He paused and enlarged the picture of her face.She wasn’t a classical beauty, but there was a vulnerability that appealed to his sadistic side.To reframe, it wasn’t the fear itself he disliked, it was the fact he wasn’t the one who put it there.Acheron appeared in the doorway of his home office and Hades flicked his gaze from her to him.
“I’ve got a name.”
Hades held up his hand and Acheron approached, handing over a tablet.He read over the information.Cora Charles, aged twenty-five.Worked in the mail room at the LC Group.Her picture was from her employee ID, and he couldn’t help but stare at the colorized version.Her hair was a subtle red with highlights of copper woven through it.Her eyes were a little unusual with a light brown center encircled by a band of deep, dark chocolate.The glasses she wore only managed to make them appear big and innocent.A restless feeling moved under his skin.
“And the victim?”he inquired.
“Dr.Michaels has identified her as Erin Morris.Worked at LC group as an assistant to one of the managers.No priors.Had an ex-boyfriend who hadn’t been in the picture for over a year.”
Hades frowned.“Crime of passion?”
“Possibly.Would you like for Dr.Michaels to inform her next of kin?”
“Yes, but have him raise her blood alcohol level and label it as a tragic accident.”
“Will do, Boss,” Acheron replied, then turned and left him alone once more.
Settling back in his chair, he returned his attention to Cora Charles and decided he was going to have to interview her about what she saw.Whether she wanted to or not.
Chapter Three
Cora worked on autopilotin a daze.Mondays were always crappy to begin with because the correspondence seemed to pile up from the weekend, but now her mind grappled from PTSD.Sleep had been elusive.Every time she’d shut her eyes, the image of the woman was branded into her head.She wrestled with her conscience and battled with the pros and cons of telling someone about what she saw.
“What’s going on, Cora?”
She gave a startled yelp and spun around, bringing her hands up as she stumbled back.Her heart raced in fear as she stared up at her supervisor, Mr.Lee.He was a tall, stocky man, who resembled Odd Job from the movieGoldfinger.All that was needed was the bowler hat.
“Jesus, Cora, what the hell?”
She rapidly blinked her eyes to pull herself out of a stupor.“W-what?”
“What’s wrong with you?You’re barely working.”
Cora looked down at her station and realized she’d been standing there, lost in her thoughts, while the mail piled up.Sorting mail wasn’t hard, and she usually soared right through it, but now the large catching bins were almost full.
“I’m sorry,” she immediately said, grabbing another handful of letters.Emails and other electronic documents were the go-to, obviously, but some things still required a paper version.“I guess I’m just a little tired.”
