Breathe.
I flex my fingers, willing the tremor in them to stop as I peel my hands off the wheel. They still shake as I open the door, still shake as I step onto solid ground.
But by the time I reach Ryker, my hands are steady. My breathing is even.
Under control.
For now.
The moment our eyes meet, his expression tells me everything I need to know.
“Morning.” He looks uncharacteristically grim.
“Who’s the vic? Have they been identified?”
He nods slowly, while scanning the scene. “It’s Victoria Delmar.”
The evidence was leading to this but that doesn’t stop the sense of shock radiating through me. This wasn’t the outcome any of us were hoping for.
“Who called it in?”
Ryker gives me a baffled look. “Anonymous tip.” He lets out a wry laugh and shakes his head. It’s not funny, and we both know it. It’s the kind of laugh you give when you know you’re fucked.
“Shit,” I mutter, glancing toward the taped-off area where crime scene techs are already at work. “What’s the condition?”
Ryker exhales heavily. “Looks like she was dumped here. CSI hasn’t found much so far. The medical examiner estimates she’s only been dead a few hours.”
She’s been missing for a while but only died recently. Was she with the perpetrator the entire time? A million questions are rifling through my mind at once.
I follow his gaze to the cluster of trees ahead. Even from a distance, I can make out the dark shape lying on the ground, partially covered by a tarp. My jaw clenches.
So much for low crime. I thought I was getting away from this kind of shit.
“Still think it’s all fabricated?” Ryker throws me a pointed,I told you soglare.
I don’t respond. A dead body doesn’t change the fact that this case feels strange—off in a way I can’t logically explain without sounding like a woo-woo conspiracy theorist. But now, it’s urgent. We need to figure out what the hell is going on before someone else endsup like her.
“We’ll need to notify her family,” Ryker says, his voice quieter now. “But first, we have to manage the scene.”
“Are you going to call in the feds? We’re not exactly equipped to take on an investigation of this caliber.”
His spine straightens like a rod, eyes pinching. “No feds. And should that change, I’ll be the one who makes the determination.”
Clearly, I hit a nerve. Rather than argue, I nod. I know when to pick my battles with Ryker, and now isn’t the time. Even though I’m fucking right.We’re not equipped for this. For most of these uniforms, it’s their first time seeing a murder victim up close.
As we move closer to the scene, I catch sight of Morales by the patrol cars. She’s chipper, as usual, chatting with a city cop and gesturing animatedly. Even a dead body can’t rattle her, apparently.
It’s been over a week since she showed up at my house unannounced, and I’ve been actively avoiding her with little success.
She hasn’t tried anything and the more time that passes the more I think I’m overreacting. But the personal attention she’s been giving me lately, trying to get me to engage with her, it’s too much. Her bubbly demeanor is grating at the best of times, and now it’s just…awkward.
I told myself I’d keep things professional, but every time I see her, there’s this undercurrent of something I don’t want to deal with. A crush I don’t reciprocate, a situation I don’t want to navigate. So, I’ve been distant.
She notices me now, waving enthusiastically. I pretend not to see her, walking toward the scene instead.
Ryker casts me a look, but I ignore it, focusing on the task at hand. There’s a killer out there, and this could just be the beginning. Whatever Morales’s feelings are can wait.
I join Sergeant Vorheis and the rest of the detective’s uniton shift. We’re standing over the body, and I take a deep breath, letting the weight of the situation settle in. It never gets easier—seeing someone’s lifeless form, especially when it’s obvious she didn’t die of natural causes, the marred skin around her neck giving me a clue at cause of death.
