Free Before The Night Is Over by Sandy Sullivan Page A

of some compost.
    “ Move back over here, Kimberly,” she snapped in a non-nonsense tone while she reached into her pocket for her cell phone.
    Within moments, blaring of sirens sounded in the distance. Cops came from everywhere. She hadn’t realized there were so many police on the force in the small town of Red Rock, especially on day shift, when probably ten cops arrived on the scene.
    The chief of police arrived first. His large, burly body unfolded from the front seat of his cruiser and Laurel winced. Great. Just the person I need to see today.
    “ Officer Hayes. What have we got?”
    “ My daughter and I were walking along the path, sir, when I noticed her looking at something off the side. No one has touched anything, but there appears to be a body under the compost to the right side. I saw the bottom of the shoe first and up to the knee of one leg.”
    The man’s black eyes pinned her for a moment while he seemed to contemplate something. “Didn’t you work homicide in Los Angeles?”
    Laurel shivered with excitement at the question . Maybe this might work into me being able to use my skills after all. “Yes, sir.”
    “ Do you have someone who can watch your daughter while you dig into this? I'm not sure you heard, Officer Hayes, but we got a report of another body yesterday, outside of town on one of the large ranches. I'm hoping this isn't a serial killer type situation. This could get mighty ugly if we don't get to the bottom of this quickly.”
    Damn.
    "No sir. I hadn't heard about that." She chewed her bottom lip for a moment. “My neighbor usually watches her for me, but she’s at an appointment.”
    “ If you can’t, I’ll assign it to someone else.” He turned to head back to his car.
    “ Wait! Sir, please. Let me see what I can do. Give me twenty minutes while the guys section this off with tape and see if there are any witnesses around. All right?”
    “ Twenty minutes,” the chief replied, his voice gruff and to the point.
    Who can I get to watch Kimmy? I don’t know anyone except Teresa and Elizabeth, but I can’t trust my sister if her husband is around.
    Laurel reached for her cell and dialed her sister’s number. Jeff answered and she hung up before saying a word.
    Think, Laurel.
    She paced back and forth near the cruiser sitting in the parking lot. One of the officers had put Kimmy in the back and gave her a cookie from his lunch.
    “ You okay, Laurel?” Jim asked.
    “ Yeah, Jim. Thanks for asking.” She tapped her finger absently on the cell phone while she tried to think of someone to watch her daughter.
    Moments later, her cell phone vibrated in her hand. Glancing at the numbers, she wondered who it could be since not too many people had her number and this one looked local.
    “ Hello?”
    “ Laurel?”
    “ Yes, who’s this?”
    “ It’s Kale.”
    I gave him my home number, not my cell.
    “ How did you get this number?”
    “ You have it on your answering machine at home and you gave me that number last night, remember?”
    Crap. I forgot about putting it on the answering machine. “Um, yeah. What can I do for you?”
    “ I want to talk about what happened this morning. Can I buy you dinner?”
    The ability to talk disappeared while she chewed her lips and contemplated seeing him again. He wanted to know more about her and her life. The thought terrified her and she wasn’t ready to give into the temptation of Kale Dunn for anything other than sex—not yet.
    Hesitation and avoidance had to be clear in her voice when she said, “Um, I can’t tonight. I’m working.”
    “ I thought you told me you were off tonight?”
    “ I was, but something has come up and the department needs me. I’m in the middle of trying to figure out where I can find someone to watch my daughter for me.” Back and forth she walked, not paying attention to the hurry of feet or the blare of police radios. “I’m sorry, Kale. I really can’t talk now.”
    “ I’ll do it.”
    “