Fatal Attraction (Love Kills Duet #2)

6. Six

Six

Spike

I tore my gaze away from Blaire’s corpse, unable to watch as the small group of CSIs worked together to cut her down from the ceiling fan, coughing through their masks and desperately trying not to blow chunks all over the place. The coroner, Dr. Rayford, who stood beside Harley near one of the open windows and was clenching his own mask tighter over his nose and mouth, demanded in a muffled voice for them to begin gathering as many bugs as they could inside evidence jars.

“And would someone please cut off the god-forsaken heat,” Harley shouted, her eyes falling onto me and Phoenix. “It’s a fucking oven in here.”

“Already done,” Kendall Wilson replied as she stepped inside the room, maskless and breathing heavily through her mouth, her face scrunched in revulsion. She took another peek at Blaire’s body and then turned away fast. I was almost certain she vomited in her mouth, because she gulped loudly before she turned slightly to the side, refusing to look back, and said, “The thermostat was set to 85.”

“That explains it then,” Dr. Rayford spoke as Kendall skittered out the room. “The heat sped up the decomposition.”

“And with the windows left open,” I said next. “The smell is what led the bugs to her body.”

“Correct,” he agreed, looking over and nodding at me.

“Will you be able to determine the TOD?” asked Phoenix .

Dr. Rayford shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. Given the heat was left on, I won’t get an accurate temperature reading from her liver. That’s why I’m having the team collect the bugs. They should be able to help determine time of death. I won’t know more until I get her on the table and open her up, but judging by what I’ve seen so far, this isn’t a suicide. Someone wanted her to be found this way.”

“Charlotte told me Blaire’s husband, Carter, is coming home early from deployment,” said Harley. “He’s currently on a fourteen-hour flight and hasn’t been notified yet. I’d like the two of you to pick him up from the airport.”

Phoenix looked at me.

I bobbed my head, agreeing.

It was the least we could do, given we both knew he’d expect to find Blaire there, waiting for him. He’d have questions, and fourteen hours should be plenty of time for the coroner to complete Blaire’s autopsy and for my partner and I to dig in a little deeper on what Blaire had been up to these last few days.

“And her parents?” asked Phoenix.

“Blaire’s parents and grandparents have passed on, and she doesn’t have any siblings. Carter was all she—”

One of the CSIs gathering up the bugs vomited beside the body. He got up, apologizing just before he charged inside the master bathroom to spew his guts out in the toilet.

“We’ve got it from here, Detectives,” Harley said as she held her breath, making her way over to the bathroom to check on the guy. “Check in with Chief and Captain Burgess and then—”

“We know how to do our jobs, Harley,” I said in a polite, but heated tone. “We’ll update you once we know more.”

“Detective Hutch,” she snipped when I turned away, her voice vibrating with anger.

I stopped, then glared at her over my shoulder .

“You and I will have words later.”

I gave her a spiteful grin when her dark eyes narrowed at me. “Looking forward to it.”

Phoenix followed me out, remaining mute until we’d descended the staircase and casually strolled past Kendall and her team, who were all taking pictures and dusting for prints in the living room.

“Do I even want to know what that was about?”

“She pissed me off,” I said simply, lifting up and ducking under the yellow crime scene tape splayed across the open front door. “And I didn’t hesitate to let her know it.”

A heavy groan slipped past his lips. “You can’t lose your shit, Spike. Not now .”

He was right.

I couldn’t.

And okay—fine, perhaps I did owe Harley an apology. But she was out of her goddamn mind if she thought for one second that I was going to pucker my lips and kiss her ass, especially not after she’d threatened to ruin our careers. I was still pretty roasted over that bullshit.

“Blaire’s death isn’t a coincidence,” he said, changing the subject. “Karl being framed, Delilah and Amber’s attacks, the packages— all of it is connected.”

“Go on,” I said, thrilled that we were more or less on the same page. “What are you thinking?”

We made it to the car, and Phoenix sighed as he got in and tiredly scrubbed his hands down his face.

“I think we need to say to hell with the evidence for now and start focusing more on what we know about our perp. We both can agree that it’s obvious this bastard is obsessed with Charlotte, right?”

“Right.”

“Okay, so, let’s think about her situation with Karl for a moment.” He sat up straighter and then snatched his keys from his pocket, firing up the engine and cruising down the road without so much as putting his seatbelt on. “We don’t have any proof yet, but let’s say Karl’s truck really was sabotaged the night his mistress was killed. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but, what if Kate wasn’t the one who was meant to die that night? What if it was supposed to be Karl?”

“Huh.” I sat back in my seat, contemplating it. “That’s an interesting theory.”

“Just think about it for a second,” he said as he continued to drive, activating his blinker before moving over into the correct lane and stopping at the red light. “I’m not saying I’m right, but it would better explain why Karl is being framed and facing years in prison.”

It was possible. I’d admit that much. But without hardcore proof validating Karl and Kate were indeed being followed and receiving death threats, it was going to be extremely difficult convincing Harley and her boss that Karl was innocent. He may not have killed Blaire, but that wasn’t going to mean shit to them, not when we found the “smoking gun” inside his apartment. They’d just come up with some bullshit excuse regardless of the other evidence proving his innocence.

“And if all of that is true,” Phoenix continued, “then this bastard was likely stalking Charlotte too, long before the accident ever occurred. And, oh… Fuck .”

Phoenix’s eyes grew saucer wide.

“That means he knows about us too, Spike.” He looked at me, his pupils growing impossibly wider. “What if he tries to come after us next?”

I couldn’t help but release a boisterous laugh. “For one, he doesn’t have the fucking balls. And two, you’re getting off topic. Calm your tits and continue with what you were saying.”

His eyes narrowed to a glare.

Then he shook his head, cursing when the car behind us began blaring their horn. The light was green, and Phoenix hadn’t noticed .

“What I’m trying to say is that Charlotte’s right, Spike. She’s been the target all along. This guy had obviously mistaken Delilah as Charlotte, and then planted Karl’s DNA on Amber after he realized his fuck-up. He sent her the texts and the dead cat to scare her, to tell her that it should’ve been her that night, not Delilah. And… And the flowers… He sent them to her to make her believe they were from Karl...”

He began rambling then, going on and on until his face was blistering red, and he was straining to draw in a breath.