Deadly Lover (9 page)

Lily pointed to the perfect edges. “She must have opened it for him before the attack.”

Sean leaned forward and made an hmm noise in the back of his throat. “It’s possible he threatened her and she went along until she reached her breaking point.”

“Maybe.” Or she knew her attacker and went along until he got too rough. But that was a stretch, wasn’t it? If this attack was related to the incident yesterday, they were looking for a drug-crazed Ormney. Not someone likely to be successful seducing a seventeen-year-old girl. But why would the victim let an Ormney she didn’t know into the apartment. It didn’t make sense no matter how Lily looked at it.

As she stood over the body, she let herself see the whole—the victim rather than the details. So much destruction. Tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Suddenly, the room seemed too small and she couldn’t slow her breathing, now coming in shallow, hitching pants.

Lily strode out of the room. She didn’t stop until she found a closed door halfway along the hall. With a shaky hand she twisted the knob, pushed it open, and stepped inside. She pressed her back against the nearest wall and let it take some of her weight. Her head fell back against it as she stared at the ceiling and sucked in a few deep breaths. She’d had to get away from the smell, the blood.

All that blood.

She heard Sean step into the doorway and hated that he’d seen it get to her. She’d seen worse; before the accident she’d been able to distance herself. She didn’t know if she’d ever get that back.

Sean stepped inside and closed the door. “Lily, why are you doing this?”

She couldn’t give him an answer when she wasn’t sure she knew.

He handed her a plastic rectangle that was cool to the touch. “Put that on the back of your neck.”

Lily did as instructed. The cool sensation spread through her at turbo speed and her thoughts cleared. The room she’d picked must have belonged to another child at some point. The room was small on the bed was the right size for a teenager. Most of the personal positions had been stripped and the bedspread and curtains were generic blue and brown stripped that suited a guest room. There were a few things, a soccer jersey had been framed and hung on one wall. A baseball sat on the dresser.

Sean eyed her without any judgment. “Lil, I don’t know what you’ve been doing for the past five years, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this. You were meant to be a cop, but that doesn’t mean you have to work this case. Hell, I wouldn’t work it if I didn’t have to.” He sighed. “And butting into a Metro investigation won’t win you any friends in the division. We want you to come home.”

She said nothing. JAX Metro hadn’t been home for a long time, but she knew he was talking more about family, the O’Leary family.

Sean stood beside her, calm and relaxed. Green eyes cool and measuring. “I can’t believe you’d screw yourself this way for Bradley.”

The accusation whipped through her like a jolt of electricity. She focused her full attention on him and leaned into his space, her jaw locked so tight she could feel the muscles in her face twitch. “Is that what you’re thinking?”

He held his ground and grinned, but his eyes were still serious, worried. “Feel better now?”

Lily’s body sagged as the anger left her and she moved back and shook her head. “Jerk.”

Sean bumped her with his shoulder and they smiled at each other. A moment of silence passed easily between them, then he rifled a hand through his blond hair and slid back into cop mode.

He took a deep breath like a swimmer preparing for a dive. “Anything about this victim seem familiar or connect back to you in any way?”

Lily shook her head. “No. Why?”

He walked over to the dresser and grabbed the baseball, squeezing it tight in his fist. “There was one thing I had the techs bag and remove from the body. I wanted to let you see the scene without the distraction, first.”

“What…”

“There were lilies pressed into her hand, post mortem.”

Her stomach twisted painfully. Hell, by the time they got through this investigation her insides would be pretzel-shaped. “You think that has something to do with me? That whoever’s behind this knows I’m on this case?”

He tossed the ball from one hand to the other and shrugged. “It might be a message for you. Maybe a threat.”

“Or it might not have anything to do with me. Maybe it was remorse. Lilies are used for funerals all the time.”

Sean’s eyebrows shot up. “Ormney funerals?”

Lily had no idea, so she lifted a shoulder in answer.

Sean set down the baseball and tugged at his collar. “According to the mother, the flowers aren’t from the house. If he brought them then we’re talking premeditation.”

“Premeditation doesn’t fit with the last attack. What does this mean, Sean?”

“I don’t know yet. But whatever this is, I think you should stay as far away from this case as possible.”

Lily frowned. “I can’t do that.”

“At least move in with Mom and Dad for a while. Get out of this neighborhood. Damn it, Lily. Your apartment is under a mile from both crime scenes.”

She let the implication soak in for a moment. Of course she’d known, but hadn’t considered it significant. Sean’s statement made it impossible to ignore. It was getting harder to ignore the coincidences. “Did you find a connection between the attacker and the victim yesterday?”

He glared at her for a ten count before he answered, “Nothing, yet. Jennifer Richards was a licensed sex worker. Mary Santini was just a kid. I doubt we’re going to find much to tie those two together. Maybe the canvas will turn up something, but I’m still putting my money on finding answers at the grocery where Mary worked.”

Lily removed the strip from the back of her neck as she straightened, leaving the support of the wall. “I’d like to tag along.”

Sean’s jaw clenched before he spoke. “Can’t say I’m shocked.”

“If you find a way to ditch Bradley, I’d be thrilled,” she added.

A hint of an honest grin tightened his lips for a moment and lit his eyes. “Can’t say I’m shocked by that either. There is still the neighbor to interview.”

“Didn’t one of your men already take care of it?”

“Yeah, but he didn’t get much. You’ll probably want Bradley to talk to her, anyway.”

“Good idea.” Lily smirked. “He’ll need to be able to tell OA we were thorough.”

He stood at the window and watched her walk down the street with her cousin. Once again, she was leading those idiots in the right direction—exactly as he planned. He wanted them close. Wanted to see their futile efforts to identify him. Wanted to see the moment when they understood his cleverness—the rightness of his actions.

No, he didn’t expect them to come right out and applaud his actions, but quietly, in whispers in the locker rooms, in hushed glee at the local cop bar, they’d acknowledge he was doing what had to be done. What they, with their rules and policies, could not. When they knew what was happening, they’d start looking for opportunities to join in, shooting first and asking questions later.

He looked back to the old woman sitting in her medi-chair in front of the built-in entertainment wall. Stupid cow probably didn’t even remember he was still in the room. By the time he was done, his crusade would make him unforgettable.

Lily had always liked the irony of The Corner Grocery’s location, center of the block, sandwiched between a hov-board repair shop and a community med clinic. She’d shopped there occasionally to supplement her standing weekly order of Ready-Meals. Like the crime scenes, it was only a few blocks from her apartment.

Word of Mary’s death had already made its way to the store. Despite the bright, open space and cheery décor, the atmosphere inside felt heavy and close. The shop owner moved slowly, her features devoid of expression, as if all the vitality had drained from her body.

Sean took the lead in questioning the fiftyish woman with short blond hair and kind eyes. Lily stayed close enough to listen but let her gaze wander. A reed-thin boy stood at the scan point near the doors, viewing a training program and looking grateful for the nearly empty store. He’d probably been recruited from some other task to fill in when Mary hadn’t shown up for work.

A young Ormney male came out of the storeroom carrying a stack of large boxes. He didn’t bother with a hov-pallet and showed no signs of strain under the heavy load. His claws were extended, piercing the cardboard to secure a steady grip on the bottom box. When he noticed Lily watching him, his eyes narrowed, almost disappearing in the dramatically colored black and red bands of his face. He swept the room with a slow glance, catching on Sean then returning to the aisle where he sat the boxes and began unloading the contents, filling the shelves.

“I knew something terrible had happened when she was late,” the owner was saying. “Mary is never late. I told her a million times to be careful. This can be a dangerous neighborhood for a pretty young girl. That’s why I asked Oz to start walking her home in the afternoons. She—”

“Oz?” Sean interrupted.

“Yes. He’s very reliable. He started going by and walking her to work last week.” She made a small choking sound. “He...h-he’s not dead too, is he? I thought, I mean, isn’t he the one who found her?”

“No,” said Sean. “This Oz, you haven’t heard from him?”

Lily wanted to turn more of her attention to the shop owner, but couldn’t take her eyes off the stock boy. His movements had become sharp and choppy, pushing and shoving the boxes instead of placing them carefully on the shelf. He didn’t look their way but he was definitely listening.

“No,” said the owner. “I can’t imagine...I hope he’s okay.” Her voice broke on the words, sounding unsure, hesitant.

“What can you tell me about Oz?” Sean’s tone was all compassion and sympathy, the kind of voice that could charm fleas off a hound.

“Oz is a good young man. A hard worker. He’s been working here about a year. Keeps to himself mostly, but friendly to the customers. If it weren’t for the curfew I’d have made him my evening manager.”

Her reference to the curfew could only mean one thing. “Oz is Ormney?” Sean prompted her gently.

“Yes,” she said. “That’s why I trusted him to be the one to walk with her. They’re very trustworthy, and everyone knows they don’t look at our girls the way a normal boy would. He’d never take advantage of Mary. Not
that
way, you know?”

“Yeah, I know,” said Sean.

The shop owner huffed with exuberant relief. Relief because Sean understood? Or did she take his statement as agreement and absolution from any guilt?

The stock boy had stilled completely, one hand resting palm down on the top of a box, the other at his side, frozen.

As Lily watched, his claws slowly dug into the top of the box. The sound of the shredding cardboard left her sickened. She felt again that terrible moment when Kiq’s slashes had slowed and become a desperate digging. She’d been too weak to fight then. Too weak to lift her arms to block and push. Too weak to scream at the pain.

She closed her eyes and focused her thoughts back before the fear. Memories of Kiq’s Ormney-eyes laughing even when his wide thin lips hadn’t seemed to know how to shape a proper smile. Gentle, clever Kiq.

She silently counted until her pulse rate and breathing were perfectly normal. The Ormney had more acute senses than humans and she couldn’t let him notice her fear. She opened her eyes and studied the stock boy more thoroughly. Calmer, she saw that he was a few years younger than Kiq had been. Despite his more than human strength he was small, underdeveloped in comparison to the more mature Ormney men.

Like Kiq, he’d have been born on Earth. Grown up in the same world Lily had. As she slowly stepped toward him she was aware of Sean’s eyes on her, but he made no move to interfere.

The boy watched her approach, his expression guarded in that slumped shoulders, chin up way only the young can pull off.

“
Glin eli dossry.”
Lily watched his face carefully as she spoke the words, stopped just out of arm’s reach, then introduced herself.

His eyes widened in surprise, making them stand out against the mask of his facial markings. The rest of him stayed still, ready, cautious. “Where’d you learn that?” he asked.

“A friend,” she said. Kiq had explained that the greeting translated roughly as
friend of your descendants
.

“We don’t use the old language anymore.”

“Only to tell your history and to speak your prayers. I know. But my friend told me if I ever needed to gain the trust of any of the Ormney, I should use the greeting. Said it would make it clear that he’d been convinced I was a friend of his people.”

He frowned, then relaxed subtly. “To teach you this greeting he must have respected you a great deal. I’m called Ajak.”

“Do you know where Oz is?”

She watched him struggle with his answer. He’d acknowledged her trustworthiness as required by his culture’s protocol, but he didn’t yet feel that trust in his bones. She hadn’t earned it and a kernel of guilt ate at her for putting him in that position.

“I only want to talk to Oz,” she said. “A young girl is dead. One of your coworkers. Wouldn’t he want to help us find out who hurt her?”

His scowl deepened. “He’s not a suspect?”

Lily took a deep breath. It would be easier to lie, but she couldn’t do that. Not when she’d invoked Kiq’s trust. “I’m sure Metro will consider him a suspect. But I’m not Metro. I’m a civilian contractor working for OA.”

“You came in with the Metro detective.” The boy was smart and cautious.

“Yes, Metro has orders to cooperate with me. The OA wants to make sure this doesn’t cause the Ormney any trouble.”

Ajak darted a look to Sean then back to her, clearly unsure what to do.

“Until I see him, speak to him myself,” she continued. “I don’t consider Oz anything but a potential witness and possibly a potential victim.”

“Victim?”

“Yes. I think whoever killed the girl might also have tried to harm Oz.”

“Mary?” His posture softened at the mention of the girl.