Thorne grimaced. Surely the rumors had traveled down to Bear Claw, stories of how hed gone up into the mountains after cult leader Mason Falk, and how hed been a changed man afterwards.
But maybe the chief figured that was a long time ago, and knew hed proven himself since.
God knows hed tried to.
He thought of the opportunity he was being offered. A fresh start, away from
Well, just away.
Interest piqued, Thorne withdrew his hands from his pockets and sat in the padded chair facing the chiefs desk. He gestured toward the glass wall separating the chiefs office from the bulk of the Bear Claw PD, where cops worked in their cubes or hustled out on calls. What about the others? Wont they see me as just as much of an intruder? Hell, what about the women? Theyre going to hate me if I break up their cozy little unit.
Theyll deal, the chief said bluntly, though Thorne caught a flicker of doubt in his eyes. Alissa Wyatt is the crime scene analyst. Does sketches, too. Shes engaged to Detective Tucker McDermott, Homicide. Make friends with Tucker and shell tolerate you. Cassie Dumont is our evidence tech. She paired off with Seth Varitek, an FBI evidence specialist out of the Boulder office. Shell be tougher, and wont care whether you make nice with Seth or not. If I were you, Id just stay out of her way while you work this case. The chief leaned forward in his chair and pinned Thorne with a no-nonsense look. Heres the deal. Im putting you on the Mastermind task force. We need a solid profile and a new direction, and we need it yesterday, before this bastard attacks my city again. Consider this case your job interview. You fit in here and help us catch the Mastermind, and the jobs yours.
Thorne nodded as a stir of anticipation drowned out most of his doubts. Ill need copies of the case files, all the notes your investigators have amassed on the Canyon Kidnappings and the Museum Murders, everything that pertains to the Mastermind.
The computer files and hard copies are waiting for you downstairs in the forensics department offices. Youll have to share with Alissa and Cassie, Im afraid, but maybe thats for the best. Itll let you three get used to each other. The chief stood and extended his hand, indicating that the interviewsuch as it had beenwas over. I expect interesting things from you, Coleridge. Dont let me down.
As Thorne stood and shook with the man who would beat least temporarilyhis new superior, he saw the knowledge in Parrys eyes and heard the emphasis on the word interesting. That was enough to tell him that the chief had heard the rumors about his so-called talents, after all. Maybe that explained why hed called Wagon Ridge and asked for Thorne personally.
Yeah, that was it, he decided. The chief was hoping hed provide a miracle.
Too bad hed have to disappoint.
Ill do my best police work, he said carefully.
The chief paused, then nodded. You do that.
It wasnt until Thorne turned for the door that he saw the commotion outside, heard the muted shouts in the bullpen. Adrenaline spurted. What the hell?
A woman yanked open the door before he could reach for it. Medium height with honey-blond hair pulled into a ponytail beneath a BCCPD ball cap, she had deep blue eyes that were wide with stress, though she kept her voice professionally level when she said, Hes back. We just had a bomb threat phoned in to that bison park outside the city. Computerized voice and all.
The Mastermind phoned here? the chief demanded, already shrugging into his jacket.
The woman shook her head. Worse. He called Mayas cell.
The chief repeated the name like a curse, but the word froze Thorne to his core.
Maya? he said, and something must have leaked into his voice because the woman and Chief Parry both turned to him.
Maya Cooper, the chief said. The psych specialist that youre rethat youre subbing for while shes on suspension.
The sudden darkening of the womans eyes told Thorne the chiefs slip hadnt gone unnoticed. She glared at Parry, then at Thorne, but said only, Im out of here. Weve got a bomb to find and a scene to process. Everything else will have to wait.
She slammed the door behind her, making the glass shudder.
The chief paused with his hand on the knob and turned to Thorne. That was Alissa, the friendlier of your two new coworkers. Sounds like youre going to have problems.
I can handle it, Thorne said carefully, but the chief had no idea how right he was in predicting a problem.
It wasnt Alissa he was worried about, though.
It was Maya.
Chapter Two
Everybody stay calm. Its all under control. Though her heart pounded in her chest, Maya pitched her voice low as the crowd of tourists shed collected in the parking lot outside the ranch edged toward panic. The police will be here soon to check on the possibility, she stressed the last word, though in her mind there was no doubt the Mastermind had been deadly serious, that theres a problem.
The tourists and ranch employees milled in a bare area beyond the parking lot, shifting restlessly as though they had ceased to be single individuals and become a combined entity, a spooky, nervous mob that could stampede at any moment.
Maya strained to hear the sound of approaching sirens even as she raised her hands. Please stay calm. Itll just be a few more minutes.
A few minutes until the Bear Claw cops arrived. A few minutes until the bomb detonated, minutes that ticked down on the digital display of her wristwatch.
The explosive could be in any one of the buildings. Or it could be in one of the cars. Even in the big yellow school bus parked in the corner of the lot, Maya thought with a faint shudder as the numbers clicked down from five minutes to four.
Lets get in the cars and get out of here, a mans voice called, and others shouted agreement.
Im sorry, thats not an option. Maya glanced to her right and left, where two terrified-looking ranch employees were helping her keep the group in check now that the initial rush to get people the hell out of the ranch had passed. The three of them were holding the line, but the crowd could turn at a moments notice.
Maya had studied mob mentality. Shed been in situations like this before.
But back then, shed had a badge and a weapon, and street cops backing her up.
Why not? shouted the same voice, irritated now. And who put you in charge?
She glared in the direction of the heckler. Im a member of the Bear Claw Creek Police Department, which puts me in charge.
She didnt give her name, because it had already been splashed too loudly in the media, and she didnt give her rank or show her badge, because shed been stripped of both until Internal Affairs finished looking into the Henkes incident, a process that had been stalled several times by red tape she could only assume came from Henkess supporters within the force.
Three minutes, thirty seconds.
She tried not to think about her first impressions of the theme park, how a sniper could sit up on the low ridge of hills nearby and fire down into the crowd she had assembled in a too-convenient knot. But what other choice did she have? Shed needed to get them the hell out of the park, and the vehicles werent an option.
Three minutes.
Then she heard sirens in the distance, approaching rapidly.
Thank God, Maya whispered to herself, knowing she couldnt say it aloud, couldnt let the crowd know she was worried.
They needed her to be strong, to keep the peace.
Precious seconds ticked by as the Bear Claw cops pulled in, led by Alissa and Cassie, riding with Tucker in his he-man truck. The chiefs car followed moments later. The sight of her friends loosened the tight band around Mayas heart, even as the suspicious looks she got from the other arriving officers made her feel worse.
Uniforms ranged out around the rapidly quieting crowd. As the tension subsided a degree, a youngish cop jogged over to Maya and said, Well take it from here, maam. The chief would like a word with you.
She tried not to wince at the maam, which served only to underscore her status as not-quite-a-cop. But there wasnt time for regrets, not while her wristwatch clicked down past two minutes thirty seconds.
She hastened to the knot of cops gathered near the chiefs car just as two vans and a box truck arrived in a cloud of dust, bearing John Sawyer, the leader of the Bear Claw Bomb Squad, along with his team of experts.
He said I had ten minutes, she told the group. Weve got two-thirty left, give or take. The park is cleared of people, but theres a petting zoo in the livery building and close to three hundred head of bison pastured right behind the buildings.
Not much we can do about that now, Chief Parry said pragmatically, but his grizzled, careworn face settled into deeper lines at the prospect of bloodshed, human or otherwise. When Sawyer joined the group, the chief quickly updated him. The two put their heads together to rough out a plan, which gave Maya a moment to glance at the others.
Alissas honey-blond hair was tied back in a ponytail and stuffed under a navy BCCPD ball cap, while Cassies straight, nearly white-blond hair was shorter now, cut near her shoulders. Tucker stood just behind Alissa and off to one side, shoulders stiff and protective. A wolf guarding his mate. Knowing that the task force had remained active even after the capture of Nevada Barnes three months earlier, Maya was faintly surprised by the absence of Special Agent Seth Varitek. Cassies nemesis-turned-lover had been loaned to the task force for help with the evidence work, but perhaps he was off on another case.
In Variteks place, a stranger stood at the edge of the group, part of the conversation but apart from the center of it. He was maybe a shade over six feet tall, lean but muscular. He wore navy pants and a crisp white shirt at odds with the heavy boots on his feet. His close-cropped sandy hair was standard military, as was his stiff-backed posture, and she sensed him studying her from behind his dark sunglasses.
She felt a shimmer of familiarity. A cold crawl moved across her shoulders and up her neck to gather at the base of her skull.
Who was this guy?
Her watch beeped to indicate sixty seconds left in the countdown. Thirty.
In silent accord, the cops turned toward the Chuckwagon Ranch as the seconds bled away. There was no way they could search the entire place in time. They didnt even know where to begin.
As the final few seconds ran down on the digital display, Chief Parry nodded to Maya. Good work getting everyone out. Theyre safe, thanks to you.
It was the first time hed spoken to her since hed taken her badge. The recognition warmed her, but she said, I was just doing my job.
Then the time ran out. Her watch beeped the end of the promised ten minutes. They braced for an explosion.
Nothing happened.
Seconds ticked by. Then minutes. Still nothing.
Mayas brain sped up. Her thoughts quickened to a blur, but it was Sawyer who said, Think its another dud?
During the Museum Murder investigation, Cassies house had been rigged with a gas leak and a detonator that hadnt triggered. Sawyer later determined that it had never been intended to blow. Itd been a fake, designed to confuse them. Scare them.
Could this be the same?
It would fit with the Masterminds pattern, Maya said quietly. Hell, there might not even be a device. He probably got off on phoning in a threat and watching us scramble.
She told herself not to be ashamed by the false alarm. There was no way she could have known, no way she could have chanced ignoring the call.
But still, she squirmed at the sidelong glances of her former coworkers and the stranger in the dark glasses.
Sawyer gestured to his team. Well suit up and search the property to make sure. Itll take a few hours.
With all due respect, Maya said, Id suggest you check the vehicles first. The tourists are pretty edgy to leave.
With all due respect, the chief said, you should go with them. The media will be here any minute. If they catch wind that youre involved with this bomb scare, the next thing we know, itll be splashed across the six oclock news. Suspended cop receives bomb tip. Film at eleven. Hell, theyll want to know why you received the call. Is it because youre the last Forensics Department cop to be targeted? Or maybe its completely unrelated. Maybe this is about the Henkes trial next week. Lord knows, youve ticked off more than a few people with that.
His words dug at Mayas suspicions, at the places she hadnt yet managed to armor. That would make it completely related, she snapped. Why do you think I was here in the first place? Henkes is
Hes right, Alissa interrupted, though her voice was laced with apology when she said, You should go. Leave your cell phone with us for analysis. Tucker and I will swing by your place later to get a full statement.
Ouch. Maya fought the wince, crossed her arms and nodded tightly. Of course. Im sorry. She forced the words through a throat gone tight with resentment.
Was this what shed been reduced to? Waiting at home for her friends to drop by with a crumb of information?
When nobody argued, she swallowed the anger and pushed through the group. Her path brought her between Alissa and the stranger.
Alissa touched Mayas arm and mouthed, Im sorry. Well talk later.
The stranger just looked down at her through his shaded lenses with an intensity that set off warning bells.
Maya had the wild, uncharacteristic urge to reach up and pull those glasses down so she could see his eyes. But wild urges were self-destructive. She knew that much from experience. So she sniffed and pushed past him, bumping his arm with hers to let him know she wasnt intimidated.
Damned if he didnt flinch.
THE FLASH CAME THE MOMENT she touched him.
Blood. Death. Violence. Heat. Thorne held himself rigid and weathered the sensations, which were part memory, part anticipation. He gritted his teeth and forced himself not to show the whiplash of mental flame, of pain.
Hell, he thought when she was gone and the images faded, what was that?
It was a stupid question. He knew precisely what it had been. But why here? Why now? It had been years since his last vision, years since the doctors had assured him the flashes were nothing more than random synapse firings, courtesy of the drugs hed been given during his captivity on Mason Falks mountain.
Years since hed blocked the images, which had often come too close to prescience for his comfort.