Blood and Fire (McClouds & Friends #8)(132)

She had died from it. He could at least read it.

It was hard going. Seeing it all laid out in that dispassionate, scientific way did not distance him at all. He couldn’t help but imagine the scene as it happened. See the blood. Hear the blows, the screams.

He couldn’t help but imagine it happening right now, to Lily.

He was about to shove the thing back into its envelope just to save what was left of his sanity, when something caught his eyes.

. . . well-healed surgical incision over a resected left ovary . . .

Resected left ovary? Weird. He read it again. Yeah. One of her ovaries was gone. And “well-healed surgical incision” indicated that it had been gone before her death by torture and beating.

“Do you know anything about Mamma having an ovary removed?”

She looked affronted by the question. “Excuse me?”

He held up the report. “This says her left ovary was removed. Surgically. Why would they do that? Cysts, maybe, or a tumor?”

“I never knew a thing,” she huffed. “Maybe she got a sex disease from one of her men. That kind of thing happens to women of her sort.”

He should have known better than to ask her a reasonable question. She was like a backed-up sewer pipe. Spewing filth every time she opened her mouth.

The phone rang upstairs. Grandma Pina turned her head, clearly torn between the desire to answer and the danger of leaving an unsupervised lowlife thug loose in her basement.

“Go get your phone,” he urged. “I’m almost done. I’ll be good.”

She sniffed again and scurried up the stairs. He was glad to see her go. His stress levels were high enough without her help.

He lifted the autopsy report and read on.





28


Does he care?

The question echoed in Lily’s head. Lily took a gulp of coffee. Lie.

“No, he does





n’t care about me,” she said. “It’s just sex.”

Her contrary nature made the words pop out. They were immediately followed by knee-melting fear that she’d just signed her own death warrant. The slow, bloody, screaming kind.

King just smiled. “Ah, Lily. That’s not true.”

She shook her head. “I’ve known him for, what, a week? I was only physically with him for half that time. For all I know, he was already screwing other women. He’s a ladies’ man. He’d boff anything female with a pulse. And he’s attractive. Who could blame me?”

“Oh, no one, my dear. Was he good?” King asked brightly.

Lily paused, feeling for the trap. She wanted to spit on the floor and tell him to insert it straight up his nether orifice. But that did not jive with the not-caring persona. She gave them a bright, toothy smile.

“Very good,” she said throatily. “Lots of stamina.”

“Oh, really? A man can really give his all when he’s in love, eh?”

She let out a cynical bark of laughter. “We had quite the mad affair. The guy talks a lot, but he never said ‘I love you.’ Not his style. He keeps things light. So don’t try to control him with me.”

King threw his head back as he laughed, showing off his excellent dentition. “That’s good. I’m so glad you’ve been entertaining yourself.”

“Oh, yeah, I was so entertained,” Lily said. “The gunshots and knives and explosions and all that, it really livened things up.”

That set him off again. He chuckled until he wiped tears from his eyes. “Oh, that’s funny,” he murmured. “You are unique, Lily.”

“I’m gratified that you’re so amused. I live to please. I don’t suppose you’d just tell me why you’re doing this. I have no beef with you, other than that you’ve been trying to kill me. So what is your problem?”

King tilted back on two legs of his chair. “I’m afraid the simple answer will not satisfy you, my dear. Because it’s really not fair to you.”

He paused with that annoying half smile. She clenched her teeth against the urge to beg him to go on.

He finally gave in, probably to the hunger to hear his own voice. “It isn’t anything that you did, Lily, or anything you know. It’s more about who you are. Which is to say, Howard Parr’s daughter.”

She’d known that already. She’d known it from the beginning, but even so, she felt the pieces fall into place with an iron clang of finality.

“Why?” she whispered.

“It was about what Howard knew, my dear. Which was far too much for my comfort.”

“About Magda, you mean? How you murdered her?”

He stared at her blankly and began to chuckle. “Well, now. You know even less than I thought. Howard never had a chance to confess, did he? Zoe stopped him just in time, bless her murderous heart.”

“Zoe’s the name of that nurse who slit his wrists?” Lily asked. “The one you sent after me to the cabin?”

He shrugged. “Insofar as—”

“Yes, I get that. Insofar as these wretched robot drones have any identity separate from you,” she snapped. “I’m a quick learner, OK?”

His face froze. Her belly fluttered, terrified she’d gone too far. Speeded up the mortal agony part of the day’s entertainment.