Call of the Cougar (Heart of the Cougar Book 2) by Terry Spear Page B

place. See if there's anything I missed the other two times. Others combed the place for clues, but they hadn't been here or seen what I saw when I was here before. Like, for instance, I hadn't thought of it at the time, but those men came out of a storeroom at the saloon. They had to have had another way in since they had only left recent footsteps from the storeroom to the bar. Not that it means anything. And I'm sure that investigators would have discovered this, but I just wanted to see it for myself."
    "Sounds reasonable."
    "So who did you call?"
    "My boss. Who will inform your boss and—"
    Tracey's phone buzzed in her pocket. She ignored it. At least it was on vibrate, and Howard didn't hear it. But when she didn't answer her phone, Howard got a call.
    He answered it and glanced at her and smiled a little. He handed her his phone. "Your boss wants to talk to you."
    She grimaced and took the phone. "Yes?"
    "Don't you ignore my calls. I know your phone was vibrating in your pocket. What the hell are you doing going back to Anderson? The only way I want you up there is to go with a military escort."
    "What would the odds be that I would run into these men yet again?" And if she did, she was killing them. Every last one of them.
    "In your case—good."
    She smiled a little at that, despite not wanting to agree that it was kind of true.
    "You have one hour up there."
    "But…"
    "One hour, Special Agent Whittington."
    He only used her title and last name when he was pulling the boss card on her.
    "But—"
    "Let me talk with the patrolman."
    She sighed and handed the phone to him.
    Howard smiled a little at her and stuck the phone in his pouch. Her mouth gaped for a second.
    "What?" he asked, clearly not getting what surprised her.
    "My boss wanted to talk to you. You just hung up on him."
    Howard's phone rang and he chuckled, pulling out his phone again. "Yes, sir." He glanced at Tracey and nodded. "Yes, sir. One hour. Or you send in the troops. Got it."
    When he ended the call, Tracey frowned at him. "We can't get anything done in one hour."
    "I've heard you're a bit of a wild card. I've gone along this far, but this is it. One hour and we're back on the road headed for Yuma Town."
    She nodded, grateful she was allowed this much time, truly. She hoped maybe her boss would be so busy, he'd forget the time. Knowing Mick, he'd set an alarm.
    Maybe her police escort would forget the time. Even better? The patrolman wouldn't get reception in town so neither her boss, nor his, could remind him of the hour.
    They finally reached the first building in the town. She was about ready to begin inspecting the buildings all over again when movement on the cliffs caught her eye. She turned and fully focused on the rocky boulders. A cougar was standing on a boulder up near one of the decrepit miner's shacks, his tan coloration nearly blending in with the rocks.
    Howard glanced in the direction she was looking and pulled out his gun.
    "No," she said, laying her hand over his gun, pointing it toward the dirt ground.
    "That could be the cougar that killed one of the gunmen. The same man who stabbed you. You were just damn lucky the cougar didn't come after you too, once you were bleeding."
    "The cougar saved my life."
    "You were just lucky." Despite his objection, Howard holstered his gun.
    Was the big cat a shifter? Or a real cougar?
    Howard was right if it was a cougar; he could be dangerous.
    The cat sat down on the boulder and observed her. She was certain he was a shifter. An all cougar would most likely leave. If it was one of the shifters, was he looking for more clues like she was? She hoped so.
    After not finding anything new at any of the closer buildings, she headed for the saloon and saw that the storage room did have a door that led to it from the outside.
    She examined it. "No fingerprints. Nothing," she said, more to herself than to Howard.
    She noted Howard glancing at his watch when she headed for one of the churches. No