Merciless

I kept right on driving.

The shades were drawn at Sophie’s house. There weren’t a bunch of cars on the street. Was no one here supporting them? After all Sophie had done for her grandkids?

John-John wouldn’t let me past the front door. “She doesn’t want visitors, Mercy.”

“But I’m…” Family.

Wasn’t I? Sophie had been an enormous part of my life, seen me through some bad times, and I wanted to return the favor.

The raw anger on John-John’s face indicated I’d be wasting my breath, trying to convince him to let me in.

“Fine, I’ll go. But you’d better tell her I was here.”

He looked off into the distance, his jaw set so rigidly the tendons in his neck stood out. Then he nodded and closed the door in my face.

• • •

On my way to work Tuesday morning I’d just turned off the gravel onto the blacktop when I saw Shay standing beside his vehicle, parked on the shoulder.

What the hell? I threw my truck in park and jumped from the cab, clenching my teeth against the wind slicing through my clothing. “You have an aversion to my ranch? It’s just three miles up the road.”

Shay wore dark sunglasses. “Couldn’t chance slurping coffee with the people in your household, Mercy.”

People, meaning Dawson. “This couldn’t wait until I got to the office?”

“We’re not going to the office.” He shifted his stance against his car, which was one of Shay’s few tells.

Bad news. My stomach dropped to the tips of my boots. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“Another body. This one ID’d by Officer Spotted Bear as Penny Pretty Horses.”

Blood whooshed in my ears. “What? When?”

“An hour ago.”

“Does Sophie know? John-John? Devlin?”

“Not that I’m aware.”

I blinked at him. Cocked my head as if I’d misunderstood. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. And since, for all intents and purposes, you’re related to members of the Pretty Horses and Red Leaf families, you’ll have to ride with me to the scene and refrain from using your cell phone.”

That chapped my ass. “You think I’m gonna… Why would I want to call Sophie and give her this shitty news?” This would destroy her.

His agitation was laced with sadness. “Just get in, okay?”

I fished my cell phone out of my front pocket, shut it off, and tossed it to him. “You know it’s the only cell I’ve got. Keep it to assure yourself that I’m not making any unauthorized calls. But no way in hell am I riding with you, Agent Turnbull. I need some time to get my head on straight.”

Shay couldn’t argue with that logic. He climbed into his vehicle and pulled a U-turn, I followed him.

Penny Pretty Horses. Dead.

Then it occurred to me that Turnbull hadn’t said anything about it being a murder. Only that they’d found a body. So maybe Penny, in her drugged-up state from cancer medication, had wandered off. Or maybe she’d gotten tired of the pain and the looming death and had decided to take matters into her own hands. End her life where and how she wanted.

That fit with the arguments Sophie had been having with Penny about treatment-or the lack thereof.

Still. It made me sick. Poor Sophie. Poor John-John.

I hoped I wouldn’t be tasked with telling them the news.

Frosted bits of white swirled in the air as the sky tried hard to snow. The wind picked up, and I had to hold tight to the steering wheel to keep from blowing across the damn road.

I hated days like this. Gloomy, with just enough water in the air to turn the normally dry air humid, but without enough precipitation to make snow.

Tumbleweeds the size of compact cars drifted and bounced across the highway. The yellow metal sign warning of slippery road conditions twisted in the wind like a piece of cheap cardboard.

Mentally bitching about the weather kept my mind off what I’d be facing. Turnbull’s vehicle hung a right at the last residential street on the rez. There’d be no jurisdictional issues this time. Several emergency vehicles already lined the street.

Turnbull waited, and I noticed he’d added a heavy jacket over his clothing, the back emblazoned with FBI in enormous white letters. Before I had an attack of jacket envy, he handed me an identical coat.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. I hope to hell we aren’t out here long. I’d really like to get the body down soon.”

I looked at him. “Down?”

“The scene is behind the house. Mostly hidden from the street.”

I rounded the corner and stopped in my tracks.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Counted to ten and reopened them.

But the same grisly sight greeted me.

Penny. Naked. Hanging upside down from a tree branch. A meat hook jammed through both her Achilles tendons and chains secured around her ankles.

Just like an animal kill.

Dried blood trailed down the backs of her calves and thighs.

I forced my eyes to travel the length of her naked torso. Her arms hung down like misshapen animal limbs. Her wrists had been slit, and blood pooled in the dirt beneath her in irregular splotches. As if the wind had blown her around as she’d bled to death. Or like she’d been moving, trying to get away, trying to stop her lifeblood from slowly dripping out.