Case File: Canyon Creek, Wyoming - Пола Грейвс Mills & Boon Intrigue

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and brilliant blue. They were a startling spot of color in his lean, sun-bronzed face. He seemed hewn of stone, his short-cropped hair the rusty color of iron ore, his shoulders as broad and solid as a block of granite. His lean body could have been chiseled from the rocky outcroppings of the Wyoming mountains. He had cowboy written all over him.

      Aware she was staring, she looked down at his hands enveloping hers. They were large, strong and work-roughened. A slim gold band encircled his left ring finger.

      She tugged her hands away, acutely aware of her own bare ring finger. “I should have screamed. I let him get away.”

      “There are probably security cameras around. He took a big risk coming after you here.”

      “He was so calm.” She gripped the bed sheets to keep her traitorous fingers from reaching for his hands again, though she felt absurdly adrift without his reassuring touch. “His actions were furtive, but he didn’t seem nervous.”

      “Did you see anything about him?”

      “It was too dark. I saw his outline when he slipped out the door—definitely male.”

      “My size?”

      She let her gaze move a little too slowly over his hard, lean frame. Chiding herself mentally, she shook her head. “Heavier. More muscle-bound or something. Probably your height, maybe an inch or two taller.” She pressed her lips together to stop her chattering teeth. “I should have made noise, gotten the nurses in here—”

      “If you’re right about what you saw, the man came here to kill you. Making a noise only would have made it happen faster.” He briefly touched her hand where the cannula remained, unattached to the IV tube. “You got that tube out. You saved yourself, and nobody could expect anything more.”

      He was saying all the right things, but she heard disappointment in his voice. Clearly, finding the man who’d attacked her was more than just another case to him.

      She’d always been insanely curious—nosy, her brothers preferred to call it—but something kept her from asking any more questions of Riley Patterson. She sensed that pushing him for more information would make him back off. She couldn’t afford for him to back off.

      A man had tried to kill her twice in one day, and she had a feeling Riley Patterson might be the only person who could stop him if he tried it a third time.

      JOE GARRISON ARRIVED not long after the Teton County Sheriff’s Department detectives. Riley caught his boss’s eye as he entered Hannah Cooper’s room, motioning him over with a twitch of his head. Joe met him in the corner, his gaze wandering across the small room to where Hannah Cooper sat in a chair by her empty bed, her green-eyed gaze following the activity of the evidence techs who were processing the scene.

      “The Teton County Sheriff’s Department wants her in protective custody, but she’s refusing,” Riley said. “She said she’d rather go home early tomorrow and forget all about this.”

      “You don’t want her to leave.”

      Riley met his friend’s understanding gaze. “She saw the guy. Maybe she didn’t see his face, but she’s the only living witness, and she’s about to fly back home to Alabama.”

      “You can’t keep her here against her will.”

      Riley pressed his hands against his gritty eyes. “I can’t let her leave.”

      Joe’s answer was dry as a desert. “So kidnap her and hold her hostage.”

      Riley slanted a look at his boss. “Did you drive all the way here to give me a hard time or are you going to help me figure out how to keep her in Wyoming?”

      “Do you want me to arrest her or something?”

      “Could we?” Riley glanced at Hannah, only half-joking. She looked calm now, more curious than worried, her slim fingers playing absently with the hem of her hospital gown, tugging it down over her knees.

      “Maybe you should tell her why you’re so desperate to solve this case.”

      Riley looked back at Joe. “Tell her about Emily?”

      Joe nodded.

      Riley looked at Hannah again and found her returning his gaze. After a couple of seconds, she looked away.

      “Maybe if she knew how many victims we could be talking about, and the way they were killed…” Riley said softly.

      “You want to scare her into staying?”

      “Maybe she’ll want to help.”

      Joe arched one eyebrow. “At the risk of her own life?”

      Riley sighed. “You’re just a wellspring of optimism.”

      “You want a yes man, you called the wrong guy.” Joe thumped Riley on the arm. “But maybe you’re right. The Teton County Sheriff’s Department doesn’t know what we know about these murders. They’re not giving her the whole picture. I guess you could lay the truth on her and let her make an informed choice.” Joe’s gaze shifted as the hospital-room door opened and a tall, rangy lawman entered. “There’s Jim Tanner.”

      As Joe left Riley to greet the Teton County Sheriff, Riley crossed to the chair where Hannah sat. She looked up at him, a dozen questions swirling behind her eyes. He smiled slightly and crouched beside her. “Three-ring circus.”

      “I’ll be glad to be out of it,” she admitted. “I get the feeling the police aren’t taking me very seriously. I think they think I’m just paranoid.”

      “It shouldn’t take that long to find out what the guy put in your IV tube. I heard them say the lab is working on it right now.”

      “They just want to prove it was nothing so they can pat me on the head and tell me it was just a dream.”

      Riley had a feeling she was right. “I don’t think it was just a dream.”

      She shot him a look of pure gratitude. “I wasn’t asleep. I know what I saw. And all that’s supposed to be in that IV is saline, so there’s no reason for anyone to put anything else into it.”

      “You don’t have to convince me.”

      She lowered her voice, eyeing the technician standing nearby. “Nobody in the Teton County Sheriff’s Department said anything about multiple murders.”

      He couldn’t hold back a little smile. “Yeah, I know.”

      “But you disagree?”

      He lowered his voice, too. “I’ve been tracking a series of murders, one or two a year, for the last three years. All across Wyoming, east to west, north to south. Women driving alone, disappearing en route from one place to another. Their bodies are later found wrapped in plastic, dumped in a lake, river or other body of water. Three of the six showed traces of pepper spray around the mouth, nose and eyes. The other bodies had too much weather exposure to take a sample.”

      Hannah’s face went pale, but she didn’t look away. “If I hadn’t gotten away—”

      He didn’t finish the thought for her. He didn’t need to.

      The door to the room opened, and a woman in a white coat entered, carrying a file folder. She crossed to speak to Jim Tanner, whose brow furrowed deeply the longer she spoke. Joe looked across the room at Riley, his expression grim. Riley’s stomach twisted into a knot.

      Joe and Sheriff Tanner crossed to Hannah’s side. Riley stood to face them.

      “The lab report on the IV tube is back,” Tanner said.

      “And?” Hannah asked.

      His expression grew hard. “There was enough digoxin in that tube to kill you in a matter of minutes.”

      Chapter Three

      The buzz of urgent

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