Rosaria sees the other officers looking on with interest, and Morales sees that as well and says, “All right, I get it. C’mon, let’s duck around the corner.”

At the corner of the house Rosaria sees two other officers slowly going across the field, and Morales says, “The chief goes out of town for a doctor’s appointment, and look at the shitstorm that just got dumped over my head. So…Vasquez, is that it?”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

“What’s going on with the Army?”

Rosaria says, “If I tell you, will tell me what happened here?”

“Christ, yes. In fact, I’d love to bundle it up in a big box and bow and pass it over to you. I can’t tell you the last time we had a homicide in Three Rivers, and I grew up here. And now we got a double homicide. Damn.”

Rosaria puts her identification away. “I’m investigating an AWOL Army officer. She was last spotted in a town called Kenedy.”

“Sure, right down the highway.”

“Well, I was on my way to Kenedy when I got the information about the shootings here in Three Rivers.”

Morales frowns. “What, you got some crazy vet, suffering from PTSD, going on some sort of killing rampage?”

“No, not at all,” Rosaria says.

“Good. I got two nephews, good boys both, who’ve been to Iraq and Afghanistan. I won’t stand for that shit, anybody dissing our veterans. So why do you think there’s a connection?”

“I don’t know if there’s a connection,” she says. “That’s why I’m here. It just seems…odd, that my AWOL officer would be spotted in Kenedy, and then there’s a shooting here, not long after.”

“Your officer a combat veteran?”

“No, she’s an intelligence officer.”

“She got family around here?”

“No, she’s originally from Maine. She’s never been to Texas, has never been stationed in Texas.”

“She got somebody here she might have a grudge against?”

“Not that I know of.”

“And you don’t know of any connection between her and my town?”

“Not at all.”

Morales slaps at a buzzing fly and says, “Fair enough, you’ve been up front with me. Now it’s my turn. We got a nine-one-one call about twenty minutes ago, saying there were shots fired at this house. No big deal, hearing gunshots, but the caller said the shots came from within the house, and that she had spotted two people running away from the scene. First responder came in, saw bodies and blood, and that’s where we stand.”

“Any identification of the victims?”

“Two adult males, that’s all we know. Both died from gunshot wounds.”

“They rent or own the place?”

“That’s being tracked down.”

Rosaria nods. “Mind if I take a peek inside?”

Morales says, “Think you can stand it?”

“No,” Rosaria says. “I know I can stand it.”

CHAPTER 61

AT THE steps leading into the house, a young male Three Rivers police officer holds a clipboard in his slightly trembling hands, and near his feet there’s an open black plastic case. The door to the house is propped open with a rock.