“But I thought… Weren’t we expecting a pentagram?”
“Yup.”
“Ugh, I’ll give you six bucks.”
Ari turned and puked into a bush.Jez was strangely proud of how far she’d come over the past year.In the beginning, she would have puked first and then made the snarky comment.
“This is what happens when you lastminute.com your homicide and send a moron to do a professional’s job,” Jez said.
“Could have been a bad brief from the client,” Spider suggested.“Just cut a star into her chest,” she mimicked snippily.“What kind of— A fucking star, dipshit.Didn’t you learn how to draw a star in kindergarten?”
“Or maybe the client is in prison and therefore couldn’t speak freely?”
Fucking Levi.
“But playing devil’s advocate, what if Justin really is guilty of murder?”Ari asked.“We’ve made a lot of assumptions.”
“Assumptions based on facts and experience.Let’s look at the sequence of events that would have needed to take place for Justin to be responsible… Amie exited the office building before Justin, and for some unknown reason, she decided to hang around in the parking lot for six minutes instead of leaving.Justin then stopped, and instead of checking she was okay, he killed her, stuffed her body into his truck, and drove home.And where’s her car?”
“Okay, that does sound crazy.”
“Not as crazy as Jessalyn showing up right after he got to his house.Logic says that if he had a body stashed in his truck, he would’ve told her to get lost.And don’t forget the dog.No way would he have invited a dog inside.You saw how easily Kermit sniffed out the body.”
“Kermit’s trained to do that.”
“And why do you think Sin started training him?Because one day, somebody whose name rhymes with Rice temporarily left a body in her car, and Kermit paid a little too much attention.”
“Why would she— Actually, forget it.I don’t want to know.”
“So, Justin finally decides to dispose of the body, on his own damn land, and just in case the cops are total dumbasses, he leaves a potted fucking plant on the grave like a makeshift crime scene marker?No.Justin’s many things, but he isn’t stupid.”
“Okay, I get it.”
“And that’s just the logistics.Could I kill a person, then calmly take a shower, entertain a houseguest, and eat Chinese?No problem.Could Justin?Only if the houseguest was a psychiatrist and the egg fried rice was laced with Xanax.”
Spider pulled a face.“You couldn’t entertain a houseguest.Small talk isn’t your thing.”
“Whatever.I’m using poetic licence here.What I’m trying to say is that we’re looking for someone like me, not someone like Justin.Except they’re borderline amateur because the plant thing is ridiculous.”
“Trying way too hard,” Sin agreed.
“They panicked.Justin was supposed to be alone that night, but Jessalyn arrived, and they had to improvise.”
“So they followed him to the cemetery and stole the plant?”Ari asked.“To break his alibi?”
“He never uses his mirrors.”
“What if there’s a tracker on his truck?”
“If there was, they removed it.I checked both of his vehicles.”Jez glanced at her watch.11:03.“We need to get her out of here.”
The Cleaners were on standby, a specialist team who didn’t just clean, they erased evidence of a crime ever happening.Usually, the Choir worked with the West Coast team, but there were several groups dotted around the US, and it was the East Coast team who’d be helping today.They’d transport Amie to an appropriate facility for an autopsy and forensic testing.
“And then we need to find the people behind this and make sure they can’t do it again,” Sin added.
“That’s a given.”But before Jez could make the call, they heard voices.“Ari, go head off the men.They don’t need to see another woman cut up like this.”
Especially Grey.He was ridiculously squeamish, and the smell from one pile of vomit was quite bad enough.
