The Last Dig - Constance Bretes #MFRWauthor #Romance #Contemporary

 Scene from The Last Dig:

Rand hurried over to where she and her students stood at dig site one.
“Where’s the body?” he asked.
“Over there.” Eddie pointed to the body.
Rand walked over to the dead man and peered down at him. “Tape off about one hundred feet all the way around the body,” he instructed his deputy. Then he came back to where Caroline and her team were standing.
“Who discovered the body?” He had that no-fooling-around, all-business aura about him.
“I did,” Eddie answered.
“Did you touch it?”
“No.” Eddie stood next to the sheriff and looked up at him. Caroline thought he looked like he was intimidated by Rand’s height and size.
“You won’t be able to continue your dig until after the CSI is done. I’ll have to rope off the whole area,” Rand stated in his hard-as-nails tone.
“Why?” Caroline asked. She didn’t know what she like least, being told she couldn’t dig there, or Rand treating her like he didn’t know her. “One dig is over here, at least two hundred feet from the body. Surely that dig site doesn’t have anything to do with the body,” Caroline protested.
“Standard procedure. We need to rope off this whole area. We don’t know what we will find in the way of evidence, even in your dig site.”
“What do you mean evidence? I didn’t see anything that indicated foul play. I suspect he was hiking and died of natural causes.” Caroline looked up at Rand’s tan face.
“You’re treating this as a crime scene?” Ryan came up and stood next to Caroline.
“Yes, I’m treating this as a crime scene, and until I get all the facts and all the evidence gathered, everyone here is a suspect.”
“What? You’ve got to be kidding me. I called it in, for crying out loud!” Caroline’s temper started to show.
“Doesn’t matter.” His flat reply grated on her nerves.
“Well how long will this take?” Caroline asked, trying to calm herself down. A few hours wouldn’t be too bad she guessed.
“Hard to say. The CSI will be here in about a half hour and will be searching the whole area for evidence. It could be a couple of days, or it could be longer.”
“A couple of days?” Caroline asked with her voice raised. “We can’t wait that long. Summers are short here in Montana and we need to be able to take advantage of every good day we have. Surely you can let us continue our dig at the second site. We won’t be anywhere near where the body was found.” Caroline felt her temper rising again.
“Let’s just wait and see how the investigation goes, Caroline,” Rand snapped, his voice on the edge of impatience.
So he does recognize me. “Don’t patronize me. It’s important that we get the bones to the lab as soon as possible. When these bones get exposed to elements outside the dirt they are encased in, they start deteriorating.”
“I’m sorry, Caroline, but I have to do it this way,” Rand said, taking off his sunglasses to stare back at her.
“Rand, I don’t want the CSI to mess around in the dirt immediately surrounding the bones we have partially dug up.” Caroline stared back at him and continued to argue the point.
“Caroline,” he retorted. “We have to conduct a full investigation here, and if the CSI finds anything at all that would or could be related to the victim, we’ve got to take it in and analyze it.” Rand looked over to the rest of the group. “Now, has everyone seen the body? Does anyone recognize him?”
No one seemed to recognize the body except Caroline. She was trying to think where she may have seen the victim before. Something told her she knew him from somewhere, she just couldn’t think of where that might be. Caroline stood aside quietly, lost in her thoughts. Glancing up, she saw that Rand was staring at her.
He looked away and told his deputy, “Tape off about another hundred feet all the way around the body.”

Buy Links:
Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Last-Dig-Constance-Bretes-ebook/dp/B00KZNLGKU/
Barnes and Nobel:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-last-dig-constance-bretes/1119735520?ean=2940149774692
Beachwalk Press at http://www.beachwalkpress.com/the-last-dig

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