That got a smile out of him. “Why don’t we grab some coffee and go talk to the police first. It just feels too neat, too easy. Someone already on their radar manages to slip the net and commit an attack? It doesn’t feel right.”
“You’re borrowing trouble, my friend.”
“Maybe. Maybe I’m just paranoid. But I can’t wrap my head around why Will Crawford would shut down his site if there wasn’t a tie directly to him.”
“Maybe he was doing something else wrong.”
“Maybe. Come on. Coffee. Police. Then we can tackle Will.”
“Police first, Xander. The coffee will wait.”
He groaned but walked past the entrance to stairs that led to the cafe. She saw him cast a wistful glance back toward the restaurant’s door.
“We’ll make it fast. I promise.”
Chapter 34
The police chief, Reed McReynolds, had sun-bleached blond hair and a round face decorated with a darker goatee, broad shoulders and long, rangy legs. A surfer cowboy, plain and simple. He sprang out of his chair when they walked in, a smile a mile wide across his sunburned face. She liked him immediately, his open laugh and surprised eyes made him look even younger than he was, which Sam assumed must have been around thirty.
“Well, I’ll be damned, if it isn’t Xander Moon. How the hell are you? Your parents know you’re back in town? And who’s this stunning creature?”
“I’m good. Yes, they do. This is Dr. Samantha Owens.”
McReynolds shook her hand. “You can do better than this piece of chum. You know he can’t even keep himself upright on a board? Falls over on his ass every time.”
Xander was grinning, easy, comfortable. She hadn’t seen this side of him before—he was always so serious and buttoned up. He was home. Home among his people, his family, his friends. She liked it. Liked him loose and happy.
“Don’t you start, you know that’s not true. It was only that one day, and I had an ear infection. Couldn’t keep my balance on flat ground much less a piece of fiberglass hurtling through the pipe.”
Snowboarding, Sam came to find out, was McReynolds’s passion, existence and reason for living. The law enforcement gig was secondary, just a little something so he didn’t get bored.
“You ever been snowboarding, Dr. Owens?”
“It’s Sam, and no, I haven’t. Skiing, yes, but I’m no daredevil. Give me a nice blue run and I’m perfectly content.”
“Ah, you gotta get this cheek to teach you. He’s pretty good. Or used to be, before he had his wittle bitty ear infection.”
“God, Reed, let it go.”
“Fine. How long you here for? They’ve got the grass skiing open. We could take a few runs after I get off today.”
“Would that I could, man. I need to chat about something else. You familiar with the Gerhardt case?”
“How’d you hear about that? Your dad?”
“Yeah. He mentioned it this morning. What do you know?”
McReynolds sat on the corner of his desk and crossed his arms on his chest. “Why do you want to know?”
“Sam here has a hunch. Any chance we can get his autopsy records?”
“What kind of doctor are you anyway, Sam?”
She smiled. “A forensic pathologist. I’ve been working on the abrin attack in D.C. I think it’s reasonable to assume the killer tested the abrin before he set it off in the Metro, because he’d need to have an idea of just how much could kill a human. It seemed odd that Mr. Gerhardt and his cattle would die at the same time.”
“It was damn odd, but the coroner felt the cancer had returned, and progressed incredibly fast. They sent him up to Golden for an autopsy. And the cows, well, the vet thought that was tetany. Rare in these parts, but it happens. You think it was a test run for the attack?”
“I don’t know. But if I could get my hands on the files, it would certainly help. I’ll know rather quickly if Mr. Gerhardt was exposed. And if the vet who did the necropsy is still around, I’d love to talk to him, too.”
“Her. Name’s Carly Skinner.”
“No kidding?” Xander asked. “Carly’s the large animal vet around here now? I figured she was gone for good when she went to L.A.” He gave his friend a sly smile.
“She was. But remember when she came back a few Decembers ago? She decided to set up shop instead of acting. More important things here.”
“Yeah, I get it. It’s nice to come home again.”
“It wasn’t home she came back for. It was me.”
“You? She threw over her acting career for you?”
Reed punched Xander’s shoulder, hard enough to make him suck in his breath. “Yes, you asshole. And I married her. See what you miss living up in the rocks alone? Carly Skinner McReynolds was too much of a mouthful for her so she stuck with the maiden name.”