She studied the skull, not seeing any resemblance to the lovely school photo she remembered from the TV. Her lips pressed together, and she stopped her gloved hand before it rubbed at her shielded forehead. She blinked hard.

“Where’s the second one?”

“Next door. I’ve already finished her.” Her father picked up a scalpel and raised a brow at her.

That’s my cue to leave.

Her stomach churning, Lacey spun on a heel and headed for the door, stripping her vinyl gloves and dropping them in the hazardous waste bin.

One more.

Lacey moved down the quiet hallway to her office, filling out the postmortem dental record as she walked, her mind comparing the two nameless bodies. How long would it take to place a name on the charts in her hands? The second girl had been burned to the same degree as the first. Lacey had easily seen where her father had peeled back the scalp to open the skull and remove the brain. And when she opened the mouth of the burned girl, the tongue was already gone, removed along with organs from the neck. Her father had noted the tongue was pierced with a metal barbell.

The teeth on the second girl had a scattering of small white composite fillings in the posterior teeth. The lower anteriors were crooked, and she demonstrated a class two bite with severe overjet. That girl had never had braces.

The human body was fascinating. Every autopsy taught her something new. But the ones on kids and teens made her angry. Life wasted. It was wrong, but she simmered with anger at the girls for taking risks and at the parents for losing control of their kids. When she had kids, they would never…

She halted and grabbed at the doorframe to her office as her gaze locked on the back of the man who sat at her desk. He was tilted back in her seat, nearly enough to topple the chair over, balancing himself with one foot hooked under the bottom drawer of her desk. She fought the urge to tip him over.

“You’re in my chair,” she snapped.

For a split second she thought he’d lose his balance as he twitched at her voice. He caught himself and spun in the chair to face her, his compelling gaze locked with hers.

Her stomach lurched at the gray eyes. She identified them instantly. Jack Harper. Over the weekend, those eyes had popped into her brain all too frequently.

She couldn’t speak.

The big man lurched out of her chair and she took an instinctive step back into the hall, papers clasped to her chest. She saw a flicker of embarrassment flash across his features as he realized he’d startled her.

He was tall. She’d forgotten how tall, and she took another step back, her gaze glued to his. Hints of turbulence bubbled under his surface. Her heart pounded in her chest, but she wasn’t scared. Just caught off guard.

“Sorry.” Jack Harper grimaced. “I’d been waiting for a while and then got distracted by your parade of photos.” Both of them looked to the computer. He’d been watching her screen saver. An assortment of snapshots of her family. He lightly snorted as the screen morphed to a picture of her and her father bending over brown bare bones on a metal table; her nose six inches from the remains. Lacey scowled. The image wasn’t funny. They’d been at the Central Identification Lab in Hawaii. Where the unknown military dead go to be identified.

She studied the picture, remembering back six years. The bones had been a mix of two different men. Believed to be a chopper pilot and his copilot downed in Vietnam. She’d been deeply disturbed by the cold jumble of fragments. It’d added fuel to her desire to become the specialist she was today.

A snapshot of her and her buddy, Amelia, on a beach in Mexico filled the screen. Lacey pressed her lips together at the sight of the two skimpy swimming suits. It was her favorite picture of the two of them. Amelia’s head was thrown back in impulsive laughter as their arms tightly circled each other’s shoulders, blue tropical drinks in hand.

“Nice pictures.”

Jack was still eyeing the beach shot, the start of a smile at his lips. Jesus Christ. She glared at his profile, annoyed that he’d managed to both startle and embarrass her inside of ten seconds.

He jerked his gaze back to her, smile fading. “I’m Jack Ha…”

“I know who you are.”

He blinked and straightened his back. “Why are you in my office?” She didn’t need any reminders of their first meeting. Her irritated gaze dropped from those steel-gray eyes to her chair. “And in my chair?”

“I wanted to talk to you…”

“Who told you where to find me?” The words came out in a rush, harsher than she’d intended. The receptionist had strict instructions to announce all visitors. Lacey had jumped on her case before. She couldn’t believe Sharon would direct a strange man to Lacey’s office. Sharon knew her bad history.

He drew a hand through his hair.

“Don’t get mad at anyone. I told the desk I was from the dental school.” Her face must have grown furious, because his eyes widened. “It’s not her fault. I’m a good liar and very persuasive.” His gaze flickered from one of her eyes to the other.

She snorted and his whole stance relaxed, a slow tentative grin spreading across his handsome face. She had no doubt he was persuasive. Poor Sharon hadn’t had a chance.

Loud voices floated down the hall to them. Lacey glanced toward reception, hearing the high shouting voices of distraught women and the lower, angry tones of a man.

“What’s that?” Jack frowned as he looked down the hall, stepping in front of her.