Skin Dancer Read Online Free PDF Page A

watching the distant vista of sky and the Black Hills change constantly, a panorama of nature’s most impressive abilities. The winter snows would start just after Thanksgiving, but for now, the June weather was perfection. South of town in the plains, farmers would be harvesting. Maybe if she didn’t find time for a workout at the dojang today, she’d at least take half an hour for a drive. She needed to do something to release the tension that had kept her awake all night.
    Two men were dead, and she was in charge of a major homicide case. She didn’t have a college degree, not yet, but she’d learned a lot about the psychology of criminals during her law enforcement studies. What terrible motivation had made one human being skin another? She had a bad feeling that at least one of the men was alive when he’d been tortured. Blood had covered his arms and torso, which meant to her novice eye that his heart had still been beating when the skin was removed.
    The grotesque horror of it was one of the problems. The act was so depraved that it numbed her mind. She couldn’t begin to figure out why someone would do such a thing. Yet that was exactly what she had to do. If she didn’t, she knew she’d never be given a case more significant than a traffic accident. Bisonville was a small town. She was a young woman with a checkered past working in a man’s world. No one was going to cut her the first inch of slack. Not even Jake could fix this if she blew it.
    When she entered the office at 7 a.m., Gordon Gray, the sheriff, was already at his desk. He looked up.
    â€œDeputy Redmond.” 
    Rachel put her things on her desk and walked to the private office where he waited for her. “Sir.”
    â€œI got a call from the crime lab boys in Rapid City. They told me some preliminary stuff, but I want you to talk to them as soon as they get to work. I also got a call from Frances Jackson who’s running the road crews. She’s concerned for the safety of her men.”
    Rachel nodded. Gordon was having a tough time. He wanted to be working the case, but his physical limitations made that impossible. “I’m on it, Sheriff.”
    â€œThere’s a lot at stake here, Rachel. Millions, if not billions, of dollars.” He used his cane to pace the room.
    â€œI know.” The development of Paradise, a high–tech city planned to rival Silicon Valley, depended on the road. Richard Jones, a local man and a techno wizard who’d interned with Bill Gates in the early 1990s, had unveiled his plans for what amounted to a bright and shiny community, an Emerald City of urban planning and modern marvels right in his home county. Such a development would change the face of South Dakota into a destination for growth and prosperity.
    â€œWe have to catch this killer. Fast.” Gordon held her gaze a long moment. “We could come up with a reason to hand this off to the state.”
    He was asking her if she was up to it. She cleared her throat. “I can solve this case. I can, Sheriff. You have to give me a chance.” For most of her life, she’d viewed herself as a victim. The job had given her self–confidence and a sense of self–worth. She couldn’t let the sheriff take that from her.
    â€œThe county is stirred up. There’re a lot of high emotions about Paradise, both for and agin’ it. A killer on the loose is the last thing we need.”
    â€œI know.” The different factions of the county—hunters, Natives, the scattering of green individuals who’d moved into the hills to escape development, ranchers, loggers—had worked out a tenuous peace. These murders could easily disrupt it. With the added tension of the four–lane that was going through land sacred to the Sioux, the place was a powder keg. Maybe that was why Jake was so staunchly publicly promoting the poacher–on–poacher theory of the murders.