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“There’s more…” Jeff breaks off, rubbing the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact, and I know whatever else he has to say we’re not going to like it.
“And?” Ben prompts.
“Well, you saw the body, she was lying on the bar, stripped bare and stabbed repeatedly.”
“God,” I whisper, too easily picturing that and hating it. Elaine didn’t deserve this. Hell, no one deserves that kind of death.
“The eyes and tongue were missing, just like Skylar.”
I gasp, my stomach churns and for a moment I think I’m going to be sick.
“Maybe you should wait for us in the car,” Gavin suggests, and I’m sure he can see the paleness of my face and guess I’m about to be sick.
“I’m fine,” I lie. “Go on, Jeff. What was different?”
“The urn was there, with fresh ashes. Still, he didn’t pose her, but under the body…”
“For Pete’s sake, Jeff, spit it out,” Ben says, clearly at the end of his rope.
Jeff rubs the side of his neck, agitated.
“There was a flower under her body. It might have been there, and he just laid the body over it, but I think it was placed there after Elaine was stabbed.”
“A flower?” I whimper, fear tinting my voice. I feel like I’ve been sucker punched.
Gavin definitely hears my fear because he steps into me, putting his hand at the base of my spine. His long fingers flex and stretch out against me, instantly warming me. His touch doesn’t feel sexual, he’s trying to reassure me, and I don’t step away—even when Ben stares Gavin down and then turns his angry gaze at me. I’ll deal with him and Gavin later. Right now, my focus is all on Jeff and what he has to say.
“Yeah, Luna,” he says, his voice softening. “A flower.”
Jeff has been around enough to know about Stone Lake’s history. He’s known me since way before I was elected into office. He definitely knows about the murders in Stone Lake thirteen years ago, because he was called upon to reexamine the evidence on one of Darren’s appeals.
“What kind of flower?” Gavin asks the question that I can’t bring myself to give voice to.
“A Blood Rose,” he confirms.
I hear the savage gasp that leaves my mouth, and I feel the way my legs quake, threatening to give out on me. I feel disconnected from everything.
It can’t be… not again…
Darren was arrested for those murders. He’s in jail. There’s not been another one since the day he was taken into custody.
“Fuck,” Ben barks. He might not have been here thirteen years ago, but he knows what that means.
He knows what it means to me.
I told him all about Jules’ murder when Skylar’s body was found.
“Ben…”
“It’s okay, Luna. Let’s get you out of here. I’ll get my men to lock the scene down, and I’ll get you home, before going back to the office,” he says. “Doc, when you get the body and the proof analyzed—”
“I’ll get them to you A.S.A.P.”
“Good enough,” Ben says.
“I can take her—” Gavin says, looking at me.
“I’ll take her, Lodge. Luna is my responsibility, not yours.”
I’m in shock, or I’d be lighting into him over calling me a responsibility. I don’t want to be that to any man.
What does that even mean?
Ben and I really do have a lot to talk over…
Gavin
“Where’s your partner?” Kingston asks.
“I’m not exactly sure, I’m assuming he went back to D.C.”
“Assuming?”
“That’s what I said,” I respond, not going into detail with Kingston. “What do we have so far?”
“Not a lot. I’m about to go through the video footage from the bar, but the guy was so meticulous with the body, I doubt there will be much there.”
“Probably not,” I agree.
After I left the bar, I went back to my hotel, took a shower and tried to wrap my mind around a woman who had been nice to me dying a brutal death hours after she left me. I thought in this job that I had seen everything, but this is definitely a hard pill to swallow. I was so drunk last night, and Elaine wouldn’t let me leave the bar without a ride. I had no one to call. There was no way I could call Luna. Dern and my father were completely out. That left me alone—a familiar refrain with me being back in Stone Lake. I swear this place is poison to me.
She drove me to the motel and then came back to get me early this morning, but I was too out of it. I hated that she called Luna but was perversely glad at the same time. I’m all over the fucking place. I need to get a handle on my emotions, and I need to talk to Luna.
First, however, I need to know where this case is going. The addition of a rose at the murder scene brings more questions. It could still be the Cremator, copycatting earlier murders in Stone Lake to play with me. It would be like the sadistic fuck to do that. I rub my side where the largest of my stab wounds were. I want this son of a bitch dead. I hate that he always seems to be two steps in front of us.
