Before the Dawn(94)
She scanned over the names in the log, names that showed when individuals had checked in and out.
Dawn Alexander.
Jones Bradford.
Ronald Torez.
And her own name. Anthony's name was just below hers. She initialed by the space next to her name once more and flashed her ID for verification. Then she was heading back toward the lab. She entered and the cold air inside wrapped around her. The place was so damn icy. She didn't see how Julia could work there without being wrapped in layers.
Light jazz music drifted around her.
There was a po'boy on Julia's desk. Maybe that was where she'd been before, sneaking out and grabbing a quick bite and the clerk hadn't even noticed her absence because he'd been on a quick break, too. "Dr. Bradford?"
No answer.
"Julia? You in here?" She walked back to the exam area. Only...
There was blood on the floor. Some kind of accident?
But-
Her gaze turned toward the exam table. A body was still on the table. Julia wasn't there, but the body was. Since spending time with Julia, she'd realized how very by-the-book the other woman was. She certainly wasn't the type to leave a mess in her lab. To leave a victim partially covered-
///
Macey reached for the sheet. She lifted up the edge and a gasp tore from her.
Part of Jinx's hip was missing. A section of skin had just been cut away. But that wouldn't have caused the blood that she saw on the floor. Her head jerked up. "Julia?" Now worry pierced her because this scene...it was wrong. All wrong. When she looked closer at the floor, she saw that it appeared someone had tried to clean up the blood. Part of it was smeared across the tile.
"Julia? Julia, where the hell are you?" She rushed around, searching the lab, searching Julia's work area, but the woman wasn't there. The clerk said she hadn't left but Julia wasn't inside and-
And if she didn't leave, then she has to be hidden here somewhere.
"Oh, my God." She ran toward the wall of cold storage lockers, every instinct that she had screaming at her. She yanked open one locker-saw the body. Red. Jesus. She opened another, yanked out the gurney inside-Heather Hartley. Hell. She opened the third, pulling it out and-
Julia.
Her eyes closed, her body icy to the touch. "Julia!" Macey grabbed for the other woman, seeing the blood that coated her head.
Dear God, no!
Then Julia's eyes flew open.
* * *
DAWN CLIMBED INTO her closet, grateful to leave that dark tunnel behind. "We need to call Julia and get her to search Jinx's body for that tattoo." Because she was sure now that Jinx had made that tattoo for herself. The necklace had been hers, so the tattoo would have been hers, too. "When something mattered to her, she made a tat." Her body had been covered in the art that was her life. "Her lover mattered, that's why she started that sketch of the tattoo. Maybe..." Tucker was right on her heels. "Maybe she even added more details when she inked herself." Hearts often had names in them, didn't they? Names or initials. That was kind of tradition.
"Macey and Julia have already been examining her body." He shut the closet door. "Don't you think they would have noticed it if she'd had some guy's name on her by now?"
Not necessarily. Not if it had been hidden. She remembered that Jinx had been wearing her underwear when she'd been in that freezer. He stripped you down to your underwear so you'd feel the cold surrounding you. She walked across the room and opened her bedroom door. "I'm calling Julia. I'm-"
Her words stopped. She stopped. Because a man was waiting in her den.
"Hello, Dawn."
Detective Ronald Torez had his weapon drawn. He pointed it straight at her. Tucker was behind her, but Torez's gaze darted over her shoulder. "Hello, Agent Frost."
What in the hell?
"Why don't you both step forward and come out here to face me?" A muscle jerked in Torez's jaw. "Right the fuck now."
Dawn inched forward. She'd put her gun down in her closet. Dammit. She just held her flashlight. Not much of a weapon against a gun. She had the flashlight and he had a gun.
"If you've got a weapon on you, Agent Frost," Torez continued coldly, "then you need to put it on the floor. I've got my gun trained dead center at Dawn's forehead, and if I see a weapon come at me, I will fire."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE DETECTIVE'S GUN was pointed at Dawn's head and Tucker could tell by the guy's lethal tone that he wasn't bluffing. Son of a bitch. Tucker had to put his weapon on the floor. There was no choice. Slowly, he put his gun on the carpet. Then he and Dawn both walked forward, moving closer to the cop, and Tucker kept his hands up.