She let go and just stood there staring straight forward, eyes wide. “Alright,” she breathed. “I’ll try to refrain.”
Crowley pushed Amanda back into the cooler, and we moved on to another victim.
“This is Kelly Porter,” he said, peeling back the cloth.
“The girl found at Linda’s,” I added.
Maggie’s eyes went even wider. Kelly looked the most like Maggie all the way down to the long honey hair and blue-chipped nail polish—even the freckles on her face were similar.
Then it was like something took over her, and she placed her hand on Kelly’s forehead.
“Poor thing,” she whispered before her body went rigid again.
Crowley gasped. “Really, Miss Maxwell! We cannot continue unless you can keep your hands to yourself… please.”
Maggie pulled back, this time right away, and Crowley moved on to another cooler.
“I’m sorry, it’s just so hard when they look so much like me,” she said, leaning over the body, inspecting the woman’s face and discreetly tucking her hand under the sheet so Crowley didn’t notice. “That could have been me. Still could.”
“I know it’s hard, dear, but Mr. Locke will keep you safe.”
Maggie’s gaze flicked to me with that look in her eye—she saw the killer.
“I think I’ve seen enough. I know I’m a possible target.” She stepped back. “Graham, can you take me home?” She brought her hand to her face and it almost looked like she was going to fucking cry.
“Yes, of course. Thank you, Dr. Crowley,” I said, placing my hand on the small of Maggie’s back and directing her out the examination doors.
As soon as they closed behind us, Maggie swung and backhanded me in the gut.
I grunted at the impact. “What the fuck was that for?”
Her jaw was set, eyes too bright. “You didn’t tell me I’d have to touchmultiplecorpses…”
“You didn’t.”
“You didn’t tell me Crowley didn’t know I was going to touch them.”
“What did you want me to say? I’m going to bring a civilian down to perform her own examination on the bodies we brought in that lookjust like her.”
“No, but you could have been a little more creative.”
“I think it went fine. The tears were a nice touch.”
“Yeah, well the only reason we even got any tears was because that last one kind of felt like half-melted wax and I got corpse ick on me now. It was either cry or vomit. It might still be both if we’re not careful.” She rubbed her hand all up and down my arm, trying to wipe off whatever sensation was freaking her out.
We reached the SUV, and I opened the door for her. “So… did you see anything?”
“Yes, I saw something.” She glanced at me, her tone filled with irritation as she reached into her bag, pulling out a wet wipe to thoroughly scrub her hand. The way her eyebrows pinched together and the tips of her ears turned red indicated she was not enthused with our little outing. If I wanted to stay on her good side, I should maybe get her a burger or… maybe pie—always made me feel better.
“Wanna share it with the class, princess, or do I have to guess?”
“God, give me a minute to process or I’m going to puke in your center console,”she said, teeth gritted, and got in. “Soooo—pie’s out of the question?” I closed the door at the dirty look she flashed.
I got in and waited, staring in bewilderment as she meticulously scrubbed every square inch of her fingers.
“You going allMonkon me, cupcake?” I chuckled.
She glared at me—the dirty look still firmly welded on her face. She didn’t say anything, not right away at least. She just… scrubbed.
