Muscles knotting his thighs, Hunter squatted opposite Dr. Herlihy, anxious to view her discovery. “Tell me.”

Back rounded, she ran a hand over a large bone. Some of those green sand spurs that had previously attacked him had found their way into the doc’s curly hair.

She dusted the remaining dirt from the bone’s surface. Once she’d freed the object, she held up what looked like a femur. Angling the bone so that a shaft of sunlight speared her find, she rolled the bone between her fingers. The expression on her face transformed from one of intrigue to acceptance. He said nothing, taking in her intense expression.

She finally placed the bone on a brown paper bag beside her, and then locked her gaze with his. Her green eyes appeared saddened by her find.

“It’s a third femur.”

His gut clenched. Shit. “Female? Or male?” He grabbed a handful of dirt, squeezed the daylight out of it and tossed the sandy heap back on the ground.

“I can’t tell yet.”

The desperation in her voice tore at his protective instincts. The discovery seemed to sicken her as much as it did him. Had the anthropologist who’d found his sister’s body died a little too that day?

Shrouded in hushed silence, she went back to work uncovering more bones. The CSU team, who had crowded around to watch the new find, wordlessly scattered to continue documenting the evidence.

Mud streaked his pants where he’d wiped his hands, and for once, he didn’t care.

Fifteen minutes later, she unearthed a second pelvis and stopped brushing. “It’s a female.” She drew in a long breath, closed her eyes for a moment, and exhaled slowly.

“So we’re looking at two bodies,” he mumbled to himself. Christ. A sharp jab raced up his spine at the thought.

“Yes and we’re not finished digging either.”

An ugly, sludgy sensation grabbed his insides and yanked hard. More digging. Two horrible words he’d heard many times. “We could be looking at a mass grave then.”

Dear Lord. His ribs tightened around his lungs, squeezing the air from them. His chest hurt as he recalled another tragedy.

She lowered her head. “It’s possible.”

Hunter stood and moved away from the mound of pine needle laden dirt and away from the bone doctor, not wanting to take his frustration out on her or any of the other workers. He wanted to strangle the jerk who’d dumped the bodies. Wanted to lock the killer up and make the bastard spend the rest of his goddamn pathetic life digging graves or making coffins to honor the dead. And he really wanted to find the man who’d killed his sister—but that would never happen.

Christ. Right now, he’d be content pummeling anything into a million pieces. He picked up a rock and chucked it a couple hundred feet away from the river. It smashed against a tree and thudded to the ground. Squirrels scurried away.

Phil was already making his way up the path.

“What’s wrong?”

Hunter told him about the second body. “We need cadaver dogs.”

“Good idea. Otherwise, we could be here for days.”

Hunter scanned the large wooded area. Had to be a good thirty acres, but only about four or five of them were free enough of large trees and scrub for someone to bury a body. “Too bad there’s no way to tell if the psycho spread the bodies out or piled more victims on top of each other. Call the captain and see if he can send over a team. Ask him to find Jimmy what’s-his-name.” Hunter snapped his fingers. “The captain will know him. He’s the best technician for leveling the ground.”

“I’m on it like maggots on shit.” Ah, a new and better twist to Phil’s usual spiel.

Once Phil walked away to make his call, Hunter stepped back to the gravesite. Dr. Herlihy carefully removed the bones of the other skeleton and set them aside.

He glanced at his watch. Oh, crap. He’d promised to take his daughter to Burger King, and it was already past five. He’d never make it in time.

Poor kid. He’d told Melissa he’d take her to Busch Gardens last weekend and then had to cancel when another case came up.

Hunter turned his back to the burial pit and dug out his phone to call his sister. A pack of love bugs flew in his face, and he swatted them away. He punched in the memorized number.

“Hi, Hunter.” Gotta love caller I.D.

“Jen, I wondered if—”

“Let me guess. You want me to keep Melissa for dinner. You got tied up.”

Even to him, his refrain was becoming tiresome. “Yeah. Something like that. You know I hate to trouble you—”

“Hunter. Don’t worry about it. You know I love having Melissa around, and so do Emily and Jake. She’s like a younger sister to them.”

Melissa had probably spent more time with her cousins than she had at home. “Make me feel guiltier.” He kicked a stick and watched it skitter along the ground.

Jen didn’t answer for a second. “I’m sorry. I know you can’t help it. It’s your job to catch the bad guys and make us feel safe.”

“Thanks for trying to boost my spirits.” Hunter wasn’t used to spewing sentimental stuff. He cleared his throat. “Tell Melissa I’ll be by after I finish here. Okay?”

“Sure. I love you.”

“Love you too,” he mumbled, forcing the emotion from his voice. The sheriff’s department had dubbed him Mr. Spock because of his inability to express his softer side. They’d mock him for sure if they’d heard him say those three little words.

He stashed his phone. He didn’t deserve such a wonderful sister. Without Jen, he never would have survived his wife’s death. It was his Melissa who had been his inspiration to keep going when he’d had serious thoughts about eating his gun.

Hunter turned back to the gravesite and caught Kerry looking at him with an odd expression. Before he could react, she looked away.

He rolled up his sleeves. Sunburn be damned.

* * *

Kerry placed a femur on the cold, stainless steel lab table, and smothered a yawn. She took another gulp of her coffee, hoping the drink would give her a jolt of energy.

It had taken all day to separate Jane Doe #1 bones from those of #3’s. The other two bodies, found closer to the river, still had some soft tissue on them, and John Ahern was attempting to autopsy them in the hope of determining their cause of death.

All through the night and into the early morning hours, Kerry couldn’t rid her mind from the four bodies they’d found in the field. Four women. Four lost souls. Each discovery had taken another small piece from her heart.

She wasn’t the only one affected. Kerry was sure the pinched lines around Detective Markum’s handsome mouth during the exhaustive search had mirrored her own.

When she’d drifted off to sleep last night, all she could see were the cadaver dogs sniffing the ground, finding the bodies. Kerry had worked with them before on other cases, but she’d never seen them race about so frenetically. She’d spent all night fighting the disturbing images that invaded her imagination, and now she was paying for it.

One of the detectives had found a belt loop several feet from the first gravesite. Even if the loop belonged to the killer, she doubted the police could trace such a small piece of evidence to anyone, especially months after the deaths.

She shook her head to clear her vision and a sharp, stabbing pain crossed her forehead, but she refused to allow a migraine to delay her. Grabbing her purse from across the room, she located her much-needed prescription bottle and swallowed two without water. Yuk.

Ignoring the rush of goose bumps that rippled up her arm from the air conditioner’s cold blast, Kerry returned to the table and studied #3’s skull. Her heart tore. She ran her hand tenderly over the dry, bony surface. “I hope you didn’t suffer.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to imagine the dead woman. She must have had a family who loved her. Had anyone reported her missing? Had some special man loved her? Was he grieving her loss? Or had he been the one who’d killed her?

Kerry opened her eyes and fought to push away her tangled emotions. Science would solve this crime, not her heart.

Her fingers touched the rather apparent sutures in the skull. What a shame. The woman was probably about thirty, not much younger than Kerry. She swallowed the biting ache that always came when she handled a victim’s remains.

The only good news was all four females had intact dental work. Maybe when Detective Markum provided a list of possible victims, she might find a match.

A knock sounded on the lab door, and John Ahern sauntered in with a frown. “You okay? You’ve been closeted in here all day.”

A large African American, John had kind eyes and a wide, gentle mouth.

“I’m fine. I’ve had a lot to keep me busy.” Her smile faltered as fingers of fatigue crawled up her spine.

“I hear you.”

“Don’t tell me you’re done with your autopsies already?” Kerry wanted to get her hands on the other skeletons, needing to find a connection that would provide names to the victims, and provide their families with closure.

“Hardly. I’m taking a break between autopsying Jane Doe #2 and #4. It’s slow going.” He pointed to the display of bones on the table. “So what’ve you found?”

“The jaw on Jane Doe #3 had been broken at one time. From the size of the fissure, I’m speculating she’d been beaten about a year or so prior to her death.”

“Anything else?”

“The back of the woman’s cranium showed blunt force trauma strong enough to break her skull.”

“Good.”

“And #1?”

“Not much. I catalogued and photographed each bone and took dental molds of my two bodies, but I won’t know much more until after X-raying them.”

“Were you able to get any DNA?”

“I have a small sample from an extracted tooth from #1 and a little more from her femur. I asked Darla to take the DNA to the FDLE lab for analysis.”

“Good.”

A squeaky gurney rolled down the hallway, past her door. Another death. Kerry blew out a breath.

“Did that detective call with any names of missing persons?” she asked.

She crossed her fingers on both hands, hoping for the best. Stupid superstition, but her mom had been afraid of black cats, cracks in the sidewalk, and full moons, and had passed on that superstition.

If Hunter had a possible name for any of the victims, he might also find a photo of the victim. Then, she could superimpose the photograph over the skull’s X-ray to see if the two matched.

“Not yet.”

Too bad. It was agonizing to have a loved one missing and never know what happened to them—like her brother. Long ago she lost hope of ever finding him, and a band constricted around her heart. Don’t go down that dark tunnel again or this time I might not emerge.

Pushing back her nightmare, Kerry took a long sip of her now cooled coffee and stared at the next set of bones.

John picked up a femur from #3’s body, twirled it around in his fingers, and nodded to #1. “Looks like the time of death is roughly the same for these two. You agree?”

She retrieved the femur John was manhandling and replaced it on the stainless tabletop with care. “I need to do a few more tests, but from my preliminary observation, I believe they died within a few months of each other.”

“When I complete work on my two victims, I’ll send the results over,” John said. “Hopefully, I can figure out their cause of death.”

Kerry ran a hand along the smooth cold metal. “I did notice one thing. Jane Doe #1’s facial bones had only begun to heal from reconstructive surgery. Could her cause of death be an infection resulting from that operation?”

His brows rose. “If so, why not bury her in a coffin?”

“Good point. I’m so frustrated, I’m not thinking straight. I guess I’m desperate for some clues.”

Dr. Ahern chuckled softly and shook his head. “Not all deaths we investigate are the result of foul play.”

“They are when all four bodies are near each other in shallow graves.”

“True.” He tapped the end of the table with his finger. “I won’t keep you any longer.” He’d walked halfway to the door before he spun around. “Good job at the site yesterday. You handled yourself very professionally.”

He left before she could even say thank you, or before she could ask why he sounded so surprised. The depressing sadness of her find blocked out the expected rush of pride from his compliment.

By five, she couldn’t concentrate anymore. It was time to head home. She cleaned up, tossed her paper gown in the disposal unit, and headed out the front door. Pedestrians scurried down the street as cars whipped by in front of the building.

Gas fumes mixed with the sweltering heat sucked her breath away. Maybe taking a job in Florida in the summer wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Just as she crossed the street to the parking lot, her cell rang. It must be Grandpa wondering why his dinner wasn’t on the table yet.

Her gaze shot to the phone display. It wasn’t her grandfather, nor did she recognize the number. Her thumb hovered over the button to turn off the ringer, certain it had to be a wrong number since she hadn’t been in town long enough to know anyone.

Oh, what the hell. “Hello?”

“Dr. Herlihy?”

The voice on the phone sounded familiar. “Yes?” Kerry tried to put a name to the deep, rich tone.

“This is Detective Markum. Do you have a moment?”

She was surprised she hadn’t recognized his smooth timbre. “Sure.”

“I know it’s the end of the day, but is it possible for you to stop by the station? I have a theory I want to pass by you.