Deadly Lover (27 page)

Sara sank into one of the faux-leather work chairs and touched something beneath the table. The surface was still black, but the quality of black was different—a hint of glow brought the black to life as Lily settled into a seat.

Sara started with Rose’s preliminary autopsy results. “The head injury was the cause of death. We’re estimating the time of the attack at around six thirty last night.”

Images from the crime scene and autopsy flared into being along the smooth surface.

“Before curfew?” Sean who’d been standing by the windows came over to sit in one of the chairs. “Interesting. They’re still trying to shift the blame onto the Ormney.”

“The light would have been fading, but there would have still been people on the street.” And plenty of Ormney heading back to The Zone.

“The attacker stunned her with a pulser,” Sara continued. “Standard strength. Could have been an off the shelf street model. She suffered blows to her temple and to the back of her head. Blunt force.” Sara’s fingers moved expertly over the table surface, tapping relevant pictures to highlight or enlarge them.

The last image was a split. It included an x-ray, showing the conical fracturing. It also included a still of the corresponding injury—Rose’s blood-matted hair pulled aside to show the damaged tissue of her scalp. Lily ignored the growing ball of cold forming in her belly. She couldn’t allow herself to give into the useless temptation to imagine how her sister had suffered and slip into selfish grieving. Deliberately, she laid her hands on the top of her thighs, keeping them relaxed, then leaned back into her chair. “Why stun her then hit her?”

“She could’ve fallen and hit her head,” Sean suggested. “Or the killer might have hit her after the stun started to wear off.”

Sara sat deep in her seat as she continued in a tone that was solid and crisp and practiced. “There were four parallel lacerations across her chest. Looks like the same weapon used to kill Mary Santini.” Despite the objectivity in her voice, her grief weighted her limbs and managed to make Lily’s vivacious cousin seem almost still. “If you find it, we can match it to the wounds. We collected trace from the body, but I’m not expecting much. Our initial scan picked up sealant. Not from our lab either. We add a chemical tag to ours. The killer probably sealed up before entering the apartment.”

Sean riffled his fingers through his blond hair. “That could mean we’re looking for someone who works in a lab, or medicine, or just someone who’s been killing for a while.”

“There are signs she was held down while she struggled to get free.” Sara’s voice softened and she held Lily’s gaze. “To corroborate that, there was evidence of a heightened state of fear before death. So the stun, the blows, the lacerations, she was probably conscious through all of that.”

“Awake and terrified.” Lily shivered at the thought of Rose fighting for her life. She pulled her lip between her teeth to stop the foolish babbling that wanted to tumble out. No, she couldn’t think about that. Lily forced her mind to focus on her cousin’s report.

“Yes. But it wasn’t enough to label as torture. The blows seem more like rage.” Sara paused, sucking in a breath. “She would’ve survived them. We could’ve saved her.” Sara slid her hands across the smooth surface of the table then turned her palms up with a shrug. “Then for some reason the killer switched tactics. The injury to the back of her head, a perfectly placed, single deep penetration, severed her spinal cord. Instant death.”

Lily dug her fingers into her thighs, using one kind of pain to stave off another. “He figured out he had the wrong person.”

Sean and Sara both watched her, silent, waiting for her to continue. “He realized it wasn’t me. Her sweater was ripped open. More than the slashes account for.”

“He could have done that before he cut her,” said Sean. “He wanted her terrified.”

“No,” said Sara. “The slashes came first. I found fibers in the wounds.”

“Something tipped him off,” said Lily. “He ripped the sweater to confirm what he already suspected. He was looking for my scars.” She ran one hand lightly across her abdomen.

“Scars?” Sara turned in her chair.

Lily moved her hand back to the arm of the chair and resisted the need to dig her fingers into its surface. “From the training accident.”

Sara leaned forward in her chair. “Lil—”

Lily held up her hand to stop Sara from expressing the concern filling her eyes. “The point is, who would know to look for that? How would someone from EFE get information that can only be found in my Deepwater secured file?”

“The same way they got the formula for the drug they’ve been using,” Sara surmised.

“Simone Rawls.” Lily wished very much she’d paid more attention to the woman when she’d been alive. If she could go back in time, she’d kill the R&D tech herself just to prevent the devastation the woman had unleashed.

Sean leaned forward too, watching as Sara touched one of the table’s control surfaces. The grisly photos of Simone Rawls’ remains appeared on the table’s surface.

With the touch of her finger, Sara dragged the images to spread them out. “Simone Rawls, AKA Ginger Simon.”

“What’s left of her,” Sean observed.

Lily linked her com to the room’s private network and pulled up the images she and Jolaj had lifted from Simone’s flat. “Jolaj and I searched her duty flat and found these photos. They’d been overlooked. Everything else had been cleaned. Nothing helpful there. Director Gardot confirmed she was a research tech for Deepwater, but implied whatever Simone was up to was off the clock.”

Sean dragged one of the images of a happy smiling Simone closer. “Any chance of getting a file of her latest assignments, known associates?”

Lily thought back to her conversation with the director. “Director Gardot was clear she wouldn’t be providing any more info.”

Sean looked up from the images. “That’s why you asked Brian to dig into their files?”

Lily nodded. She wanted to tell him how much it had meant to her to have him at her side for that conversation, but decided to wait. They all needed to focus.

Sean tapped his thumb on the table. “Rawls is a victim, not a suspect, so it’ll be tough to get a warrant.”

Lily let her eyes drift to the back yard. “Through Jolaj’s contacts I was able to find out that Simone was poking around the docks. She’d been trying to get the Ormney workers to participate in a research project.”

“Drug trials?” asked Sara.

“Not that we can verify. Definitely, trying to collect physiological data.”

Lily leaned forward and propped her arms on the table. “There’s more. She was on staff in the Med Center where I was treated after the training accident.”

“If she did sell the drug to EFE, she could have also told them about your accident.” Sara rubbed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. “But she’s been dead for weeks. Since before you got involved.”

Lily steadied her nerves. There was one small detail that hadn’t seemed important at the time, but it now seemed as big as the sky. “That may not be true.”

The guilt of all the clues she’d missed weighed heavily. “The killer’s interest in me isn’t new. The day Lanyak attacked Jennifer Richardson, I received a message from Simone Rawls changing the time of my evaluation appointment.”

Sean leaned forward and slapped a hand against the table’s flat surface. “Setting you up to be on the street when it went down.”

“But Simone was already dead by then,” said Sara. “It must have been our guy.”

Sean added a note to the file open in front of him. “First, while working at Deepwater, Simone Rawls learned about a drug that turns Ormney crazy along with the details of your accident.”

“And the scars,” Sara added.

Sean nodded. “Next, Simone started doing independent research on Ormney physiology in her spare time. Somehow she connected with EFE and gave them info on the Ormney and on you.”

Sean reached out, taking her hand. “You’re not just a part of this. You’re right there at the beginning.”

His palm was large and warm, but it didn’t make her feel safe.

“I know you don’t want to talk about it and may even be under orders not to divulge any Deepwater shit,” Sean continued. “But I think it’s time you told us about this accident and how it’s related to this drug. There has to be a connection.”

Lily weighed the value and consequences of telling them about the classified program that had changed her life. She didn’t think the information would help, but it wasn’t fact that made her decision. It was the patience in Sean’s face. He could have blamed her for the mess she’d made of things, instead he held her hand and waited.

Lily pulled her hand free and stood. She paced to the window and stared out at the well- tended green lawn. She would tell them but she didn’t want to see their reactions. “A year ago I was assigned to train a new recruit. An Ormney. We’d been working together for several months when a routine resistance exercise went badly wrong. He was exposed to a gas commonly used to provoke panic in trainees. The exercise is supposed to provide practical experience staying in control during a biological or chemical attack. He reacted badly. I was injured.” It was factual to the point of understatement, but she saw no reason to tell them how close she’d been to death or how terrified Kiq had been or what it had been like to press her stunner to her friend’s heart and take his life.

Lily took a deep breath. Concentrated on her heart rate. On staying calm as the memories rolled through her. “He attacked me. I survived. He didn’t.”

Sean made a noncommittal hmm sound. “I take it that gas is the one this drug is derived from.”

“It has to be.”

 “It would make sense, then,” said Sara. “That Rawls would mention you in connection to this drug.”

“And maybe they wanted you involved,” added Sean. “Thinking you’d be sympathetic. After all, you’d been attacked yourself.”

“The flowers.” Lily turned her back on the serene view of the backyard. “When were they delivered?”

Sean touched the table surface and text scrolled by as an image of the flower box and the e-card message appeared on the vid-wall.

“Before the incident at the medical center. Rose must have picked them up and carried them inside.”

“They weren’t a taunt.” Lily settled into a seat and studied the message. “
Don’t lose sleep over the lost girls.
Somehow, he knew I’d spent the night in the med center the night Jennifer Richardson died.”

 “He was expressing concern for you.” Sara pulled up an image of the lilies that had been left on Mary Santini’s body. “I can run this past one of our forensic psychiatrists, but I think he was courting you. Drawing your attention to his work like it was some perverse gift.”

 Sean ran a hand through his short cropped hair. “Then why the fuck did he try to kill her?”

“I pissed him off.” Lily’s insides turned to ice.

Sean sat a little straighter. “What? How?”

“I helped Jolaj try to save Kabel—at the medical center.” She’d taunted him. Knowing he might be watching, she’d deliberately antagonized him.

“Yeah, maybe,” Sean said. “If Sara’s right and this guy was courting you, that means we’ve got one guy behind all of the attacks. One who isn’t the EFE guy that slashed Kabel’s restraints.”

Air rushed into Lily’s lungs making her feel lightheaded.

“The EFE guy could have heard about the attack,” Sara suggested, “and seized the opportunity.”

“That means our tie to EFE is shaky. Shit.” Sean slapped the table.

Lily leaned forward. “Think about it, Sean. You said you’d been interviewing EFE members all night and got nothing. You swept the headquarters and picked up members who lived in the area of the attacks, but you got nothing.”

Sean’s fists clenched tight with nothing to hold on to. “Where the hell does that leave us? Who else could Simone Rawls have told and why?”

“Or,” Sara began. “Who else knew about the drug and your history, your scars? Who knew you spent the night at the med center?”

Lily thought back. “There was Tie and Luc. Hospital staff, Officer Newman.” And one other person. “Bradley.” She said the name before the impact of it really reached her. He knew because he’d spent the night in her apartment, in her bed. Bradley, who had made every attempt to convince her that he no longer wanted Rose. And now Rose was dead.

Lily drew her thoughts back to the moment and realized the whole room had fallen silent.

Sara visibly shook herself and sat straighter, pressing back in her chair as if she needed the few extra inches separation from what Lily might say next. “Bradley?”

Lily shifted in her own seat. Her brother-in-law was the last thing she wanted to be talking to her family about. “The Council knew all the details of the training incident,” she explained. “Bradley is close to one of the council members. And he saw my scars in the morning after I got back from visiting Jennifer Richards.” Of course it hadn’t really been much of a visit. She being more of a witness to the woman’s death. Death at the hands of her lover.

Simone Rawls had also been killed by a man that had very likely been her lover. At least young, sweet Mary hadn’t had to face being ripped apart by the man she loved.

Sean pushed back from the table and stood. “Bradley was there yesterday too. During the initial attack.” Sean strode over to the wall screen and drew Bradley’s name with his finger then started a list beneath it.”

Sara twisted in her chair to get a better view of the screen. “Are we seriously considering Bradley a suspect?”

Sean’s eyebrows lowered as he continued to write. “We follow the facts and the fact is that Bradley had motive. We all know he wanted Lil back. And if Lil is right about the hospital…” His shoulders hitched and he turned away from the board. “He would’ve seen everything that went on there.”

Lily couldn’t see Bradley as violent. His trademark had always been as a diplomat, a talker, not a man to anger quickly or act in violence. Why had she even suggested him? Did she want him to be guilty? To be evil enough to kill his own wife? Just so she wouldn’t feel as guilty for whatever her part in all of it was? “Where the hell
is
Bradley?”