the first,” he told her.
Kenzie decided that her best bet was to refrain from answering him when he talked.
With a toss of her head, she marched the rest of the way to the K-9 department, which was adjacent to the Animal Control Division.
A cacophony of animal sounds was heard as they passed by. Kenzie disregarded the noise in the same way she disregarded Brannigan.
She looked around to see if her cousin-in-law was anywhere around, but it looked like Brady wasn’t there at the moment.
Officer Jake O’Reilly, a longtime veteran of the unit, came up behind them and asked, “Is there anything I can help you with, Detectives?”
“As a matter of fact, there is,” Kenzie said, taking the lead. “We need a cadaver dog. A head and a pair of hands were found in the field around Aurora Park after yesterday’s rain. We think there might be more buried in or around the area. We need help finding them.”
“Got the dog for the job right here,” O’Reilly said. “Come here, Jupiter. These nice detectives need your help.” He opened the kennel door and a large German shepherd came bounding out.
Jupiter barked in response as if he understood what was expected of him. He excitedly shifted from paw to paw.
They took Kenzie’s vehicle to the area at the edge of Aurora Park where John Kurtz’s head and hands had been found.
On the rather short trip over, O’Reilly sat in the back of the vehicle with his K-9 partner, Jupiter. The animal remained still until just before they arrived at their destination. Then he began moving about in the back seat.
Kenzie could feel herself growing tense with every passing minute, not because Hunter was sitting in the front passenger seat next to her, but because she had the very uneasy feeling that the detective could very well be right. If he was, that meant that they had a serial killer on their hands, and that was the last thing that any of them really wanted.
Except maybe for Hunter, she silently amended, slanting a look in his direction as she parked her car in the designated spot for park visitors. Finding out that this was the work of a serial killer could wind up being quite a feather in his cap, given that cold cases were called that for a reason.
One really didn’t expect them to ever get warm.
“Is this the area where the body parts were first found?” O’Reilly asked Hunter as he got out of the vehicle.
Hunter glanced into the back seat that O’Reilly had just vacated. Jupiter, still in the car, was moving from side to side, growing progressively more eager to be set free.
“Judging by the way your dog is acting, I’d say that’s a firm yes,” Hunter answered.
“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this,” Kenzie said to the two men with her. “Or a good feeling,” she added, glancing at Hunter, “depending on which point of view you take.”
“Stay, Jupiter,” O’Reilly ordered as he opened the rear door closest to him.
It was obvious that the shepherd wanted to leap out, but he remained where he was as his trainer reached in to get his leash and firmly wrapped it around his hand.
“Neat trick,” Hunter commented to the handler. “Think you could teach it to me sometime?”
“Why?” Kenzie asked, looking at Hunter. “Are you having trouble keeping your girlfriends from bolting out of the car on you?”
Hunter grinned at her, amused rather than annoyed. “That’s not the problem at all,” he replied.
A sharp comeback rose to Kenzie’s lips, but she bit it back. She’d started this round and if it played itself out, they’d wind up losing sight of why they were here to begin with. She couldn’t afford to squabble with Hunter, at least not until she knew what they were up against.
“Truce,” she declared grudgingly, looking in Hunter’s direction.
“Fine by me,” Hunter answered. He glanced toward the German shepherd straining at his leash. “O’Reilly, your dog looks really eager to show us his stuff. Why don’t you let him?”
Jupiter was out of the vehicle now, all but dancing from side to side. It was easy to see that he was champing at the bit to get going.
O’Reilly, by no means a small man, looked as if he was having trouble holding on to the German shepherd. “I don’t think I have much choice in the matter.”
The words were no sooner out of O’Reilly’s mouth than he slackened his hold on the leash. Jupiter suddenly began to tear through the area, all but dragging his handler in his wake.
“I guess that’s our cue to get going,” Hunter commented.
Because the rain had really come down heavily here, drenching the area, the ground was still very wet in a lot of spots. The resulting mud made the terrain extremely slippery.
Following Jupiter and O’Reilly wasn’t nearly as easy as Kenzie had initially thought, no matter how carefully she tried. Trying to keep up, Kenzie slid twice. Both times she managed to catch herself at the last moment. The only thing that comforted her was that she saw Hunter having trouble keeping upright, as well.
But just as she was silently reveling in his narrowly avoiding making contact with the oozing mud beneath him, she suddenly felt her feet sliding out from under her. In a heartbeat, she braced herself for an undignified pratfall.
At the last possible moment, Kenzie felt a strong hand grip her arm, righting her and preventing her from making a face-plant in the mud.
The air whooshed out of her as first shock, and then an instant later relief, vibrated through her.
Her heart hammering wildly in her chest, she looked to her right, hoping against hope that O’Reilly had made a quick U-turn and was the one responsible for her last-moment save.
But it wasn’t O’Reilly. It was Brannigan who was holding on to her arm.
Brannigan had been the one to save her face and her pride.
“Thanks.” Kenzie uttered the word as if each letter cost her dearly.
Hunter smiled and graciously inclined his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard gratitude so grudgingly dispensed,” he told her.
She glanced at her arm. His hand was still wrapped around it. “You can let go of my arm now,” she informed him icily.
“Are you sure?” he asked dubiously. “It’s still pretty slippery here.”
He was up to something, Kenzie thought. She just didn’t trust this Boy Scout routine of his.
“I’m sure,” she answered. She scowled when he went on holding her arm. “You’re cutting off my circulation,” she told him.
His smile widened. “From what I hear, according to your brothers I’m not the one cutting it off.”
Kenzie shook off his hold. Striding after O’Reilly and Jupiter, she struggled to hold on to her temper. She did owe Hunter, aware that he could have very easily just let her fall. She still didn’t understand why he didn’t, but even so, that put her, at least temporarily, in his debt.
And she didn’t like it.
“Can we please just stick to business?” Kenzie requested.
“Speaking of which,” Hunter said, glancing over toward Jupiter. The dog had abruptly stopped in his tracks and was now suddenly digging eagerly. “I think we just might be in business now.”
Hunter carefully made his way over toward the German shepherd as the dog furiously