He shook his head. “This is bad business.”
“It is, indeed.”
“Aren’t you up for reelection next year?”
“I am,” she said, leveling him with a steady look. “A hell of a lot has been going on over the last few months, to the point that I have trouble keeping deputies.”
“I heard about that,” he said. “Bad business.” He shook his head. “Go do your own thing,” he said. “I’ve got this. I’ve got a team with me too.”
“Where’d you get that from?”
“The two guys from Denver ordered it up.”
“Interesting.” She looked over at Bonaparte, who shrugged. “Any idea where those men are?” she asked the doc.
“I thought they were here,” the coroner said.
“Did they call you here for this case?”
“Nope. Well, I don’t know,” he said. Then he stopped, frowned, and asked, “How did they know about this then?”
“That’s what I’m asking,” Angela said.
The doc said, “I was told something about a good chance of bodies before this was over.”
“You come on good chances now?” she asked.
“No,” he said, frowning. “And I didn’t want it to be a wasted trip. I mean, I hate to say that I’m glad you have a body here, but, at the same time, they felt that they needed somebody like me here, just in case.”
“Well, just in case certainly came true,” she said. “But—”
He just waved at her. “I’ll take care of this.”
She nodded, looked over at Bonaparte, and the two of them headed for his truck. “Isn’t that a little bizarre?”
“Yeah, though I know that Levi vouched for those two men. Honestly, if they were with Stone, that’s just common sense to expect corpses.”
She looked at him, startled.
He shrugged. “We may have a bit of a track record for leaving bodies in our wake.”
She groaned. “Seriously, have you guys got that kind of rep?”
“Well, Stone certainly does,” he said, with a big grin.
She phoned Stone, while Bonaparte drove. “Hey, the coroner was called by your two buddies.”
“Yeah, we did that before you left,” he said. “Is that a problem?”
“Well, the coroner doesn’t usually come when we don’t have a body.”
“Yeah, but, sure enough, on a deal like this, there’s usually a body,” he said. “Everything’s been a bit of a shit show so far. We thought it was a good idea.”
“It’s a good idea, and, of course, I do have one dead prisoner.”
“See? Perfect.”
“I doubt this guy appreciates being called out on a possible.”
“Maybe, but he’s just about to retire anyway, so he’s always looking to get out of the office.”
“If you say so.” She shrugged. “It just seems pretty bizarre.”
“Nothing more bizarre than a lot of the other stuff going on right now,” he said.
“You got any action?”
“Uh, you mean in the five minutes since the last time you asked?” he asked in mock exasperation.
She groaned. “Sorry.” She hung up to find they weren’t that far from the hospital. She looked over at Bonaparte. “Did you mean it?”
“Mean what?” He looked at her in confusion.
“About sticking around for a few days.”
“Absolutely. I’m here until you don’t need me anymore,” he said.
She smiled. “That’s a pretty open-ended offer.”
“It is,” he said, “and I mean it.”
She stared at him, feeling a warmth in her heart. “And that’s really lovely to hear,” she said. “It feels like a long time since anybody had my back.”
“And that’s not cool,” he murmured. “And it’s such a lovely back that I don’t understand it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Do you really expect a cheesy line like that to work?”
“I don’t know,” he said, looking at her with interest. “Did it?”
She groaned. “Enough flirting.”
“Nope,” he said. “I’m French, so there’s never enough flirting.”
She sighed. “Okay, so you’re gorgeous and have a smooth tongue—uh, er, wait. I meant you’re, uh, … artfully persuasive too.” She could feel her face turning red, as she stammered.
“Ah, so you think I’m gorgeous,” he said, with a chuckle, apparently letting her off the hook for her embarrassing gaffe.
She groaned. “Are you always this foolish?”
“Nope,” he said, “just when we need to lighten the air a bit.”
“It’s not my usual method of handling stress,” she said.
“Yeah, for a minute there, it kind of backfired,” he said, with a chuckle. “Listen. In all seriousness, you care about everybody, and you’re worried about everybody.”
“Of course I’m worried,” she said. “This is not how I planned the day out.”
“No, but it’s always a good thing to head off as much bad stuff as we can,” he said. “If you think about it, we have enough problems going on right now.”
“Maybe things will still be good at the hospital,” she said, as they pulled up. She hopped out and strode into the building, and, with quick hard steps, headed for the ward, where her security guard was stationed.
He looked up and smiled. “It’s all good here.”
“You sure?” Looking at the prisoner, she nodded. “That doesn’t look too bad,” she said. “But I want you to step inside and sit in the room.”
He looked at her in surprise and nodded. “I can do that. Are you really expecting a stealth attack?”
“I am,” she said. “And remember. They’ll want to prevent him from talking, and these guys are playing to the finish.”
“That’s good,” he said. “So am I. And remember, Sheriff. I’m looking for a deputy position after this.”
“We’ll talk about it,” she said, “but, for now, let’s focus on keeping him alive.” And, with that, she turned and headed back out again, Bonaparte keeping pace at her side.
“So where do you want to go now?”
“To an old mechanics shop,” she said. “Not far, just over that way a bit.”
He nodded, as they headed for the truck. She looked in that direction and said, “You know what? I think I’d like to walk.”
“For the exercise?”
“No, that group is pretty wily.”
“So who is it you’re expecting to be there?”
“I really don’t know, but
