Part 13: Lawdy, Lawdy Stay.
A phone was buzzing across the floor and stirred Echo from the best night of sleep she'd ever had. Her head was tucked under his chin, his skin so nice and warm, she could hear his heartbeat. She nuzzled her face into his neck and breathed him in deep, as he slowly woke up too.
He reached over and picked the phone up off the floor and looked at the screen, he kissed her forehead before sitting up and answering. "Mathias."
Echo rolled onto her back and stretched out, staring at the muscles move in his back as he rubbed his hand over his face. "Yeah, I'll be right there."
He stood up from the bed and started grabbing his clothes from the floor. "Is everything ok?"
"Something going on at the Rez, so I've got to go." Pulling his shirt over his head, he then leaned down to her "But as soon as I'm done, I'm coming back here, ok?"
Echo grinned up at him as he then kissed her deeply and then went for the door. Once she heard his car start and take off in the gravel, she allowed herself to let out a little squeal and covered her face with the blanket. Flashbacks of the night before made a shiver run down her spine.
Then her phone lit up with a call, she groaned as she rolled over to grab it out of the floor. Longmire's name was on the screen and she groaned again before answering. "This better be good, Longmire."
"I know it's your day off, but I need you to come in. We have a body."
"Alright, I'll see you soon then." and with that she started out of the bed and back to work for the first time in weeks. She was really just hoping that she would get at least a couple easy days, not just immediately go into a dead body.
When she pulled up to the scene, she pulled her jacket a little tighter against her body. As much as she enjoyed the cold, she was ready for Spring. Walking up to the singlewide trailer, the coroner was already there waiting to take the body out. She could smell the copper scent of blood as she started up the stairs and knew this was going to be bad.
Two males, early to mid 30's were laying in a large pool of their blood. Ferg was busying himself farther off into the trailer, as far from the bodies as he could be. Walt walked up to her, "What do you think?" he asked as he handed her some gloves.
Looking around the room as she pulled them on, "I think for this town to be so small, you have a lot of bodies, and it seems like no matter what we do, someone is always dying. Are you sure Absaroka County isn't cursed or haunted?"
Walt kinda chuckled, "Ya know, I haven't really ever thought about it, but you might be onto something."
Echo squatted down beside the first victim, "Blunt force trauma to the back of the head, probably with a pipe, or something metal. It looks like it was one hit did him in, so they had a lot muscle behind their swing." Walt and Vic were standing beside of her listening and watching her hand motions as she was explaining what her thoughts were. She stood up and went over to the other body, "This one is completely different. This guy was hit several times, they went above and beyond to make sure this one was dead. Seems like a certain passionate rage, this is who they were coming for and I think the other guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"This one is 29 year old Jeremy Boggs, works construction outside of town, sounds like he only came in once a month, if that. Now your crime of passion boy is 31 year old Scott Crawford, owned the trailer. According to the neighbors he was really quiet, kept to himself, stocks shelves at the grocery store overnights."
"Any idea how the two knew each other?" Echo asked to no one in particular. She was walking around and looking at the pictures on the wall, the letters on the table.
At that time Ferg came out from the back of the house, "I think I may know something about it." Everyone turned to look at him, and he was holding a couple things in his hands.
Echo couldn't help but let out a chuckle, "Are those sex toys, Ferg?"
"Yeah, his bedroom is some 50 Shades of Grey sex dungeon, and this notebook here has names and times and deposits written down in it. I think Scott was...ya know...running a business in there."
The look on Walt's face was priceless, "Wait, what are you trying to say about these two knowing each other?"
Echo couldn't hold it in any longer and started cackling at the naive Sheriff, and then even harder when it all finally clicked for him. His face turned slightly red and he coughed to try and cover it.
When she finally got herself together, "This just makes me assume there is a jealous or scorned lover of his. Stumbled up in here and caught something that they didn't like, and boom. That's just a guess though."
Walt nodded his head and walked out the front door, the rest of them following him out so that the coroner could come in and remove the bodies. Vic followed her to her truck, "You seem awful happy."
Echo didn't say anything, but turned her red face towards the truck as she opened the door to toss her belongings inside. "With Zach?" Vic basically squealed.
"Shhh! What is wrong with you? And no, nothing happened between Zach and I."
"So wait, with who?" then the lightbulb clicked and Vic's eyes grew wide. "Mathias?!"
Echo rolled her eyes at Vic one more time before ignoring her and getting in her truck and heading off to check on the name that Ferg had found.
After chasing a couple different leads, it was late when Echo pulled into her driveway. Mathias car was sitting there and the lights were on in her house. She literally smacked herself in the forehead, she had gotten so busy today she didn't think to message him and let him know she was going to be home late.
Rushing inside, Mathias was standing at her stove finishing up whatever he was cooking. Whatever it was smelled absolutely amazing, he turned when she shut the door behind her. He was wearing jeans and a long sleeve white shirt that he had the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, showing off his forearms.
"I'm so sorry, we had a body."
"Don't apologize to me about doing your job." he answered as he walked over and slid his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her into a long kiss.
Echo groaned as he pulled away, and he let out a little laugh while quirking up one side of his mouth in a devilish grin. "Eat something first, tell me about your day, and then there will be more where that came from."
"You're the devil, you know that right?" he laughed as he turned to walk back towards the stove.
Echo shook her head and walked into her bedroom, kicking off her boots and tossing her work clothes into the dirty clothes hamper. Then she grabbed a pair of flannel pajama pants and a grey t shirt and headed back out into the kitchen while tying her hair up into a messy bun.
He was putting some food on a plate for her and sitting it down on her tiny kitchen table, "What do you want to drink?"
She smiled as she sat down, "Water, please."
He sat a bottle of water down before joining her with his plate of food.
"So how was your day, everything ok on the Rez?"
A look crossed his face, "Yeah everything is fine, I'd rather not talk about it. Tell me about your body."
Nodding her head, she let him change the subject. "Two men, had their heads beat in pretty much, gruesome scene."
"And you handled it just fine, I'm sure?" he said as he shoved a fork full into his mouth.
"I've seen worse." She shrugged as she took a bite too.
"You're pretty tough, you know that?"
She threw her head back and laughed, and just the sound of her laugh made a huge smile stretch across his face.
Once the food was gone, he stood and placed both plates into the sink. Then he turned around and grabbed her by the hand and led her off to the bedroom, whipping her around in front of him he kissed her like his life depended on it.
When it was over they were laying in the bed trying to catch their breath, she had her head on his chest, and he had his arm around her waist.
"Hey, that trouble going on at the Rez means I may not be able to make it over here a lot to see you, until I get it all resolved, but I'll try to get here as much as I can, ok?"
Echo lifted her head and kissed him, "I will take any time I can be with you, no matter how small."
He grinned and kissed her back.