abusive.”
“I said mean,” Nina interjected as she bent down again to study the indentation where the missing bone had lain.
Hardin nodded. “Right. Abusive might be too strong a word. Shane’s got a temper, but he’s a good deputy. He’s competent. Might even call him a go-getter.” Hardin’s mouth quirked up in a smile. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he has his sights on being sheriff one day.”
“You trust him that much?” asked Wyatt.
“Whether or not he could become sheriff has nothing to do with how much I do or don’t trust him. It’s a matter of competence,” replied Hardin. “In fact, that’s one of the things I admire about him. He’s gone to school on his own time to take classes on crime scene investigation. He’s pretty knowledgeable.”
“Yeah?” Wyatt’s mental radar buzzed. So Tolbert was pretty knowledgeable about CSI. “Where’d he get his degree in hostility?”
Hardin shrugged. “That he comes by naturally. His dad, Ben Tolbert, has always been a drinker and a woman chaser. Knocked Shane around some until he got big enough to fight back.”
“And once he got big enough?”
“I doubt you’re asking that question without knowing the answer.”
Wyatt nodded. “He has a suspension on his record. Excessive force.”
“It was a domestic dispute. Single mother’s boyfriend came home drunk and decided to whale on her eight-year-old for leaving his bike in the driveway. He broke the boy’s arm. Shane broke the guy’s nose.”
Wyatt looked at Hardin with new respect. Suspending the deputy was the right thing to do, but it couldn’t have been easy to put a black mark on his record for avenging a child. Especially given Tolbert’s own childhood.
“Ever hear anything about trouble between him and Marcie James?”
Hardin shook his head. “You know how people can talk sometimes. I remember once she hurt her arm. Claimed she’d pulled a muscle playing tennis.”
“Did you check it out?”
“Doc said it could have been twisted in a fall.”
“Could have.”
Hardin nodded. “I kept an eye on her, but I never saw anything else. Shane seemed to care about her. I don’t remember why they broke up.”
“What do you think about the missing bone? Who in Comanche Creek would attack your deputy and steal one of the bones?” Wyatt looked toward the burial site, toward Nina. As he watched, she stood and shed the hooded sweatshirt, leaving her in nothing but the little red thing. He swallowed.
“I don’t have a clue,” Hardin said. “I know there were people who were upset about Marcie testifying in the land fraud case, but it’s hard to imagine that any of them could have killed her.”
“The professor says the bones are recent.”
Nina tugged the red camisole down over her low-slung jeans as far as it would stretch, which wasn’t far, then picked up a fallen branch. After testing it with her weight, she stuck one end into the ground and braced herself as she reached across the shallow mud hole. She stretched precariously, straining toward something Wyatt couldn’t see.
“What are you getting at?” Hardin asked.
“Could Shane have faked the attack so he could destroy evidence?”
Hardin sent him a questioning look.
“Maybe he knows whose bones are buried in there.” Wyatt spoke without taking his eyes off Nina. The scrap of shimmery red material rode up her back, leaving a good eight inches or so of bare midriff between its hem and her jeans.
“You’re suggesting Shane killed Marcie James? No way. He was torn up about Marcie’s disappearance.”
Wyatt swallowed, trying to concentrate on Hardin’s words. “I want to question him as soon as possible,” he said gruffly.
Nina reached a fraction of an inch farther, and Wyatt got a view of the underside of her breasts. He winced. In about three seconds, she was going to fall face-first into the muddy crime scene—not to mention expose her breasts—if somebody didn’t rescue her.
At that very instant, she almost lost her grip on the branch.
“No problem,” Hardin answered. “You can talk to him later this morning at my office. Say ten o’clock?”
“Make it nine. I’ll be there,” Wyatt tossed over his shoulder as he stalked quickly over to the shallow hole.
He bent and scooped Nina up with one arm, grunting quietly. She was more solid than she looked. And her breasts were soft and firm against his forearm.
“Ack!” she squawked as he plopped her down a couple of feet away, on solid ground. “What? You!”
She got her feet under her and stood. When she swiped at a lock of hair that had fallen over her brow, she left a trail of mud. “I almost had it.”
“What you almost had was a face full of mud. You could have ruined my crime scene. As an anthropologist, I’d think you’d know that falling into the middle of a find would contaminate it.”
“I wasn’t falling.”
“The hell you weren’t. What were you after?”
“I’ll show you.” She lifted her chin and walked imperiously over to the edge of the shallow hole.
Wyatt tried not to smile as he followed her. She had no idea that she looked like a tomboy, with mud streaking her face and wisps of hair flying everywhere.
“Damn it,” she muttered and turned back toward him.
No. He corrected himself. With the curve of her breasts and the delicate bones and muscles of her shoulders and collarbone showing, not to mention the outline of her nipples under the red camisole, a tomboy was the last thing she looked like.
“What is it?”
“I don’t see it now.” She patted her pockets. “I need my flashlight. It’s in my hoodie.”
Wyatt clenched his teeth in frustration as he bent down and retrieved her hooded sweatshirt.
“Here. You need to put it on, anyhow.” He couldn’t stop his eyes from flickering downward, to the top of her breasts.
“What? Why?” She looked down, made a small distressed sound, thrust her arms into the massive sleeves and wrapped the sweatshirt around her.
With an effort, he turned his attention away from her to study the general area where she’d been reaching.
She pulled out her flashlight and turned it on.
“What were you trying to reach?” he asked again, hearing the frustration in his voice.
