Page 19 of Red Boar's Baby

Diana left Costa feeding Emmeline,grabbed breakfast from a drive-thru, and drove at probably unsafe highway speeds to get home in time to change hastily and not betoolate to the midmorning meeting to go over the crash information at the sheriff’s office. Luis was there; he gave her a questioning look, she shot back a thumbs-up, and he nodded.

Costa texted her that he had the all-clear to send someone to the crash site, was sending over some agents who ought to be there about noon, and where did she want to meet them? As if realizing that this was a very no-nonsense block of text, he followed it up with a picture of Emmeline, apparently sitting in his lap and playing with a stapler on his desk; all Diana could see was the top of her head.

I see finding someone to babysit is going great,Diana texted yet.Exploded any ovaries yet?

Why do women say that?He followed it up with an “ick” emoji and then added,There’s nothing sexy about exploding testicles.

Diana sent him a barf emoji and a thumbs down.

See??he sent back.

Diana realized that she was grinning goofily at her phone, and hastily got her face under control.Have them meet me at the hangar for the sheriff’s dept helo. I’ll send you the maps link.

She got back a saluting-face emoji.

She got sucked into work and forgot to ask who he was sending, but when she finally pried herself away with the not-untrue explanation that another agency had her services for the afternoon, she found Costa’s agents already waiting for her. Agent Caine she already knew. He was dressed just as he had been last night and every other time she’d seen him, wearing a black suit jacket and black jeans, sunglasses hiding his eyes, perfectly closed off and inscrutable.

There were two women with him that Diana didn’t know, both of them giving off the slight tingle that meant they were shifters.

“You know we’re going to be scrambling around on a mountainside, right?” she said to Caine. “If you want to change into more practical clothes, you can probably borrow something from the guys here.”

“No,” Caine said.

Diana shrugged—if he wanted to be wildly uncomfortable all afternoon, that was his problem—and turned her attention to his companions. One was a college-age young woman, deeply tanned with a blotchy patchwork of freckles. She wore a short-sleeved plaid shirt, jeans, and practical hiking boots, as well as a floppy-brimmed canvas sun hat. At least one person here looked like they’d been hiking at least once in their lives, Diana thought.

The other woman was in her thirties and wearing a short pink sundress over white jeans, with a pink bow holding back her blonde hair.

“Hi. I’m the pilot, Diana Reid. And I am going to insist on sunscreen, hats, and hiking boots for everyone here. Are you both agents?”

“They’re interns,” Caine said. “We’re short-staffed. Jessie Boyd and Tiffany Dawes.”

“People call me Fifi,” the blonde said, holding out a hand. “I’m sorry. What was that about sunscreen?”

Diana provided a tube of SPF 50 and, while the women slathered themselves, found a spare pair of her own boots for Fifi, whose feet were within about half a size of her own.

“I’m fine,” Caine said, but after a hesitation he accepted the sunscreen tube from Fifi.

“You are going to wear a hat or you’re not going out there,” Diana said. “If you get bit by a snake or twist an ankle in those shoes I suppose that’s your business, but I will not tolerate preventable heatstroke.”

There were a lot of hats available, most of them very far from stylish. Diana picked out two practical fishing-style hats with a canvas drape across the back and handed them out. Fifi gave a little sigh and settled hers over her fluffy blonde hair. Caine put his on with an expression that suggested he was enduring a mild form of torture.

“Mine’s okay?” Jessie asked.

“Yeah, and since you’re the one person who came prepared, I’m going to consider you my backup if either of these two falls off a cliff or passes out from the heat.”

In truth, it wasn’t that hot even down here, a pleasant spring day of seventy-five or so. But it was easy to become dehydrated at the high elevations of the mountains, so in addition to her other precautions she made sure there was plenty of readily accessible water in the helicopter, along with the usual emergency supplies.

“One of you gets to be my copilot,” she said. “Who wants it?”

Caine looked as unexcited as every other time Diana had seen him, but Fifi and Jessie were both practically bouncing on their toes. Diana smiled.

“Okay, one of you gets it on the outbound trip, then you’ll trade coming back. Agent Caine, you’ll be in the back. Have any of you been in a helicopter before?”

She got eager confirmation from both women that they hadn’t, and a grunt from Caine. Diana handed around headsets and showed them how to use them, then went through a brief safety lecture, and they were ready to leave.

She slid into the pilot seat and texted Costa.

Headed to the crash site now. Cell coverage is spotty to nonexistent out there. Anything special you want us to look for?

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