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CHAPTER ONE
“My place isn’t that far.”
Andrea was about as happy as she’d ever been. A great night out with friends had turned into a lot more when she’d noticed the guy looking over at her in the bar, his eyes fixed on her as if he couldn’t quite make up his mind whether to come over or not. He’d been slender and good looking, with a kind of intensity to him that Andrea liked, but also a sense of nervousness that she liked more.
Now, the two of them were making their way along the Arnville’s boardwalk, looking out at the ocean, which was lit up by the shimmering silver of the moon.
“We have time,” Doug replied. “We can enjoy the night, look at the stars.”
He actually took her hand then. Had Andrea picked out a romantic? It was kind of sweet, in its way.
Ordinarily, Andrea wouldn’t have liked sweet so much, but tonight, that seemed to be the kind of mood she was in. It was why she’d been the one to go over to him, been the one to suggest that he buy her a drink.
She knew where the evening was heading, but maybe it was just as good to enjoy the journey there too. Andrea was willing to take her time about this, meander through the back streets of Arnville and take in the stars if that was what Doug wanted before they got to the main part of the evening.
Once she got him home, though . . .
“You haven’t told me much about yourself,” Doug said.
“What’s to tell?” Andrea asked. “I work in marketing. I like to go out and have a good time. I don’t usually do this kind of thing, though.”
“What kind of thing?”
Andrea smiled then. “Walking up to the best-looking guy in a bar and taking him home with me.”
“The best-looking guy in the bar?” Doug didn’t look so confident about that. There was something about that lack of confidence that was almost endearing. Maybe Andrea just liked a guy who was likely to do what she said.
Right now, what she wanted to tell him to do was to go with her into an alley and kiss her, so that she could get a taste of the way things were going to go later. She pulled on his hand, drawing him on with her. “Come with me.”
Andrea started to lead the way off the boardwalk into an alleyway that would give them a little privacy, not that she minded the thought ofalmostbeing caught right then.
Which was just as well, because as she and Doug stepped into the alley Andrea was sure that she heard a sound. Maybe there was someone already in the alley. Maybe she and Doug should find somewhere else, or just hurry back to her place the way Andrea had intended from the start.
There was another noise, closer now, and now Andrea felt a hint of fear. There were always dangers in any big city. Were she and Doug about to blunder straight into someone’s drug deal or run into a crazy guy?
“We should get out of here,” Andrea suggested.
“Wait, what’s that sound?” Doug asked.
“It doesn’t matter, it isn’t any of our business.”
Doug shook his head, though. Why did the first assertive thing he’d done all night have to be this?
“I want to check it out. Someone could be hurt.”
He set off down the alley. For a second or two, Andrea stayed where she was, letting him go around the next corner. Then it occurred to her that standing alone in a dark alley wasn’t the safest thing to do at night in Arnville. After a moment or two of thought, Andrea set off in Doug’s wake.
He’d obviously moved quickly because he was out of sight. Andrea had to hurry forward into a dingy alley lit by a single streetlight that flickered, half the light obscured by something hanging down from it.
Andrea was afraid now, really afraid. What was she doing here? Who was Doug, really? A guy she’d met in a bar. The way he’d been looking at her, had that been attraction, or had it been something much darker and more dangerous? What did she even know about him? For all Andrea knew, he might have been there stalking her, thinking about all the ways that he was going to hurt her, and Andrea had walked right into all of it.
Maybe she should go, maybe she should run.
Then she saw Doug, standing transfixed below the streetlight, staring up at whatever it was that was hanging there. Almost as if her body had a mind of its own, Andrea started forward, wanting to see what was going on.
It was another two or three paces before Andrea realized what it was that was hanging up there. She stood there, open mouthed, staring.
The body of a young woman hung there, tied in place strangely—awkwardly—one leg raised as if she was in the middle of some dance move, an arm flung out to the side as if reaching towards the nearby wall. In those seconds, Andrea found herself telling herself that it must all be fake, that this was some kind of sick joke involving a mannequin and some makeup.
