CHAPTER SIX
The county coroner’s office had been one of Stella’s very first destinations on the first case she’d worked on. As they stepped inside the Farmington coroner’s office to sign in, gown up and sanitize, the sights, smells, and sounds of the place brought the old memories flooding back.
That first time, Stella had felt like a stranger, and an unwelcome one, too. She hadn’t even been a fully-fledged agent, and she knew that the men resented her presence. The clean, astringent aroma of disinfectant was associated in her mind with the fear and uncertainty she’d felt, and the stomach-clenching nervousness that she would fail and would shame herself at such an important time.
She hadn’t failed.
Now, here she was, partnered up with Maxwell and in charge of her very first case, and s
