A shiny black Chevy Suburban came to a stop a hundred feet or so away from where the three men stood huddled in the early morning air. The big vehicle’s expensive Italian tires, hardly standard issue, were caked with dirt from the muddy bayou road. An outsider would undoubtedly take issue with the designation ‘road’. Thankfully, natives of that part of the Louisiana delta weren’t so picky about such things. What had months prior been rows of sugar cane was now wild grass and dandelions… little more than a well-worn path through a currently untended tract of land.
“Five bucks says she’s in a crappy mood.”
“And whose fault do you think that might be?” Sheriff Cody Lebeaux's softly posed question left the two uniformed cops ducking their heads in shame. They were fresh out of the police academy and as green as rookies could get. Not a day went by that they didn't cause the sheriff to shake his head.
They had been first to arrive at the crime scene, dispatched there because of a call from an early morning aluminum can scavenger. And unlike the old man who'd found the dead body, the two officers had trampled extensively throughout the entire crime scene. They'd even shifted the young woman's body in order to give her a bit of dignity. She'd been sexually assaulted and then left in the field nude with her legs spread obscenely wide.
"Why don't you two make yourselves scarce," Sheriff Lebeaux ordered as the Suburban's door opened. "Unless you want to be a couple of human targets."
The two young men hastily complied. They wisely moved far away from the sheriff, careful also not to head in the direction of the tainted crime scene. There was no point in being found, so to speak, at the scene of their crime.
"Shit!" the sheriff swore beneath his breath. The crappy mood his deputies were betting on had just become a certainty. Alighting first from the Suburban was Shiva, one hundred twenty pounds of unflinching protection in the guise of a purebred German Shepherd. Named after the Hindu god Shiva the Destroyer, the highly trained animal had only one focus in life – to protect her master. And for some reason, Shiva saw the sheriff as a threat to be guarded against. He was going to have to do some delicate treading with them both.
"Morning, Doc," the sheriff called out. "Sorry we had to wake you."
"You didn't wake me. You interrupted our morning run."
Cody cast an appreciative eye at the woman standing before him. "A missed run won't hurt you. Hell, you could miss a bunch of runs and still look as fit as you do." He'd almost said 'gorgeous'. That choice would have been perfectly fine, for despite the misleadingly masculine first name, Evan Pierce was a gorgeous woman. She stood just a hair over five feet eight inches, with smooth brown skin that shone like a piece of burnished furniture. Her body was taut and trim from hours of physical training.
"Hmph." Evan dismissed Cody's observation with a sniff. "Where is my crime scene?" She looked past the sheriff to his two deputies, who were very carefully facing another direction. "And why did those two slink away when I pulled up?"
Cody prudently ignored Evan's second question. "The dead girl's right over there," he said. He gestured toward a spot just off the road and waited for her to determine her approach to the crime scene. He knew from previous experience that any chance for conversation ended as soon as she got down to work.
Evan Pierce worked her crime scenes in complete silence. She became engrossed in her examinations and lost any sense of those around her. If not for her companion Shiva, she would be completely vulnerable to someone looking to do her harm.
The watchful canine was stationed just outside the perimeter of the crime scene, exactly where Evan had commanded it. Shiva's keen gaze followed the sheriff's every move, warning him against moving any closer. He could not shift his feet without the powerful German Shepherd's penetrating stare turning his way. Curious, Cody took a half step forward. Shiva's upper lip curled, displaying a pair of deadly canine teeth. "Calm down, girl…I'll just stand right over here," he soothed and took several steps back. For several seconds the dog's rumbling growl continued to sound, as if alerting the Sheriff that the next incident would be dealt with sincerely.
Cody stared in fascination at the unusual pair. He'd never run across anything like Evan Pierce. According to what he’d been able to piece together through conversations with some of the older people of his parish, Evan was a third generation marine. Like her stepfather and his father before him she'd enlisted in the Marine Corps straight out of high school.
All accounts said Evan proved an exceptional soldier. She'd quickly risen through the ranks to become a specialist. When she returned several months earlier from her second tour of Afghanistan, the brass gave Evan Pierce a new assignment. While she was stateside awaiting another deployment, she would be available to the various local law enforcement agencies whenever they had need of a forensic scientist or coroner. That she had chosen to revisit her childhood home was ideal to the brass. Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav had left a shortage of medical personal in the southern Louisiana region. Her skills would be invaluable.
There had been quite a bit of confusion in the beginning. The name Evan had led more than a few neighboring sheriffs to believe that they'd called upon the services of a man to handle their forensic needs. They hadn’t been happy to discover that Evan was a woman.
Some had been even less thrilled when they saw her skin color. Those sheriffs hadn't hesitated to find reasons not to take advantage of Evan Pierce's services. Cody had no such bias. He couldn't afford to. Interstate 10 divided his parish. Aside from being a part of the drug corridor, I-10 provided quite a few convenient spots to dispose of unwanted things… like dead bodies.
End Notes: Louisiana is the only U.S. state divided into parishes instead of counties. It has to do with the state's very Roman Catholic history.
