Page 52 of Shark’s Rise

He rubbed his backside as if remembering the last time he had to get his booster, but I was happy to have the mental image. It was a momentary relief from what we were about to look at. A sight that already seemed unbelievable. Christ. I’d seen more dead bodies in the last six months than a man should have to view in an entire lifetime.

“Her head is on that end.” Bob pointed, saving us the trouble of having to uncover the whole body. Elijah was closest, so he dipped in and pulled back the scratchy burlap material.

We both sucked in a breath.

My crazy assistant, Terryn Ramsey, was the lifeless woman in the dirt. Her lips were blue and her skin was gray, but it was definitely her. That gaze, normally brilliant with her borderline insanity, was now a dull blank study of the city’s uncaring skyline.

Elijah respectfully recovered her face with the dull brown sheet.

As Elijah stood back up fully, Bob asked, “You know her?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

We crawled back out of the trench.

And then tried to come up with a plan.

“Thanks for everything here, Bob. Do you mind if we have a few minutes?” I said to the foreman.

“Oh, yeah, sure. I’ll see you up at the trailer. I’m going to take a lap around the site, though. Just to check on the guys. You know, make sure everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing.” He laughed good-naturedly and headed off toward some men who appeared to be welding.

I looked at Elijah and then scrubbed my hands down my face. “Seriously, bro, what the hell? This bitch has always been crazy. This can’t be pinned on me. Everyone knew she was off her rocker.”

“The media is going to have a field day with this. No matter what. And the fact that the body is here…” He held his hands up like the Messiah and turned in a semicircle. “So fucking bad.”

“We have to involve the cops, though. I’m not burying this and looking more guilty later if it comes out. No way in hell.”

“Agree one hundred percent. I’m just saying it’s going to be a shitstorm. I wish I were still in Twentynine Palms.”

That sentence made me burst out a sardonic laugh. “I never thought I’d hear those words come out of your mouth.”

“Right?”

“Okay. I need to call Abbi and let her know it’s going to be a late night. Once we call the police, we’re going to be here for the rest of the night.”

Now my friend was the one rubbing his hands across his face. “No wonder I have zero social life.”

“Well, Mr. Shark, you just can’t seem to stay out of trouble, can you?” said the detective to whom LAPD dispatch connected me. Surprise, surprise; he was a member of the same task force that had been out to the house investigating Tawny’s murder. The City of Angels must have been severely understaffed for wiseass murder investigators these days.

“More like trouble can’t seem to stop finding me, Detective.” I kept my reply even. “I had nothing to do with this. At all.”

“Didn’t you say this woman is, or was, your administrative assistant?”

“Well, yes.”

He snorted softly. “And her body just happens to show up at the site of the building you are very publicly erecting in our fine city?”

“That doesn’t make me guilty of murder, Detective. It would probably do you well to remember that.”

“Are you threatening me, Mr. Shark?”

“No more than you’re unfairly accusing me, Detective.”

The line went quiet for a few beats while Elijah shot death rays at me with his glare from across the room.

What? I mouthed and flipped the phone my middle finger.

“I’ll gather a forensics team and be over as soon as I can. You know the drill at this point. Don’t touch anything. Don’t move anything. This is an official police investigation at this point,” the man droned on.