“The finger is priority. We’ll play the vials by ear.”
She didn’t argue. Instead, she took the vials and added them to the cheese drawer, burying them under a bag of shredded cheddar.
A minute later, Nick, Kellen, and Burt strolled into the kitchen. Kellen looked like hell.
“Where’s your car?” Nick asked him.
“Wherever I left it last night.”
“How did you get here?”
Kellen closed his eyes. “I walked.”
“From where?” Riley asked.
“Apparently from next door.”
“You didn’t go home last night after happy hour next door? Oh, God. You didn’t sleep in Lily’s room, did you? She gets handsy.”
“I woke up on a couch in a room with Gabe doing three thousand push-ups. This better be good,” he rasped.
Riley handed him a glass of water and the bottle of aspirin.
“We’ve got a situation with your sister,” Nick began.
“Whatever it is, I don’t care.”
“She disappeared again,” Riley began.
Kellen thumbed off the cap of the aspirin and shook the tablets directly into his mouth. “This is me still not caring.”
“Yeah? How about now?” Nick began, heading toward the fridge. “Sesame disappeared early this morning after telling her husband she was going shopping. But she didn’t go shopping. She hopped a train to Penn Station.”
“Good for her,” Kellen said, gingerly taking a seat and putting his head in his hands.
“Shortly after she left, some bruiser in a suit showed up with a delivery for Sesame and Tommy,” Nick continued.
Riley pushed the legal papers toward Kellen.
“Look, I’m still seeing double. I have no idea if this is a Chinese takeout menu or a signed confession to being the worst sister in the world.”
“You recognize this?” Nick tossed the bagged finger on top of the paperwork.
“What the…” Kellen made the mistake of picking up the baggie. “Christ. Did you just throw a finger at me? Oh, God. You did. Trash can.”
Her boyfriend managed to kick the trash can under Kellen’s face in the nick of time.
“There’s a lot of barfing happening in this house this morning,” Riley observed as Kellen hurled what was probably straight alcohol into the trash.
“Ow,” the detective moaned, holding his ribs.
“Ha! You puked over a finger. It wasn’t even a whole body!” Nick crowed, recording the moment on his phone.
“Nick, seriously?” Riley wet a dishcloth and handed it to the pasty, sweaty Kellen.
“What? I puked one time over a corpse, and he never let me live it down. Paybacks are hell.”
“Do you feel better?” Riley asked Kellen.
