They returned to the living room. With nervous hands, she quickly turned on all the lamps in the room. The detective watched her with a guarded gaze that she didn’t like.
“Your alarm wasn’t activated, Doctor.”
“It should have been,” she whispered, almost to herself.
He pulled out his phone. Called for a crime-scene unit.
“Why are you doing that?” She glanced back toward the door. It had been locked when she left that morning, right? She’d been so frantic to find Trent.
Surely she hadn’t just run out and left the door unlocked.
“I want the door dusted for prints. I want fresh eyes in here looking at the scene.” He put his phone back in his jacket. “You want to know why the crime team is coming?” He shook his head as if he didn’t understand. “Lady, your partner was murdered by the Valentine Killer. You just went on the news and outed his exfiancée, a woman who was supposed to be protected with a new identity. Did you even stop to think for a second that you could be putting a target on yourself?”
A target? No, that wasn’t possible. “Valentine wouldn’t come for me.”
“You sure about that?” He stepped toward her. “Then who the hell else do you think might have broken into your place tonight?”
Her heart was beating so fast and hard that she feared it would burst from her chest, but she tried to control her expression—an old habit—because she didn’t want the detective to know how she truly felt.
“Valentine is killing in this town,” he told her, giving another slow shake of his head, “and with your performance today, you just might have set yourself up as his next victim.”
– 14 –
She hadn’t planned for an early morning trip to the morgue, but that was exactly where Katherine found herself at six a.m.
When he’d been talking to her, Dane had called the place “the death rooms,” and she thought the name was apt. The building behind the police station was cavernous, deep, and chilled. The place smelled of antiseptic and bleach, and she had no idea how the ME could spend so much time there.
“I could have gone back to my place,” Katherine said as she pulled Dane to a stop beside her in the hallway. “You didn’t have to bring me here.”
“I want you where I can keep an eye on you.”
“You can’t watch me twenty-four hours a day.”
“I f**king want to,” he muttered.
She frowned at him. He’d gotten a call before dawn that sent him surging out of bed and rushing her to the morgue.
“Ronnie has something she needs to show me. She said it was important.” He paused as his gaze swept over her face. “It’s about Valentine, and I thought you deserved to hear the news that she has.”
Katherine nodded, then she braced herself as Dane pushed open the swinging doors that led to the morgue.
A woman swung toward them. She wore a rumpled white lab coat and wire-framed glasses. Dark shadows lined the woman’s eyes. “Great. I was beginning to wonder—” She broke off, her eyes widening behind her glasses as her gaze shifted to Katherine. “You’re…her.”
Katherine cleared her throat. Her? She’d gotten that wide-eyed stare plenty of times back in Boston. Now that she’d gone on the news and revealed her identity, Katherine figured she’d be getting it plenty more, too. Deal with it. She straightened her shoulders. “Yes, I’m Katelynn.” The name felt foreign to her, wrong.
“This is Katherine Cole,” Dane said in the next instant, voice hard. “Katherine, this is our ME, Dr. Veronica Thomas.”
Before Veronica could speak, the doors gave a swish of sound behind them. Katherine glanced back and saw Mac pushing inside. There was a tense, hard look in his eyes.
She felt Dane go on alert beside her. “What’s happened?”
“Took the shrink home last night,” Mac said. “When we got there, her door was unlocked.”
“Evelyn?” Katherine said as she rubbed her arms. How did Veronica stand that chill? “Is she all right?”
“She’s fine. I left a uniform outside her place, but…” He exhaled. “She wasn’t even one hundred percent sure that she’d set her lock and alarm. She told me she’d left that morning in a panic and couldn’t remember.”
“Was there any sign of an intruder?” Dane asked.
“No.” Mac strode past them. Went to Veronica’s side. Seemed to stand a little too close to her. “I got the techs to sweep everything, but there was no trace of anyone else there.”
The goose bumps were still on Katherine’s arms.
“I want to keep a uniform on her, just as a precaution,” Mac said.
Katherine understood what he wasn’t saying: In case Valentine is going after her.
Her gaze slid back to Veronica. The other woman was studying her a little too intently. When she realized that Katherine had caught her staring, Veronica gave a little jump.
“I found something last night. Something that could help with the investigation.”
Veronica turned away and pulled a slab from one of the nearby lockers. Cold air brushed against Katherine’s skin. Mac and Dane edged closer to the slab, but Katherine didn’t move.
Veronica unzipped the bag, and her gloved fingers pointed toward Savannah’s neck. “Take a look here.” She shone a light on Savannah’s neck and pushed a magnifying glass toward Savannah’s throat.
Dane leaned forward.
Katherine edged back. Her eyes weren’t on Savannah’s neck; they were on her face. So still and pale. All the color bleached away. All of the life—just gone.
“I see the bruise,” Dane said.
“Not just a bruise. An injection site.”
Katherine’s gaze snapped to Veronica.
“I didn’t even realize what it was at first because it’s so small, but once I got the tox screen back on her, I knew what to look for.” Her voice rose with excitement. “The killer injected her with fentanyl, a high enough dose to knock her out for a good long while.”
“Fentanyl?” Katherine repeated, lost. “What’s that?”
“It’s like morphine, but much stronger. With the dose that Savannah Slater was given, she would have been unconscious within moments.” She licked her lips. “Helpless.”
“I’ve heard of fentanyl, and that’s not exactly an easy drug to get your hands on,” Dane muttered as he eased closer to Katherine.