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"I’ anything to Jane

She followed hier seat as he held the door

Once in the car, he turned to her "This isn’t just a ride-along It really means ride The trail area where Heidi found the corpse is out back froet the horses You ride, don’t you?"

He hoped she’d say no

"Yes, I ride"

Of course she did

He called Johnny Bearclaw as he drove, asking hia and Roo?" Jane asked as he rang off

"I didn’t naot thea is a ood horses," he said briefly

They were good horses Despite that, over the years, one or the other of the two had lost a rider--they could turn so sharply They never hurt anyone; riders just slid off

He wondered if he was hoping she’d take a tumbleand not be able to come with hiht to the stables, where Johnny had both horses saddled and ready to go

Sloan introduced Johnny and Jane They were cordial to each other, and Johnny smiled, honestly happy to meet Jane She was easy and relaxed, and Sloan was forced to admit that he was the only one who seea and Roo and, naturally, Johnny was pleased

"We need to get ive Jane a hand up, will you?"

The horses were both seventeen hands tall He swung up on Roo, leaving Jane to ride his beautiful grande dahtly sht he was still a colt

Jane politely accepted Johnny’s hand but straddled Kanga with agility She kne to ride, just as she’d said

He kneed Roo, and they started off at a long, smooth lope to the rear of his property and onto the trails beyond that led through the foothills She followed easily at his pace A half ly brush, they connected with the standard trail the stables used for their rides

They passed one of the entrances to the old silverPost set up by the stables, where no one actually worked but a few vending e the stables had created as a halfway point on the ride Although the Apache had never lived in this little array of tepees, they’d set up some placards that accurately described life for Natives of the area; they’d also been hired to fashion the tepees and fireplaces, drying racks and weapon stands that for forlornly on a rock near the placard that gave a history of Geronimo She held her horse’s reins loosely and looked as if she was on the verge of tears

"You’re here! Thank God! Oh, Sloan, you’re here!" she said, rising Heidi was thirty-three, thin and athletic with short-cropped blond hair and dark brown eyes An excellent rider, she often borrowed Roo when she entered barrel-racing co part of a rodeo, he didn’tHeidi his horses She was calarrulous--a great tour guide She didn’t own the stables or the tour co

He dis the same behind hiht in theby horse-draagon But I told the ency procedures, artificial respiration Sloan, he’s dead Imy lips on a corpse!"

"Heidi, they weren’t here Their job is to save lives," Sloan told her "Where--"

"Over here, Sloan," she interrupted, walking around behind another pile of rocks She glanced back at Jane "Uh, hello"

"This is Agent Everett," Sloan said

"Oh, hi, nice to ht? Youlike that," Jane said

Sloan had reached the corpse He stopped, staring at it incredulously

As Heidi had reported, the corpse was just about htly over the skull and bones that it seemed like an eerie caricature A dusty old hat sat on the corpse, which was propped up against a rock almost as if he’d sat down to take a nap--and never awakened He was dressed in dust-covered pants, an old shirt and a vest; it appeared that he’d been buried beneath the sand for years and dug up to sit on the trail

"See! And they wanted me to do mouth-to-ht?"

Sloan hunkered down to study the corpsethe deadis certainly old Handmade, I think," Jane said "I’m not an expert on this, but it does look like the cloth is incredibly fragile--al--and that this ht well have died around the tiain in Lily as a skullon here? Anotherup for a different reason?

"Who would do this?" Heidi deuy and put hi for you I thoughtI was so afraid he’d ht!"

Sloan took a pen froerly touched a darkened spot on the shirt It was difficult to see clearly, but it see in the chest

"Poor felloas shot a hell of a long tio," Jane noted

Sloan felt a vibration and heard the ruon as it arrived on the scene Two eon that was kept at the stables for e helicopters, but on made its way to the desert He knew many of the county techs but not all, and he didn’t know these two

Sloan stood Theat the corpse