The ambulance screeched to a halt, and the EMTs descended, hastily gathering equipment. The first person, a solidly built woman with sandy blond hair and a determined look, reached them first. Her badge identified her as Laurette.

She knelt beside the body and began checking for vitals. “Did you call it in?”

“Yeah. We found her here.” Gabriel pressed Erin’s face into his chest, both to comfort and to hide. “Tried CPR, but it was too late.”

“CPR.” Laurette repeated Gabriel’s squeezing of the dead girl’s arm. Looking over her shoulder, she shouted to the second EMT, “Bring the gurney, Jason. She’s already in rigor.” The look she shot at Gabriel changed from determined to suspicious. “You said you found her?”

“Yes. We were down the street, and we heard a scream. Came running. Found the body. Called it in and started doing CPR.” He shrugged. “Then you arrived.”

Laurette’s partner joined her. The gurney had been unpacked and waited beside him. “What about your friend? What did she see?”

“Same thing.” He held Erin tighter. “I need to take her home.”

Laurette glanced over her shoulder at her partner. “She could be in shock. Maybe we should take a look at her.”

“No, thanks.” Gabriel stepped away from the body and the twin sets of eyes watching him carefully. “I just need to get her home.”

The partner shifted to block his exit. “You gotta name, sir?”

“Gabriel Moss.” They stood toe to toe, with a quivering Erin between them. The massive paramedic topped Gabriel by at least two or three inches, and only one of them had a terrified woman in his arms.

“You planning on leaving?”

“Yes.”

Laurette, smelling the rise of testosterone, edged between them. “The police may need to question you, Mr. Moss.”

“Give them my name. They know how to find me.” Finished, Gabriel scooped Erin into his arms. One glimpse at the glazed eyes sent a shiver of fear along his spine. He had to get her away from here. Dammit, he thought as he strode past the paramedics, what the hell could he have been thinking, letting her anywhere near the body? She was a freaking academic, someone who knew nothing about the nastiness of death, despite her protests to the contrary. He’d let himself forget that she inhabited an ivory tower littered with theory, not experience. And he’d let her try to save a dead woman.

The lights from the ambulance shirred the sky in white and crimson, its sirens muted. A crowd had gathered, drawn by the excitement. They watched in morbid curiosity as the paramedics confirmed the girl’s death. They lifted her to the gurney and shrouded her in white.

Onlookers craned for a glimpse of the deceased, eager to see the dead body.