“Body huh?” Des turned the SUV around and drove back to camp.
“Which one?”
“Girl. Redhead.”
Des shook his head and tsked.
“Carol,” he sighed. “She was a looker.”
He pulled into the camp and parked back in the empty space he had vacated.
“That’s hers over there.”
He pointed to the long wheelbase jeep with a hard shell top.
“Just out exploring what’s left of the wilderness,” Des said.
He watched Brill for a moment.
“She fall?”
“Didn’t look like it.”
“You know what happened?”
Brill didn’t know law procedure, but he knew talking about what he saw with this guy was a mistake.
“No idea,” he said and opened the door. “Thanks for the ride.”
He went to stand by a small copse of trees and wait, running over different plans in his head.
Depending on the Sheriff’s reaction, he would hang out for a day or two, and disappear. Long enough for them to rule him out as a suspect, then he would make the run for Taos early.
There was lividity to the body, which the coroner could use to determine time of death. That time of death would confirm he was either parking in the camp site, or not even there yet when Carol met her end.
The Sheriff showed up twenty minutes later.
He watched the brown 4x4 pickup truck trundle over the dirt path toward the camp. The sun glinted off the windshield hiding the driver and making it impossible to see inside.
Brill stood with the wide trunk of a tree at his back by second nature and shifted back even further into the shadows as the truck approached.
A gold star stood out in stark contrast to the dust covered brown door. He read the motto as the vehicle pulled even with the tree.
"TO PROTECT...TO SERVE."
When the deputy stepped out of the car, Brill grinned because he was actually surprised.
After a few years out of the country, and seeing the things he had, he wasn't often taken unawares. It was more a matter of simple experience than arrogance, and he still felt a secret delight in his chest when something surprised him.
The tingle didn't happen often so he appreciated it every time.
Like this one.
Jo, it turned out, was a woman.
A very nice looking woman.
A pretty blond in her mid-thirties with corn silk hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and sky blue eyes she flashed at Brill before hiding them behind mirror aviator shades.
She popped open the door and slid out, right hand resting on her unstrapped holster.
"You the one that called it in?" she kept her back to the truck and scanned the campground.
Nervous.
"Who are you?" she asked.
He stared at his reflection in the mirrored sunglasses and grinned.
"No one of consequence."
"That your work at Leon's?" She kept her hand on her holster.
She was sharp, he thought.
Leon must have mentioned him.
"What work?"
"The two suspects in custody."
She tried to trip him up.
"What happened?"
"First one started singing as soon as he regained consciousness," she said.
"Broken nose, broken eye socket. Wanted two things."
"Beer and Vicodin?"
"Doctor and his buddy. Called him by name. I picked him up hightailing it down the road. Said you shot him."
"Was he shot?"
"Do you always answer questions with questions?"
"Want to see where the body is?"
She grunted.
It wasn't a yes or a no, but a little sound of frustration. She stood almost as tall as him, but willowy, with tan skin that spoke to hours in the sun, and a build that said she might be a climber.
Strong, lean muscles lined her arms peeking out from rolled up shirt sleeves, and the jeans she wore with her uniform shirt conformed to shapely legs.
Brill started marching up the trail at a steady pace.
He listened for her to fall in after, and after a moment's hesitation, he heard the crunch of her hiking boots on the gritty trail behind him.