She stepped forward and I blocked her way. “Oh, whoa, sorry but you’re gonna have to wait ‘till we’re through. I was just putting up some more crime scene tape.”

  Gia stepped around me and started toward the barn again. “It’s my barn, Alex. I’d rather not wait for the investigation to be complete before I can assess how much damage the fire may have caused.”

  I stopped her by clasping her arm just above the elbow and felt a huge, meaty hand almost rip my arm from its socket. Gabe pulled me back and stepped between me and Gia, following her as she made her way across the parking lot. I shook out my arm, circled around them and stepped in front of her again, halting her forward progress. “Like it or not, Gia…” Gabe began to step forward and I pointed my finger at his 44-inch chest and said testily, “Gabe, stay.” He bristled and Gia held up her hand to call him off. I turned back to her. “As I was saying, like it or not, this is a crime scene, and you’re not invited.”

  I heard footsteps crunching in the gravel behind me and looked over my shoulder to see Kate approaching. She stepped up next to me. “It’s okay, Alex. Ms. Angelino, it’s good to see you again.” She smiled and pointed at Gia’s cigar. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to put that out. We don’t need any more evidence added to our already complicated crime scene.”

  “Of course.” Gia returned Kate’s smile as she handed the cigar to Gabe, who proceeded to grind the tip into the palm of his hand, glaring at me while he did so. I rolled my eyes at his implied threat, secretly relieved when the corners of his mouth quirked up just a tiny bit.

  Kate half turned and pointed behind her. “I understand these stalls are traditionally assigned to you during the racing season.”

  The fact that this was Gia’s barn finally registered in my tiny little brain. This barn that had a body buried in one of the stalls. I blinked, and my heart suddenly pounded out an additional fifty beats per second. I took a shallow breath as I remembered a man dying in a small room under the race course stands and Gabe saying, “Won’t be any trouble…unless you make it trouble.” I turned wide, almost panicked eyes to Gabe, who gave a tiny shake of the head.

  I casually turned my back to the two women and opened my eyes super wide, asking Gabe the ten-million-dollar question. He grinned slightly and turned his attention back to Gia and Kate. I stepped into his line of sight and glowered at him with all kinds of directed meaning.

  Kate’s voice cut into my mounting panic. “Alex.”

  I took a deep breath, carefully morphing my features into country casual, then turned to face her. “Yeah?”

  Both women looked at me as though waiting for an answer, and I stared back at them hoping my mounting dread and consternation weren’t plastered all over my face. Kate’s eyebrows lowered as she cocked her head. “Earth to Alex, you can take the cotton out of your ears now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Kate took a deep breath. “I’ve only asked you the same question three times now. Have…you…. put…up…the tape like I ordered you to?”

  The last part of the sentence came out much louder than the first, and I toyed with the idea of telling her she didn’t need to yell, but then thought better of it. “No, ma’am, but I’d be happy to get right on it.” I stepped around behind her, then motioned with my chin for Gabe to follow. He didn’t. When I realized I couldn’t exactly drag him to my car by his wavy black hair, I retrieved the yellow roll of tape from my trunk, tied one end to the metal push bars on the front of my car and began walking around all of the barns, slowly reeling out the tape and winding it around sign posts or corral boards as I went.

  As I walked, tiny vignettes played out in my over active imagination. Kate handcuffing me, Gabe going down in a shootout with the cops—wait, I am the cops—me sneaking Gabe out of an interview room and into my police car to take him to a waiting taxi in Puerto Vallarta. I couldn’t believe this was happening. By the time I returned to the push bars, my overactive imagination had Gabe lying on a Mexican beach in a bathing suit rubbing oil into his overly muscled forearms while I languished in prison doing Sudoku puzzles.

  Staring down at my shoes didn’t help calm my nerves, so I glanced up and saw Casey and an older man walking across the parking lot. They had obviously just come from the main part of the racecourse. Casey carried three shovels, and the small Latino walking beside her was pushing a green wheelbarrow with what looked to be some more shovels, two rakes, a pitchfork and a push broom sticking out over the edge. The man smiled at something Casey said before lowering the wheelbarrow onto its stand so he could wipe his brow with a blue and white checked handkerchief.

  Casey saw me and held up the shovels. “You ready to dig, Alex?”

  My stomach turned sour when I thought about finding more bodies buried in the Angelino’s barns. Glancing back at Gabe, I wondered exactly whose hand was sticking up and how long he or she had been there. Gabe flashed me an unconcerned grin, which helped steady my nerves until I noticed several detective cars pulling into the lot. Kate must have called in the reserves to help with the search.

  I walked to where Casey and her new friend were waiting and took one of the shovels from her. “I thought we were gonna interview people. I don’t want to dig. I hate finding bodies. I don’t want to find any more bodies, okay?”

  Kate, who must have followed me over to where Casey had brought the tools, stepped up beside me and motioned for the newcomers to gather around. While we waited for everyone to wander over, she turned to me. “You were going to interview people up until the point this became a homicide. I called Jon Logan and he’s coming out with his homicide dicks to take over that part of the investigation. So, whether you want to dig or not is a moot point.”

  I leaned into the handle of the shovel and sighed. Once all of the detectives had assembled, Kate stepped into the middle of the pack and took out her notebook. “Okay, listen up. When the firemen were checking the debris for hot spots, they found a body buried in a shallow grave. I need you to break up into teams of two. Each team takes ten stalls and digs around checking for anything suspicious. You don’t need to dig too deep unless you find something that would lead you to believe there might be a body. Leave the stalls that sustained fire damage until the arson investigators are through with their investigation. I don’t think you’ll find anything, but if we don’t check and someone else does and locates a second victim, well, then we screwed up, and you all know how I hate screw-ups.” She paused to let that sink in. “Any questions?”

  Nate, who must have left Jimmy to watch Leslie at the main station, spoke up. “Can you tell how long the body’s been there?”

  “No, and I’m not going to guess. Any other questions related to what your assignments are?”

  “How old’s the vic?” Nate again.

  “I don’t know and since it’s not your case, you don’t need to know. Okay folks, let’s get— “

  “Can you tell if it’s male or female?”

  Kate gave him “the eye” usually reserved for me, but he didn’t catch it. Her lower jaw jutted forward, and her eyes closed slightly, all very clear Kate signs if you know how to read them. Some of the more seasoned detectives exchanged knowing looks before grabbing their shovels or rakes and heading out to claim their barns.

  Nate opened his mouth to ask yet another question that we obviously hadn’t had time to know the answer to, so before he could dig himself any deeper, I stepped up, put my arm around his shoulders and pointed to Kate. “Nate, notice the glare in the eyes, the way her pen starts tapping harder and harder on her thigh and, most importantly, the way the vein in her neck is beginning to pulse more rapidly than normal? Do you know what all that means?”

  It took a second, but the penny finally dropped. “I need to shut up?”

  “Precisely.”

  “Got it. Thanks.”

  I stepped back a few steps. “Don’t mention it.”

  Kate growled as she turned and headed to the burned-out barn. I watched her go, then turned to Casey. “Hey, I’ll meet you in the second barn, okay? I need to take care of something first.” Casey glanced over at the Jaguar, then nodded.

  Shouldering my shovel, I walked back to where Gabe leaned against the hood of the Jag and Gia stood by the trunk talking on her cell phone. Gabe watched me walk up, his typical deadpan expression locked firmly into place. The slight breeze kicked up a tiny dust devil next to the car and the two of us stood silently watching it for a second. Several questions came to mind, but one in particular roared to the fore. Taking a deep breath, I leaned close and spoke in a slightly strangled stage whisper. “I need to know now if that’s who I think it is.”

  Bushy Italian eyebrows lowered into a scowl and he answered in the same hushed tone that I had used. “Do I look stupid to you?”

  I whispered back through gritted teeth. “I’ll answer that when I know the answer to my question.”

  Sounds of barn doors rolling open broke the silence and I waited impatiently for him to answer. I watched him blow out a long, slow breath before he turned to face me head on. He put a beefy hand on my shoulder and leaned down into my face. “If I ever buried a stiff,” He paused and gave me a meaningful look. “And if I have it ain’t none of your business, do you really think I’d bury it in Ms. A’s barn?”

  “Who’s the dead guy then?”

  He shrugged. “How should I know?”

  “Alex.” Gia had finished her phone conversation and strode over to us. “We don’t know who’s buried in my barn, but I guarantee you I intend to find out who put him there and make absolutely certain they never have the opportunity to do it again.” On that ominous note, Gabe stepped past me and held open the rear car door. Gia seated herself in the back seat.

  After he’d closed the door, I grinned up at him. “Well, if you suddenly remember who the crispy critter is, give me a call, okay?”

  Gabe walked around the hood to the driver’s door. “When I find out who buried a carcass in Ms. Angelino’s barn or who set fire to the place, well,” He shrugged. “Let’s just say you won’t be needin’ to worry about no court costs.” He undid the buttons on his coat before lowering himself into the driver’s seat and pulling the door shut behind him.

  Chapter 3

  All of the barns were lined up in a row, one right after the other. When I finally found Casey in the third one down from the arson site, she’d already checked two of the stalls and was starting on the third. She leaned on her shovel as she watched me carefully step around the loads of manure she’d managed to pile outside the doors of the first two horseboxes. “Glad you could make it.”

  When I’d first approached the barn area, the smell hadn’t been too bad, but the closer I got to the freshly turned stuff Casey had unearthed, the more I knew this was not where I wanted to be. I buried my nose in my elbow. “Ugh, that’s awful.”

  Casey took a deep breath. “I don’t know, Alex, I think there’s a certain,” she rubbed her chin and stared up into the rafters, “je ne sais quoi, to the odor.”

  “Je ne sais quoi?” I scuffed the manure with my toe, watching little puffs of desiccated meadow muffins waft up into the air. The top layers of the stalls had turned to mud since the fire had set off the sprinkler system in all three of the barns, but the deeper she’d dug, she’d obviously unearthed loads of dry stuff layered underneath. The idea of digging into decades worth of horse droppings was far down on my list of things I wanted to do for the day. “Hey! You hungry?” I checked the time. “Will you look at that? Lunchtime already! I’ll be happy to do a food run. Whatcha feel like?”

  Casey chuckled as she began digging around in the dirt again. “You don’t smell it after a while. Bring your shovel over here and start poking around for a soft spot. We can go to lunch whenever Kate says we’re done.”

  I sighed and then with growing disgust, gingerly stepped into the stall. Deciphering her digging pattern wasn’t too difficult; put your shovel in the dirt at the front left of the stall, dig a couple test holes, move two steps towards the rear, and repeat until every foot of the stall had been checked for cadavers. Eventually, the stink stopped before it reached my brain thus allowing me to speak without a Donald Duck accent—you know, the way your voice sounds when your nose closes itself off from the back of your throat?

  Anyway, we had two stalls left to dig up when we heard first one, then several people yelling “Stop him! Grab him!” Just as we turned towards the voices, a determined looking Asian ran around the end of the building and headed down the gravel runway separating our barn from the next one over. As he ran toward us, I sized him up, thinking it shouldn’t be too hard to stop a short, compact man in his mid-seventies wearing a three-piece business suit and burgundy oxfords. Casey and I quickly stepped in front of him and blocked his exit.

  The guy skidded to a halt, picked up a short piece of a two by four and held it out in front of him. I thought he was going to try to attack us with it, but instead he tossed the board in the air, let out an ear-splitting yell, leapt up so that his head almost touched the ground and kicked the board so hard it splintered into several different pieces. He then landed back on his feet, staring at us to see if we’d understood his message.

  Casey swore under her breath. “Shit.” Apparently, she spoke his language.

  A few seconds later, Kate followed him around the corner which seemed to galvanize him into action. He charged straight at us, obviously expecting us to step aside after his little board splitting demonstration so he could make his escape.

  “Oh hell no.” I stepped in front of Casey and swung my shovel straight for the guy’s chest, hoping I’d land a lucky blow and knock him three ways to Sunday. Instead of slowing down or ducking, he hit the handle with the edge of a closed fist, snapping the wood in two before it came anywhere near his face. I stared dumbly at my shovel as he ran past, only remembering at the last minute to stick my foot between his shins to try to trip him up.

  To my surprise, instead of going down, he somehow tangled his leg in mine and sent me flying without really even slowing his forward momentum. After finishing with me, he barreled into Casey who grabbed him around his chest in a bear hug apparently intending to wrestle him to the ground. He immediately exploded out with both arms, easily breaking her hold and pushing her just enough for her to lose her balance and fall backward into our carefully placed piles of horseshit. He leapt over her and instead of stopping short when Nate and Ruthanne ran around the back of the barn, he again leapt into the air and punched both of them square in the chest with his two feet.

  The two detectives went flying and the Asian disappeared around the far corner without a backwards glance. By that time, I was on my feet and pissed that he’d managed to make fools out of five members of our department. Kate continued after him, but Casey and I picked ourselves up and were fast on her heels. The guy could fight, there was no question about that, but fortunately for us he wasn’t a very fast runner. I’d been a sprinter at the University of Arizona and I easily passed Kate and then began closing the gap. He must have heard me charging after him because he called over his shoulder in heavily accented English, “I don’t want to hurt you. Just let me go.”

  “No fuckin’ way!” When I got close enough and was able to grab the shoulder of his coat, he somehow shifted his weight and tangled his arm in mine. He pulled just enough to loosen my hold and sent me flying head first into the dirt. I skidded like I was sliding into third base and without missing a beat, was back on my feet and close on his heels before he’d even been able to run ten more steps. I grabbed the back of his coat again, fully intending to pull him down to the ground. When I managed to wrap my fingers in the folds of the material, he spun to my left, somehow wrapping his arm around my forearm and holding my wrist pinned under his arm so that he was able to hyperextend my elbow. He’d stopped our forward momentum and there was no doubt in my mind that with just the slightest movement he could very easily break my arm.

  Kate jogged up and stopped, bending over and bracing herself with her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath. Casey, also breathing heavily, took up a position to her right while Nate and Ruthanne circled around behind us. Several other detectives who had finally caught up filled in the circle until there was nowhere for the man to escape. Casey held her arms out to her side, palms up. “Hey, take it easy. You don’t need to break her arm.”

  Nothing in my officer’s training had prepared me for a fight with a martial arts expert so I just stood there in a halfway crouch, waiting to see what would happen next and hoping against hope the guy had really meant it when he’d said he hadn’t wanted to hurt me.

  When Kate’s breathing had slowed enough to allow her to talk, she straightened up and walked slowly towards us. “Okay, just relax. I don’t even know why you were running from me. Look, there’s no way you can get through us all. Just let her go and let’s talk.” I loved the way Kate naturally took charge of her surroundings. No one, including the man twisting my arm, even questioned that she was the one who would handle everything. We had all just waited for her to catch her breath, then knew she’d sort through everything when she was ready.

  The man sighed. “Unfortunately, I could easily escape your ring of officers, however, all or most of you would be seriously injured in the process.”

  Being bent over at the waist with my arm leveraged up behind me, I had to crane my neck up so I could see Kate. “Don’t worry boss, I’ve got everything under control here.”

  The man laughed softly, then addressed Kate. “You are in charge here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I would like to speak with you alone, just the two of us.”

  Thinking quietly for a second while she studied the man, Kate tapped the side of her leg with her fingers, obviously trying to decide if she could trust the guy who had one of her detectives wrapped up in a casual arm lock. Finally, she nodded and motioned over her shoulder with her thumb. “All right, everybody back to the barns, I’ll be fine here.”