Rather than take the envelope from her, Sun let Nancy drop it onto her desk as though it were toxic. It really was in her hands now. She’d insisted the other night that Nancy retire from her position while Sun considered what to do, but Nancy had insisted she couldn’t. “Have you filed your resignation letter yet?”

  “You don’t understand. The man I work for—”

  “Is dangerous. I got that before. But you’re still compromised.”

  “Like you’re perfect?”

  Touché. “Nancy, I’ve never claimed to be.”

  “Haven’t you?” she asked, her voice an octave higher than usual. “Always a head above the rest. Just a little better. Just a little holier than your colleagues.”

  She was lashing out. Fighting for survival and taking her anger out on Sun. Even though she knew that, Sun still felt the sting of her words. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

  “Now you do.”

  “Now I do,” she said, her voice filled with regret. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen him.”

  Nancy fidgeted with the clasp on her bag. “We never meet in person. I get instructions through an encrypted email account.”

  “I’m not talking about the man you’re really working for. Have you seen Wynn Ravinder?”

  She dropped her gaze. “Not since he got transferred to Santa Fe. I didn’t know if he’d want to see me.”

  “What about at the hospital yesterday?”

  Her head jerked up. “The hospital? Is he okay?”

  “It’s hard to say. He escaped about thirty minutes after they brought him in.”

  Shock seemed to ripple through the woman, starting with a soft gasp escaping through her lips. “E-escaped?”

  Either Nancy Danforth was the best actress Sun had ever seen or she really had no idea Wynn had escaped. “Yes, with the help of a slender woman with light-colored hair. Possibly even strawberry blond.”

  A hand shot to Nancy’s mouth and tears threatened to spill over her lashes. “Sunshine, you can’t possibly believe I had anything to do with a prison break. I haven’t heard from Wynn in weeks. Not since he asked me to alter that test.”

  “Nancy, if I find out—”

  “Sunshine.” She stood and took a step back, pressing both hands to her chest. “You can’t be serious. I wouldn’t know the first thing about breaking someone out of prison. How is something like that even possible?”

  “We believe he took digitalis to induce a heart attack so they’d take him to the hospital. A drug a lab tech in forensics could get her hands on given the right motivation.”

  She sat back down, her expression shifting from shock and denial to concern. “If he took digitalis and then drank lots of coffee, maybe did a lot of push-ups, then he really could have induced a heart attack.”

  “We believe he did.”

  She grabbed the decorative tie at her collar and squeezed as though the mere thought caused her pain. “Sun, he could be hurt. Even if drug induced, a heart attack is a heart attack. We have to find him.”

  “There are a lot of people working on that as we speak.”

  She sank back into the chair, her mind racing. “Where would he go? Who would help him? Doesn’t he have a niece?”

  “She was just as shocked to learn of his escape as you are.”

  “I’m sorry, Sun. I just don’t know. But I swear on my mother’s life, I had nothing to do with it. You have to believe me.”

  Unfortunately, she did. And that put her back at square one.

  With absolutely nothing to hold Nancy on, Sun had to let her go. Mostly because she got up and walked out when Sun asked her a third time if she’d seen Wynn. The woman was in love with him and he knew it. If Sun’s gut was right—and she liked to think it was—he would go to her eventually. Whether love or desperation would be the motivating factor for that visit was still up in the air.

  She didn’t look at the test results. The ones proving the man of her dreams—literally—had killed his uncle. She stuck the envelope underneath some files in a desk drawer, then walked out to find a US marshal had invaded her turf.

  “What’s up, Deleon?” she asked, feigning nonchalance as she poured a cup of coffee.

  Quincy cast her a frustrated glare. He’d been waiting to find out what Sun learned from Nancy, and now he had to wait longer. His frustration could also be due to the fact that he found his missing shirt. He held it in his hands, the black material shredded like confetti.

  That raccoon really had it out for her bestie.

  He dumped the shirt in the trash, then went back to his desk.

  “Just checking in.” Deleon glanced around the station as though searching for something.

  “It’s not here.”

  “What’s not here?”

  “Whatever you’re looking for.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve found some pretty strange things where one would least expect it.”

  “Like?”

  “Like a strawberry blonde resembling the woman in the video in a sheriff’s station.”

  “Really? That is strange. Coffee?”

  “Nah. I’ve had, like, twelve cups today. So, she’s a friend of yours?”

  Sun took a sip, angling her face away from him so she could roll her eyes. It looked bad. Really bad. First, she gets Wynn transferred from Arizona to Santa Fe. Then he fakes a heart attack and escapes from a hospital she just happens to be at. And last, she was good friends with a woman resembling their suspect. If Sun made it out of this case unscathed, she’d be very surprised.

  “Who?” she asked, turning back to him.

  “Nancy Danforth. The woman who just left your office.”

  “Did she?” When he crossed his arms over his chest, she caved, but only because he could haul her in right then and there if he wanted to. “Yes, Nancy is a friend of mine. Yes, I thought she could’ve been the one who helped Wynn escape. And, no, I no longer believe it was her, but I’m not an idiot, Deleon. I’ll check her alibi. If it doesn’t pan out, I’ll bring her in.”

  “No, I’ll bring her in. You give me a call.”

  “Fine. But why are you here? Are you staking out my station?”

  “Nope. We had a possible sighting.”

  She stilled with her cup halfway to her mouth. “A possible sighting? Of Wynn Ravinder?”

  He nodded.

  “Here? In Del Sol?”

  Another nod. Sun walked back to her office in a daze, thinking back to everything she knew about the man. And everything he knew about her. “His family is here, so it makes sense, but he’s too smart to come back to this area for that very reason.”

  “I don’t know. In my experience convicts aren’t all that intelligent.”

  “Who called it in?”

  “Anonymous, but she sounded elderly.”

  Sun nodded, her mind racing. Wynn knew Auri was Levi’s. He’d known for years. And now he was in Del Sol, but why? He had to have a good reason to come back to the area most likely to be searched by hungry dogs.

  Levi would help him. No question about it. But Wynn wouldn’t put him or Hailey in that kind of danger. Did he come back for Clay? Did he have money stashed somewhere? Or maybe one of Del Sol’s finest mistook another man for Wynn.

  “Where did the caller see him?”

  “It was hard to understand her. Something about a bridge and a convenience store. Thought maybe you could help me out with the search.”

  “I’d love to, but I need to get another look at a crime scene.”

  “Need any help?”

  She snapped back to the present and shook her head. “Nah, it’s probably nothing.”

  “I don’t know, Sheriff. You don’t seem like a woman who chases nothing.”

  “Thanks?”

  Deputy Rojas walked in then, and Sun could’ve fainted. In fact, she would if Deleon got too good a look. She might need a distraction. She tried to get Rojas’s attention by pretending to choke on her coffee, but when he looked over at her, Deleon looked, too.

  He patted her back. “You should sip it slowly.”

  “Good tip,” she said, straining her voice.

  Rojas lifted his chin in greeting right as Deleon followed her line of sight straight to him.

  He started to turn back, then did a double take. He blinked. Studied the man in a deputy’s uniform. Blinked again.

  She knew this day would come. She knew someone at some point would recognize Poetry as Ramses Rojas’s twin brother.

  Poetry was way too smart not to notice the attention coming his way. He stood and walked back to the locker room holding a file like he didn’t even notice a US marshal checking him out.

  Deleon turned to her, his jaw slack as he said, “Mind explaining that?”

  “What? My deputy? Oh, that’s right.” She slapped his arm. “His brother was one of the fugitives you were chasing a few months back. Small world, eh?”

  “That isn’t his brother.” He turned toward the locker room. “That’s him.”

  “Deleon,” she said, sharpening her voice and her claws, “Ramses Rojas is in prison in Santa Fe, unless they lost him, too. That is his twin brother, Poetry.”

  “Really?” he asked, unconvinced. He scratched his chin, and said, “You know, there was always something I couldn’t quite figure out.”

  “What’s that?”

  “How Rojas had a small tattoo on the side of his eye when he escaped that transport van and how it had vanished when he was recaptured a couple of weeks later.”

  If Deleon looked too closely, he would indeed see a faint scar where Poetry had had that same tattoo removed. “They can do that, you know. They have the technology.”

  “Right.” He turned back to her. “So at some point during his two weeks on the lam, he made an appointment to get a tattoo removed.”

  She snorted. “Weird, right?”

  He narrowed his eyes to study her, and she had to wonder if he was nearsighted. “I’ll see you later,” he said at last, his tone exposing the fact that he was so done with her.

  She forced a plastic smile. “Not sticking around?”

  He didn’t answer, and Sun stifled a groan. This day—this month—was turning out to be more trouble than it was worth. She was starting to rethink her strategy of getting out of bed every morning.

  Her phone rang before she could follow him out. She put a lid on her coffee, because the two she had at Caffeine-Wah had not been enough, and answered. “Hey, bug.”

  “Hey, Mom. I’m not skipping.”

  “Good to know,” she said, her voice growing wary.

  “Principal Jacobs drove me home so I could check on Cruz.”

  “Hey, Sunny Girl,” he said from a distance.

  “We’re headed back to school now. Cruz is doing okay, but I think we should tell him you won’t let us hang anymore unless he agrees to counseling.”

  “Because it’s true?”

  After a very long moment, Auri asked meekly, “Is it true?”

  “You must have ESP.”

  “Mom, would you really—”

  “He needs to talk to someone, bug. Just like you needed to talk to someone once, too.”

  “I agree, but I won’t abandon him if he won’t go to counseling, Mom.”

  “We’ll cross that bridge should it ever be built. In the meantime, Deputy Rojas called.”

  After a long moment, she lowered her voice and asked, “Did he?”

  “Aurora Dawn—”

  “I can explain!” she shouted, suddenly desperate to give her side of the story.

  “—what did we literally just talk about?”

  “But it was important.”

  “I know about Chloe.”

  She released a huff of air. “I can’t believe he told you after he swore he wouldn’t.”

  “He didn’t. The information is good, but I want you to back off now. I’ll take it from here.” When she was met with a telltale silence that stretched into eternity, she said, “I will take that fancy laptop your grandfather bought you.”

  “I still have my old one.”

  “That’s not the point!”

  Mr. Jacobs did a fake cough thing to disguise his amusement.

  “Okay, I’m sorry, Mom, but can I back off after tomorrow morning?”

  “What happens tomorrow morning?”

  “I’m meeting Chloe for coffee, and she’s scared, Mom. Like, really scared.”

  “Then this stops now.”

  “No, Mom! I’m this close.”

  “To getting killed?”

  “To finding out who’s behind these attacks. She’s never told anyone. She’s too scared, but she’s agreed to meet with me. Alone.”

  Son of a bitch, the girl was good, but if her suspicions were correct, Baldwin Redding was behind them, and Auri was the last person Sun wanted on Redding’s radar. “You’re not meeting her alone.”

  “Mom, I have to.”

  “Hon, she won’t know anyone else is there. Believe it or not, we may be a small county, but we can do our jobs.”

  “I’m not saying you can’t.”

  “Speaking of jobs, I have one for you. I need you to drag out the video-editing software and log onto Dropbox. I have a video of a possible robbery but it’s too dark.”

  “Oh, my god! I’m so on it. You can count on me. Thanks, Mom.”

  “Well, now I know what to get you for Christmas.”

  She hung up and ran through a dozen possible scenarios on how best to handle the meetup. Not only would she have a couple of deputies there in civvies, she’d assign two bulldogs, Richard and Ricky, to keep an eye on Auri. The exuberant owners of Caffeine-Wah would do anything to protect the kid since they thought of her as their own.

  Speaking of protectors, Sun wondered how she was going to tell Richard and Ricky about Levi. The part about him being Auri’s father. How was she going to tell her parents? How was she going to tell Auri?

  Then again, it may not matter. For all she knew, she could be in federal custody before she had to make any decisions if Deleon decided to look closer at the case.

  “Well?” Quincy had walked into her office. He gestured toward the front door through which Deleon exited.

  “I’m pretty much screwed, but we can worry about that later. You ready to do this?”

  “Absolutely. One hundred percent. What are we doing?”

  Ten minutes later, they wound their way up the pass toward Copper Canyon for another look-see. They’d called on their Jane Doe. Still no change, for better or worse.

  “Fettuccini alfredo?” she asked him. It was her twentieth attempt.

  “Nope.”

  “Deviled eggs?”

  “Nope.”

  “Carrot sticks?”

  “How do you make carrot sticks?”

  “Fine, what can you make?”

  “Faces. Plans.” He narrowed his lashes and gave her his best come-hither. “Sweet, sweet love.”

  “Ew.” She backhanded his arm. “Save it for Hailey.” She happened to know that Quincy was an incredible cook, but he had yet to cook for the newest member of their circle. Maybe that was the first step. Getting him to cook for her. “You hardly said a word to her at coffee.”

  “How could I? You did all the talking.”

  “I did not.” She may have. “Call her and ask her to come to dinner.”

  “You cooking?”

  “No. Your fajitas are divine. And your crème brûlée is like a gift from God.”

  “That wasn’t me. I just told you, I can’t cook.”

  “So all those times you had dinner parties and cookouts, you’d secretly had them catered?”

  “I had to impress your mom somehow. My cooking damned sure wouldn’t do it. Besides, I need to focus on Cruz right now.”

  “Because you can’t do both?”

  “Oh, look.” He pointed to the pull-off. “Here we are.”

  “Saved by the crime scene.” Since forensics had already come and gone, Sun parked on the pull-off, careful to miss the crime scene tape left behind by the investigators.

  “What happened with the hair?”

  “I’m trying a new gel.” He looked in the mirror and patted the top of his head.

  “I meant the hair found on the guardrail.”

  “Well, you might want to specify those kinds of things sooner next time so I’m not embarrassed. They don’t have much yet, but it’s definitely from a female who is not our victim. There was some viable DNA, so they are running it now.”

  They stepped out and looked over the rail at the sheer drop below them.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked.

  “What if simply throwing our Jane off the side of a mountain wasn’t his goal? What if something happened and he had to make a quick decision?”

  “Could have, I suppose.”

  “And if this wasn’t his first time … Think about it. What if he panicked and had to get her out of his truck sooner than he’d expected?”

  “And he was hoping no one would ever find her?”

  “That’s just it.” She pointed at him. “He had to know someone would see her eventually. What if he’d planned to come back and finish the job but it didn’t go as planned and Drew Essary beat him to the punch?”

  Quincy nodded in thought. “So, he tosses her over the side, and then what? He’d have a hard time finding her at night. And it’s not like he could bury her in broad daylight.”

  “If he got her to a secluded spot, he could.” She walked along the guardrail. “Or maybe this was just the fastest way to get her to the bottom.” She gestured toward a grouping of bushes and boulders that sat on one side of the canyon floor. “If I tossed you over the side here, you’d tumble all the way to the floor and land in those bushes.”

  “The odds of anyone seeing me from either the floor or from up here would be slim to none.”

  “Exactly. But either he got in a hurry, or it was too dark and he missed his mark.”

  “Or she fought him tooth and nail,” Quince offered.

  “Good point.” She put her arms on his shoulders. “Okay, I’m fighting you and you’re pushing me over the side.”

  “But you’re beat to hell,” he said, shoving her over the guardrail. “Grabbing at anything you can get your hands on. Anything to keep you from falling.”