Page 26 of The Shadow Friends

“What am I supposed to tell Lloyd?”

“Whatever you used to tell him when you left for an op. ‘Goodbye, dear, don’t ask where I’m going.’”

She shook her head. “I’m retired, Rodrigo.”

“Yet here you are, back in the game. Fretting over puzzle pieces.”

“Because it scares me. This shouldn’t be happening, not in my town.”

“Then let’s work together.” He moved closer. “Don’t you miss it, just a little? The challenge. The thrill.”

She looked up at eyes that once had watched her with hunger in their hotel bedroom. Eyes with the same dangerous glint that had reeled her into his arms.

She stepped away from him. “There’s too much happening right here, in Purity. This is where I need to be.” She turned to leave. “Let me know what you find out in London.”

“There’s no way I can convince you to join me?” he called out as she walked away.

“Did you really think you could?”

“One can always hope.”

“Goodbye, Rodrigo.”

“Since you’re staying in Purity, there’s something you might want to pursue.”

She stopped and looked back at him. “Yes?”

“What if the doctors are wrong? What if Dr. Maslov doesn’t have Ebola?”

“I’ve already thought of that,” she said.

“And?”

“I’ve set the wheels in motion.”

He laughed and gave her a jaunty salute of farewell. “I knew you would.”

Chapter 11

Jo

Monday

This was just like old times, the three of them standing around a body on the autopsy table. Since major crimes in Maine were investigated by the state police, Detective Robert Alfond was now in charge of Karen O’Brien’s homicide case. Alfond was clearly not happy to be here, but this time his annoyance wasn’t directed at Jo, who was usually the focus of his irritation. He was scowling at Karen O’Brien’s body, as if the victim herself had offended him, just by having the nerve to get murdered on a Friday night, thus ruining this beautiful October weekend.

“I have to say, I’ve never seen this before,” said Dr. Wass, the medical examiner. “Not many injuries bother me, but the eye?” He shuddered.

On that point, Jo could certainly agree. Under the bright morgue lights, Karen O’Brien’s injury appeared even more grotesque, and Jo had to force herself to stay focused on the body. She had seen stab wounds before, but a blade plunged into the eyeball? Having a mere grain of sand or a fleck of ash trapped under her eyelid was painful enough.

“I’d say the cause of death is obvious,” said Detective Alfond.

“It would certainly seem so.” Dr. Wass turned to look at the victim’s skull x-ray, which was displayed on the computer monitor. “There was penetration through the vitreous of the eyeball and the bony cavity of the orbit, all the way into the frontal lobe of the brain, resulting in a massive hemorrhage into the cerebrum. Except for some bruising around her neck, I see no other injuries.”

Jo pointed to the purplish discoloration on the hip. “And this? It looks like a bruise.”

“It’s just livor mortis. She was lying on her right side in the trunk, and that’s where the blood pooled. Friday night it was mild, low of forty-two degrees. And Saturday morning, it was sunny and sixty-five. Inside the car trunk, it would have gotten even warmer, which sped up the stages of rigor mortis.” Wass bent the corpse’s knee and flexed the leg. “Limbs are now flaccid.”

“Time of death?” asked Alfond.