“Tim, if I didn’t know better I’d say you were trying to avoid me! After all these years!”

Shit. I can’t leave it like this…who knows what she’ll do next?

“Okay, I can see you’re in rough shape. Tell you what. Let’s grab a cocktail. Come with me. This will help, I promise,” and we head down to the Oyster Bar.

“Okay thank you, thank you.”

By the time I’m done with Tiffany it’s the 9:54 I catch, barely. At home, this time everybody’s long asleep.

I crawl into bed with Jean. Her back’s to me. I sense she’s awake. But no acknowledgment I’m here.

I take the hint.

Chapter 22

Next morning I’m walking back through Grand Central to catch the 6 train down to work and there’s cops all over the place. A hell of a lot more than usual.

My blood pressure spikes. I instinctively pull my carry bag a little closer. What the hell’s going on?

“Excuse me, sir,” I say to one of the cops standing next to the terminal clock. “Can’t help but notice you guys have, like, tripled up in presence here. Is something going on?”

“Can’t say, sir. Please move on. Have a nice day.”

Now what? Maybe it’s some kind of terror threat.…

I try to figure out what’s going on the rest of the way to work.

“Morning, Mo,” I say as I pass by her desk into the office.

“Oh, Tim! The detectives are back talking to us again. There’s been another murder!”

“Oh, sweet Jesus, Mo! Who? Has the entire universe gone mad?” She shakes her head.

I head up to my cubicle and Quinn’s sitting there waiting for me.

“Good morning, Tim.”

“Morning, Detective. Hardly good, though. I hear there’s been another murder?”

“I’m afraid so. But first things first. How are you doing?”

“Truth? Not great. This murder stuff is way too close to home. It’s seriously getting to me.”

“I’m sure you’re feeling it more than most, given your history and standing with Marterelli’s.”

“And now there’s been another one, Pete?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“So what’s this latest murder got to do with us?”

“Tim, a woman was murdered in Grand Central Station last night.…”

My knees start to buckle. Wonder if it shows? No wonder there were so many damned cops there this morning.

“She was an actress. And the reason we’re back here is she was a person a lot of you guys worked with a good while back.”

I suck in my breath. Here it comes.…

“Her name is Tiffany Stone.…”

“Oh…my…God! The original CrawDaddy girl! The one we put in their very first Super Bowl commercial?”

My world is officially fractured. The devil himself has decided to fuck with me.

“They found her in the basement of Grand Central Station—with a bullet through her mouth.”

I collapse against my desk, trying to collect my wits, and make some sense out of all this insanity.

But I can’t.

The second person I know has been murdered.