Desert Bound (Cambio Springs) by Elizabeth Hunter Page A

But since all of the county’s deputy coroner investigators lived in the cities, Ted had been authorized to collect evidence at crime scenes and collect evidence in coordination with the newly formed Cambio Springs Police Department. Most of the time she simply confirmed natural deaths when older people died at home. As the town’s only doctor, the arrangement had worked well. And murders in Cambio Springs were rare. 
    Or they had been before Missy Marquez had killed Jena’s grandmother the year before, fearful of the old woman’s influence over the elders’ council. Crazed at the thought of having to leave the only place she felt safe. That fear had translated into Missy attacking and killing Alma Crowe to eliminate what she saw as the only obstacle to her husband’s plans to save Cambio Springs. Missy had been certifiable. And whatever Caleb thought, Ted knew the woman would have killed herself before she’d go to a human prison. It was twisted, but if Missy knew she was going to die, she’d have picked a shifter execution over suicide.
    And now, less than a year later, there was another suspicious death.
     “Coyotes are scavengers,” she said, still kneeling by the body, noting the lack of blood. Not only dead, but mostly bled out when the coyotes had started on him. Interesting. “Marcus was a big guy. He would have been dead before they started eating him.”
    “Could this have been an accident? Marcus shifted and the coyotes went after him in snake form?”
    “It’s a possibility. Coyotes will eat snakes if they find them. And if they killed him as a snake, then he shifted…”
    They all shifted back to human when they died. Born human. Died human. It was only the sticky in-between part that got interesting at times.
    Caleb nodded. “They’d have taken advantage of the corpse. Started eating. Makes sense.”
    “It’s possible, but…”
    “What are you thinking?”
    Ted was thinking that reptile shifters liked the sun, not the cold moonlight. But she said nothing as she looked around Marcus Quinn’s mangled body. Caleb had hauled a couple work lights out from behind the trailer at the job site, but there still wasn’t enough light to take good pictures. She stood up and looked at the thermometer.
    “I’m estimating he was killed between midnight and two o’clock. Some of that depended on what form he was in when he was attacked.”
    Quinns were the only residents of Cambio Springs who shifted to a cold-blooded creature, which was one of the reasons Ted had a hard time imagining Marcus would be out in animal form in the middle of the night where coyotes could get him.
    “You’re saying if he was a snake—”
    “Reptile shifters have to warm up a bit when they get back into human form. They do this shivering thing. It’s not instant. And even a few degrees could throw off the estimate on time of death. So I’ll make my excuses to the county, but between you and I, it’s impossible to narrow down death any more than I have.”
    “Great.”
    “It’s the way it is.”
    “Ted?” She saw Caleb’s eyes narrow and focus. “How likely was it that Marcus Quinn just happened to be hanging out in the desert—in snake form—and got accidentally killed by a pack of coyotes?”
    “Honestly?” She looked up at the nearly full moon. Nearly full. Not completely. “It’s not a moon night, Caleb. He didn’t have to shift. And it’s cool enough at night right now that he wouldn’t have shifted unless he had to. Reptiles are different from the rest of us. If it’s not warm, they’re not comfortable.”
    Ted looked down at the cheerful man who’d been such a hard worker. A husband. A dad. She hadn’t known him well, but from all accounts, he was a bright spot in an otherwise messed up family. She’d been laughing and joking with the man a couple days before, and now he was nothing more than a pile of meat for the scavengers. Of all the twisted, messed-up—
    “Alex is here,” Caleb