“No obvious cause of death. We’ll get her on the table, and we’ll find out what’s up.”
Kate stepped back to give him space and then asked, “Anything on that projectile in the head on Sally Hardgens?”
“Yeah, what about it?” He turned to face her.
“Ice?”
Looking surprised, he replied, “Yeah, that’s what we’re looking at. Water in the brain cavity. How’d you know?”
“A case about ten years ago. Something similar.”
“Interesting. I’ll look it up.”
“Good, thanks.” As the coroner went about his work, she turned to look at Rodney and the rest of the room and asked, “Do you see anything here?”
“Nothing but an empty room, which in itself is suspicious, given that you just spoke with her.”
“She surely couldn’t have taken everything,” she said.
“I don’t know,” he murmured, swinging his arm around the room. “If not, she’s sure given it a good old college try.”
Even she winced at the unfortunate phrasing. “What the hell is going on here?” she asked quietly.
“You didn’t want it to be Candy, and that’s what you got, but the problem now is that it’s somebody else.”
“It is, indeed,” she whispered, then shook her head. “And now we still need to track down Candy.” She stopped and hesitated; then she looked intently at the floor where the dead woman was. “I know forensics will get to all this, but look.” She pointed at the carpet.
“What about it?” Rodney asked, Smidge listening in.
“It looks like a double stain,” she said quietly.
Rodney bent beside her. “What do you mean?”
“It looks like old blood atop new blood.”
“Not necessarily old on new, but they are definitely both pretty fresh.”
“Yeah, we need to check Paula’s room.” She stopped, hesitated, and looked back at him. “What if—” She winced, hating to even say this. “What if it’s two separate bloodstains?”
*
Simon woke up,then rolled over and reached out an arm to tuck Kate up close against him, only to find the bed was empty. He groaned, as he sat up and stared around. “Kate?” he called out.
But the empty hollowness to the room meant she was gone. He didn’t even remember hearing her leave, and just that lack of awareness drove him nuts. He used to be extremely alert, always aware, and wary of being woken up. He was always the first to leave somebody’s apartment, often sneaking out on them. But he sure as hell wasn’t used to being snuck out on himself.
Disgruntled, he got up, had a quick shower, intentionally avoiding the soaps and shampoos, but wondering, he opened one of the bottles and sniffed it, then the others, but each was a neutral scent. He smiled at that because it was so Kate; no time for fripperies, as she would call it. Yet most women would say that it was something in the shampoo, so why not? But, no, not Kate. She was all about getting to work and about forgetting all that feminine stuff.
He smiled because it was just so her, and that again brought him back to the fact that she was incredibly honest, whether he liked what came out of her mouth or not. She was there 100 percent, and that just meant that she must have been called into work. He got dressed, looking around for a shaver or razor, and saw absolutely nothing here he could even borrow. “We’ll have to fix that,” he said.
Then he wondered how she’d handle it if he moved in a razor at least. Probably not well but then it was also way the hell more comfortable at his place, so he should just move her over there. At that thought he almost froze. It’s not that he was getting old, but he did like his comforts, and his bed versus her place was a hell of a different story. He wasn’t a snob by any means, but his body certainly appreciated his high-end mattress, and his bones appreciated that hot shower with double sprays and the rain showerhead.
But was it fair to ask her to move in with him? He figured that he would probably get a pretty damn fast answer ofhell no. Because it would be a commitment that she didn’t want anything to do with. He wasn’t sure if it was commitment or fear of the future that would get to her. She had this notion that she didn’t do relationships, and she was constantly mumbling about it too. He’d heard her and had ignored it because what was he supposed to say to something like that?
If this were just a quick lay for immediate gratification, well, he didn’t find anything quick about it. He didn’t want there to be anything quick. He wanted it to be a whole lot more than that; yet sometimes he didn’t know quite what the hell he wanted either. Groaning, he walked into the kitchen and winced, when he saw the instant coffee on the counter.
“Hell no.” He stared at it. Shaking his head, he put away the food they had left out in a disarray last night, when things got more than a little interesting. He quickly cleaned up, then walked out the door, locking up behind him.
As he headed downstairs, an older woman looked at him, saw where he had come from, and her face lit up. “So, you’re her new boyfriend, are you?”