His Forgotten Colton Fiancée. Bonnie Vanak

       Chapter 2

      The abandoned hardware store had been totally flattened. West thought it looked as if a giant stomped on it, squashing the roof, toppling the walls and shattering what was left of the broken windows.

      West was so focused on solving the Groom Killer case, on finding Demi Colton, that he figured her into every crime that affected Red Ridge. Blowing up a building to take the focus off the murders would allow her to sneak around the city more easily, hunt down the grooms who’d refused to hide their love and relationships.

      But Demi hadn’t done this, unless she graduated to high-tech explosives.

      Then again, Demi Colton was a smart woman, a clever bounty hunter, and anything was possible.

      Lights flashed from RRPD patrol cars and fire trucks lining the dirt road in front of the abandoned hardware store. Nearby, several tent canopies sat over tables for collection of evidence—the command post—along with an industrial generator. Yellow crime scene tape had already been strung up along the perimeter, where a crowd of curious bystanders started to gather. He recognized some of the hard-core patrons from Rusty Colton’s bar and gritted his teeth. Drunk civilians were a pain to deal with, and worse at a crime scene.

      His pulse raced as he parked his black Ford truck. West grabbed his kit, climbed out and then skirted around the side to let out Rex. The Lab jumped out and stood close to his side as West surveyed the detectives and cops already milling around the scene—the abandoned building he and Rex had jogged by earlier this morning. He raked a hand through his hair and sighed.

      At his side, the dog gave him a reproachful look as if to say, I told you so.

      “Hey, I checked it out,” he told Rex.

      He took a deep, calming breath. Steady now.

      Every time he investigated an explosion, he remembered that day when he was seventeen, and his entire family had been killed by a bomb. He had been the sole survivor.

      Surviving only because he’d been out with his girlfriend, parked at the local lovers’ lane. The sex had been good, and quick and forgettable.

      What he saw when he arrived home had not been forgettable.

      Focus. Priorities. Safety first. West took another deep breath and glanced at Rex.

      “Let’s do this.”

      Every inch of the scene had to be processed, numbered and documented. His dog would alert him where the most evidence of the bomb was, while other investigators would sort out the scene for shrapnel embedded in the building and dirt.

      But not until he and Rex checked out the scene for unexploded devices.

      Ducking under the tape, he headed for the staging tent and grabbed a white hazmat suit and put it on, along with booties. Then he took the specially made booties he’d ordered for Rex and attached them to the dog’s paws, fastening them with Velcro. The booties would not only protect Rex’s paws from broken glass and debris, but helped preserve the integrity of the crime scene, as well.

      Chief Finn Colton saw him and headed to the tent. He glanced at Rex.

      “We’ve divided the building into four quadrants. Need you and Rex to search for secondary devices. When you give the all clear, I want you to search for evidence in the fourth quadrant—the southwest corner.”

      “No prob.” West motioned to Rex and they entered the blown-out building.

      The bomb had been a big one. Glass windows had been shattered from more than two hundred feet away and the boards that blocked the windows were now shards.

      Any hopes this was a prank pulled by kids were immediately dashed. Kids who liked to blow things up wouldn’t cause this kind of destruction.

      No, they’d take a pipe bomb into the woods and then explode it, watching the destruction from afar.

      He recognized Cal Flinders from the district Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms office. Cal was one of the few he trusted.

      West nodded at Cal and gripped Rex’s leash. Safety first. If there were any unexploded devices on scene, his dog would detect them.

      “Find,” he ordered Rex, still gripping the leash.

      Rex combed through all the sectors, searching for secondary devices. When he finished, he remained standing. West stared at the wreckage. No bodies today.

      Not like at his family’s house, where he’d screamed and tried to break past the barricades, get to his father, mother, two little sisters...

      Focus. Rex looked up at him expectantly. All clear, we okay? the dog seemed to ask.

      “Quadrants one, two, three and four all clear,” West called out.

      Next, he began scouring the area of the building assigned to him. Rex sniffed through the debris. The bomb had detonated in the building’s center, where the worst damage was, but shrapnel traveled far. Patterns of the damage indicated how powerful the explosion was. Fortunately, no one had been injured.

      Rex nosed beneath a piece of wood and sat. West hunkered down and examined the evidence.

      Caked with dust and soot, it was heart shaped and partly bent. A woman’s gold compact, with a butterfly design. West photographed the item and then studied it. It was covered with a film of white powder.

      Bomb residue.

      A woman had been here. Possibly slept here, or at the very least, stayed here for longer than a few minutes. He started to put a marker by the place where it had been, and hesitated.

      Maybe Demi Colton hadn’t planted this bomb, but this suggested she might have worked with the unknown suspect, the unsub. Or another woman had.

      His cop instincts tingled. The RRPD assumed he was simply an FBI canine officer temporarily assigned to Red Ridge while one of their officers recovered from an injury.

      No one on the force knew he was secretly investigating to see if the RRPD and Chief Finn and the other Coltons were deliberately dragging their heels on the Groom Killer investigation. If this compact belonged to Demi Colton, it might vanish before it could even be processed as evidence. Were the Coltons protecting their own? He didn’t know. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if his own secret fiancée was keeping her half sister’s whereabouts to herself. Better to be safe and bring the compact back to the district office to test it.

      Looking around to make sure no one saw, West bagged the evidence and carried it separately instead of dumping it into the official evidence collection bag he carried.

      Why blow up an abandoned building? What was the deal with the overkill? Was someone testing out how to cause as much destruction as possible?

      Was it Demi Colton trying to diffuse attention so she could target her next victim without the cops on red alert for her?

      He couldn’t remain there staring at the debris. He had to do his job. An RRPD cop in a hazmat suit came over as West removed an item from his kit.

      “Nice.” The officer whistled. “You feds have the funding for the latest equipment.”

      West looked at him. “You’re contaminating my crime scene.”

      “Chief sent me over to see if you need help.”

      “I don’t.”

      Grunting, the cop left. West switched on the ion mobility detector and swept his assigned quadrant. The machine could pick up trace