He moved back, and her police training kicked in. Jenna pushed aside the pain and scrambled to her feet. Everything hurt, but she raised her gun, nonetheless. Her damned arms wobbled. The hooded man, dressed all in black, raced away, zigzagging right, then left.
“Police. Stop.” Her vision blurred long enough for him to disappear. She turned around to apprehend the kinds. Damn. They were gone too. Go after the guy.
On her second step, vomit rolled into her mouth and her legs gave way, dropping her to the ground. Crap. Police procedures raced through her mind. Suck it up and stop them. She stood, crouched low, and checked right, then left.
Shit. Other than the sound of the wind whipping through the trees, there were no footsteps, no voices, nothing. How had they vanished? Fuck. She’d screwed up—again.
Think. There were at least three perpetrators. Checking the surrounding area without a flashlight and being in a weakened state would be super stupid. No. She needed to call this one in, but damn, she’d have to admit she’d failed to stop the jerks.
A sharp pain stabbed the back of her head, and she touched her scalp. Gooey blood coated her hair around a wide laceration. She said a few words even her sheriff department father would have been appalled to hear.
She swiped her cell and called the precinct. “Hey, Tanner. I need backup.” She gave him the rundown about the kids, the coffin, and the skulls, including the fact one of them belonged to her mother. “I would have stopped them if some dude hadn’t attacked me.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, but he hit me hard in the back of the head.” Bad move. She shouldn’t have told him she’d been injured. Now the whole precinct would hear about her fiasco. After working hard for five years on the force to earn the men’s respect, she let some creep get the drop on her and ruin everything.
“What are you doing at a cemetery, Holliday? Didn’t you just get off work?” Old Tanner Trundell kept track of everyone and everything at the precinct.
No way he’d understand why she needed to visit her mom in the dead of night. “I was driving by when I saw something and stopped.” That was close to the truth.
“We’ll send a unit and an ambulance.”
“I’m good. I don’t need an ambulance.” Could this get any worse?
“You’re getting one anyway.”
Kill me now. After she disconnected, she made her way to the end of the aisle and dropped to her knees in front of where her mom was laid to rest. A gust of cold wind crawled up her shirt and she zippered up her jacket. Tears burned the back of her lids. The coffin sat open, the head missing. Stolen. Her throat clogged and a metallic taste leaked into her mouth. Mom’s blue Sunday dress was still neatly pressed, her leathery fingers clasped over her belly. Jenna reached out and placed a palm over where her mom’s heart would be. She glanced skyward, knowing her mother’s soul was with God, and that she wasn’t really missing, but the theft dredged up the pain of mom’s suicide again.
A slow boil ran from her stomach to her throat, and she pounded the walkway. “I’ll get back what you stole, you bastards.” She said it loud enough for them to hear, wherever they were.
She wanted to put back the carelessly tossed covers to give the dead respect, but this was a crime scene. Jenna stood and did a quick scan of the cemetery grounds. Were the boys and their leader watching her from behind some tree, and laughing about how they managed to get away? If they came back, she’d be ready.
Fists clenched, she paced in front of the coffins, trying to figure out how the man was able to sneak up on her. She should have checked the scene and taken her time instead of rushing in to save the day. She’d been stupid. Maybe she didn’t deserve to be a detective.
Not true. Her father had raised her to be a cop. She knew the ins and outs better than anyone. So how had she screwed up so bad? Rotten karma, she guessed.
“Hey, Jenna?” That was fast. It was her boss, Captain Lucas.
“Over here.”
Four men and two women rounded the corner. One was Lucas and the second was Larry Bernard, a veteran officer. The next two were CSU techs she didn’t know, and the last was her father. She gritted her teeth and marched over to the captain, trying to ignore the intense pounding in her head. “Why is my father here?”
“I invited him.”
“You had no right,” she whispered. Everyone knew she’d joined the Tampa Police Department and not the sheriff’s department to get away from the probing eyes of the man who basically had caused her mother’s death.
“You were hurt,” Captain Lucas said. “I thought he’d want to know. Besides, he’s one of us.”
Dad stood off to the side ramrod straight, not even attempting to console her. Typical. He was dressed in his sheriff department garb despite the fact it was one in the morning. He must never sleep. Other than his gray beard stubble, he looked like he’d come from work. Hell, maybe he had.
Her father nodded to her, and then stepped over to Mom’s grave. He lowered his head and his shoulders drooped. Jenna never remembered seeing him anything less than the tall, straight, always-in-control dad.
She might as well get this over with and walked over to him. “Hey.”
Her father faced her. The overhead light reflected off what she thought was a tear. She was about to touch his arm but decided against it. No way would she let her heart melt toward him.
He looked up. “You okay?”
Now he asks? “Never better.” Don’t show any weakness had always been his motto.
Three camera flashes went off in succession, indicating the CSU techs were documenting the scene. The captain sidled up to her. “What happened exactly?”
What could she say? She let someone get the drop on her as two kids were stealing the skulls from the graves. Jenna explained the best she could.
“If we catch them, they’ll be up for assaulting an officer too.”
She didn’t care. All she wanted was her mother’s skull returned. “I want this case.”
“No. It’s too personal. Besides, Bernard here has been working another grave robbery case for the last few months.”
She remembered hearing about that one. “Did the thieves only take the skulls?” Maybe they weren’t related.
Bernard stepped forward. “Actually, six coffins in four different cemeteries were dug up, but they stole the whole body.”
“Any leads?” Jenna pulled her coat tighter. It was colder than a concrete slab in winter.
“We’ve zeroed in a particular occult store in Ybor City, called Botanica. Rumor has it a high priestess is using human bones to put evil spells on people, but we don’t have enough evidence to get a warrant to search the place.”
She glanced one more time at her mother’s grave, along with the other ransacked vaults and turned to the captain. “I want to go undercover there.”
Her father drew his gaze away from Mom’s coffin. “The man who hit you might work there and recognize you.”
Who made him head of TPD all of a sudden? “This isn’t your decision. Look, I need to do this. For Mom.” If I hadn’t told her your little secret, she wouldn’t have taken her life. I owe her.
He turned away and headed to the end of the row of vaults.
Lucas nodded at her father. “I think your dad’s right. You could be recognized. Besides, it’s dangerous.”
“I’m willing to take the risk.”
Captain Lucas stared hard at her. “I will admit you’d be perfect for the undercover job. You’re young, kind of hip, waiflike, and look no more than twelve.”
Kind of hip? She’d been battling the you-look-no-more-than-twelve comment her whole life—all twenty-nine years of it. “I want this.”
He took a big inhale and his eyes turned soft, almost as if he was regretting the words he was about to say. “I’ll give you one month to bring me hard evidence. Not a day more. I’ll have to reassign Phelps though.”
Her partner, Greg Phelps, who she loved like a father, was due to retire in six months anyway. She had to get used to life without him soon enough. “I’ll tell him if you want.”