Page 2 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

Detective Vincent George stood ankle-deep in stagnant bayou water trying to get a better look at the body that had been discovered.

Or at least what was left of it. Thanks to the murky mineral-rich brackish waters sucking at his waders and the work of the local wildlife, the remains would be difficult to identify.

“I reckon it was a gator,” one of the park service officers commented.

“Ya think,” LaSalle muttered.

George shot his officer a stern warning look that put her back in line. Bryce LaSalle was a rookie with promise, but the park service had called the NOPD for help, not criticism.

With 26,000 acres of swamp, marsh, overgrown trails, and waterways, the Barataria Preserve was a popular dumping ground for human remains. One that gave the understaffed Park Service officers more than they could handle on a regular basis.

George wished he could say getting called out here to assist in investigations was a rare occurrence.

But that wasn’t the case. Today, they’d arrived in the bayou at dawn, but it still wasn’t early enough to beat the New Orleans humidity or mosquitos.

Four hours later, it was starting to get the best of his team.

He could practically feel the dissention on the bank behind him.

“I’m gonna be late for my own bachelor party,” Officer Neville grumbled.

George turned, mopping the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm. “You know I won’t let that happen,” he assured him.

It wasn’t just that Officer Alphonse Neville was about to be his brother-in-law that had George checking his watch, but disappointing his youngest sister wasn’t an option.

Slogging out of the muck, George took Neville’s offered hand and climbed the bank to stand next to his best friend. “There’s not much we can do here,” he said, shaking the debris from his waders. “You and LaSalle can head on back. I’ll stay and oversee the rest of things.”

“Nah, Sarge. We’re not gonna leave ya high and dry,” Neville argued.

George shook his head. “I’d rather that than catch hell from Cadie for making her fiancé miss his own bachelor party.”

Neville exchanged glances with LaSalle, silently weighing their options.

“That’s an order,” George said. “And wash the bayou stink off ya before you head out.”

The two officers grinned, already turning for the ATVs parked on the trail. “This don’t mean you get a pass to skip out on the festivities,” Neville called back, but LaSalle was yanking him along like she was afraid her commanding officer would change his mind.

He wouldn’t.

As disturbing as this scene was, George’s youngest sister’s wrath was worse. Particularly as her wedding date drew nearer.

With the sound of ATV engines fading into the distance, George turned back to the ravaged corpse being hauled from the bayou. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he said there wasn’t much to be done here. The bayou was always hungry and would ensure there was little to recover.

George would have to wait for the ME’s report to learn anything beyond what his eyes already told him. The corpse was female, Caucasian, and missing everything from the waist down, a factor he attributed to the local gator population.

The park officer who alerted George to the discovery came to join him near the body. “Decomp’s as bad as I’ve seen. Gonna make her hard to ID.”

George nodded his agreement. It’s why he hated being called to the bayou.

Water was nature’s eraser and a detective’s worst nightmare.

Add the gators, vultures, and everything else that dwelled beneath the dark, still waters, and there was little chance there’d be a scrap of evidence left to examine.

But that was the job. He didn’t discriminate. Every soul deserved a peaceful passage from this life to the next. George made it his mission to see they got one, especially those brutally torn from this world.

It's why he’d joined the NOPD. And it’s what he reminded himself every morning when he entered the crowded precinct on Royal.

His calling was more than to simply protect and serve.

Ever since he made detective, then been promoted to Sergeant of the Special Operations Division, he made it his mission to honor all the lost souls in his city.

And in New Orleans, there was no short supply.

Particularly when it came to those whom society tended to cast aside.

George had no way of knowing who this Jane Doe was, who was missing her, or how she’d found her way into the bayou, but he wouldn’t rest until he explored every option. Even if it meant adding her file to the ever-growing stack of cold cases by his bedside.

“Well, you know the drill,” George said. “Bag and tag everything.”

The quicker they got the body to the lab; the quicker George could get started on the paperwork. And with any luck, he’d still have time to make the obligatory appearance at Neville’s bachelor party.