Page 3 of Fatal Deception

He looked up at her, already knowing the answer, but he was a detective. Had to ask. Read the reaction. “Some same-named relative of yours?”

“Not that I’m aware of.” Her hands clasped together in front of her before she released them. She managed a strange gesture, almost like a shrug. “That’s my name. And when I put that together with some of the other issues that have been going on, I… I know it might not be criminal, exactly.” Her eyebrows drew together. “But I don’t know what to do.”

Always interested in a puzzle, Copeland didn’t dismiss her out of hand. “Whatother issues?”

She went through them. Her power being turned off. Messages from a cemetery. He supposed it sounded like a mix-up, but it was definitely a strange one.

“I guess it’s just some sort of mistake—they’ve mixed up my name with this poor person, but I don’t know how to get to the bottom of it. I was hoping you could help, even if it isn’t criminal…exactly.”

Copeland considered. It was a bit of a strange gray area, and he didn’t mind those. In fact, he rather preferred them to the Bent County obsession with black and white, right and wrong. If it had been anyone else, he would have jumped right in.

But this was Audra Young. He studied her. Stiff and polite. Pretty and untouchable. All Western tough girl with the strangest undercurrent of…soft princess.

And she absolutely did not like him—whether it was because of his abrasive personality, that Bent County distrustof outsiders, or something else, he didn’t know. Didn’t really matter. Except, he wanted to know.

“I do have a somewhat pressing question before I decide.”

“Why am I bringing this to you and not…literally anyone else?” she asked, with just ahintof self-deprecation.

He tapped a finger to his nose. “You’re smart.”

She made a noncommittal sound. “Rosalie is enjoying her honeymoon, and I want it to stay that way. I don’t want her coworkers at Fool’s Gold to be put on the spot where they might have to lie to her. Vi’s due any day now, and Thomas might not take his full paternity leave if he’s handling this for me. With just about every other person I considered, this gets back to Rosalie or Vi. I know how they all worry about me out there by myself. I’d like to keep this…quiet.”

“Being out there on a big ranch would be a cause of worry, I’d think.”

Her chin lifted. Her eyes got frosty again. He couldn’t help but smile at the attitude.

“Women have been out here on their own for centuries, Detective,” she said in that clipped way he’d never heard her use with anyone else.

“It didn’t end well for a lot of them.”

“And that’s on the male species, isn’t it?”

“Or bears.”

She rolled her eyes. “Are you going to look into it for me?” she demanded, an interesting and sharp snap to her tone.

He looked from her to the urn. Her name. Engraved. A strange little puzzle, and he didn’t have anything too pressing going on. Maybe this would keep him busy until something big cropped up again. “Yeah. I will.”

He watched as her shoulders relaxed, just a little. He hadn’t realized how tense she’d been until they did. “Thank you.” She tried to smile. Her mouth curved but her eyes stayed flat.

Tense. Stressed. Worried.

He looked down at the package. He supposed itwasa little worrying to get delivered remains with your name on them.

So once she left, he sat down and got to work.

Chapter Two

Audra couldn’t say that leaving the remains with Copeland made her feel any better about the situation, but it took something off her plate. And she could dislike the man and still trust him to do his job.

Everyoneshe knew talked about what a good detective he was. He’d helped find Vi when her ex-husband had kidnapped her. And even though he hadn’t handled the case with Duncan and Rosalie last year very well, he’d apologized to Rosalie. It took a big man to do that, she knew. She was all too familiar with small men, having grown up in the shadow of one.

That being said,no oneshe knew talked about what agoodman Copeland was. Not like Thomas, for example. Also a Bent County detective. She was certain she could survey a hundred Bent County residents about their impressions of Thomas, and the very first thing they would say would be:Thomas Hart is a good guy.

Copeland Beckett? Not so much. Maybe it could be chalked up to a little insider bias. Thomas had grown up here. Copeland was from Denver, which was considered a big city by most people around here. Audra didn’t like to believe she carried any biases. People deserved to move into Bent County just the same as people deserved to stay or leave.

But it was hard to deny that she didn’t feel comfortable around the guy and she didn’t know what else to chalk it up to.