Highland County Heroes Collection

Chapter 3

The hair stood on the back of his neck, making Warren scan the room to find who was watching him. It didn’t take him long to spot her, but it was several minutes before he realized who she was. He just wasn’t used to seeing the amazingly hot Sergeant Hayley Moreno with her hair down or wearing anything but her uniform. It was a sight that every man needed at least once to fully appreciate. Her transformation into the hard-assed and capable woman who ran his sector was nearly a complete change. She wore a blood red halter top that showed off her physical assets to perfection. He wanted to go over and slip his jacket around her shoulders, just to keep anyone else from seeing her. He loved the way she looked but wanted that top, that much skin, to be just for him.

No. That would be taking things too far. He had no right to her. His body ached for hers, but she was an adult who got to say no if she wanted. Warren just wished she didn’t want to say no to him.

Some of the guys on the force resented having a female sergeant, but Warren didn’t mind working for a woman. At least not one as capable as Hayley. He’d worked for a couple of women who seemed to have it out for the men in their department. It was more than a little off putting. Hayley though, she didn’t give that feeling. She was a woman, and while she dressed like the rest of the officers, or at least the rest of the sergeants, she didn’t try to hide that she was a woman. Not that it would be easy. Warren didn’t know any word to describe her that fit better than stacked, at least not a polite one. He’d give a lot for a chance at one night with her. The idea that it might develop into more? Well that was beyond his imagining, at least for now. As far as he’d been able to find, she’d not dated anyone in months. If she was having s*x, it was on the down low. Either one-night stands or someone who kept it as quiet as she did. Warren wanted to be that person. He didn’t care if they had to keep it a secret and sneak around. He was willing to do that for a chance to see if she was as hot, as enticing, as enchanting in bed as she was out of it. But the one time he’d asked her out, she’d turned him down.

Normally he might ask again, he knew if he pushed it would only piss her off. Besides, now that he was on her shift, it was against department policy. When he’d first asked, a few months ago, she’d still been a sergeant, but not his sergeant, so while it would have been a little iffy, it wasn’t totally against policy. Now though, there was no way it would happen. At least not until something changed.

his He stared down at the body laying crumpled on the ground, like a discarded rag doll. The petite brunette woman didn’t have much on, just a bra and panties, but there were jeans and a t-shirt nearby that he suspected were hers. She looked twenty, maybe twenty-one, probably a student at Middle New Mexico Community College, more commonly known as MNM. Warren thought he’d left this kind of thing behind when he’d left Albuquerque. He’d already called it in and was now waiting. Babysitting the body until someone could get here to document the scene. They would take photos and samples of everything but there was little doubt in his mind. This was a homicide.

His partner, Johnny was in the weeds about twenty feet away, puking. Warren shook his head, but didn’t comment. It had once been him puking his guts out at the scene, nearly everyone did at their first homicide, at least anyone who encountered the bad ones. As for this one, it wasn’t pleasant, but he’d seen worse. If he had to hazard a guess, Warren would say she’d likely been sexually assaulted and strangled. Other than trying for a pulse, he’d kept his distance so as to disturb as little as possible. That didn’t keep him from observing the scene. He didn’t want to contaminate any evidence that might help lead to the killer but he didn’t want to miss anything either.

This had been a suspicious activity call, someone thought they’d seen a black pickup, make unknown, dumping trash at the edge of the city limits and had reported it. Warren had expected to find a couple trash bags, maybe a couple of old tires, not a body. Homicide wasn’t common in Blackjack, and until today, he couldn’t have told you when the last one was. Still, this wasn’t his first body since starting with the BPD, a year before. He’d been called to a couple of suspicious deaths, which turned out to be elderly who’d passed away of sickness or old age and not been found for a few days. Not to mention several fatality car accidents, though those weren’t as common as they’d once been between the newer safety features in vehicles and the county cracking down on DUIs. There was still the occasional redneck driving too fast on a rural road, but those were mostly in the county, not something BPD had to respond to unless it was as back up for a bad scene. He’d been called to one of those a couple months after he’d started. Two families, a head on collision, several fatalities, including more than one kid.

He closed his eyes and pushed the memory away. Here and now was what he needed to be worried about. Pay attention to now. He looked back down at the body in front of him and tried to remember if he’d ever seen her before. She looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place her. Then again, she wasn’t looking her best either.

The crunch of gravel under foot alerted him to Johnny’s approach. It had to be Johnny, they were the only two out here and no one else had shown up yet.

“Sorry about that,” Johnny said. A quick glance revealed a red face.

“No problem. We all do it at least once. Or at least most of us. You’re first I take it?”

“My first that wasn’t natural.” Johnny shook his head. “I’ve not even had a MVA, well not a fatal one, yet.” He knocked against his head as if it was made of wood.

That made Warren take a second look at the younger man. He wasn’t that much younger but suddenly, Warren’s time with APD made him feel old. “That’s just one of many reasons I left the city.”

“What do you think?” Johnny nodded toward the girl.

Warren wished they could cover her, give her back at least a little dignity that had been stripped away in death, and probably in the minutes or hours before as well, but it was against protocol. Unless there was a reason to cover it, like to keep gawkers and news crews from snapping unauthorized photos, then you don’t disturb the scene unless you have to.

“I couldn’t say.” Warren looked away a moment, unable to voice his guess as to who she was or what happened to her.

“Wasn’t she at the Silver Spur the other night?” Johnny tilted his head to get a better look at her face.

“I don’t recognize her, but it’s possible. There were a lot of women there.” At least seventy percent of the crowd had been women, not surprising with the discounted drinks, though Warren had expected to find more men there looking to hook up with them after their judgment was impaired. He’d gone because he was tired and wanted to relax, maybe find someone to make him forget about his supervisor, instead, she’d been there. Looking like a wet dream. After one drink, and interceding when it looked like a man was getting a little handsy with a girl who’d clearly said no, he’d given up on forgetting her and went home by himself.

He took another look at the girl, trying to imagine her as she might be fixed up to go out, her hair done and maybe a little make up. She did look familiar, but he still couldn’t remember seeing her in the bar a couple nights before. Though, and he’d never admit it to anyone but himself, once he’d spotted the sergeant, he’d not noticed any other woman in the place. They all seemed like poor replacements once she was under his skin. And under his skin she was, had been for several weeks now.

“That’s right, you were already gone when it happened.” Johnny’s voice pulled Warren from his memory of how incredible Hayley had looked the night before, her head tilted back as she laughed at something one of the women at her table said.

“What happened?”

“The yelling match on the dance floor,” Johnny said. “Two girls, with one guy pulling at one of them, trying to break them up. I’m pretty sure this is the girl he was pulling at.”

Warren frowned. “What did the guy look like?”

“I don’t know.” His partner’s response was automatic. “Taller than her, but not tall. Maybe five-eight or five-nine. Slender but not skinny. Blond. Average looking. You think he did this?”

“I don’t know. You remember what the other girl looked like?”

“Oh, yeah. Her I remember. She was blonde and stacked. Short skirt, western shirt tied above her waist, fancy western boots with different color designs in the leather of the uppers.”

Warren blinked. Johnny had been paying attention to the blonde. He couldn’t say much, his description of Hayley that night would probably be as detailed.

“What happened after the fight?”

“This girl let the guy pull her away. He pulled her into his arms and they danced away. The other girl huffed off to the bar where she ordered a drink and started talking to one of the guys sitting on a stool.”

“Be sure you tell the detectives all that once they get here.”

Johnny’s eyes went wide. “You think I saw the guy who killed her?”

“It’s possible.”

“Da-yum.” His partner fell silent for a while.

Warren didn’t want to guess what was running through his head. He had enough of his own thoughts going through his. Most of them not pleasant.

It took the detectives almost an hour to arrive on scene. By then, Warren was more than a little annoyed. It was better than the hours it would have been on his last police force, but babysitting crime scenes was high on his least favorite parts of the job list. Babysitting bodies was even higher. This was both.

“Thanks for waiting, I understand you were first on the scene?” Detective Howard had already introduced himself, and his partner, Detective Cooley, but Hathaway would have known who they were without it. Between the gold badges worn on their belts and the slacks worn with shirt and loosened ties, there were few options. At least out here, at this time of the morning, especially on a Saturday. It was still so early the sun barely peeked over the hill. Not that it was all that early. This time of year, the sun rarely made an appearance before seven A.M. Warren hadn’t seen another car pass on the highway in more than thirty minutes.

“We were.” Warren stepped toward them, he was the senior partner, though Johnny had been with the Blackjack PD about a month longer than he had, Warren had more experience. Johnny had been a rookie when he’d started. While Warren was new to the area and had a lot to learn, he’d had experience. Not that they’d started out partnered together, no they’d only been together for about the last four months. So far, Warren liked Johnny, and had no complaints, at least no major ones.

“Did you ID the body?” Howard asked, pulling a small notebook from the pocket of his shirt.

“No,” Warren glanced back at where she still lay, “Once I determined she has no pulse, I had my partner call for the coroner and you guys. We immediately backed off and waited for someone more qualified.”

“Good. Good.” Howard made a couple notes in his little book. “What time did you arrive?”

Warren answered his questions, and there were several, while Cooley spoke to Johnny and took some photos with his phone. There would be more, official, photos taken once the crime scene unit arrived, but this would be enough to let them get started.

It was nearly an hour after Howard and Cooley arrived that the crime scene unit arrived, along with the medical examiner to collect the girl’s body. The detectives had both come and asked Warren questions at different times. Another hour after that, they were released to go back on patrol. They got back in their car and Johnny turned to Warren as Warren started the vehicle and pull it out on the highway, heading back onto their route.

“That’s going to stick with me a while.”

“It will. But hopefully they’ll solve it quickly and we’ll at least have that.” Warren took a deep breath and focused on the road, letting the heavier traffic as they made their way back to the middle of town distract him from what they’d just left.

“I hope.” His young partner fell silent for a few moments then spoke again. “Did you tell them what I said about seeing her the other night?”

“It didn’t come up, but from me it’s just hearsay. You should have told them.”

“I did.” Johnny let his breath out with a rush. “They asked me a few questions about it. Did I know her name, or the guy she left with? Had I seen her there before? That kind of thing. I told them what I knew.”

“Good. Not telling them will make it look like you’re hiding things, even if you’re not, so be one hundred percent upfront and open. Assume every detail is going to come out and admit anything before they find it somewhere else.”

“I don’t have anything to admit, but I told them everything I know anyway.” He looked away. “It’s not like I have anything to hide. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

“Exactly. Remember that. Some people want to hide what they were doing on their own time, out of some concept of privacy. But when you’re being questioned about a murder or murder victim, it just makes you look guilty.”

“You sure it was murder?” Johnny’s tone made it sound like he wasn’t so sure.

“Can you think of any reason for her to take all her clothes off, toss them aside like that and then lay down and die?”

“When you put it that way…”

“Exactly. I have no doubt her body was dumped, clothes too. I suspect there will be one or two unique things about the body and what was done to it, but not a lot of evidence otherwise.”

“What makes you say that? Did you see something?”

Warren shook his head. “Just my gut.”

“For some reason, I don’t think Cooley or Howard will think much of what your gut has to say.”

“That’s why I didn’t say anything. I don’t want them thinking I’m trying to tell ‘em how to do their jobs.”

“Probably a good plan.”

A call came across the radio, a B&E, breaking and entering, a couple of blocks from where they were now sitting at a stop light.

“We’ll get that,” Warren spoke first. “Call it in.” He flicked the switch that activated his lights and headed for the address given, grateful for something else to do.