Page 42 of Shephard

“Who else is qualified on your team?”

“Meaning what?” she threw at me, anger in her tone.

“Meaning someone who can handle something of this magnitude.” I was no detective, which I knew had been a part of her former life, but it was easy to see whoever was responsible was calculated. They hadn’t anticipated being interrupted though.

“I have no clue who you are, Shephard, and I don’t have time to question. What I do know is that you’re here out of… necessity and I don’t need to be questioned on how to do my job.” She slowly turned the poor asshole’s head. We both noticed his neck had been slashed, but the cut wasn’t deep enough to cause his death.

Neither was the beating.

She pulled her phone from the twigs, which meant she’d already taken some photographs, standing and taking more from different angles.

“I’d check for poison,” I told her. I was certain she was going to issue a barrage of nasty words, but she nodded. “A slow acting paralyzer maybe. Look at the rigidity of his body.”

The fact she was saying anything to me meant she knew she was in over her head. And I had to ask myself what the fuck I was doing. Getting involved was the last thing on my agenda.

“Possibly.” I’d seen a similar drug in action, several varieties capable of providing a slow enough release the victim was forced to endure torture without being able to fight back.

“Now, I need to mark off the location of the body. I can’t wait here because I have you with me and the lost tourist from the party. But I need you to stay out of the kill zone.”

“He wasn’t killed here. You know it. I know it. He was dragged through the woods. The blood we found was his. If I had to guess, I’d say he was dragged for at least a few hundred yards. Likely coming from the west even before that given the angle of the foliage. Is there a road located nearby?”

She glared at me, but finally nodded. “Yes. That’s what the killer is using. Coming far enough to find adumpingground.” Her over-exaggeration of the single word was meant to irritate me.

It took more than that.

I ignored her at this point, finding another trail of blood. As I swung the light from one side to the other, an object stuck on a tree caught my eye. The piece of clothing wasn’t unusual and given the victim was naked, it could be his. But why undress him here? I bent down, examining the area immediately underneath. A cigarette butt. It might mean nothing. This could be a resting ground for a hiker.

But it was worth pointing out to the brilliant park ranger.

As I headed back, I turned the flashlight to the area that could lead to the road. The moment I did so, the light caught something metal. More like something steel.

Pepper noticed a split second before I did, this time determined to protect her mistress. She bolted.

“No. No! Pepper.”

Denise hadn’t seen what I had and was headed straight for danger.

I’d originally wanted to tackle the man with the assault rifle, putting a bullet between his eyes and I could still do that. That would risk hers. He was aiming right for her. It was obvious we’d interrupted the motherfucker.

She was running.

I was running.

The assailant was holding his rifle higher. I had one split second to decide my course of actions. I was forced to lunge through the air, tackling him to the ground.

Pepper was there seconds later, growling and barking as her training had provided. We wrestled until I managed to grab the weapon, yanking and tossing it. I’d dropped the flashlight and as we rolled and pitched, I noticed he was reaching for another weapon.

A knife.

The sharp hiss indicated we were no longer alone, Denise getting closer to the fight.

“Get out of here,” I yelled.

“Not leaving you. Get off. I got this.”

Like fucking hell she did.

The man grunted, the blade now turned in my direction.