A short flight of stairs led up to the roof. He didn’t have time for gardening, but he knew that Alisha liked to go up there in her spare time and sit among the palms and fronds she’d imported. She had a deck chair and a little table beside it where she’d rest those damn paperbacks she was so fond of reading. Often she’d have a margarita while devouring her latest book.

She wasn’t in her customary position.

Alisha was standing with her arms resting on the rail at the edge of the roof. She was looking down. Probably watching as the Mercedes was driven away. Her blond hair was loose and hung halfway down her back, damp from a recent shower. She was wearing a sheer gown over equally sheer underwear. Her tanned legs looked just great. One ankle was bent as she rolled her toes in her sandals. He thought about touching that ankle. Snaking his fingers around it. Good leverage for flipping her over the guardrail.

Chapter 18

18

“He thinks that there’s a serpent inside him.”

“Another loon,” Rink said. “What’s with all these fruitcakes anyway?”

“I must attract them.”

“It seems like Imogen has the knack, as well.”

“She’s lucky to have survived,” I said.

Imogen was shaken, but other than a few scrapes and bumps she was going to be all right. The doctors were still trying to identify the drug used to sedate her, and until they were confident that her system was clear of the residue they wouldn’t sign her out. The feebie, SAC Hubbard, wanted to conduct a thorough debrief with her once she was released from the hospital and he promised that afterward he would put a guard on her until this was all finished with. Now that he’d heard from Imogen, Walter and Bryce Lang, he’d come to the same conclusion as I had: that the killer had disguised himself as me and dropped my name to Linden Case because he’d been trying to set me up for his crimes. Hubbard wasn’t so sour, and his raisin eyes held a more genuine twinkle now. Maybe my first opinion of him had been a little misguided: he proved a decent-enough sort. Officially, he called off the hunt for me, but asked that no one inform the media just yet. Let my enemies think I was still hindered by the law enforcement community and they’d be overconfident and wouldn’t be as difficult to find.