“Sam is making some sort of rice dish and Leslie is seasoning the chicken.” Casey pulled her chair closer. “This is great, isn’t it? We could be back home sweltering in the heat. September and it’s still in the upper 90s there. That’s crazy.” She took a deep breath. “Instead, we’re up here in the mountains. No humidity. It’s nice and cool. And we’re getting to see a little early fall color.” She clanked her beer bottle against Tori’s in a silent salute. “It’s great up here, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is.” Tori took a swallow from her beer. “Thanks for making me do this.”
“Yeah.” Casey took a swallow of beer too. “You know, they want to go into Taos tomorrow. How about we let them go and you and I hike down to that trout stream the ranger was telling us about?”
Tori raised her eyebrows. “You think they’ll go for it?”
Casey nodded and grinned. “Yeah. We’ll just whine enough. They’ll be glad to get rid of us.”
“Well, it’s been a while since we’ve been fishing.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve hung out,” Casey reminded her. “That’s why I thought this vacation would do us all good. You’ve been a little, well, cranky lately.”
Tori laughed. “Cranky? Me?”
“You need to talk about something?” Casey offered.
Tori nodded. She’d met Casey by chance. Casey was still with Special Victims Unit back when they’d assigned her to Homicide to work a case. They’d hit it off immediately, something very rare for Tori. Back then, she didn’t have any friends, only Sam. But she and Casey had clicked right away. She found it was as easy to talk to Casey as it was to Sam.
“I’m thinking of leaving the FBI,” she said.
“Really? I thought you loved it.”
Tori shrugged. “It was a nice change. I needed it.”
“And now?”
“It’s just goddamn politics all the time. I hate that part of it.” She looked over at her. “Truth is, I miss Homicide. I miss the team.”
“You want to come back?”
“Maybe. What do you think?”
“Oh, hell yeah, Hunter, that’d be great. You know Lieutenant Malone would find a spot for you, no problem. Maybe me and you, you know.”
“You recently got a new partner though.”
“Yeah, and I like him okay. I mean, he’s not Leslie, don’t get me wrong,” she said with smile. “But I’m not really attached to him or anything. Besides, he thinks I talk too much.”
Tori laughed. “Now that’s a surprise.”
“No. Seriously. You going to come back?”
“It’s been on my mind a lot lately.”
“What does Sam think?”
“I haven’t told her. I wanted to be sure.” She took another swallow of her beer. “Our schedules are so off, we don’t have nearly as much time together anymore. I know she’d be thrilled if I went back.”
“Yeah, we all would.”
“We’ll see. Career-wise, that’d be taking a step back, you know.”
“Oh, please. You FBI types always think you’re on the top of the world,” Casey said with a laugh.
“That’s because we are, O’Connor.”
They looked up as a truck sped their way, then slammed to a stop. It was a dusty green Forest Service truck and a ranger got out, practically running toward them.
“You’re law enforcement, right?” he asked quickly. “They told me you were. I got a situation.”
“A situation?” Casey asked. “We’re kinda out of our jurisdiction, you know. I’m Dallas PD.” Casey pointed at Tori. “Hunter here is FBI. I guess maybe that would fly.”
“What’s going on?” Tori asked.
“I got a distress call from the wife of one of my rangers,” he said as he twisted his hands together nervously. “This is his day off. She said someone was in their house, that he had a gun. I heard shots and the line went dead.”
“Sheriff’s department?”
“Yeah, I called them, but they got a huge mess down on Highway 64. They got five cars involved, but they got gunshot victims too,” he explained. “They’re sending someone up here as soon as they can, but I got a bad feeling. I mean, I heard shots on the phone. I need somebody right now.”
Tori looked at Casey. “I guess we could go take a look.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Casey got up. “I’ll get our weapons and tell Sam and Les.”
But they had already come outside. Sam walked up to her, her eyes questioning. “Everything okay?”
“I think so. He wants us to check out something. Possible home invasion,” she said. “It’s going to be a little while before the sheriff’s department gets here. Thought we’d go take a look.”
“Okay. We’ll hold off dinner then.”
“We’ll be right back.” She hesitated a second as she looked at Sam, her gut telling her not to leave for some reason. She felt a bit embarrassed with the ranger watching, so she shook it off and pulled Sam into a quick hug. “Be right back,” she whispered into her ear.
“Be careful.”
“Always.”
Chapter Two
“He’s got two daughters,” he said as he turned onto a small dirt road that cut into the forest. “I don’t know their ages. One is in high school. The other is, oh, I don’t know, ten or eleven, I guess.”
The road opened into a rocky clearing, and a small log cabin came into view. It blended well with the trees and rocks, and Tori had time to think how appealing it looked. But the ranger slammed on his brakes and her gaze was brought to the body lying on the road.
“Oh, shit,” Casey murmured.
She and Casey got out. Tori pointed to the ranger. “You stay here.”
He nodded, his eyes wide. “That…oh, God, that’s the oldest daughter.”
They walked forward. Casey squatted down, touching the girl’s neck. She looked up at Tori and shook her head.
“Shot. Back of the head.”
“Looks like she was running toward the road,” Tori said quietly, her eyes on the house. She pulled out her weapon and Casey did the same. Tori motioned with her head to the left and Casey headed that way. Tori moved slowly to the right, listening. But it was quiet. Too quiet. There wasn’t even a bird to be heard.
Casey pointed around the side, indicating she was going to the back of the house. Tori nodded, then walked up on the porch. The front door was ajar. A bloody hand print was smeared on the side. She pushed it open slowly, the hinges squeaking as the door swung inward. A man was on the floor, face down. Blood pooled around his head. She stepped over him, going into the living room.
She heard Casey enter from the back. The kitchen, she assumed. She took the hallway, opening the bedroom doors. All three were empty and looked undisturbed.
“Clear,” she called.
“Clear,” Casey called back.
Tori went back to the living room and into the kitchen. Casey met her at the door.
“Found the wife,” she said. “Dead.”
Tori nodded. “Yeah. Got a male by the front door. I assume the husband.”
“The wife was shot in the face,” Casey said. “Could have been while she was on the phone.”
“Bedrooms looked undisturbed,” she said. “Maybe the younger daughter wasn’t home.”
“Or maybe he took her.” Casey shook her head. “What the fuck happened here, Hunter?”
“I don’t know. It’s like they were executed. All shot in the head.” She headed back to the door. “Let me get the ranger in here to make a positive ID.”
* * *
With a little coaxing, Sam got the campfire going again. She would make a point to let Casey know she’d done it without lighter fluid too.
“Only three days and police work comes into play,” Leslie said as she sat down beside her.
“I know. We all needed a break. I hope it’s nothing serious.” Sam leaned closer. “And now that we’re alone, tell me about this house you’re looking at.”