Free Bounty (Walk the Right Road) by Lorhainne Eckhart Page A

surprise there. All she’d learned so far this morning was that the girl wasn’t from around here and no missing children had been reported. That was it.
    “Diane.” Green strutted across the small, cramped office at the back of the Sequim precinct. She still couldn’t believe he’d passed the lieutenants’ exam and then weaseled his way into being her boss, pulling her off OPNET to run this case. She wondered if he was drinking buddies with the chief. Diane ignored him, stifling the urge to give him the finger.
    “Heard Sam tagged along with you to the morgue yesterday. Any chance he’s considering coming back?”
    “Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Diane started typing on her keyboard, hoping he would get the message and leave.
    “Really?” he said before turning to the entrance. “Hey, Sam, good to see you. Was just asking Diane here if she’d managed to get you to come back.”
    Diane’s fingers froze over the keys, and she glanced up at Sam, who was dressed in blue jeans and a clean dress shirt. He slid off his shades and popped them in his pocket, shaking hands with Green, the ass-kisser.
    “Sam, what are you doing here?” Diane leaned back in her chair. The hinges squeaked.
    “Was talking to Green here about coming back and helping you with the case.” Sam smiled in his soft, charming way, something he never did with her.
    Diane jutted her jaw out. She had a few choice words for Sam, showing up here like he was, talking to Green first before her—none of that was okay.
    “Yeah, it’s quite the case Diane caught. Don’t see much of that stuff around here,” Sam said to Green, talking around her, which wasn’t something she remembered him doing. Maybe she was just being prickly today.
    “Looks like she’s got lots of help. Popular girl, Diane is,” Green said.
    Diane fired a look at Sam that had his smile disappearing. He raised an eyebrow, annoyed, as he stared back at her.
    “Diane, you didn’t tell your old partner here how you got that new coroner helping you? He even drove her in to work,” Green said, standing over Diane.
    She pushed back her chair and stood in front of Green, ready to jab him in the chest, because he was doing his damnedest to make her look like a little girl. “You’re such a prick,” she said. “At least I’m not sitting around with my thumb shoved up my ass, yanking officers off the OPNET team because I haven’t got the balls to step in and solve this murder myself. Goes to show how small your brain…”
    “Diane,” Zac said in a calm, low voice as he strutted in, hands shoved in his leather jacket pockets. He took in Sam and Green with a casual glance.
    She could feel the heat emanating from Sam. With the way he was watching her and taking in Zac, maybe he was annoyed, but it was a look that had her feeling as if she were cheating on him. It was a stupid response, she tried to tell her head, she really did, but that was how he was making her feel. The silence was painful. Three guys, one a prick, and Diane stood staring as if trying to figure out what to say.
    Diane didn’t know where to look, so she sat down and ignored them, all of them. “I have work to do, if you’re all done,” she said, tapping her keyboard, checking emails. “I’ve sent the girl’s photo out to every two-bit sheriff in three states, every law enforcement agency, and the national database for missing kids. I’ve heard nothing back. Zac, you ran prints, dental records?”
    “Nothing. She doesn’t exist anywhere. By the look of her teeth, she’s probably never been to a dentist. No fillings, no dental work,” replied Zac rather calmly.
    Diane glanced up and noticed Sam giving him an odd look. Okay, so he didn’t like Zac; she had picked up on that yesterday. “Zac, apparently Sam here has decided to join us, according to Green, in solving this murder,” she said.
    Sam was frowning at her with narrowed eyes when she glanced up. His cheek was twitching,