A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1)(127)

Auri raised a hand to stop her. “I know what you’re going to say. If they refuse to spill this time, replace their cans of tuna with cat food and threaten to turn them in to the health department.”

“Attagirl.”

Levi grinned at Auri, the affection in his eyes genuine, and Sun could hardly believe he’d been a part of her life for years. A positive part of her life.

She offered him a quick nod, then led Zee and Quincy into her office. After closing the door behind them, she sat at her desk.

Zee didn’t sit down. She handed Sun a report. “It seems a kid was injured a few years ago. He went into the urgent care center and was treated for stab wounds.”

“Okay,” she said, scanning the document.

“The guy had AB negative. Same as the blood on Kubrick Ravinder’s clothes.”

Sun’s gaze shot to her face, then back to the report. “Who was it?”

“That’s just it. They don’t know.” She pointed to the chart that showed where the stab wounds were. Three lacerations clustered just underneath his left rib cage. “The kid gave them a false name. They had no choice but to take him into surgery immediately. Then the minute he woke up, he bolted.”

“Security footage?” Sun asked.

Zee shook her head. “Not back then.”

Small towns. And Del Sol was smaller than most. “How did you get this chart?”

“Well, see, this is where things get a little sticky.”

Quincy sat across from Sun and whistled. “Uh-oh, sibling o’ mine. Whatever did you do?”

She cleared her throat and said softly, “I may know a guy.”

“Like, carnally?” he asked.

“Quincy,” Sun said, her tone exasperated, “I am going to rip out your thyroid.”

“Right. My bad.”

The woman was clearly having a difficult time coming to terms with what she’d done. Quincy was not helping. “Go ahead, Zee.”

“So, yeah, I kind of asked him to look up people in the area with AB negative blood. Without a warrant.”

“Thinking outside the box. And?”

“There are only three, barring Auri, and two of them could never have fought with a man the size of Kubrick Ravinder and lived to see another day.”

“Why’s that?”

“He couldn’t give me their names, of course, but I told him the circumstances and he said one was a ninety-year-old female who’d had two hip replacements and the other would have been no more than six at the time of Kubrick Ravinder’s death.”

“Oh yeah. That does narrow it down a bit. So, we’re left with this kid?”

“Yes. Look at the date,” Zee said softly.

She scanned the admittance date. The same day, over fifteen years ago, that an unidentified male dropped Sun off at an emergency room in Santa Fe.

Quincy rounded the desk and stood reading over her shoulder. “The question we need to be asking ourselves is, was this kid a part of the kidnapping scheme or not?”

“Exactly,” Zee agreed. “Did he endanger your life, Sheriff, or save it?”


That night, Sunshine Vicram made sure the redhead was fast asleep before going to the closet in her master bedroom. She pushed her clothes aside to reveal the corkboard she’d been using for the last couple of years. Ever since she’d decided to find the man who’d assaulted her and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law, she’d used the board more as motivation than anything else.

Her suspects were displayed in a random order, because she couldn’t connect any one of them to the crime. Yet each of them either had motive or opportunity, and until now, that was all she’d had to go on.

Pinned to the top of the board was a generic silhouette representing the unknown assailant. The one who’d abducted her. The one who’d assaulted her. The one she would hunt down if it was the last thing she did on this earth.

With fingers trembling, she took down the silhouette and pinned a picture of her number-one suspect. Only one question remained: Was Levi Arun Ravinder her assailant, her savior, or a little of both?