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“What’s going on?”
Anthony straightened, his expression settling into defensive lines. “This is Kaden Vaughn. He thinks he might be able to ID the skeleton.”
Tate visibly stiffened. “What?”
“Her name is—”
Kaden was once again interrupted. It was a trend that was starting to piss him off.
“I don’t care,” Tate snapped, his gaze never straying from his deputy. “The bones have been shipped off to the medical examiner in Madison and the railroad company is up my ass to get back to work. As far as I’m concerned, the case is closed.”
“How can it be closed?” Kaden stepped forward, towering over the smaller man. “You don’t know who she is or what happened to her.”
Tate took an instinctive step backward, reluctantly tilting his head to glare up at Kaden.
“That’s the job of the coroner. I have too much on my plate to worry about a random death from years ago. Especially since it was probably some whack job jumping off a moving train. Happens all the time. People kill themselves without concern about the mess they leave behind.”
Kaden blinked. That was a very specific hypothesis. “You think it was suicide?”
“What else?” the mayor snapped, reaching into the pocket of his suit jacket to pull out his phone. Glancing at the screen, he muttered a curse. He dropped the phone back into his pocket and returned his attention to Anthony. “I’m going to . . . to see if there are any of those camera thingies around where the accident happened.”
“CCTV?” the deputy helpfully supplied.
“That’s it.” Tate inched his way toward the open door. “It’s a long shot, but worth a try.”
“I can do that,” Anthony offered.
“I got it. Just take care of . . .” Tate waved a vague hand that included Kaden and the nearby desk. “This.”
Darting out of the office, the mayor slammed shut the door. Kaden glanced toward Anthony, who was glaring at the disappearing mayor with a deep scowl. The deputy didn’t appear to be particularly impressed with his temporary boss, but that wasn’t what interested Kaden. He was more concerned with the odd sense of premonition niggling at the edge of his mind.
“What accident?”
“Hit-and-run yesterday afternoon.” The man paused, his jaw suddenly tightening as he glanced back at Kaden. “It was weird.”
“Why do you say that?”
“The victim was Drew Hurst.”
Kaden’s breath hissed between his clenched teeth. His premonition had been right.
“The boy who found the skeleton?”
“Yep.”
“How bad was he injured?”
Anthony looked grim. “Right now they don’t know if he’s going to make it.”
“Damn.”
Chapter 6
Lia pulled into the alley behind her store and shut off the engine. She’d briefly considered driving to Green Bay to check out a potential investment in a microbrewery, but the overhead clouds were low and heavy with the threat of snow. She could wait a few days to make the trip.
Climbing out of the SUV, Lia heard the crunch of tires on the ice behind her. Her heart lodged in her throat as she whirled around. She had no idea what she was expecting, but the fact that Drew had just been run down put her on edge. She released a shaky breath at the sight of the Jeep parked behind her.
Not that her heart slowed its racing at the sight of Kaden Vaughn crawling out of the vehicle. She’d truly believed she’d never see him again. Which might explain why she’d allowed him to play the central role in her dreams last night. For several delicious hours she’d imagined tracing each and every tattoo with her tongue.
