Patrick silently cheered.

Whittenhall got an odd look on his face. He opened his mouth twice to answer Liam, and then closed it. Finally, the marshal leaned toward the young man, his voice sharp.

“Kinton had a nervous breakdown a year ago and physically attacked one of his supervisors. Put the man in the hospital. Kinton was let go from the US Marshals because of it. He is obsessed with Darrin Besand and will stop at nothing to see him get a lethal injection. If Kinton’s out there with your girlfriend, she’s going to simply be a stepping-stone for him to get to Besand. He’ll trample anything in his path to get his hands around that murdering creep’s neck.” Whittenhall raised a brow at Patrick. “He blatantly lied to Collins to get to that plane. I believe he would’ve taken more drastic physical measures if Collins hadn’t cooperated.”

Patrick’s spine stiffened, and Liam’s head jerked back in shock.

Whittenhall looked intently at Liam. “There’re two dangerous men out there, Major Gentry. Not just one. I’d say your girlfriend’s in a shitload of danger.”

“Anyone see anything?”

A chorus of dejected no’s answered Jim. They’d been kicking the snow under the parachute for a good twenty minutes. Brynn had found a frayed piece of strapping. Nothing else. Alex stole a quick look at Brynn. She’d efficiently directed the group in a circular search pattern as if looking for human remains was something she did every day. Maybe she did.

Death was a big part of the woman’s life.

How does she sleep at night?

Five years ago, Alex had arrived on the scene of a freeway auto accident, and the sight had given him nightmares for weeks. One driver had been beheaded, his neck a bloody stump, his tie and suit jacket still neatly in place. Alex hadn’t looked to see where the guy’s head ended up. The other driver had been thrown from his car and hit by other cars. His legs had looked deflated with the skin resembling an empty balloon. The flesh from his legs spilled out in bloody red piles and smears on the pavement.

Alex hadn’t known the human body could look like that.

He swallowed the bile that surged in the back of his throat and concentrated on scanning the snow at his feet.

How did Brynn do it every day? She probably saw dead kids. Babies, even. Seniors who slipped and fell and weren’t found until neighbors called the police because the newspapers had piled up.

What kind of devastation would they find at the plane wreckage?

One corpse. That was all Alex needed to see. One very specific dead corpse. He didn’t care if the guy was beheaded or burned to a crisp with blackened flesh and stiffened limbs that looked like he was reaching out for help. Alex would sleep better for the rest of his life once he found out what happened to the plane.

Alex’s younger brother, Samuel, had been the only family member he’d seen after death. It had been on a table at the medical examiner’s office—after the ME had cleaned him up, but before he’d made that first Y incision. It had ached deep in Alex’s chest, allowing Samuel to be cut open like that, but the death had been highly suspicious, possibly suicide: an indication for autopsy.

The original theory was that Alex’s brother had been despondent over the death of a friend and decided to drown himself in the pool where she’d died.

But Alex had known it wasn’t suicide the moment the police called and told him they’d found his brother in the pool. Samuel wouldn’t kill himself. If only Alex had listened to Samuel’s sudden ramblings and complaints about one of his caretakers. If only Alex had followed up and double-checked Samuel’s statements with the owner of the facility where he’d lived. If only. If only.

Alex’s boot suddenly kicked something long and white out of the snow. His heart stopped and tried to leap up into his mouth. He halted his systematic tracking and stared, gaze immobile. Next to the white snow, the bone looked a dingy, old yellow.

“Brynn.” His voice came out as whisper, so he repeated with more strength, “Brynn!”

Everyone’s head jerked in his direction.

“Whatcha got?” Ryan bounded over in a flash, his interested eyes focused on the remains by Alex’s boot. Alex fought an impulse to cover up the bone, hide it from sight. Ryan’s eagerness seemed disrespectful. Almost wrong.

Ryan squatted, using his gloved hand to paw all the snow off the bone as the others walked up. They were silent, their quiet manner more appropriate for lost bones. Ryan snickered, and Alex wanted to kick him in the head.

“It’s a stick.” He lifted the stick and waved it at Alex. “You discovered a stick, dude. Nice job.”

Alex studied the pale stick that Ryan tossed to Brynn. It was smooth and as long as his thigh. Knobby on one end, but the other end showed a frayed break where it had clearly separated from a tree.

Brynn shot Alex a sympathetic glance as she tried to cover her amusement. “Reminds me of the human mandible you found one time, Ryan.” She tapped the stick against her palm and cast an assessing look at Ryan, a grin pulling at the corners of her lips.

Jim hooted and slung an arm around Ryan’s shoulders. “I remember that. Rocks can take amazing shapes. Alex’s stick looks a hell of a lot more human than your rock jaw did.” Ryan genuinely laughed, but he shoved Jim away. Jim winked at Brynn, who covered her mouth with a gloved hand.

“OK. I don’t think we’re going to find anything. Anything more, that is.” Brynn gave Alex a half smile. “Which way are we headed now? This way, right?” She gestured to the west.