Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Claire
While Cheyenne stood guard over the area, I raced back up the hill. The incline had me out of breath by the time I reached the campsite. As soon as Rhett saw me, he jumped up from his chair, fear in his eyes.
“Where’s Cheyenne? What happened?”
“She’s fine,” I said, holding up a hand as I fought to catch my breath. “But Ash found something out there. I need to call the sheriff.”
“The sheriff?” Rhett blanched. He wasn’t a big fan of law enforcement, having been on the wrong side of it too many times as a teen.
I ignored him, walking toward the road to get a better signal. When my cell phone had three bars, I hit the number for the station. Andrea, our administrative assistant, answered.
“You’re supposed to be on vacation,” she said, humor in her voice.
“Yeah, well, looks like the universe has other plans for me.”
Her voice changed instantly. “What’s wrong?”
“Got a problem up here. Cheyenne’s dog, Ash, just uncovered human remains near our campsite.”
The line was silent for a beat. “Did you say human remains?”
“’Fraid so. Gonna need the sheriff and whoever’s on duty. I’d go ahead and call Wendy, too.”
“On it,” she said, her voice brisk. “What else do they need to know?”
I closed my eyes, picturing the scene. “It’s just bones left.
That’s not my field, but I’d say we aren’t dealing with anything real recent.
Body was at the bottom of a steep incline.
Could have been a camper or a hiker who fell.
” I mentally scanned the files of our unsuccessful SAR missions but couldn’t come up with one that matched the location.
“Got it. Where are you?”
I gave her the GPS coordinates for our site, then ended the call.
When I turned around, Rhett was standing with his arms crossed.
Despite the gravity of the situation, I cracked a smile.
He looked like some sort of superhero with his long hair blowing in the breeze, his biceps bulging, and a stance that said he was ready for anything.
Sometimes I looked at him and still saw the kid he’d been. Moments like this reminded me that ten years had passed since he’d first left Wildwood. He’d grown into a man. A good, responsible, fierce man who loved my best friend with every ounce of his being.
I wondered what he saw when he looked at me. Did he see the years that had passed, the skills I’d learned, and who I was becoming? Or did he still see me as the teenager he’d left behind ten years ago?
Sometimes I felt like I hadn’t grown up at all.
“What do you need me to do?” he asked.
“Stay here,” I said, walking past him to my truck. “I’m going to take a closer look. I’ll send Chey back up here to you. When the cavalry arrives, she’ll be able to lead them to the site.”
“Got it. Hey.” He grabbed my arm, made me look him in the eye. “You okay?”
“Not my first dead body, Rhett.”
The worry on his face didn’t budge. “I know. Cheyenne’s told me about some of the recovery missions you’ve both done. Still can’t imagine it’s easy.”
“I’m fine. I promise.”
I was. But I didn’t know how to explain that this felt a thousand times easier than any of those recoveries.
This was bones, something that looked more like the plastic models in a science lab than an actual person.
I knew technically it was a human, but with the defining features gone, it was easy not to think of it that way.
The coroner would figure out a way to identify the person, and then it would feel real. Then there would be a face and a name and a story that might haunt me. But for now?
This was nothing like being face-to-face with the decomposing body of someone you’d failed to save.
I grabbed my SAR backpack, service weapon, and badge from my truck. Then I hiked back down to the site and sent Cheyenne up to Rhett.
As she disappeared into the woods, I felt a wave of nerves.
This was my first police investigation that involved a deceased individual.
I’d only been a deputy for a little over a year, and I’d never dealt with anything like this.
Odds were, it would be a simple case of accidental death. But I still didn’t want to screw up.
At least not any more than I probably already had when I’d poked the mess of pine needles and inadvertently moved that skull.
I used my flashlight and my cell phone to take the best photographs I could and marked off the area with the orange flagging tape we used to flag clues on a search.
I second-guessed that decision—this probably wasn’t the scene of an actual crime, and the guys would likely make fun of me for treating it like one. But I didn’t want to take any chances.
After that, I sat and waited.
Two hours passed before I finally heard a scuffle of rocks and muted voices as Cheyenne led the response team down the hill.
Sheriff McGrath approached first, eyeing my tape with a dubious expression.
Sergeant Trey Collins—my least favorite coworker—was with him.
I stifled a groan as he snickered over my makeshift crime scene.
Sheriff McGrath came over and put a hand on my shoulder. “What do we have going on here? Andrea said you found some remains?”
“That’s right,” I said, trying to ignore Trey’s smirk. “We were walking the dog and she uncovered them. I figured they were animal bones, but upon taking a closer look, we found a human skull.”
“So just bones?”
“Just bones,” I confirmed.
“Hmmm.” McGrath eyed the steep bank and whistled. “One wrong move and that would be a hell of a fall. People have died from less. We’ll have to see if Wendy can tell us how old the bones are, cross-reference that with any missing campers thought to have been in this area.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” I said, nodding. “But I’ve been working SAR for ten years, and every mission we’ve had in this area has been successful.”
He shrugged. “This could be someone who fell fifteen, twenty years ago—even longer. We’ll just have to wait and find out.
It could also be someone who was never found because they were thought to be somewhere else.
Regardless, good work here. Hopefully we’re about to bring closure to a family somewhere. ”
“Yeah, hopefully,” I agreed. But even though he was voicing the same thing I’d thought earlier, I found myself unconvinced.
The remains weren’t that far from a campsite.
It was a lesser-used, primitive campsite in a park that didn’t get a ton of traffic, sure.
But still. A few dozen people camped here every year.
Plenty of them brought dogs, like we had.
I knew from SAR work that human remains could easily go overlooked, even with diligent search efforts.
But it was hard to imagine that the bones would go undiscovered for that long in a place frequented by campers.
Sheriff McGrath checked his watch. “Wendy should be here any minute,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“I’m already here.” Her voice came from the hill as she gingerly stepped her way down. One hand carried her bag, while the other gripped a tree as she navigated the steep terrain.
Wendy James, our coroner, was a real gem for Sage County.
She’d worked as a forensic investigator for over twenty years in Omaha before moving to Wyoming in search of peace.
She was vastly overqualified for the job.
But the real reason I loved her was because, like me, she was short and blonde.
Her hair was spiky, she had a diamond stud nose ring, and most days you could spy her rose tattoo peeking out from the collar of her shirt.
She looked like the kind of woman you wouldn’t expect to be taken seriously.
Yet, unlike me, she was well-respected—even by Mayor Evans and Judge Barrington, the rest of the boys’ club that, along with Sheriff McGrath, made up our local government.
Probably didn’t help that they remembered me competing in “Little Miss Wildwood,” stomping around town in glitter-covered cowboy boots during my pageant phase.
Even now, I still heard myself referred to by that name under their breaths.
Sheriff McGrath was the only one who seemed to take me seriously as a deputy.
Wendy looked approvingly at the tape. “You were the first one here, Hawkins?”
“That’s right.”
“Nice work blocking this off,” she said. “Glad you recognized the need to do so.”
“Thanks.” I beamed.
Trey nearly choked.
She pulled gloves and booties from her bag and slipped them on before ducking underneath the tape. Her deputy coroner, Wes, set up a floodlight to illuminate the area, then followed behind her with a large camera, taking photographs of the area that would put my cell phone snaps to shame.
“Now you’re just doing our job for us,” McGrath joked, rocking back in his boots.
We all knew he was more than happy for Wendy to take point on this. Sheriff McGrath had been in law enforcement a long time, but Wendy still had more crime scene experience than the rest of us put together.
She grinned at him and winked. But her face sobered as she turned back to the skeletal remains.
The mood shifted, tension growing as she began to methodically examine the area.
Several times we saw her point to something and exchange glances with Wes.
Little by little, she uncovered the rest of the bones, taking care to document exactly where they’d been before moving them.
The rest of us stayed quiet, the gravity of the situation hitting as we watched her work.
She finally rose and came over to us with a small baggy in hand.
“Well?” McGrath asked.
“The remains are definitely human,” she confirmed. There was a weariness in her eyes that I’d never seen. She pushed her short hair away from her forehead and shifted her weight to her other leg.
McGrath frowned. “Male? Female? Age?”
“Based on the pelvis and other details at the scene, I believe the victim was female. Probably a young adult. But I’m not ready to say definitively.”
“Cause of death?”
She rolled her eyes. “You know I can’t give you that yet. Not until the autopsy is complete. But…I have a suspicion. I’ll let you know.”
“I have a suspicion too,” he said, grinning. “I have a suspicion that some poor soul tumbled off that ridge up there.”
She gave him a long look. “I don’t think that’s what happened.”
The hairs on my neck prickled at the intensity on her face. “You think this was murder, don’t you?”
But she didn’t answer my question.
“There’s something you should know.” She held the baggy up.
“What’s that?” Sheriff McGrath frowned.
“A charm bracelet,” I said, staring at it. I recognized it instantly.
“That’s right.” Wendy’s eyes met mine.
The bag held a silver charm bracelet with only three charms—a football, a jeweled crown, and the letter K.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, moving my hand to my mouth. “We just found Katelyn Brown.”
All the blood drained from Sheriff McGrath’s face.
“That’s not an official identification,” Wendy cautioned. “We’ll use dental records and DNA to confirm. But it’s certainly a possibility. A strong one. The size of the bones, the age of them…”
“Katelyn Brown was wearing that the night she disappeared,” I added, still unable to keep my eyes off the bracelet—a bracelet that had just made those bones entirely too human.
“Nearly identical,” Wendy agreed. “The only difference is that Katelyn’s had four charms, not three. But a fourth might have broken off during a struggle.”
The sheriff’s hand trembled. “I have to make some calls,” he said gruffly. “No one touches anything else. We’re going to have to bring in Wyoming DCI. They’ll want to process the scene themselves. I…” He shook his head, trailed off, then turned and headed up the hill without finishing his sentence.
Trey and I exchanged glances. He kept his expression professional, but I could see the excitement in his eyes. This was the biggest thing to happen in Sage County in years, and he was right in the middle of it.
Katelyn Brown. Seven months ago, she’d stormed out of a college party, driven to her apartment, packed a bag, and left town.
She’d never been seen again, causing a flurry of speculation, rumors, and fears.
According to the news reports, there had been no real leads.
After a few months, everyone had moved on and forgotten about her.
I knew in my gut it was her.
But what the hell was she doing in a park outside of Wildwood?