The Hidden

Now, seeing him again way up here in the middle of nowhere, she found him downright creepy.

“I was talking about the fact that I really did see someone just now,” she said. “But it’s not just seeing that man again, it’s the mannequin moving, the pictures on my camera. Am I crazy, or do you really believe me?”

He looked at her and nodded solemnly. “Every word,” he assured her. “And so does every member of the Krewe.”

“They’re very trusting, for FBI,” she said.

“They’re very different for FBI,” he said. “Come on, let’s get going. Time to get back down the mountain so we can get back to the ranch before dark.”

The late-afternoon sun seemed to dim even as he spoke. Scarlet looked up; the majestic blue of the sky had changed to mauve.

The sun slipped behind a cloud, turning its light an orange hue that darkened to an eerie crimson.

Yes, darkness was coming.

The strange red glow settled over the graveyard, the mausoleums and tombstones and simple wooden crosses, filling her with a sense of foreboding.

She wanted to throw herself against Diego and stay there in his arms forever, safe from the darkness.

The breeze lifted, the sun shifted, and she suddenly knew that she couldn’t run away from the dark, she had to face it.

She walked past him toward the horses. He was a bastion of towering strength.

But better than that, he allowed her to find her own.





8

“I love Teddy Bear,” Diego heard Meg say to Scarlet as they joined the others. “She’s a great horse.”

“She’s a sweetheart,” Scarlet agreed.

Diego turned away and walked back toward the graveyard, intrigued by the grand mausoleum Jillian Kendall’s father had commissioned for himself. He stared at the tomb, and then back toward the bushes and forest area. He saw nothing, but he did notice the day had suddenly started to darken.

Colorado days were brilliant and beautiful. Nights could fall swiftly.

If someone had been lurking, that someone had disappeared.

Matt strode over and joined him. “I can’t wait for Jane to get here tonight. If she’s up for it, we can take her straight to the morgue so she can start creating a face for our John Doe. Even if he’s not related to our case, maybe we can help solve another mystery.”

“Sounds good,” Diego said. “I can’t help thinking that his death is related, though I could be way off base.”

“If nothing else, it will be good if we can at least give the dead man a name,” Matt said.

Diego was still staring at the mausoleum.

“You seeing something I’m not?” Matt asked him.

Diego turned to look at him. “Just an odd sensation. Like someone else is here. Think I’m sensing a ghost?”

“Maybe,” Matt said. “The dead can speak volumes—when we let them.”

Diego nodded and then shook his head slowly. “Well, if the marshal’s here, he’s not saying anything. Not to me, at least,” he said. “Interesting man, though, from what we’ve learned. Maybe he wasn’t the bad guy we’ve heard. Maybe he was just worried about his daughter. Nathan was a retired bank robber who was involved in a murder, after all.”

“True, but a lot of men took a temporary wrong turn after the war, and the West tended to be pretty forgiving of such things,” Matt said.

“Maybe, but someone sure hated Nathan, judging by the way that he was killed. I wonder if we’ll ever be able to figure out the truth,” Diego said. “And I wonder if that truth is important to our current case.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. The case is lousy with people who’ve turned out to be descendants of Nathan Kendall. I wonder. Maybe everything goes back to something Kendall did—something that got him murdered and someone still wants revenge for today? There are a lot of possibilities, if that’s the case.” Matt was quiet for a moment. “I hate to say this, but I do think it involves Scarlet.”

Diego’s muscles tighten with a tension he couldn’t dismiss. Thing was...