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“I’m not sure Felix is banging anyone except Christabelle these days.” Archer switches hands, moving my bag to his left, and circling his right around my bicep to steady me. “He’s caught the bug, Mayet. And I dunno if you’ve noticed,” he tugs me back and presses a smiling kiss to my temple, “but it’s kind of all-encompassing and obsessive. I suppose we should expect a wedding soon enough.”
“A wedding?” I move off the last step and ignore the driver who comes forward to greet us. “They’ve been dating for five minutes! Felix is the world’s flightiest slut. No way he’s getting married.”
“They’ve been together about a month,” Archer counters. “And I knew I was marrying you from the moment we met. Smith.” He dips his chin in greeting of our driver. But he doesn’t hand over the bag of medications when the man reaches out for them. Instead, he leads me around the car and opens the back door for me to slide in. “I knew within minutes what I wanted. And it all worked out in the end, didn’t it?” He slides in after me, setting the bag on the floor and turning inward to continue his assault on my neck. “We’re married. We’re so fucking in love, it hurts. And now we’re on our honeymoon. Finally. So what makes you think Felix doesn’t have that same sense of certainty?”
“Because he’s Felix.” Scowling, I ask myself silently why the hell I’m thinking of my brother-in-law, anyway. I’m on my honeymoon. In the back of a luxury car with my husband. And a mere hour from our destination. “Give me a hint about where we’re going.”
“Hmm?”
“I mean, I know we’re in Florida. So the beach is obvious. Did you hire a cabana, a cabana boy, and an unlimited drinks package?”
“No cabana boy,” he chuckles. Smith closes the trunk with a slam and moves around to the driver’s seat. “But we have enough liquor to keep you buzzing for a while. And no to the beach.”
“No?” Surprised, I pull back and search his eyes. “We’ve come all the way to Florida tonotsit on the beach?”
“We’ll see the beach for a moment. And we can probably stop off and dip our toes in the sand if you want.” He glances down atmy lap when my phone begins chirping in my back pocket. The device, something I long ago forgot existed. “That’s your five-minute call, Chief Mayet. Take it while we’re driving. Then it’s going off and we’re focusing on just the two of us.”
“Not going to the beach?” Distracted, I reach back for my phone and check the screen to find Doctor Aubree Emeri’s name flashing for attention. She’s my best friend. My second-in-charge. She’s my closest friend on the planet. But my mind swirls sluggishly around sand and sea and bottomless cocktails. Swiping the screen, I straighten up in my seat and close my eyes as Smith starts the car forward. “This is Mayet.”
“Hey.” Aubree speaks while she moves. Her shoes tapping against tile and painting a picture in my mind of the George Stanley building. My second home. It’s funny; the place can bring me such intense frustration, and yet, homesickness as I drive further and further away. “How’s your trip going? Did you get a sunburn yet?”
“I literally got off the plane three and a half minutes ago.” My alcoholic buzz drifts away like fog on a warming morning. “Now we’re in the car. What’s up?”
“I got a case.” She speaks as though someone else’s death is her good fortune. “Arun Savese. He’s thirty-nine years old. Father of two. Married. His oldest is about to graduate high school. His youngest is in ninth grade.”
“You caught a case and got his entire history, all in the five hours I was in the air?” Cranky, I shoot a look toward my husband. “You work fast, Doctor Emeri.”
“Well, this one was easier than usual. Arun has an internet presence. He works in pharmaceuticalsanddoes a lot of the posting shit. He gets paid by the view on social media, so he happily exploited his personal life to get that money rolling in.”
“Oh, well…” I push my bottom lip forward. “That makes things easier then. How’d he die?”
“That’s where it gets a bit tricky. I’m not completely set on a cause just yet. The wife found him on the kitchen floor this morning. Shesweeeeearsit wasn’t her, according to Detective Fletcher.”
“They always swear it wasn’t them,” I snicker. Sitting back and crossing one leg over the other, I settle in for a chat that will no doubt extend beyond Archer’s five-minute limit. “What are the particulars? TOD?”
“Time of death was between three and six this morning. When I walked on scene, the body had been moved by the wife, who attempted CPR. Arun was bleeding from the nose, eyes, and ears. Broken capillaries in his face. Bloodshot sclera. Cherry red coloration of his skin. Petechial hemorrhaging and discoloration of his fingernails.”
“Discoloration?”
“Black,” she inserts easily. “They’re damn near black, Chief. His pupils are unusually small, and his stomach also shares that cherry red coloring.”
“Okay…” I already know what killed our friend. This one, for a medical examiner, is a slam dunk. “Did you send away for tox?”
“Yes. And I extracted cerebral fluid, but things are running slow in the lab, which means I have to wait.”
“Things shouldn’t be running slow in the lab,” I grind out. “Considering I just hired a new guy to speed things up again. Has Doctor Raquel explained herself?”
“Uh, well…” Aubs hesitates. “Yeah. Sort of.”
“Sort of, how?”
“She, uh… might’ve mentioned something about running her damn lab how she pleases, the chief doesn’t scare her, her team are doing their best, and that if I were to hypothetically call you, our chief, and mention the slow processing times, she’s going to stab me with a centrifuge.”
“Stab you?” My brain tries hard to picture the lab tech’s threat. To paint that scene, with all the gory details that would entail a biologically accurate representation. Blood and guts and all that involves. “With a centrifuge?”
Aubs blows out a laughing breath. “That’s what she said. It doesn’t have to make sense for me to feel it anyway. So yeah… That’s what’s happening with the lab. She promised to get the results over as soon as possible. But considering we’re only about two hours into this case, I kinda figure patience is needed.”
“Fine.” I look at Archer and meet his curious stare. “Remind me to call Doctor Raquel and scream at her a little bit.”
