Buried Secrets - Calle J. Brookes Page 0,62

beer, Jim’s career would be finished. Gone. Ended in an instant.

Gunderson would arrest him on the spot.

His own stupid fault.

But he was so sick and tired of men like Gunderson getting things just handed to them. The ranch wasn’t the biggest, and it wasn’t in that great of shape, but it was more than Jim had. No doubt because Gunderson made twice what Jim did.

How was that fair?

They’d started the academy at the exact same time. Him, Gunderson. Weatherby. Those two had teamed up against him from the very beginning.

It wasn’t right. Far from it. It wasn’t right at all.

Jim pulled his weapon free—not his service weapon, because that would just be stupid. But the smaller pistol he’d carried in his shoulder holster for fifteen years.

He tossed the can in his hand onto the ground next to his patrol car and took aim. There were shiny windows right there in front of him, with bright curtains on the inside.

There were flowers in the pots on the front porch. No doubt that pansy-ass Gunderson had planted them himself. Cooing over them like a freak.

Jim closed one eye and aimed at the first of those flowerpots as a big yellow dog came ambling up toward his car. Jim cursed, and jerked as his fingers squeezed the trigger.

And kept squeezing, even as the dog leapt right at him.

Then the dog was yelping and running, blood on its side.

He hadn’t meant to hurt Gunderson’s dog. Jim did a quick U-turn. And drove off. He hadn’t meant to hurt the dog.

Jim turned back toward the county seat and forced himself to breathe. To keep his hands steady on the wheel.

He almost missed the big, slate blue truck with Masterson Vet Services printed on the side until they were almost on top of each other.

He cursed and corrected, keeping his patrol car on the road by the skin of his teeth.

Jim looked in the rearview just as a long, tall woman climbed from the driver’s seat and watched him drive away.

The Talley girl. No doubt she’d seen him now.

It was going to be over soon. Then maybe Helen would stop haunting him with every breath he took.

42

Miranda had worked with Carrie Lorcan before. The woman was good at her job, about Miranda’s age, and quiet. She reminded Miranda a good deal of her younger sister, Meyra. Carrie was on the autism spectrum, as was Meyra.

She’d always worked well with Carrie when their paths had crossed.

Carrie had been assigned this case—normally, she remained in St. Louis supervising her team of computer tech investigators, of which Jac was an assistant supervisor—to help get the woman she’d brought with her up to speed before turning the trainee over to Jac for a month or so. That tech—Dr. Appell—was now with Jac, learning how to integrate with a local law-enforcement agency while the opportunity was there. Joel Masterson’s chief deputy Zach Lowell was a tech junkie, same as Jac, and he’d volunteered to help with the process.

Miranda just thought Zach had a bit of a crush on Jac, even though Max was around glaring whenever this Deputy Lowell got too close.

“Do you think we’re getting closer?” Carrie asked quietly. She didn’t say much when they were in larger groups. Miranda understood that. Some people just did better one on one.

“I do. The whole thing reads as a crime of the moment. No doubt a family argument gone wrong. I don’t think anything was premeditated. It’s just a matter of identifying who was where.”

“Good.”

“Anxious to get home?”

“Yes. Malcolm is teething. It can give him an ear infection sometimes. And Maddie has been clingy lately. I don’t want Sebastian to get overwhelmed.”

Miranda laughed quietly. “I don’t think there’s a Lorcan brother alive who can get overwhelmed. Those three can handle just about anything.”

Miranda had worked with all three of the Lorcan brothers at one point or another. They were bureau legends, even more now. Three identical men, all three assigned to PAVAD, and they were very, very good at their jobs.

So were their wives, who Miranda considered among her friends.

“So how is Dr. Knight holding up?” Carrie asked suddenly. It surprised Miranda. Carrie normally didn’t ask questions like that.

“Ok, I think. Why?” Miranda shot a look at the other redhead as she pulled up to the stop sign where the highway they were on merged with the one they’d need to take.

A slightly guilty look passed through Carrie’s hazel eyes. “I’ve been asked to do a spot check on him. See how