Hide and Seek (Criminal Profiler #1)(103)

“Fair enough.” His chair squeaked, and she imagined him staring out the window in his office. “Hell of a job, Crow.”

It was high praise from a man notorious for giving out few compliments.

As much as she wanted to revel in Ramsey’s praise, she couldn’t quite call this a victory until she knew what had happened to Cindy Shaw.

The rumble of tires drew her attention outside. Nevada parked, and as she stepped outside, he spotted her and strode toward her with a determined gait that still made her heart beat a little faster.

Because they were on the job, he didn’t wrap his arm around her, but stood close enough so she could feel his heat and energy. “They’re going to start excavating the back field today.”

“Hopefully, Cindy’s there,” she said.

“She was nobody’s angel, Macy.”

“I can’t excuse what she did,” Macy said. “She caused a hell of a lot of pain, but the deck was stacked against her from the beginning.”

Several agents and deputies fanned out onto the field, each carrying shovels. Macy and Nevada followed them and watched as they moved past the overturned soil in the top field toward the untouched lower section.

“They’ve pledged to dig up the entire field,” Nevada said.

“Good,” Macy said. When the Texas graves had been excavated, she’d been in the hospital fighting for her life. This time, however, she was here to bear witness.

Shovels cut into dirt at the far end of the field, which remained undisturbed. Each man with a shovel dumped his soil into a single pile beside the orange flag that the forensic team would sift through later.

Shovels continued to dig in the rich black dirt. This went on for another hour before one of the men in the field yelled out, “I have something.”

Cold autumn wind cut across the field as Macy and Nevada strode through the knee-high scrub toward the group of men huddled around. The site was eighteen inches deep.

Exposed was a human skull. Its right orbital glared upward. As Macy looked at the remains, she scanned the bone structure. The skull had a low forehead, a narrow nasal passage, and a high cheekbone.

Tests would have to be run, but Macy had worked with enough pathologists to know this victim had likely been a female Caucasian.

For a moment all the agents and deputies stood silent. A tarp was brought over and laid beside the grave as a technician got down on hands and knees and began to work the skull free with a small trowel.

Macy had no proof of the woman’s identity, but she had an overwhelming feeling it was Cindy.

The excavation of the grave went on for several hours, and it wasn’t until techs were sifting through the dirt that they found the small arrowhead necklace Bruce had given Cindy.

Macy leaned closer to Nevada, savoring his scent and looking forward to going home with him.

“I couldn’t have done this without you,” he said.

“It was a team effort. We work pretty well together,” she said.

“Yes, we do.” He looked down at her, his smile softening his hardened features.

She loved looking at his face, and the idea of not being with him again worried her. “If I have more of those crazy dreams, I’ll understand if my craziness is too much for you.”

He shook his head. “You’re going to have to try harder than that to scare me away. I’m in this for the long haul.”

“I sure hope so.” There was no guarantee the dreams would stop, or that their jobs wouldn’t take them in different directions. But in this moment, she didn’t want to worry about any of that. Grinning, she said, “One thing is for sure. It’s never going to be dull for us, Nevada.”