As she came over the top, Lindsey’s nose wrinkled at the scent. Her ponytail bobbed from side to side as she landed next to Sam. She took a series of photos of the victim. “Help me turn him over.”

Sam held her breath at the stench as she took his feet while Lindsey worked the shoulders. His face was unmarked, but a huge pool of blood covered what had once been a white dress shirt.

Lindsey took more photos. “Looks like a stab wound,” Lindsey said, moving in for a closer look.

“Only one?”

“I can’t tell for sure until I get him back to the morgue.”

“No defensive wounds on his hands,” Sam said.

“No other visible injuries.” After she encased his hands with paper bags to seal in any evidence, Lindsey signaled for her team to bring over the stretcher and body bag. “Let’s get him out of here.”

Sam and Lindsey worked together with Cruz’s help to lift Willie out of the Dumpster into the waiting hands of two members of the medical examiner’s staff.

One of them was a young man with blond hair and blue eyes that bugged when he recognized the victim.

Sam repeated her tight lid orders to Lindsey and her team. “Don’t tell anyone about this. That means no one.”

“Y-yes, ma’am,” the blond kid said. He and his partner zipped Willie into a body bag.

With her hands on the edge of the Dumpster, Sam jumped down to the alley, narrowly missing Cruz, who scooted out of her way. He’d been watching the removal of Willie’s body and hadn’t seen her coming. She flashed him a grin as he recoiled from the smell of her.

“Commandeer a patrol car to take me home to change,” she said to her partner.

“Do I have to go with you?”

She dropped her keys into his hand. “After you get my phone out of the car, you can bring it to HQ.”

“Oh, thank God,” he said as he walked away to break the bad news to one of the patrolmen.

Sam reached up to help Lindsey down.

When she was back on terra firma, Lindsey pulled off her latex gloves. “This is going to be huge.”

“Aren’t they all?”

“Some are bigger than others.”

“True.” Sam’s mind raced, putting together a dog-choking to-do list. She’d wanted a juicy murder to sink her teeth into. This was about as juicy as it got. Maybe there was something wrong with her, but she lived for this shit.