The Killing Game(79)

A wave of heat swept over her, followed by icy cold. She drew in a huge gasp of air, squeezed her eyes closed, and screamed for all she was worth.





PART III

ENDGAME





Chapter Eighteen



Have to get my mind back on the game. Forget the female detectives. Forget Tracy and her sour attitude. Go back to Trinidad Finch . . . just thinking of her puts a smile on my face. All of them will be running around, trying to make sense of her death. Have you figured it out yet, little bird? Let me give you a hint: It’s all about misdirection. Do you see that my moves are merely smoke and mirrors? No, you’re too afraid. Too confused. You’re frightened that I’ll find you and crush you, and I will. Just not yet. I’ve got more gambits planned . . . just wait....

*

Luke heard the terrified scream as he was locking his truck.

His heart froze. Andi!

He whirled from the numbered spot he’d poached, the one next to her car and took off at a dead run. His hair stood up on end, every one of his muscles tightened. Why the hell hadn’t he brought his damned gun? Heart pounding, he reached the stairs and took the steps two at a time. “Andi!” he yelled, heading straight for the open door.

Jesus God, he hoped she was okay and kicked himself for not staying closer to her. “Andi!”

Through the door he plunged.

Andi was standing in the center of the room, her back to him, her arms out for balance, but weaving on her feet like she was about to topple. He grabbed her and she shrieked again.

“It’s Luke,” he said. “Luke. I’m sorry. It’s Luke.”

She turned in his arms, her eyes stretched wide. “She’s dead . . . I think Trini’s dead. Oh God . . . no.”

Holding her close, he gazed past her to the small woman slumped on the couch.

“She’s dead?” she asked, trembling, but the tone of her voice convinced him that she already knew what was so patently obvious. One look at the body and he was fairly certain Andi was right. The woman slumped on the overstuffed cushions was staring fixedly ahead, her skin and lips the ashy gray of death. He suspected Trini had been dead for a number of hours. That meant her death had probably happened the day before, or possibly earlier, but there was no scent of rot yet, so sooner rather than later. She was slumped sideways and there was a bit of purple-colored foil next to her left hand. “Yes, I think so.” He double-checked, releasing Andi for a second to bend over Trini and touch the cool flesh of her neck. No sign of a pulse.

“Oh God . . . oh God . . . my God . . .” Andi, quivering from head to toe, was staring at her friend.

Luke steered her back toward the door. “Let’s go outside and I’ll call nine-one-one.”

He managed to get them both outside the door and realized several people were in the parking lot, looking up at them. “Somebody screamed,” one of them, a man in his thirties wearing a Blazers cap, said.

“Yeah, it’s all right,” Luke assured him. He didn’t need any lookie loos at this juncture. He reached into his pocket with one hand for his phone, holding Andi close, her face pressed to his chest with the other.

“Y’sure?” an older man wearing a baseball cap asked. “Sounded like holy terror. Gave me the willies.”

Luke didn’t respond, just turned his back on them and placed the call.

“Nine-one-one, what is the nature of your emergency?”

“I believe a young woman is dead inside her apartment,” Luke said quietly into the receiver.

*

Two hours later Andi still stood outside Trini’s unit. She hadn’t gone inside as the police first and then a crime tech crew arrived and began going over Trini’s small abode.

Trini’s dead. The words failed to compute inside Andi’s brain, even though she’d understood that truth as soon as she’d looked at her friend. She knew it was real yet still felt like she might wake up from a horrible dream.

A uniformed officer had asked her questions, which she’d heard herself answer, but it was as if she were having an out-of-body experience. Then an overweight detective arrived. Luke handled most of what they wanted, answering as best he could, but there were a few queries for Andi personally, like where she found the key, why she felt it was necessary to enter her friend’s place, what was the nature of her relationship with the deceased.

No one was saying how she died, or even if a crime had been committed, but Andi had heard someone mention anaphylactic shock. That stirred her enough to tell them that Trini was deathly allergic to shellfish.

“But she’s always really, really careful,” Andi had managed to choke out.

She’d initially clung to Luke like a burr, only releasing him when one of the crime tech team recognized him. She was a woman in her fifties with short, dark hair and a thin smile. “Denton,” she said.

“Hi, Marjorie.” Luke’s response was warm.

“When’re you coming back to the force?” she asked.

“Don’t think it’s gonna happen,” Luke said, to which she shook her head, as if he’d made a poor choice.

Toward the end of the two hours Andi had dared a peek inside the apartment and was relieved to see that Trini’s body had been zipped into a body bag. There was fingerprint dust everywhere, and some kind of foil wrapper had been tweezered into a clear plastic bag that Marjorie was showing to Luke. In another plastic bag was a man’s wallet.