01 Storm Peak by John Flanagan

at her. “Slow down, Lee. I may be good. But I’m not that good. Don’t go expecting me to walk into Barret’s room and solve this case straight up now.”
    She shook her head in exasperation. “That’s not what I’m saying, Jess. But if you’re involved in this investigation and you’ve got no official capacity to be involved, that could corrupt any evidence you find, couldn’t it?”
    His grin faded and he frowned. “I’m not sure,” he said slowly. “I hadn’t really thought about that.”
    She didn’t give him time to allay the doubt that had arisen. “Well, think about it now,” she said. “Say we arrest a suspect and some smart defense lawyer works out that the investigation has been handled by a civilian with no official authority to be asking questions or handling evidence …” She let that last thought hang in the air for a few seconds. “It’s just possible that a technicality like that might destroy any case we try to make, isn’t it?”
    There was a silence between them. Jesse rubbed his jaw with the palm of his hand. She knew he was thinking. She knew he was thinking that she had a point.
    “Might be best,” he ventured finally, “if I just got out of the way altogether.”
    “No, Jess!” she said vehemently. “I need you on this case! Damn it, you were one of the best homicide detectives they had in Denver!”
    He looked at her quizzically, his head tilted to one side. “Is that right?” he asked her. “And who might have told you that?”
    She flushed suddenly. She hadn’t ever intended to let him know that she’d spoken to his bosses in Denver about his resignation. She hesitated, then said, “Your old boss, Chief Douglas, if you have to know.”
    His eyebrows raised sardonically. She kicked angrily at a small pile of snow in front of her, scattering it into wind driven powder.
    “Chief of Detectives William Harris Douglas himself?” he mused. “And what occasioned you to be chatting with him?”
    She felt the color mounting to her cheeks, faced him squarely and met his gaze.
    “We were talking about you,” she said bluntly. “I wanted to know if you were all right so I asked Chief Douglas what had happened. Damn it,” she added. “You weren’t going to tell anyone, I could see that.”
    “But he did,” Jesse said softly. It was a statement, not a question.
    Lee nodded. “Yes,” she replied, keeping her voice even. “He did. He felt I ought to know, as the local sheriff and as a friend.”
    Jesse let out a long pent-up breath and dropped his gaze away from hers. He looked out over the Yampa Valley spread out below them, shook his head once or twice. After a while he said, “Then, as a friend, you’ll understand why I’m in no hurry to put on a badge of any kind again. Lee, when I came back here, I told myself I was finished with that kind of thing.”
    “But you’re not, Jess. You’re not now and you never will be. Goddamn it, I’ve watched you these last few days. It’s like you’re alive again. You’ve been wandering around town in some kind of fog for the past two years, Jess, and now you’re almost back to the way you were.”
    He laughed bitterly, turned to look at her again. “There’s a matter for concern, Sheriff. I come alive only when other people are suddenly made dead. I’m not sure if that’s something about myself that I like.”
    She was angry now and she let him know it. “Damn you, Jesse! That’s not the way of it and you know that! You’re alive again because you can see a chance to do what you do best. You’re a cop and a good one. That means you can’t just sit idly by while people are being killed and throw your hands in the air and say, ‘Oh my, how terrible.’ Now don’t pretend it’s anything else.”
    Again, his gaze dropped away from hers. When he spoke, she could barely hear the words. “Yeah … maybe you’re right at that, Lee.”
    She dropped a hand on his shoulder. He still wouldn’t face her so she shook