupid choices he’d made in the last eight months. He was probably lucky that the worst his actions had earned him was this dead-end investigator’s assignment. If this was the answer to that prayer or whatever it had been in his car a few days ago, it was a pretty goofy answer. “So fill me in on what we’ve got so far. Nobody at the bureau seemed to have a lot of information.”

      “That’s because there isn’t much yet. Some bird-watchers in a park were tracking something rare when they came upon bones stirred up by the spring floods. We’ve recovered about all we’re going to. We’re cleaning the bones carefully, and I’m trying to sort out how many individuals are involved. If I had to speculate at this point, I’d say we’re looking at three young women somewhere between twelve and eighteen.”

      Josh tried to stifle the groan he felt building, but wasn’t entirely successful. “But that’s just speculation, right? And you don’t even know for sure how long these victims have been dead.”

      “There were just enough remnants of clothing that I can tell you they’d probably been there no longer than twelve years, and probably not less than seven. So I can head off any questions about this being an ancient burial site, or Civil War remains. Believe me, you’re not the first person to hope for that. These were kids who were alive in the early nineties for sure.”

      “How long before you can get more specific than all this?” He stopped himself before saying more, like “all this guessing” because he knew that would only stir up the scientist in Kyra.

      “We’ll have a few more answers by Monday. At least by then I will know for sure how many people we’re talking about, and probably give you a better estimate of age, size and ethnic makeup.”

      “So what do you want me to do until then?” Josh dreaded her answer, because it was likely to involve a lot of pointless, boring research.

      Kyra huffed. “I know that look, Agent Richards. You’re already bored with this assignment and it hasn’t even started yet. I suggest you get used to the idea that you need to spend the next few days searching for statistics on teens that have gone missing in the time period we’re targeting. If you want to make it easier on yourself, just start with the Baltimore-Washington corridor in the most likely four years.”

      How did she do that? Josh had forgotten how quickly Kyra tuned into his ways of thinking, and how different they were in their opinions. He sat up straighter in the office chair and tried to look more attentive. “Is there a spare office for me to use?”

      Kyra shrugged. “Afraid not. We’ve got researchers doubling up already in this department. I can let you have a corner in here.” Her quick smile gave Joshua a start of surprise. “That way I can keep an eye on you and СКАЧАТЬ