Chapter 6 Going for Blood

One week later

Gil pulled into the medical center parking lot, anxious to find out what was going on with Bliss. She’d texted him a few minutes ago.

Please stop by my office as soon as you can.

Though her message held a note of urgency, she’d given him no clue what the problem was. He could only hope his niece wasn’t causing any trouble. The best he could tell, Bliss’s method of handling his niece’s beef against him had been to encourage the kid to park her issues at the door. All of them. Every time he popped in on them, Ava was hard at work on actual, well, work.

Bliss’s office door was closed when he reached it. That was unusual. She usually left it open. A quick rattle of the door handle proved it was locked. His curiosity escalated as he lifted a hand to give three sharp knocks.

To his astonishment, a slip of paper slid out from beneath the door and landed at his feet. It held a hastily scrawled message that he was pretty sure was in Bliss’s handwriting.

Text me one word — what we shared my first evening at your lake cottage.

He frowned, wondering why she was making a game out of his visit to her office, but he’d bite. He mulled over the list of possible words she was looking for: dinner, dessert, conversation, or maybe even the bracelet he’d insisted that she keep. A bracelet that had ended up being a match to the ancient locket found near Iris Hawling’s mummified corpse.

After a brief inner debate, he texted the word cheesecake.

The door to Bliss’s office popped open. Bliss and Ava were standing on the other side wearing frightened expressions. Both of them were holding up messages written on sheets of white computer paper.

Ava’s message to him was troubling. Please don’t say anything. This room might be bugged.

Bliss’s was even more troubling. We’ve been robbed. Two bodies missing from the morgue. Not the Hawlings.

She flipped the paper over to reveal another handwritten message.

Please scan my office, lab, and the morgue for bugs. Don’t tell anyone what you’re doing. Then we’ll talk.

Gil could tell by her pale cheeks that this wasn’t a joke. For once, even Ava wasn’t looking at him like he was a carrier of the zombie virus. The pinched cast to her freckled cheeks told him she was genuinely frightened.

He gave the two women a thumbs up and approached Ava first. Leaning closer to her tall bean pole frame, he gave her a comforting hug while shoving his coffee cup in her hand. Since he hadn’t started drinking it, she was more than welcome to it.

To his enormous gratitude, she hugged him back, albeit a bit sheepishly. She hadn’t exactly been his biggest fan during her teen years. Then she bent her head gratefully over the coffee.

Gil turned his attention to Bliss next, removing the handheld bug sweeper he kept clipped to his belt when he was on duty. He made sure he was turned her way so she could see what he was doing.

Despite the gravity of the situation, her silvery blue gaze swept his tall frame the way a woman does when she’s interested. Then again, it might’ve only been wishful thinking on his part. Her dark eyelashes immediately fluttered downward, hiding her expression. The ensuing tinge of pink on her high cheekbones, however, was highly incriminating.

While his niece was busy slurping her coffee, he gave Bliss an admiring once-over in return, practically drooling over the sheath dress hugging her slender curves. The black-and-white houndstooth fabric and the red Roman style sandals she’d paired it with were a solid home run. Her white toenail polish brought to mind the icing on a cake. He honestly couldn’t fathom how she’d remained single for so long.

Darting a glance in Ava’s direction, Bliss stepped closer to him to fist a hand in his shirt. Tipping her face up to his, she beckoned for him to bend his head closer.

His heart thumped crazily from her nearness and flowery scent as he complied.

She hissed in his ear, “Like what you see, sheriff?”

As a matter of fact… He returned in a low voice, “How about I answer that over dinner tonight?”

Blushing harder, she stepped back and waved at him to begin scanning the room for bugs.

He caressed her with his gaze as he went to work. His search yielded a few false positives near her and Ava’s cell phones, but that was it. Her office and the morgue proved to be clear of all listening and recording devices.

“It’s clean.” Once he double checked a few spots, he felt safe saying the words aloud.

The three of them returned to Bliss’s office. She locked the door behind them. “Gil, I’m in a real quandary here.”

He folded his arms and leaned back against the door. “I’m listening.”

“I’m not at liberty to say who, because they made me promise not to tell, but I was approached by someone I know and trust with a second set of bodies. Mummified remains like the two I’ve been working on.”

Questions flooded him, but he started with the simplest one. “When did this happen?”

“About a week ago.”

He glanced at Ava to see her reaction to the news. His auburn-haired niece gave him a quick up-down nod. Apparently, she’d known about the encounter Bliss seemed reluctant to elaborate on.

“Is this some sort of side job you’ve been working?” he demanded.

“Oh, no! Nothing like that. They were ancient family members of the person who lent them to me. I was instructed to label them as Iris and Jesse Hawling and leave them in easy access drawers in the morgue, while I continued my efforts to extract DNA from the real Iris and Jessie Hawling.”

“Sounds like it was a solid plan.” He still didn’t like being left in the dark about the whole body swapping thing. What if it was some sort of setup? What if the person she was protecting had been part of it?

“It was. Right up to the point when two bodies went missing,” Bliss reminded with a wary glance toward the morgue.

He wagged a finger at her, frowning. “I take it the bodies you purposely mislabeled are the ones that went missing?”

“Correct.” She moved behind her desk to sink into her chair. “It’s as if the person who brought them here knew this was going to happen.” She looked agitated.

“You mean they knew the bodies were going to be stolen?” He didn’t believe in leaving important details on a case up to guessing games.

“I think he saw the potential, yes.” She pressed a hand to her forehead as if feeling feverish. “He said if anything happened to the mislabeled bodies that we should continue our work as if nothing had happened. Which we did.”

He? Jealousy spurted through his chest. “So, it’s a man you’ve been body swapping with?” He didn’t bother keeping the sarcasm out of his voice. “Is it someone you’re dating?”

“That’s not fair, Uncle Gil!” Ava took a step his way, scowling at him over the top of her coffee cup.

She was right. He inclined his head at her. “I stand corrected.”

Bliss waved a hand in agitation. “I’m not sure what you’re so worked up about, Gil. You’re the one I’m going to dinner with tonight.”

“You are?” He couldn’t help noticing the way his niece grew still. She was as surprised by Bliss’s announcement as he was.

Bliss shot a half-apologetic look in Ava’s direction. “You made it sound like that was the only way I would get an answer to the question I asked you earlier.” She flushed a gorgeous shade of pink as she met his gaze again. “May we please get back to figuring out what happened to the missing bodies?”

“Absolutely.” Wishing they were alone, he clipped the bug scanner back to his belt and strode her way.

Ava joined them at Bliss’s desk, hiking her hip up on one end of it. “So, are you two dating now?”

Bliss gave her an annoyed look. “How many times have I told you not to mix gossip with work?”

“I can’t help it,” Ava snickered. “You’re like my complete idol, and he’s…” She rolled her eyes at her uncle.

“Someone I respect and admire enormously,” Bliss cut in crisply. “You should, too. He’s sacrificed more for this town than you’ll ever know.”

It was Gil’s turn to redden. Though he had a number of scars on his body to prove her point, he highly doubted she knew about any of them.

“Look at him,” Ava giggled. “You’ve done what no one else has ever done. The sheriff of Heart Lake is blushing!”

Gil leaned his hands on the desk, shaking his head in bemusement at his niece before turning his gaze back to Bliss. “Something tells me you’re not interested in filing a formal police report about the missing bodies.”

She looked uncertain. “I would never tell you how to do your job, Gil. If you want my honest opinion, though?—”

“Always,” he said quickly.

Her eyes lit with appreciation. “Keep it out of the press. There’s a massive inheritance at stake here, the kind that obviously attracts criminals. If there’s any way you can handle this on a need-to-know basis, I would be most grateful.”

“Consider it done.” He studied her gravely. “Here are my terms, though.” He cast a warning look at Ava. “My non-negotiable terms,” he stressed in a flat, no-nonsense voice.

His niece drew back, looking offended. “I’m not twelve anymore, Uncle Gil.”

His expression softened. “I am aware, but try to see it from my angle. By recommending you to Dr. Hawling, I got my own niece involved in something dangerous. What kind of uncle would I be if I didn’t do everything I could to protect you?”

She nodded, gulping. “In case you’re wondering, I haven’t told anyone anything about what we’ve been working on down here.” She looked ready to break into a sweat. “Not even my parents.” She darted a quick look at Bliss. “From day one, Dr. Hawling stressed that everything that happens in this lab stays in this lab. I kind of already knew she was working on something important, but now I know that other people, um…feel the same way. Obviously.”

Bliss’s expression was hard to read. “Gil, you’re probably going to want to sit down for the next thing we need to tell you.”

He squatted down in front of her. “Is this good enough?” He reached for her hands.

She gripped them. “We did it!” Though exultant, her voice was barely above a whisper. “Ava and I established the markers that you, the mayor, the city council, the tribal council, and everyone else were looking for.”

His fingers tightened around hers as he rocked closer, scanning first her features, then Ava’s.

His niece nodded, growing teary-eyed. “This is like the biggest moment in my life, Uncle Gil. Dr. Hawling said I could put it on my resume and everything!” She set down her coffee and reached up to dab the edges of her eyes. “A bunch of people said we couldn’t do it,” she choked. “That the bodies were too old to extract any viable DNA from.”

Gil grinned broadly at Bliss. “I never doubted you ladies.”

“You mean you never doubted her,” Ava cut in with a damp chuckle.

“You’re the one who’s been serving as her apprentice all week long,” Gil retorted. “My statement stands.” As he stood and relinquished Bliss’s hands, his mind raced over the precautions he’d need to take when he filed his official police report about the theft. He’d have his deputies scour the hospital’s security camera feeds and send in a forensic team to gather any evidence they could find that might lead to the identity of their unlawful visitors.

When he tuned back into the conversation in the room, Ava was babbling about the process she and Bliss had used to establish the desired DNA markers. “The magic ended up being in the teeth,” she chortled. “We ground them up with a hammer and incubated them overnight with a lysis buffer containing sodium dodecyl sulfate and proteinase K.”

Gil waggled his eyebrows at Bliss. “I’m sure that means something to the two of you.”

“It might mean a lot more than the gobbly gook you think it sounds like,” Ava informed him in an admonishing voice. “You do realize that Dr. Hawling herself could end up being the droid we’re looking for?”

“The thought has crossed my mind.” Gil was pleased as punch that his niece knew her Star Wars quotes. He was a big Star Wars fan himself.

Bliss didn’t respond, probably because she hadn’t heard. She was engrossed in typing on the keyboard at her desktop computer.

“Even if she’s not the heiress, look at the bright side. Y’all still got to bond over a pile of dead bodies.” Ava darted a mischievous look between the two of them. “The perks of your respective career choices, huh?”

Gil snorted. “I wouldn’t call it the high point of what I do.”

“Nah, because taking a lovely archeologist to dinner seems to be the high point for you, Unc.”

He pretended to make a swipe for his coffee cup. “Gimme my coffee back, you brat!”

She snatched it off the desk and held it out of reach. Not a difficult task since she was nearly as tall as he was. “Not unless you pry it from cold, lifeless claws,” she informed him in her spookiest voice.

They burst out laughing together. This time Bliss joined in. He shook his head at Bliss. “Glad she’s your problem.”

“Apprentice,” Bliss corrected with a smile.

“Same difference,” he growled, though he’d never been more proud of his oldest brother’s kid. Ava had gone through some difficult phases, trying her hand at both volleyball and basketball. She’d proven to be decently skilled at both. In the end, though, she’d been too academically inclined to fit in with the cool crowd. From what he understood, she’d been made fun of quite a bit for her studious habits, something Bliss could probably relate to all too well.

He couldn’t have been more grateful for her assistance in bringing his niece out of her shell. She’d made great progress softening Ava’s heart towards him, too. Once they were alone, he fully intended to express his appreciation.

Or demonstrate it, if the moment was right.

Two days later

Vehicles were lined up waiting to enter the medical center’s parking lot from both sides of the highway. Because of the unique reason for the bottleneck, the Heart Lake Police Department had subcontracted the traffic control measures to Lonestar Security. They were guiding vehicles into the lot as quickly and as expediently as they could.

Though dressed as roadside attendants in reflector vests, each one was an armed security guard working undercover. So were the hospital “aides” directing visitors inside the building toward the station set up to handle the Hildebrand-Hawling DNA blood draws.

Bliss and her team had already drawn over three hundred and twenty vials of blood, and they were just getting started. Even citizens that Gil was reasonably certain were no relation to the Hawlings were lining up to be tested. He wasn’t surprised. One or more lucky Hawlings stood to inherit a bunch of money before this was over.

According to Bliss, more than a dozen partial matches had been made to Jesse Hawling, indicating they were descendants of his two brothers, Jonah and Jack Hawling. It was evidence that the DNA markers she and Ava had worked so hard to identify were the real deal. Only a descendant matching both Iris’s and Jesse’s markers, however, would be able to lay claim to the fortune.

Gil flashed the lights on his police cruiser to get the attention of the Lonestar Security guard at the front entrance. The guy nodded and waved him around the regular line to a roped-off parking area reserved for law enforcement.

There was a tense feeling in the air as he strode toward the main entrance of the medical center. He overheard a few loitering Hawlings mutter something about how it was time that some of the big bucks in the world got redistributed to the poor farm folk on the south side of town. Sensing that he was intended to overhear their conversation, he walked past them with one hand resting on his weapon. Anyone who was watching could see he meant business. This wasn’t the time for their town to disintegrate into the lawlessness of the old west.

In his other hand, he held the stem to a single red rose. Yeah, he had it bad for Bliss Hawling, and he was no longer going out of his way to hide it. It would be interesting to see how the town reacted to another Remington falling head over heels for a Hawling. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, but it never failed to create a stir. The head principal of Heart Lake High had started off as a Remington. So had the mayor. Both were now happily married to Hawlings. Gil’s heart thumped harder at the possibility that he and Bliss might find themselves in the same situation. Soon, he hoped.

He stepped inside the entrance lobby and scanned the room in search of her. Normally, she was stationed inside the blood draw area, graciously greeting newcomers and answering questions about her research. Occasionally, a television reporter was standing in front of her with a cameraman, filming live interviews and snatches of the flow of people coming and going from the blood draw area.

She was nowhere in sight this morning. He moved across the room to peer around the curtained-off station.

Ava glanced up from the laptop she was manning at the check-in table. “She’s in her office,” she intoned in a bored voice. Her long, athletic frame was encased in the blue hospital scrubs she got such a kick out of wearing. It wasn’t required, of course. He wasn’t even sure how she’d gotten her hands on them.

“Thanks, Brat.” Gil bent over her to administer a quick hug.

“Love you, too, Unc,” she shot back in the same bored voice.

He froze, wondering if he’d heard correctly. “Love you, too, brat,” he finally grated out.

“Took you long enough to come to that conclusion,” she retorted, glowering over her laptop.

“Nah, it didn’t.” He chuckled, though he felt more like weeping. “I’ve loved your bratty little self since the day your parents brought you squalling out of the hospital.”

When she glanced up at him, her gaze was brimming with emotion. “I know this isn’t the time or place, but can we maybe have a do-over? You and me?”

Good gravy!He was going to break down any second if he didn’t get moving again. “If you insist.” He pretended to glare at her.

“Don’t you dare cry,” she snarled through her tears, “or I’m going to completely lose it here!”

He settled for giving her a fist bump that was hard to see through his blurred vision.

“Go,” she hissed. “Please! Before I…”

He went.

The crowd thinned considerably as he made his way to the elevators. He was alone on the short ride down. Hanging a left, he could see Bliss’s office door was closed. Pulling out his cell phone, he texted her a quick heads up.

I’m here.

He strode down the tile hallway and knocked.

The door swung open. Bliss stood there, white faced and shaken.

“What’s wrong?” He hastily stepped across the threshold and shut the door behind him.

“I…” She shook her head, half turning away from him. “It’s nothing.”

He reached for her elbow to spin her back around. “It doesn’t look like nothing.”

She raised her gaze to his and burst into tears.

“Bliss!” He did the only thing he could think of. He drew her gently into his arms, holding the long-stemmed rose against her back.

She slid her arms around his middle and pressed her cheek against his heart. “I guess this is it, Gil,” she choked. “My work here is through. I’ll be returning ahead of schedule to my team in Italy.”

What! She sounded so mournful that he cuddled her closer. “But we haven’t identified any heirs yet.” He sure as all get out wasn’t ready for her to leave.

“We both know that wasn’t part of our agreement.” She lifted her tear-drenched face to his, scanning his features like she was trying to memorize every inch of them.

“Then I want to negotiate a new agreement,” he declared hoarsely. “Immediately! One that keeps you in Heart Lake where you belong.” So much for waiting for the perfect moment to tell her that! However, desperate times called for desperate measures. There was no way he was just going to stand by and do nothing while she left town again. Not this time.

“I’ve never belonged here, Gil.” Her voice shook. “Not really.”

“Of course, you do!” It was something he should’ve told her thirty-five long, lonely years ago. “You belong with me.” You always have. He knew that now. If he could roll back the years, he would’ve swallowed his pride and risked everything to find out if she’d felt the same way about him as he’d felt about her back then. And still did.

He watched her gaze turn cloudy with confusion as he leaned away a little to present her with the rose.

“I love you, Bliss.” He had no intention of repeating the past. He was putting it all on the line this time. “I’ve loved you for a very long time, ever since our first kiss. I should’ve told you then. I don’t know why I didn’t. Fear, I guess. Fear of being rejected by you.” Hawlings weren’t the only ones afraid of that. Remingtons had feelings, too. “But I don’t want to go another minute without you knowing.”

Her confusion faded to astonishment, then to wonder, then to something that made her gaze soften and glow at the same time as she accepted the rose.

Inexplicable hope surged through him, prompting him to add huskily, “If I can’t talk you into staying in Heart Lake, I’ll follow you to Pompeii. To the ends of the earth, if you’ll let me. I just want to be with you.”

She reached up to touch his cheek, looking utterly stunned. “How can I say no to that?”

“Please don’t.” He dipped his head over hers and hovered there. Waiting. Longing. Hoping.

“I love you, too, Gil. I always have,” she declared breathlessly, sliding her arms around his neck, rose and all.

It was what every cell in his body had been aching to hear. He tenderly claimed her lips at long last. And her heart. Everything she was offering him.

She claimed him in return. Her tender touch, the soft sounds she made, the happy tears streaking her face told him that she shared the same joy that was crashing through him. She was beautiful inside and out, intelligent, clever, witty, and wise. She was kind and loyal, humble and compassionate. She was everything he’d ever dreamed of. More than he deserved.

And she was finally his!

He claimed their second kiss and their third one. It felt a little like drowning. Or being caught in the eye of a storm. He welcomed the thunder and reveled in the lightning. He’d never felt so much. He hadn’t known it was even possible to feel this much at one time.

When they finally came up for air, Bliss exclaimed breathlessly. “Gil, I’m so happy I could explode.”

“I know the feeling.” He smoothed a strand of dark hair back from her cheek.

“Is this really happening?” Her eyes grew damp again.

“It better be.” He’d waited too long and prayed too hard for this day. This moment. This miracle. He kissed her again, just to be sure.

And got swept beneath the powerful current of their love again.

Ten minutes earlier

The portable morgue van idled motionless in the long train of vehicles outside the Heart Lake Medical Center. Its driver tapped the steering wheel restlessly. It had been several minutes since the last time he’d moved. Even then, it had only been a car length or two.

At this rate, it could take another hour or longer before reaching his final destination with the two bodies he was returning. In a manner of speaking. They were strapped with explosives, so they wouldn’t be back inside the medical center for long.

They were the wrong corpses. He wasn’t sure how he’d snatched the John and Jane Doe by mistake. He’d been very careful with his planning and reconnaissance of the medical center’s lower level. He’d checked and rechecked the body tags. Then he’d checked them a third time just because. There was no way he’d gotten them mixed up.

Unless…

An idea grew and blossomed in his mind, filling him with raw fury. There shouldn’t have been more than two sets of mummified remains at the morgue. There were no others besides Iris and Jesse Hawling on record. But what if Dr. Hawling had been one step ahead of him yet again? In the past, she’d proven to be as clever as a fox and as slippery as an eel. He should’ve anticipated her subterfuge.

She and her Comanche friends hadn’t needed any blasted blood tests to prove what they already knew. Though their savage rituals and oral histories were often dismissed by the rest of humanity as fables and myths, those same “fables” and “myths” had managed to preserve the Hildebrand-Hawling lineage. Yeah, the attorney in New York would probably require an official blood test before doling out the money, but Bliss and her cronies could’ve easily skipped the rest of the dog and pony show they were putting on.

Who knew? Maybe she’d allowed their foolish town sheriff to talk her into it. Maybe smuggling an extra pair of mummified bodies into the lab had been his idea, too. At this point, none of that really mattered. There was only one way to fix this. He was going to destroy the lab containing the DNA markers. Then he was going to take Bliss Hawling out of the picture, once and for all.

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel again, hating that every entrance into the parking lot was jammed with cars trying to enter from multiple directions. The only thing that had bypassed the line so far was an ambulance that had flown past him on the shoulder, lights flashing and sirens screaming. The parking lot attendants had waved it into a special lane marked with orange cones for authorized personnel only.

A flash of movement from the corner of his eye made him glance into his side-view mirror. He watched as a white police cruiser zoomed around the line, using the shoulder like the ambulance had. The cruiser was stopped by one of the parking lot attendants.

The officer at the wheel rolled his window down and leaned out to speak with the man in the neon orange vest. Speak of the devil, and the devil appears! It was Sheriff Gil Remington, one of the other people he intended to take out before all this was over. Gil had gotten in his way one too many times.

The parking lot attendant twisted around and pointed directly at the portable morgue van. For a moment, he feared his presence had been discovered. But all the parking lot attendant did was wave yet another vehicle out of line behind him into the lane of orange cones in front of him.

As the white hospital shuttle rolled past him, he caught sight of more uniformed parking lot attendants filling its seats. That was weird. In all his days, he’d never before seen so many parking lot attendants on duty at the same time. Come to think of it, they were crawling like ants all over the place. He gnashed his teeth as it dawned on him that they probably weren’t parking lot attendants at all. And if they weren’t, he was betting they were employed by Lonestar Security. Gil had been subcontracting their services for years, every time his pitifully inadequate police force couldn’t handle things on their own.

As his gaze swept the medical center’s parking lot again, he gave himself a mental kick for not noticing the excessive number of parking lot attendants sooner — far more than the medical center needed to direct traffic.

One of them standing near the main entrance had a German Shepherd on a leash, probably trained in scenting and tracking.

Rage fingered its way through him like the fat on a well-marbled slab of steak. As much as he hated to throw in the towel, it was time to abort his mission. As the old saying went, live to fight another day.

It didn’t apply to the corpses in the air-conditioned compartment behind him, of course. Their time had already run out. Dr. Bliss Hawling’s time was running out, too.

She was clever. He’d give her that. But not clever enough.

He’d already pinpointed her work schedule, the route she took to work, and who would be driving her in the morning.

And he would be ready.