He’s a broken record, but as he hurries away, he has no attitude at all remaining. Something tells me Chief Houston told him to mind his manners, even if I don’t. And of course, I probably won’t.

I open the gate and allow Kinsley to exit before heading through the patio toward the door. I grab my phone and check my messages, but they’re empty. Forcing myself to focus on the crime scene, I slide my phone back into my jacket pocket and pull out my gloves and booties. Once I step inside the doorway, I find a small living room that is neat and simply furnished. A couch. A chair. One picture of a bunch of flowers on the wall. Emma Wells had money. If her brother did as well, you’d think Naomi would have a little bit more to show for herself.

I grab my camera and shoot a few photos. An EMS tech exits a hallway and glances at my badge before offering, “She’s in the bedroom. We’re short-staffed today and there are calls coming in. We’re done here unless you need us?”

I wave him onward and he wastes no time getting out of here.

I make the short walk to the bedroom, still missing that anticipation I used to feel over dead bodies. Maybe that’s just who I am now. I pause in the doorway and stare at the woman lying on the bedroom floor. The one I could have saved and didn’t. I don’t feel guilt. I did feel guilt when I realized she was dead. But now, I recognize that there was nothing we could do about a pill that was likely already in her personal possession even as we did a safety check. What I do feel in the present moment is a responsibility to solve this crime, to give her and Emma justice.

The killer chose to pull me into this.

The killer chose wrong.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

The real Naomi is brunette, pretty, and petite. She’s also on her back, blood running from her mouth, over her throat. She is not wearing a wedding dress. I walk to her side and kneel, and with her head tilted backward, her neck exposed, as if she was desperately gasping for air. And she’s stiff. Judging from the state of rigor mortis, she died last night, probably not long after the wellness check.

I shoot photos of the wounds and then stand and study the area around her. There’s nothing on the ground around her but her phone.