Page 13 of Fallen Creed

He watched for her to reappear next to the flapping black plastic. He could hear her sniffing and rustling. As he kept up behind her, he held the leash with one hand and parted the grass with his other. She was taking too long.

When he finally pulled back the grass, he could see Grace’s tail pointed straight out. She looked up at him and met his eyes. She was about twenty feet away from the garbage bag. But Lucy was right. Grace had found something else.

—11—

Leaves plastered the surface, but Creed could still recognize what Grace had found. The toes were polished a deep red that blended in with the surrounding grass. Without bending over, he could see a heart-shaped tattoo on the ankle.

He felt Lucy’s presence before he turned around and almost bumped into her. He hadn’t heard her come up beside him.

“A foot to go along with the hand,” she said in a hushed tone. “She’s no longer running from or fighting those who hurt her.”

She stood completely still and silent now. Instead of a crime scene, this reminded Creed of sacred grounds and paying reverence to the dead. Lucy was unlike any medical examiner he’d met, as much a spiritual leader as a forensic scientist.

“She?” Creed asked. “You think it’s a woman because of the nail polish?”

“Good point,” she admitted, surprising him. “Not very open-minded of me.”

Footsteps rustled in the grass behind them, and Creed glanced around to find Maggie skidding down the incline. It was steeper here. Her hands were gloved and filled with evidence bags.

He made room for her as he pulled Grace’s squeaky pink elephant from his daypack. To Creed’s relief, Grace was waiting for the toy, wagging, excited, and finished. Or at least Creed hoped she was finished. He’d seen and dealt with all kinds of crime scenes, but dismemberments were some of the most difficult.

He watched Maggie’s reaction. A seasoned investigator, he knew there wasn’t much that surprised her anymore. Hadn’t she just said that on the short drive? And yet, she winced and shook her head. She crossed her arms over her chest, despite her hands being full. Hands that now fisted around plastic and paper evidence bags.

“Good girl, Grace.” Maggie said, remembering to keep her tone upbeat for the dog.

Grace squeaked her elephant and flung her head from side to side to emphasize each bleat of the toy. Usually Creed took her away and let the investigators do their work, but for some reason he hesitated. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from those manicured toes. And he hated that Brodie came to mind along with a sudden flood of emotion.

For years, with every search that resulted in the recovery of a young woman’s body, Creed had anxiously expected it to be his sister. But he was back here in Nebraska because they had saved her.

Saved her. Not recovered her dead body.

He needed to keep telling himself that instead of remembering how close she had come to being buried in a pasture or flung into a ditch like this woman.

Maybe Hannah was right. Maybe he needed some time off. He only wished he knew what that looked like.

—12—

Maggie couldn’t help thinking how fresh this body must be. The flesh wasn’t mottled. There was very little blood. Her mind kept looping over the last two days. Both raids had been clean and uneventful. Almost too clean. Too uneventful.

“We’re going to lose sunlight quickly.” Lucy brought out a digital camera and began taking photos. “I want to pick up and bag as much as possible. Spencer will need to put someone on duty for the night. Hopefully, we can walk a grid tomorrow.”

Then Lucy pointed to Grace, who was happily chomping her toy.

“She seems content now,” Lucy said, looking up at Ryder. “Could that possibly mean there are no other pieces in proximity to these two?”

“We’ll take a walk on the road,” he said to Lucy as much as to Grace.

He looked reluctant to leave. Maggie tried to catch his eyes, but he seemed focused on Grace and what she’d found. As a dog handler, she knew he had trained himself to keep his emotions in check. Sometimes she wished he wasn’t so good at it.

“Come on, Grace,” he said again, and she bounded up the grassy incline.

When they were out of earshot, Lucy turned to Maggie and asked, “Any chance I can borrow the two of them tomorrow?”

“You’ll have to ask Ryder. Pakula won’t be doing another raid until we’ve had a chance to look over what we found today.”

Lucy carefully separated the tall blades of grass, gently tamping them down, the long strands bending and laying on top of each other. Then she kneeled down on top of them. Her gloved fingers lifted the detached foot as if it were a fragile porcelain vase. Crumbled bits of leaves and dirt were stuck to the skin. Maggie knew Lucy wouldn’t swipe any of it away. Not out here. She’d wait to clean it in her lab where she could examine the foot and the debris attached.

Maggie stepped up alongside her, prepared an evidence bag, then held it open. But Lucy wasn’t ready to deposit it just yet.