Curl Up and Dye - Liliana Hart Page 0,12

can secure it.”

“I’ll call James,” Agatha said.

An alert went off on all their phones and they read the incoming message from the command center.

“Oh God,” Coil said, dropping down into a chair. “We’re too late.”

Agatha read the message for the fourth time, and tears came to her eyes. Explosion at Bell County Morgue. Fire and Rescue on scene. Containing the fire before searching for survivors.

“Maybe he hadn’t gotten there yet,” Agatha said. “Maybe he stopped to get something to eat after we left from the highway.”

“I’ll check.” Coil’s voice was empty and hollow, and he turned away as he made a call into dispatch to get information.

When he turned back to face them Agatha could see the answer in his eyes. “James’s patrol car was parked out front. He was there.”

“This is my fault,” Hank said. “I’m sorry. I’ve seen this before. I should’ve made sure that body was handled with more care.”

“How were you supposed to know that?” Agatha asked. “Your sisters ran over him and dumped him on our lawn for Pete’s sake. This is not your fault. Or anyone’s fault.”

Coil nodded. “I need to call the Rangers in on this. We’re going to need as many hands as we can get.”

“Good,” Agatha said. “We’ll all help however we can. This is personal. Someone needs to call Karl and let him know. He and Heather were supposed to head out on vacation, but I don’t want him to hear it from the news.”

“Word like this spreads fast through the department,” Coil said. “I guarantee he already knows.”

“We can’t get in over at the morgue until the fire department deals with the fire,” Hank said. “But we can work this scene here and see if we find anything to lead us to those men. We owe it to James and whoever else was in that building to bring them justice.”

Chapter Five

Several hours later, Hank milled around the sheriff’s office waiting for Karl.

Coil had been in his office dealing with the media, the Texas Rangers, and whoever was in charge of the Austin FBI field office. The feebs got a little hinky when foreign mercenaries started shooting things up. He also knew that Coil was experienced in dealing with the bureaucracy of territorial policing. Which was why Hank was glad Coil was the sheriff instead of him.

He heard the beeps of the keypad that allowed employees into the back entrance, and he turned to see Rodriguez coming through the door. Her uniform was wilted and dirty, and he knew she’d been on the scene of the explosion. Her face was blotchy from crying.

He looked around and noticed the sheriff’s office was more crowded than usual. Bell County had several sheriff’s offices in the different towns that made up the county, but the one in Rusty Gun was the main office. The department was big, and stretched a lot of miles, and there were officers inside he’d never seen before. It hit him then that this was probably the first time most of them had lost one of their own. He’d spent his career working in the big city on big cases, and he’d lost more friends in the line of duty than he cared to count.

Crime in Bell County was relatively low. They were used to dealing with escaped cows or traffic accidents for the most part. He watched Agatha go to Rodriguez and throw her arms around her, and the two women wept openly.

He saw Coil hang up the phone and put his head in his hands, so he went to the office and knocked on the door. Coil waved him in.

“Any news?”

“The special agent in charge at the FBI is upset because we didn’t notify him first. He mentioned something about reopening the ethics violation against me, and then I might have mentioned how I heard the FBI was doing an internal investigation on his house because of dirty practices. The conversation went downhill from there.”

Hank grinned. “Are they going to assist with forensics, or actually send agents out to help?”

“He wouldn’t commit. For the time being, the state crime lab is examining the blood and the bullet. Will Ellis called earlier to say that their Ranger crime scene techs had finished up processing Brad Hartley’s murder. Will said they did find one bullet casing and it matches the one we recovered off the highway.”

“Any luck with the hospitals?” Hank asked. “No way could that guy Hazel hit with her .44 not need emergency medical attention.”

“We called the