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know you yet and it throws me off. Let’s face it, neither one of us is good about talking about our feelings. It scares me a little. No, make that more than a little. The deeper we get into this, the more of a problem it could be.”
    It took him a minute to respond, which didn’t surprise her, so at least she knew him well enough to discern he’d weigh his response. Then he said quietly, “Ellie, you don’t want me to tell you I’m in love with you.”
    On that score she found he was absolutely right.

 
    Chapter 4
     
    There was no question I’d slipped once. Not a hard fall, jarring, knocking the breath from my lungs, but I’d stumbled and hit the ground in a figurative sense. A tumble from grace; a mistake even …
    But they hadn’t caught me. It might have been better if they had.
    I was in high school. If you want to call it a school … a cut-rate community institution with painted brick walls and linoleum floors, the echoing halls filled with the sound of slamming lockers, the bell herding us like obedient sheep to our respective classrooms where bored, uninspired teachers offered whatever knowledge they possessed on subjects society had decided we needed to function in a productive way.
    I wasn’t expecting it, but no one ever does, do they?
    But I hated for the first time.
    The bitch had drawn my attention when she had laughed. At me. Her mistake. My mission crystalized then into a solid carbon mass of intent, of cause and effect.
    Really, none of it was my fault .
    As far as I know, they have never found her .
    JULY 4
     
    The place smelled like shit. Not literally, but to him, shit. Like obscure antiseptics and formaldehyde and other bizarre preservatives to stop human decomposition.
    Really, the morgue was not his favorite.
    Jason let the door shut behind him, blew out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, and put his hands in his back pockets to show he was comfortable, which he wasn’t really. Ironic, for dead bodies were crucial to his chosen profession. The difference was while he was extremely interested in finding out how they died and who was responsible, he had no desire to cut them up and peer at their internal organs. Luckily for him, someone did, and he hoped the autopsy would produce some sort of clue.
    “Detective Santiago.”
    He turned. Dr. Reubens smiled at him, wiping his hands and lifting his brows. He was young, if midthirties was still young and because that was his age, he thought so; forty seemed younger all the time. The medical examiner had a compelling smile and deep-set blue eyes. Light brown hair, thick and curling, and a small dimple in his left cheek gave him the appearance of an insurance agent or a high school athletic coach, something much more wholesome than his vocation. His scrubs had some suspicious stains on the front, and though Jason never had thought of himself as squeamish, he’d just as soon not know what they were from. “I’m here for the autopsy report.”
    “Nice outfit.”
    He glanced down at his shorts and flip-flops. “I’m off-duty and I’m supposed to go to some sort of cookout later. Hey, it’s the Fourth.”
    Though, if he were honest about it, charred meat was not at the top of his list of desired foods right now, so the cookout didn’t sound all that appealing. He hadn’t been looking forward to the party all that much in the first place, as it was being given by someone he didn’t even know, but Kate had accepted for both of them.
    Kate. She’d been pissed at him for coming home so late last night and he could have earned a few points if he’d explained why, but he hadn’t. He wasn’t even sure why he hadn’t explained.
    Maybe so she would stay pissed? He might have to think that over later.
    “Let’s go through it.” The medical examiner walked to a stainless steel table where several clipboards sat in neat rows, and picked one up. “The burn victim from yesterday. Interesting, I must say.”
    “Like