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The room was silent as questions raced through my mind. Who was she? Where was she from? How long had she been lying there? What could have caused her to be murdered this way? Was it a date that went horribly wrong?

“Was she sexually assaulted?” I asked quietly.

“No. Actually, she was still a virgin,” the doctor replied. That surprised me, and my eyes went wide. A girl that pretty and put together, not sexually active, seemed unusual. It felt unrealistic for a woman her age. Then again, maybe it was the norm for the younger generation.

I glanced at Sean, who was staring at the floor. He had a daughter close to the same age, so I attributed his silence to what we were looking at.

“You okay?” I said softly.

“Yeah…I will be,” he replied, clearing his throat.

I turned my attention back to Dr. Fleming. “Okay, Doc. If you get any more information, please share it with me. Sean and I will head back to the precinct to see if any missing women or girls have been reported. It’s been under twenty-four hours, so we may not discover anything until tomorrow.”

“Will do, detective,” she replied, escorting us out of the autopsy room.

As Sean and I headed out, I turned back to the doctor. “I hope things work out okay with Monica,” I said with a quirked smile.

Dr. Fleming was taken off guard by my remark, but then laughed, throwing a wave my way.

Sean remained quiet as we went back down the hallway toward the elevators. I was thankful for the fresher air outside the autopsy room. I knew Sean’s thoughts were centered on his daughter, who had recently moved to San Diego for a new job. Glancing his way, I didn’t press or give any indication that I knew what was on his mind.

“I need to call Megan tonight,” he finally said as we stepped into the elevator. I simply hummed in agreement and patted his shoulder. Seeing that young woman’s body on the table had shaken him. Hell, it had affected me, too.

I put on my sunglasses when we left the building and mentioned his dinner invitation again to ease the tense silence. “I’ll probably see Craig tonight and bring up getting together with you and Lorraine soon.”

“Cool,” he said with a thin-lipped smile. He said nothing else until we reached the car. “You guys have been together for a while now. How come you don’t live together?”

Sean had never mentioned the living arrangements Craig and I had, which surprised me, given how direct he could be. Maybe because of the dinner invitation and how our conversation was going, he felt it was as good a time as any to satisfy his curiosity.

I chuckled as I opened the driver’s door, hoping humor might help me explain. “We’ve been together a little over three years now. In all honesty, I think we’re both kinda set in our ways. We’re comfortable with each other, and I’m sure living together could work. It’s just, I don’t know…” I stopped there, sat in the seat, and shut the door, not wanting to explain our living situation further.

“That’s okay. I don’t mean to pry, and whatever your reasons, I’m sure they work great for you both,” he replied, buckling his seatbelt.

Deep down, I knew I loved Craig, but I wasn’t sentimental or forthright in expressing my feelings to him casually. Sometimes I seriously wanted to tell the world how I felt, but I was scared of tipping the balance because our current situation felt so comfortable. I didn’t want to compromise it. Craig was the longest relationship I’d ever had, and it was working fine as it was. But maybe it wasn’t what Craig needed from me.

My gut twisted thinking about it, so I pushed my thoughts aside and merged into traffic to head back to the precinct. I wanted to document what we’d discovered and coordinate efforts to identify the woman. Evidence had been collected and was being tested, and we needed to put a plan together for our investigation.

Once the heavy day was over, I planned to call Craig to see if he could come over. I didn’t want to spend the night alone if I didn’t have to, and really wanted to be with him.

2

CRAIG

I’d been sitting in my car for two hours across the street from the Omni Hotel, and having consumed two cups of coffee, my bladder was feeling it. I was lucky enough to have parked across the street to watch the husband of a wealthy client walk into the main entrance. It was the middle of the afternoon, and by all accounts, he was meeting his alleged mistress of the month. I was glad I brought my telephoto lens, which made it easy to snap shots of him as he entered the hotel.

I enjoyed being a private investigator, but sometimes surveillance stakeouts for adultery felt sleazy. Most clients had money and were willing to part with it for solid proof of their suspicions about their life partners. Some stakeouts were tedious, while others had me running in circles to keep up with the supposed cheating spouse.

The wife of the man I had been tailing for two days had been suspicious for a long time, and despite her efforts, she hadn’t found the proof she needed. That’s where I stepped in. She was so desperate that she paid me a hefty upfront bonus to get the job done and promised me an additional bonus on top of my daily expenses once I provided her with the evidence she was after.

I had taken cases like that in the past where one spouse didn’t trust what the other was doing. Sometimes things didn’t turn out as expected. One client was convinced her husband was having an affair because he’d been coming home late smelling of perfume. The husband was taking dancing lessons to surprise his wife for their upcoming anniversary. Those were the outcomes I loved to see instead of the ruined lives caused by unfaithful husbands or wives.

Having waited in my car for over two hours with no sign of her husband, I considered taking the risk to run into the hotel to use the restroom, even if it meant missing the chance to see him with his love interest. Before I could extricate myself from my car, my subject emerged with another man also wearing a suit. Did I just waste my afternoon waiting for him to have a business meeting?

The two men walked down the sidewalk side by side, engaged in an intense discussion. I needed a closer view, so I grabbed my camera and focused in on them. The younger man, walking alongside my client’s supposedly cheating husband, stepped off the curb and approached the driver’s side of a newer model Land Rover parked across the street from me. The man I’d been following jumped into the passenger side.

Feeling exasperated and with a full bladder, I had expected to spend the next couple of days following him, but excitement flamed my gut when both men kissed passionately, holding each other across the center console of the SUV. For some ungodly reason, it made my dick twitch at the sight. It also made me chuckle.

“Holy shit,” I said as I snapped a few close-ups of them. “She is gonna shit a brick when I present her with these.” In a way, I felt sad not only for my client but for her soon-to-be ex-husband. Their lives would be forever changed by my discovery.