Bud groaned and leaned back in his seat. “Meddling.”
“No,” Tessa said. “Well, not really. Maybe kind of. I don’t know.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She looked away. “Nothing. I have to go because my shift starts in a minute.” She opened the back door and let Zena in. “Bye.” She shut the door and hustled toward the diner.
I watched her go. Oh, she hadn’t given me all the dish. We were so going to talk about that when we got the chance. If he’d asked her out and she’d refused, I was going to throw her in the lake. Unless she really didn’t like him. But I could tell she was intrigued by him, darn it.
Bud pulled away from the curb to drive to my office building. “Is Donna dating anybody?”
Oh, I wasn’t helping him out. The guy needed to get off his butt and ask Donna out if he was interested. “Don’t be nosy.” Yeah. That’d teach him.
He remained silent to the office, into the building, up the stairs, and through the law firm. I flipped on the lights and noted that Oliver had tidied up the reception area before leaving the day before. He sure liked things organized. “This is the firm,” I said.
Bud grunted.
I wasn’t sure if he was pouting or just being normal Bud who didn’t talk much. We walked through the inside door to the main hallway and Zena growled.
Bud pushed me behind him and drew a gun from the back of his waist. I hadn’t even seen it. My body went on full alert, and I pulled my smaller weapon from my purse. What was happening? I held my breath and listened, but there was no noise. No hint that anybody else was in the office. All of the lights were off.
Zena ran by me toward my office before I could stop her. At the entrance, she lay down, facing inside.
Bud’s shoulders went rock hard. “She’s a search and rescue dog, right?”
“Yes,” I whispered, chilly fingers ticking along my shoulders. I reached blindly for the wall switch and illuminated the hallway.
Bud walked silently down the hallway, turning and pointing his gun into each room until reaching my office. Then he leaned in and flicked on my light. “Shit.”
I followed him to see a woman face up on my carpet, the side of her head smashed. Her blue eyes were lifeless as she stared at the ceiling, and her blonde hair was matted with blood.
“Do you know her?” Bud asked.
My stomach lurched. “Yeah. We were in a bar fight, food fight, and car wreck together.” It was the blonde woman whose name I’d never learned. “She’s also a Lorde’s old lady. You’re going to want to call Aiden.”
Bud took his phone out of his back pocket. “I need to call this in first.”
The coppery scent of blood and death engulfed my once peaceful office.
Chapter 28
Isat at the picnic table in our conference room with Clark and Bud flanking me and Detective Grant Pierce across from me. We’d been there nearly two hours as the crime techs had done their job and then finally gotten the body out of the office. Clark had called both Oliver and Pauley and told them to take the day off.
Pierce finished taking notes.
Bud and I had answered all of his questions about our morning and what we’d seen, heard, or noticed. Zena’s head was in my lap, and I stroked her absently, her presence calming me. “What was the woman’s name?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
Pierce flipped a piece of paper over. “Bev Martin. We have her prints on file from a DUI three years ago in Idaho.”
Bev. It was a pretty name. “I didn’t even know her name,” I murmured.
Clark pressed both hands on the checked tablecloth. “Do you think this is related to Agent Duponte’s murder?”
Pierce shrugged. “Chances are good, considering both women were seen together before the murders. We’re bringing in Aiden Devlin and Bev Martin’s boyfriend for questioning this afternoon. I’ll see what I can dig up.”
“Was Bev killed here?” I asked, my voice trembling now. The sight of her dead body on my wooden floor wouldn’t leave my mind.
“Doubtful,” Pierce said. “It looks like she was dumped here, which raises the question as to why. She fought with you and injured you in a vehicle accident, and she’s connected through the Lordes. If I didn’t know who Aiden really was, I’d think he killed her and dumped her as a present.”
