Instead, the tech was pointing at a police badge lying in the uncut spring grass.
Or—upon closer scrutiny she immediately revised her conclusion—a fake badge. The dull silver plastic sort that was sold in dime stores for kids.
“Looks like the others.”
The tech nodded. “Just let me get some pictures and measurements and I’ll bag it.”
Catching her eye on him, Nate shrugged as they rose. “Besides their IDs, a toy badge like that was the only other thing found at the scene.”
Risa restrained an urge to send a hard elbow jab to his gut. Like every other cop she’d ever known, he’d held something back when he’d filled her in on the case. Probably more than one thing. But it still burned. And reminded her of the petty annoyances she’d avoid if she didn’t return to her job with Raiker Forensics, which had paired her with hard-headed cops that could have been McGuire’s clones.
Resolutely, she pushed aside the stab of desolation at the thought. His reticence shouldn’t bother her. It wasn’t like she was going to work this case with him. She still didn’t understand the impulse that had brought her to the scene, but it had been just that. An impulse. Not a return of her natural instincts for an investigation. Not the insatiable curiosity that had once had her following every lead to its end in search of the smallest shred of truth.
That part of her life was over.
And as soon as McGuire finished here and returned her to her mother’s house, her part in this case would be finished, too. The realization brought a flicker of relief.
“You might want to run a Sam Crowley and have him brought in for questioning.” Surely it was small and petty to feel a thread of satisfaction at his surprised look.
“Why?” But he was pulling a notebook from the pocket of his navy muted-plaid suit jacket and unhooking the pen clipped to it. “Is he someone you ran into on the job? Does he have a history of this sort of thing?”
“No, he’s the man Heather Bixby was coming to meet this morning.”
In the act of writing down the name, his gaze bounced to hers. “She told you that?”
“When I pressed her.” Because they were freezing, she tucked her hands in her coat pockets. She couldn’t resist the opportunity to needle him a bit. “You really thought a woman would fix herself up like that to walk the dog?”
His eyes narrowed. “I said there was something odd about her coming to a place like this when it was still dark.”
“Not that odd, as it turns out.” She hunched her shoulders a bit, wishing she’d taken the time to change her clothes. The thin yoga pants weren’t much of a barrier to the chilly breeze. “I think you’ll discover they had a tryst planned, which I hate to think of occurring in front of the dog, but there you go. Crowley shouldn’t be hard to find. He’s got a sheet.”
McGuire flipped the notebook shut and slipped it back into his pocket. “Let’s hope his record includes assault and playing with matches,” he said, in dark humor. “Make my life a helluva lot easier.”
“I don’t think it’ll be that simple. But he may have seen someone in the vicinity. If this guy is as enthralled with fire as I suspect he is, he’d want to hang around and watch as long as he dared.”
The watery moon glowing through the crossed branches of the nearest tree. His nude body silhouetted against the bright flames, arms outstretched.
“I’ll have him brought in.”
The ME and her assistants were transferring the remains to a stripped-down gurney. Deliberately, she moved away, leaving the CSU techs and the ME to their jobs. Having delivered the information she’d gotten from Bixby, she was overcome with a desire to be gone. And after today she’d have nothing more to do with this case. Certainly, Raiker wasn’t going to get his way this time round. The man might be some kind of wizard when it came to knowing his people, but he’d miscalculated if he thought throwing her into another case would rid her of misgivings about returning to the work.
It went deeper than that. The hell of it was, Raiker, more than anyone else, should understand.
McGuire had joined the CSU techs and was directing the search. One of the men was rephotographing the area where the body had lain. Risa drifted farther from the activity, into a grid the detective had searched