In the Ground (David Wolf Book 14)

the valley, swallowing the view in blackness. The sun poked out, lighting a rainbow on the rear of the storm.
Deputies and forensics workers were popping open their doors, meandering back into action outside.
Daphne Pinnefield, Lorber’s assistant ME, walked toward the trailers, carrying a kit bag over her shoulder. She donned latex gloves, popped open one of the doors and disappeared inside.
Wolf opened his door. Yates and Rachette climbed out, too.
“You headed to the ER?” Rachette asked.
Wolf gave him a thumbs up and headed up the incline to his SUV. “I’ll see you guys later.”

Chapter 3
Wolf drove west on Highway 641 for half an hour, his wipers on as yet more rain beat down. He bypassed Highway 74, which would have led him to the southern edge of Rocky Points and continued south toward Ashland instead.
The curves of the county road along Arapahoe Creek were tight and heavily wooded, eventually straightening out and dropping in elevation, spitting him out into the wide, flat Ashland Valley south of Williams Pass. The sage-covered landscape was doused in the shadow of the thirteen thousand-foot peaks as the late-afternoon sun dipped out of sight for the day.
Once he reached the Sluice-Byron County Hospital parking lot and shut off his engine, he took his time strolling into the brightly lit glass building, savoring the rich scents coming off the sage-dotted fields after the heavy rains.
Or was he stalling?
It had been over a year since he'd been inside this building, when he used to come over on lunch breaks to see Lauren. He wondered if he would recognize any of her friends and colleagues. If they would recognize him. And if so, so what?
As he stepped through the still wet parking lot, his mind shifted back to Deputy Cain’s obsidian eyes.
He walked through the automatic sliding glass entrance, into the familiar smell of cleaning products that reminded him of Lauren’s scent when she used to come home from long shifts.
Inside, Deputy Cain faced away from him, scratching the back of her head. She wore no rings.
“Hey, how’s she doing?” he asked.
“Oh, hello, sir. They’re just admitting her.”
Patterson sat in a wheelchair, one of her legs propped up while a nurse removed her shoe.
Patterson gritted her teeth.
"You okay?" the nurse asked. Patterson closed her eyes and leaned her head back in response.
A female doctor Wolf recognized walked up to them. "Sheriff.” She nodded.
“Hello, Dr. Johnson.”
Deputy Cain introduced herself and they shook hands.
“I hear you fell."
Patterson put up a thumb, keeping her eyes closed.
"Looks like you hurt your arm, too.” Dr. Johnson swiped at her tablet computer. “Did we treat you for that?"
"Nope, I went to the urgent care up in Rocky Points."
“When was that?”
“Two weeks ago.”
"Well. That’s not good.” Dr. Johnson chuckled.
Patterson looked up at her, and Wolf felt his insides go cold.
Dr. Johnson swallowed. “Right. Well, Lisa’s going to take you up to get some x-rays. And then we’ll go from there. We’ll try and get you taken care of as fast as we can so you can go home.”
With Patterson wheeled away, Wolf turned to Deputy Cain. "Have you informed her husband yet?”
Cain nodded. “Heather called him on the way here. I mean, Chief Detective Patterson, sir."
He cracked a smile. "If you two are on familiar terms now that’s no problem with me. Thank you for driving her in, by the way."
She nodded, her eyes deliberately straying from Wolf’s.
He found his sheriff title made some people nervous. Or maybe being a satellite deputy she was unaccustomed to rubbing elbows with this many people in one day.
Wolf's phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out.
Charlotte Munford-Rachette, Detective Rachette’s wife and deputy within the department herself, was calling. With Undersheriff Wilson out of town for the last two days and due to be on vacation for the next seven, she’d been helping him with administrative work. He sent her call to voicemail.
"I don’t think we’ve met before.”
"That’s right.” She gave a tight smile.
"It’s crazy, it’s been a year since I took over and I’m still meeting people for the first time. It’s a big county…for being one of the smallest counties.” He smiled. “You must be new, am I right?”
She looked at him with a puzzled look and then skipped her gaze out the window.
Silence fell between them, and at that moment he got the distinct feeling she was not nervous, but, rather, that he was missing something else entirely.
His phone vibrated again. He pulled it out and read a text message from Charlotte.
You forgot to sign the 10D-104s. White needs them by tonight.
On cue, his phone rang, this time showing District Attorney White’s name. Wolf walked to the windows and put the phone to his ear. "Hello, Sawyer."
“Hey, you never sent the 10D-104s."
"Yeah, I know. Sorry I forgot. Something came up here at the mine in Dredge."
"So I heard…but I still need those, and by the end of today. We talked about that. Without Wilson or Patterson here I need your signature. Can’t use Charlotte.”
“I know, I know.” Wolf checked his watch. It was already 5:40. "I’m at County. I can be back in about 30 minutes.”
“County? Why?”
He told White about Patterson.
“You kidding me? Woman needs to ride around in an ambulance.” White sighed into Wolf’s ear. "Well, I'm heading home. Katie will be waiting for you." Katie Hepler, one of White’s assistants, had a daughter in second grade and a husband who worked for Chautauqua Valley Water. Wolf hated the thought of making her miss dinner with her family so he could sign three pieces of paper. Wilson wouldn’t have forgotten to sign them. But Wilson was out of town, of course.
"I'll be there as soon as possible." He hung up and went back to the waiting area.
When he found Deputy Cain was gone, he walked to the automatic doors and stepped outside, catching sight of her just as she climbed into her Jeep Cherokee.
Wolf raised a hand to wave as she drove out of the lot, but dropped it. She was speaking