Cavanaugh's Missing Person

Kenzie looked at the ME sharply. “Detective Brannigan?” she echoed in surprise.

“That would be me,” Hunter said, raising his hand as he walked back into the room.

She whirled around to look at the man who had managed to rub her the wrong way more times than she could possibly begin to remember.

“Why were you asking questions about John Kurtz?” she asked.

“I wasn’t,” he told her. “I was asking questions about the person whose body parts were spread out on the doc’s table.”

“John Kurtz,” she repeated, as if to drill the name into his head.

“So it would seem, but I didn’t know that at the time,” Hunter pointed out.

Brannigan was just trying to confuse her, something he had always taken far too much enjoyment in doing, Kenzie thought. She deliberately turned her back on him as she addressed the medical examiner.

“You were about to tell me about John Kurtz’s time of death, Doctor,” she prodded.

“As I told Detective Brannigan here, I still have to run more tests,” the doctor said, focusing on what he had on his table, “but my best guess is that your Mr. Kurtz has been dead for a week.”

“Where was he found?” she asked. “Who brought him in?”

The interest in her voice was obvious. It in turn piqued Hunter’s. He circled around Kenzie until he was facing her.

“Do you know him?” he asked.

“I know his daughter. She came in this morning to file a missing person report on him,” Kenzie answered stiffly, addressing her words to the doctor, not Hunter. She deliberately avoided making eye contact with the detective. “Who found him?” she asked again.

The medical examiner told them what he knew. “From what I gather, he—or at least the parts that you see here—was in a shallow grave that yesterday’s downpour washed up. A couple of kids playing in the mud made the discovery. Their rather hysterical mother called the police. The rest you know,” the doctor concluded.

“Where was this?” Kenzie asked.

“Along the border of Aurora Park,” the medical examiner answered.

“I’m taking a cadaver dog with me to the scene where the body parts were found,” Hunter told her, speaking up. “Care to come with me?”

This time she did look at him.

The first time she had ever heard of Hunter Brannigan, two of her brothers, Murdoch and Finn, were talking about how Brannigan had a different woman on his arm every time he went out. To hear them say it, Hunter ran on batteries and Southern Comfort, although, amazingly enough, he was also considered a damn good detective who had risen rather quickly through the ranks on his own merit. He was assigned to the Cold Case Division because the thinking was, if anyone could clear the old cases, Brannigan could.

Maybe, in another lifetime, they could have even been friends, despite his confident swagger. But she had terminated a rather painful engagement a little over two years ago, the details of which she had kept to herself. Her fiancé, Billy Gibson, had been a tomcat who’d had a weakness for prowling around despite all his promises to reform and be faithful. After his third transgression, she’d given him his walking papers. She hadn’t said anything to anyone because if her brothers had caught wind of why she’d broken the engagement off, they would have skinned Billy and proceeded to hang him from the highest flagpole.

Since then, Kenzie had been very leery of silver-tongued handsome men. That description fit Hunter Brannigan to a T.

“What interest do you have in John Kurtz?” Kenzie asked.

Hunter’s shimmering green eyes skimmed over her from top to bottom before he answered. “I don’t.”

He could make her lose her patience faster than any human being she had ever encountered, and that included Billy. Kenzie struggled now to hold on to her temper as she asked, “Then why would you be going to the scene where he was found?”

He slowly smiled at Kenzie, knowing that it annoyed her. He couldn’t explain why, but he really liked getting under her skin. “Let’s just say I have a real interest in the person who did this to him.”

“Why?” Kenzie demanded.

Hunter saw no reason to keep this a secret. Teasing Kenzie took a back seat to possibly solving a case—or at least getting one step closer to solving it.

“Because I think that my cold case might have been this guy’s first murder,” he told her.

“Why?” she repeated.

It was obvious to him that because of their past history, she was going to take some convincing. He had no problem with that.

“Because my cold case is missing his head and hands, too,” he told her. “Now, you’re welcome to come along, or you can stay here and I’ll let you know what I find—if I remember.”

He saw her eyes flash—just as he had expected them to. “This is my case, Brannigan,” she insisted.

“That’s not how I see it,” Hunter replied mildly.

“Now, now, children, play nice,” the medical examiner said. “I’ve got a feeling that there’s plenty enough here for both of you to share.”

Kenzie didn’t want to admit it—since Hunter was involved—but in all likelihood, the ME was right. But even so, she had no desire to team up with Hunter.

“I can take the dog,” she told Hunter.

The same infuriating smile was back on Hunter’s face. He dug in. “That’s not happening.”

She wasn’t about to have this devolve into a shouting match—and she had no intentions of letting Brannigan go without her.

Kenzie frowned. “I have to let my partner know where I’m going.”

“Go ahead and do that,” Hunter told her. “I’ve got to go to the K-9 unit and secure a dog.”

“They’re not going to just give you a dog,” she informed Hunter. “If nothing else, his handler has to come with the dog.”

“Even better,” Hunter commented. While he liked dogs, his involvement with canines ended with throwing a stick and having the dog chase it. Having someone along who knew what they were doing with canines was all good as far as he was concerned. “We’ll meet you out back once I make arrangements with the K-9 unit.”

A red flag went up in her head. Kenzie didn’t trust Brannigan to wait for her.

“I’ve got a better idea,” she told Hunter. “Why don’t you come with me up to Missing Persons so I can tell Choi where I’ll be and then I’ll come with you to the K-9 unit.”

She couldn’t tell what he was thinking until his eyes washed over her again. “This isn’t first grade, Cavanaugh. We really don’t need to pair up to walk through the halls,” he told her. “Although, I have to say that it does sound like it has potential.”

“Listen to her, Brannigan,” the ME advised. “She’s a Cavanaugh. They tend to get things done.”

“So do I, Doc,” Hunter answered. “But in the spirit of détente, I’ll bow to your wisdom,” he said, inclining his head.

Kenzie left the morgue quickly. But although she moved fast, Hunter kept up with her pace as if it took no effort on his part at all.

They reached the elevator together. She had no intention of saying anything to Hunter, but the silence within the car once they got on became almost unnervingly deafening. She could all but feel his eyes on her, taking inventory. And when she turned to look at the man she’d heard some of her friends refer to as a dark blond Adonis, she saw that he was smiling at her.

A rather wide smile.

“Why are you grinning, Brannigan?” she demanded.

His shrug was careless and utterly infuriating. “I guess I’m just a happy person.”

“Well, stop it,” she ordered. “You might enjoy looking like a happy idiot, but I have to tell someone I know that her father’s not coming home tonight.” She set her mouth grimly. “Or ever.”

“You want help with that?” he offered.

If she didn’t know him, she would have said that his offer sounded genuine. But she did know Brannigan and she was convinced that he didn’t possess a genuine bone in his body. “I don’t need you to hit on her,” Kenzie informed him.

“I wasn’t planning to. Whatever else you might think of me, I am good at my job. Breaking bad news is never easy and I was just offering to help since you said you knew the victim’s daughter. It might be easier on everyone all around if I handle this.”

She resented his intrusion. Resented everything that Brannigan represented. “I don’t need you to handle anything for me,” she informed him heatedly.

He raised his hands in the universal sign of surrender. “Point taken, Kenzie.”

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped as they got off the elevator.

“What would you like me to call you?” he asked. “Your Majesty’s a little formal, but I’m game if that’s what you want.”

Her eyes narrowed into blue slits of lightning. “Cavanaugh,” she said. “Just call me by my last name, the way you would anyone else you work with.”

“But you’re not anyone else, are you?” He all but purred the question. Before she could work up a full head of steam by telling him what he could do with that obvious line of his, Hunter interjected, “You’re Finn and Murdoch’s sister and they’re my friends.”

Kenzie rolled her eyes. “Please, don’t remind me.” How her normally intelligent brothers could be friends with this egotist was beyond her. “C’mon,” she urged. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Good detective work should never be rushed,” he chided, knowing that saying that would just irritate her further. He couldn’t really explain why, but he liked irritating Kenzie. Liked getting a reaction—any sort of reaction—out of her. Liked seeing the way her eyes blazed as she all but breathed fire.

When she walked ahead of him this time, he let her. She needed to work off her anger, he thought.

* * *

“I found our missing person,” Kenzie told her partner when she walked back into the division’s squad room.

Kyle Choi looked at her, a trace of bewilderment in his face.

“So soon? Where was the guy, hiding in a cabin, somewhere away from his daughter?” he asked with a chuckle.

“No, not exactly,” Kenzie told him with a heavy voice. “John Kurtz is a homicide victim.”

“Oh, damn,” Kyle said with genuine regret. The detective glanced at Hunter, his bewilderment returning. “What’s he doing here?” Choi asked. He addressed his question to Brannigan. “Thinking of switching departments?”

“It’s a long story,” Kenzie answered before Hunter could say anything to the other detective in response. She saw Hunter opening his mouth and spoke quickly. “But the short version is—no, he’s not looking to switch departments. And even if he were, he certainly wouldn’t be switching into ours,” she concluded. There was no room for argument in her voice.

Rather than become annoyed, Hunter grinned—which in turn irritated Kenzie more.

“To hear you talk, someone would get the impression you don’t like me, Kenzie,” Hunter commented in an easygoing tone.

“And they’d be right,” she retorted. Her eyes narrowed as she shot a look in his direction. “I told you not to call me that.”

“It’s your name, isn’t it?” Hunter asked her innocently.

She decided that it would be better just to ignore him than to get into a verbal duel. So she spoke to Choi, telling her partner, “Parts of John Kurtz’s body were found thanks to yesterday’s monsoon and Brannigan—” she clenched her teeth “—is going to take me there.”

Choi looked at Hunter quizzically and the latter lifted his broad shoulders in a shrug. “Not my idea of a romantic spot, but hey, different strokes for different folks, right?”

Kenzie saw her partner opening his mouth and quickly intervened. “Pay no attention to him, Kyle. It’ll only encourage him to babble. We’re going to see if we can find the rest of Mr. Kurtz in the general vicinity. I don’t want to tell Connie about her father until we at least try to find the rest of him. Telling her that his head and hands were the only things that were found is just too gruesome for words,” she told Choi. “I don’t want her left with that memory.”

Her partner nodded. As it was, he looked as if he was close to parting company with his breakfast burrito right about now.

“I’ve got plenty to keep me busy here,” Choi told her.

Hunter looked over his shoulder at Kenzie’s mild-mannered partner just before he followed her out of the squad room. “Wish me luck,” he said to the detective.

He heard Choi laugh in response.

* * *

Kenzie glanced at Hunter disdainfully. “You do know where we’re going once you get the dog and his handler, right?”

He knew she was trying to goad him into losing his temper, but he was having far too much fun for that. “I make it a point of always knowing where I’m going, Kenzie—sorry, Cavanaugh,” he amended before she could say anything. “But in this case, I have the ME’s report detailing where the body parts were uncovered. I am, however, open to suggestions if you have a different destination in mind,” he told her cheerfully.

She blew out an annoyed breath. “Are you always on?” she asked.

The corners of his mouth curved until the smile on his face was a full thousand watts. “I do my best, Detective Cavanaugh.”

Why did every word out of his mouth annoy her so much? “Trust me, your best isn’t nearly good enough so fold up your little tent and just disappear into the night if you’re going to continue with this juvenile act of yours.”

He put his hand over his heart. “Why, Kenzie, I’m deeply wounded.”

Once again, her eyes darkened until they looked positively stormy, glaring at him. “Brannigan, you don’t know the meaning of the word wounded—but I can change that.”

“Sorry, Cavanaugh, but someone already beat you to it,” he told her and for just a second, she believed him. But then, she thought, that was just what he wanted. “I can show you the scars if you’re interested.”

“No, thanks,” she told Hunter. “I’ll pass.”

They were outside now, heading for the kennels where the canines that were on duty were kept. “They’re really phenomenal scars,” he told her. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“I know exactly what I’m missing—peace and quiet,” she retorted, then regrouped. There was no point in talking to this man. It just somehow fed his ego. “Let’s just do this and be done with it.”

He nodded. “Sounds good—your place or mine?” he asked with what was probably the most wickedly sexy look she had ever seen in her life. Kenzie could almost see what women saw in this man—if he wasn’t so transparent to her.

“You’re never going to get that lucky, Brannigan,” she informed him.

He grinned again. “Ah, a man’s grasp should extend his reach, or what’s a heaven for?”

She was not impressed. “Let me guess, you minored in English lit.”

“No,” Hunter told her. “But I once dated a girl who did.”

“I’m sure you did.” She wasn’t in the mood to hear him spout off the list of women who had paraded through his life. “Put a lid on it, Brannigan. The less you talk, the less I’ll be tempted to shoot you.”

He laughed at that, tickled. “I bet you say that to all the guys.”

“No,” she responded, “only you.”

If she meant to shut him down, she failed. That same wicked grin was back on his lips.

“I like being the first,” he told her.

Kenzie decided that her best bet was to refrain from answering him when he talked.

With a toss of her head, she marched the rest of the way to the K-9 department, which was adjacent to the Animal Control Division.

A cacophony of animal sounds was heard as they passed by. Kenzie disregarded the noise in the same way she disregarded Brannigan.

She looked around to see if her cousin-in-law was anywhere around, but it looked like Brady wasn’t there at the moment.

Officer Jake O’Reilly, a longtime veteran of the unit, came up behind them and asked, “Is there anything I can help you with, Detectives?”

“As a matter of fact, there is,” Kenzie said, taking the lead. “We need a cadaver dog. A head and a pair of hands were found in the field around Aurora Park after yesterday’s rain. We think there might be more buried in or around the area. We need help finding them.”

“Got the dog for the job right here,” O’Reilly said. “Come here, Jupiter. These nice detectives need your help.” He opened the kennel door and a large German shepherd came bounding out.

Jupiter barked in response as if he understood what was expected of him. He excitedly shifted from paw to paw.

Chapter 4

They took Kenzie’s vehicle to the area at the edge of Aurora Park where John Kurtz’s head and hands had been found.

On the rather short trip over, O’Reilly sat in the back of the vehicle with his K-9 partner, Jupiter. The animal remained still until just before they arrived at their destination. Then he began moving about in the back seat.

Kenzie could feel herself growing tense with every passing minute, not because Hunter was sitting in the front passenger seat next to her, but because she had the very uneasy feeling that the detective could very well be right. If he was, that meant that they had a serial killer on their hands, and that was the last thing that any of them really wanted.

Except maybe for Hunter, she silently amended, slanting a look in his direction as she parked her car in the designated spot for park visitors. Finding out that this was the work of a serial killer could wind up being quite a feather in his cap, given that cold cases were called that for a reason.

One really didn’t expect them to ever get warm.

“Is this the area where the body parts were first found?” O’Reilly asked Hunter as he got out of the vehicle.

Hunter glanced into the back seat that O’Reilly had just vacated. Jupiter, still in the car, was moving from side to side, growing progressively more eager to be set free.

“Judging by the way your dog is acting, I’d say that’s a firm yes,” Hunter answered.

“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this,” Kenzie said to the two men with her. “Or a good feeling,” she added, glancing at Hunter, “depending on which point of view you take.”

“Stay, Jupiter,” O’Reilly ordered as he opened the rear door closest to him.

It was obvious that the shepherd wanted to leap out, but he remained where he was as his trainer reached in to get his leash and firmly wrapped it around his hand.

“Neat trick,” Hunter commented to the handler. “Think you could teach it to me sometime?”

“Why?” Kenzie asked, looking at Hunter. “Are you having trouble keeping your girlfriends from bolting out of the car on you?”

Hunter grinned at her, amused rather than annoyed. “That’s not the problem at all,” he replied.

A sharp comeback rose to Kenzie’s lips, but she bit it back. She’d started this round and if it played itself out, they’d wind up losing sight of why they were here to begin with. She couldn’t afford to squabble with Hunter, at least not until she knew what they were up against.

“Truce,” she declared grudgingly, looking in Hunter’s direction.

“Fine by me,” Hunter answered. He glanced toward the German shepherd straining at his leash. “O’Reilly, your dog looks really eager to show us his stuff. Why don’t you let him?”

Jupiter was out of the vehicle now, all but dancing from side to side. It was easy to see that he was champing at the bit to get going.

O’Reilly, by no means a small man, looked as if he was having trouble holding on to the German shepherd. “I don’t think I have much choice in the matter.”

The words were no sooner out of O’Reilly’s mouth than he slackened his hold on the leash. Jupiter suddenly began to tear through the area, all but dragging his handler in his wake.

“I guess that’s our cue to get going,” Hunter commented.

Because the rain had really come down heavily here, drenching the area, the ground was still very wet in a lot of spots. The resulting mud made the terrain extremely slippery.

Following Jupiter and O’Reilly wasn’t nearly as easy as Kenzie had initially thought, no matter how carefully she tried. Trying to keep up, Kenzie slid twice. Both times she managed to catch herself at the last moment. The only thing that comforted her was that she saw Hunter having trouble keeping upright, as well.

But just as she was silently reveling in his narrowly avoiding making contact with the oozing mud beneath him, she suddenly felt her feet sliding out from under her. In a heartbeat, she braced herself for an undignified pratfall.

At the last possible moment, Kenzie felt a strong hand grip her arm, righting her and preventing her from making a face-plant in the mud.

The air whooshed out of her as first shock, and then an instant later relief, vibrated through her.

Her heart hammering wildly in her chest, she looked to her right, hoping against hope that O’Reilly had made a quick U-turn and was the one responsible for her last-moment save.

But it wasn’t O’Reilly. It was Brannigan who was holding on to her arm.

Brannigan had been the one to save her face and her pride.

“Thanks.” Kenzie uttered the word as if each letter cost her dearly.

Hunter smiled and graciously inclined his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard gratitude so grudgingly dispensed,” he told her.

She glanced at her arm. His hand was still wrapped around it. “You can let go of my arm now,” she informed him icily.

“Are you sure?” he asked dubiously. “It’s still pretty slippery here.”

He was up to something, Kenzie thought. She just didn’t trust this Boy Scout routine of his.

“I’m sure,” she answered. She scowled when he went on holding her arm. “You’re cutting off my circulation,” she told him.

His smile widened. “From what I hear, according to your brothers I’m not the one cutting it off.”

Kenzie shook off his hold. Striding after O’Reilly and Jupiter, she struggled to hold on to her temper. She did owe Hunter, aware that he could have very easily just let her fall. She still didn’t understand why he didn’t, but even so, that put her, at least temporarily, in his debt.

And she didn’t like it.

“Can we please just stick to business?” Kenzie requested.

“Speaking of which,” Hunter said, glancing over toward Jupiter. The dog had abruptly stopped in his tracks and was now suddenly digging eagerly. “I think we just might be in business now.”

Hunter carefully made his way over toward the German shepherd as the dog furiously burrowed through the mud, oblivious to the fact that he was growing incredibly dirty as he dug.

“Looks like Jupiter found the rest of that body you were looking for,” O’Reilly commented.

“Not quite,” Kenzie said, squatting down to get a closer look at what the dog was digging up. She turned her head as more mud went flying at all of them. “O’Reilly, get him to stop for a minute,” she requested.

“Jupiter, stay!” O’Reilly ordered gruffly.

Getting in closer again, Kenzie frowned. And then she turned her head slightly as she looked back at Hunter. He was a few inches away from her. “You don’t need to breathe down my neck, Brannigan.”

“I know. I thought that was a bonus,” he told her innocently. Then, before she could speak up, Hunter said what they were both thinking. “That torso has been in the ground too long to belong to John Kurtz.”

She frowned, hating the fact that she agreed with Brannigan’s assessment. “And I’m thinking that it’s also not decomposed enough to belong to your cold case,” Kenzie added.

“This makes three,” Hunter said quietly, as if saying the words too loudly would somehow make everything fall apart. “It’s official,” he told Kenzie and the officer. “Looks like we have ourselves a serial killer.”

Kenzie felt her heart sink. Whether it was because she agreed with him, or because he was the one who put it into words first, she didn’t know. Either way, she had her cell phone out. She hit a number on her speed dial.

“Who are you calling?” Hunter asked.