Scene of the Crime Deadman's Bluff - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,3

as he saw his sister hurrying down the hallway toward him, her blue scrubs looking crisp and clean. Linda worked as a nurse and had left for her shift here at the hospital when Seth had left her house for the dunes.

“Hey,” she said as she approached.

“Hey yourself,” he replied with a soft smile. At thirty-eight Linda was three years older than him, but the two siblings had always been unusually close, especially since Linda had gone through her divorce from her domineering, verbally abusive husband, Mark.

She sat down next to him. “I heard the strangest story in the break room a few minutes ago. I heard that you went out dirt-bike-riding and wound up here with a woman you dug out of the sand.”

He nodded. “Strange, but true.”

“A couple of months ago another young woman was found dead in the dunes,” Linda said. Seth sat up straighter in his seat, his questions obvious in his eyes as Linda continued. “Apparently some of the teenagers in town decided to have a party out there. From the story I heard there was a lot of booze, some drugs and at the time that the woman was discovered Sheriff Atkins thought it was some kind of a freak accident resulting from partying.”

Seth frowned. “This today definitely wasn’t an accident.” His frown deepened as he thought about the scene. “She couldn’t have been there that long before I got to the dunes. It was almost like she’d been intended to be completely buried but something or someone chased the killer away before he could deliver the final shovelful of sand onto her face.” He wondered if perhaps the three young men who had arrived at the dunes before him had interrupted the murderer or had buried her themselves.

Linda reached over and patted his hand. “Go home, Seth. This isn’t your crime scene. Remember, you’re on vacation.” She stood. “And I’m not, so I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll see you at home late tonight.”

He nodded absently and watched as she disappeared back down the hallway. She was right. This wasn’t his job. He’d done what he needed to do and there was nothing to keep him from walking away.

Except those startling blue eyes and that moment of connection he felt with her before she’d freaked out and then had passed out. He couldn’t just head home and forget about all of this. Besides, he thought with a touch of humor, he had no way to get home.

He had no doubt that the kids from the dunes would see to it that his truck and bike got back to Linda’s okay. This was a small town and if they screwed with his rides, there would be no place for them to hide.

Still, despite the fact that he was on vacation, he couldn’t walk away from this until he had some answers. He wanted to know her condition, assure himself that she was physically okay. He wanted to know her name. He needed to know what had happened to her.

He jumped up from his chair as his cell phone rang. Seeing on the caller ID that it was his boss, Director Forbes, calling from Kansas City, he answered and walked with the phone outside the building doors and into the early-evening sun.

“Hope you’ve enjoyed the first few hours of your vacation because it’s officially over,” Director Forbes said. “I just got a call from Sheriff Atkins requesting your aid in the investigation of a serial killer who is burying women in sand dunes. Apparently you’re already a part of the most recent case.”

“A serial killer?” Seth felt as if he were missing a significant piece of a puzzle. Linda had mentioned one woman whose death had been ruled some sort of an accident, but nothing else.

“The sheriff has managed to keep the details of the other two murders under his hat. This woman you found is apparently the third victim in as many months. Since you’re already there in town Sheriff Atkins would like you to assist his team, and it sounds like you need to be there. Three women buried in the sand sounds like a case where the locals might be in over their heads. They definitely could use your help.”

“Yes, sir,” Seth replied, fighting an overwhelming irritation that the sheriff had gone directly to his boss before mentioning to Seth what he intended to do, and he’d neglected to tell Seth that this wasn’t the first woman found buried in