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"What the hell are you doing?" he deer sister’s skull The story was true History We all knew that she had been murdered by her older sister"

"Put it down immediately," he ad

"Down, put it down!"

Slowly, she did so "What on earth is the matter with you?" she demanded "Look, whether you believe in any of this or not, you don’t have to be such a jerk I’ve found her skull We can bury it with her body That would just be hu at the skull that now lay on the freshly dug earth He didn’t touch it, but stared at her again "Keep your hands off it"

"But--"

"You’ve got a human skull there And I’m the sheriff"

She looked at him then in total disbelief "But…this o! What are you going to try to do--arrest someone?"

"How do you know that?"

"What do you mean, how do I know that? We both know the story"

He waved a hand in the air, dise "Are you a bone expert as well, Miss Tre with it, a sinking feel of desolation Dammit, he knew it He kneell as she did that the skull had been in the earth for eons And there was so about the way he was hunkered down, near her, yet ato adht, and that she had soh extrasensory perception At the saut that was just what she had done He dreay He didn’t believe in her power, but he was still repulsed by it, ht There’s your skull What are you going to do about it?"

"I’s to a poor, young, innocent girl as brutally murdered by someone she loved and trusted To handle it properly, you et the records out and see that her head is buried with her body," Darcy said angrily

"You can guarantee me, beyond a doubt, that this is her skull?" he said scornfully

"Yes"

"Well, that’s not the way the laorks"

"You’re being ridiculous"

"I’ my job"

Darcy stood up and dusted her hands on the sides of her jeans "Fine You do what you have to do," she said, and started walking away from him

She felt his hand fall upon her upper ar her back, there was too much force to his touch She stared at his hand, stared at his eyes He released her instantly

"Do you go around finding body parts all the ti them because you’re convinced they have to be ancient?"

"No"

"No to which?"

"We both knohose head this is!"

"Whether we do or not, hually"

Her eyes fell Maybe he was right on that And maybe she was just dismayed by the horror she had seen in his eyes when he had watched her with the skull

"All right, Sheriff I bow to your very logical and legal reasoning If you’ll excuse h, I think I’ll head back for a shower"

He nodded, those gray eyes still on her She felt a strange hurt inside, and she was furious with herself Matt Stone had been a hostile force fro She’d been an idiot to let any measure of attraction form between theht then as they stood in the woods, as they stared at one another So in the air, alive, electric, static She’d never felt such an urge to coainst him, feel his arms wrap around her She was certain that the sheer heat dancing in the air emitted from him And she was equally certain that no matter what his raw desire, the static erupted from his mind, like a ind that pushed away, even as it pulled

She suddenly wanted to shout that she wasn’t a leper

But in histo Nellie without looking back She mounted, turned the horse toward hoer filled her To anyone else, she ht have just proven that she did have certain psychic abilities Not Matt He wouldn’t begin to understand her job That yes, Harrison Investigations could coht--if there was indeed a fake, a trickster, creating ghosts or hauntings for their own purposes--be it sial But when phenomena were real, they tried to find out hat had happened, why ghosts couldn’t move on And then they tried to help them

She’d helped Amy And the idiot, Matt Stone, should realize that it meant she could discover the truth about his house And that it should be discovered, because it was soer than she’d ever encountered before

So far more sinister

And it didn’t seem that even Josh could help her here, as he so often could

When she could solve a mystery and help heal a lost soul, she loved what she did Which onderful, because far too often her as frightening, and she felt such deep sympathy so many times that it was painful And yet, a day like today was so incredibly rewarding!

Except that it had to coreat unbeliever

She knew that he hadn’t moved

And he wouldn’tafter Nellie took to the trail

It was late, but it didn’tnothing

He’d called out a few of his h disturbed, had been properly boxed for forensic study