The beast kicked her in the head and everything went dark.

CHAPTER FOUR

Eve opened her eyes, cheek to the ground, her vision blurred, and immediately sucked in air, drawing in some dirt along with it. She coughed, breathed deeply again, and unfurled herself, her vision sharpening on a bit of chopped white onion just beyond her nose. Her head throbbed and it hurt to breathe, but she didn’t think she had any broken ribs.

Her gun was pressing painfully against her side, pinned between her and the ground, but it was a good pain. It meant that whoever struck her hadn’t taken her weapon and wasn’t going to shoot her or somebody else with it.

She sat up slowly, slightly dizzy. The sleeping bag and trash were gone and so was whoever, or whatever, had attacked her. No, it was a whoever. She didn’t believe in monsters, despite what she saw.

Or thought she saw.

Eve looked back down at the cul-de-sac. The CSU team was just emerging from their van, so she’d been out for only a minute or two. Bracing herself on a pine tree for support, she rose unsteadily to her feet. She touched the side of her head, above her right temple, where she’d been hit with the rock and kicked. Her hair was wet and when she lowered her hand, she saw blood on her fingertips.

Shit.

She glanced around and spotted a rock a foot away with fresh blood on a sharp edge. He could have caved her head in with it but didn’t. She was lucky to be alive.

Eve took a deep breath and, still shaky, started back down the hill, immediately lost her footing, and slid on her ass for a few feet. She sat still for a moment, feeling stupid, then got up slowly, brushed the dirt and weeds off herself, and tried going down the hill again, more carefully this time.

She got down to the backyard without stumbling and headed for the Explorer. Duncan got out of the passenger seat when he spotted her and met her halfway.

“What the hell happened to you?” he said.

She knew how awful she looked. Her head was bleeding and her clothes were dirty. She wasn’t off to a great start as a lead detective. But she pressed on as if she was oblivious to it. Maybe that would make him ignore it, too.

“I was looking around up on the hill and came across a sleeping bag and some trash,” she said and kept walking, Duncan keeping pace beside her. “Before I could take any pictures, someone hit me from behind and ran off with the stuff.”

“Did you get a look at him?”

She wasn’t going to tell him about the hairy beast. It was a crazy story that would go viral around the station and undermine any chance she’d ever have of establishing credibility.

“No,” she said, and reached into the Explorer’s passenger door pocket for one of the napkins Duncan always kept there. He spilled a lot of stuff on himself.