My heart skipped a beat. “What is it?”
“A body, discovered outside this morning.” Her eyes crinkled in pity. “I’m so sorry, but it’s Lex.”
Relief swept over me in a fast wave, the awful notion that she was going to say Tyler vanishing with the actual identification. Wait… “Lex is dead?”
The words were a cold hit. Not Lex. Not the ex-colleague who’d propositioned me and wanted to help me return to work, even if he’d gone about it the wrong way. It felt so wrong.
Mila moved to the window that faced the river and the front of the clubs. “He was found early this morning. Convict took a phone call from Manny, then he left, and shortly after told methe news. He said I had to stay inside, so I came here. Lex was your friend, wasn’t he?”
I joined her and peeked out at the grey morning. Further up the walkway that led to the city centre, glimpses of flashing emergency vehicle lights made it through the trees. Tyler would be out there somewhere, handling it.
I wished he’d woken me to give me the news, same as Convict had with Mila.
My thoughts rushed, catching up. Lex had been killed. The last remainders of sleep fled me, and shock crept in. “How did he die?”
She hesitated, as if the news could only be worse. “Convict said he was hanged.”
Dismay cracked my voice. “He was killed?”
“It appears that way.” She rubbed my arm. “Are you okay?”
I turned and dropped to the couch. “Lex had his issues, but he didn’t deserve that.”
“Of course not, but that makes three now. Esther, Karla, and now Lex. All killed by the neck and all left in or next to water.” She lifted her phone. “The skeleton girls are all over it.”
My phone showed a very active chat thread with Cassie leading the theories and discussing the CCTV footage from the club.
There was nothing at all from Tyler.
Worse was a reminder that popped up for the meeting this morning.
Mila must’ve got the same, as she winced. “Thirty minutes. Sure you want to do this thing?”
I nodded, though declaring myself alive in the face of yet another murder felt like a kick in the teeth to my dead friend.
Thirty minutes gave me enough time for a hot shower. With the water running, I tentatively texted Tyler.
Dixie: Are you around?
No reply had come in when I dried myself. Nor when I dressed or pulled on fresh clothes. When I did my hair and makeup, my battle armour to face the world, I tried calling him. He didn’t answer.
My heart ached.
I needed him, but he was busy, and I didn’t want to be demanding.
Mila and I sat side by side on the sofa.
She glanced around. “Are we waiting for Tyler?”
I shook my head, too fast. He knew I was doing this, and if he could be here, he would.
She dialled a number, setting her phone on loudspeaker. It rang, and the receptionist for Cochran Family Solicitors answered brightly, hearing her request.
“I apologise,” she said, “but Mr Cochran is about to leave for a court appointment. Can I take a message?”
Mila spoke calmly, though her fingers shook. “Tell him to wait. I’ve found Darcy Marchant.”
A stunned silence met her words.
