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recently, with the nails long, perfectly shaped, and gleaming with a deep pink polish. “I don’t see any defensive wounds. No indication the girl put up a fight when she was taken.”
    “No,” Fina agreed as she looked across the body at Amy. “I’d be surprised if she was raped. There was no rage in this murder, Amy. The killer took his time to form those letters. They’re almost perfect.”
    Amy grimaced. “Absolutely. This guy is methodical, and ice cold. He executed this woman.”
    And if they didn’t catch the bastard soon, she had no doubt he would strike again.

 
    5
----
     
    Thursday, July 29
    9:00 a.m.
     
    As he passed through the sliding doors of the Children’s Hospital, Luke’s mind flashed to yesterday’s encounter with the cute little detective and how he’d been drawn to her so quickly. Disconcertingly so.
    Of course, he’d always been partial to French women. It went all the way back to when he was nineteen, visiting his sister, Kate, who was working in the Paris bureau of an international press syndicate. He’d sown a few wild and cherished oats with a spectacular Parisienne who’d responded with generosity to his fumbling American advances. His appreciation for the stylish and sexy Françaises and Québécoises had not waned in the intervening years, and Amy Robitaille was right up there with the best of them. Slim and toned, with great breasts that filled out her white dress shirt, the petite, raven-haired detective with the husky accent had immediately latched herself to his imagination.
    And the icing on the cake? Kellen Cramer was her boss, which meant that Luke knew exactly where to find her. Maybe it was karma or some bullshit like that, but he intended to find out if the sexy cop was as attracted to him as he was to her. His instincts told him yes.
    Smiling, he made his way to the bank of elevators on the other side of the lobby. As he rode up to the fifth floor, he forced himself to clear Robitaille’s image from his mind. He wasn’t here to daydream. The brave kids who were stuck in this hospital—some of them dying by inches—deserved his full attention. The last thing he should be thinking about was a woman, no matter how enticing.
    Luke took his visits to children’s hospitals seriously. Now that he’d retired from playing and had the time, he’d become a regular at Fort Lauderdale Children’s. Especially the heart unit. It wasn’t a photo op to him, like it was to some celebrities. That was why Robitaille’s casual assumption had stung. These kids meant a lot to him, especially since he had no family to call his own.
    He got off the elevator at the fifth floor and strode toward Alicia Trent’s room. He was anxious to see how the little girl was feeling after the battery of tests her cardiologist had scheduled for yesterday after he left. She’d been okay then, but his gut tightened a bit as he wondered what kind of shape she’d be in this morning.
    “Hey, kiddo,” he said, smiling at the stick-thin figure in the bed as he strode through the open door. Dr. Anna Halperin, one of the unit’s cardiac surgeons, stood beside the bed, holding Alicia’s delicate wrist. The doctor nodded a greeting as he went around to the other side.
    Alicia gave him a weak grin and pushed herself up on the mound of pillows behind her back. “Hi, Luke.”
    He put his hand over her little fist and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Did those tests wear you out, honey?”
    Alicia sighed, giving him that long-suffering look he knew meant she was okay. “Oh, I managed,” she said gravely.
    “I knew you would. Alicia Trent is one tough cookie.”
    “She certainly is,” Dr. Halperin said, smiling.
    “And smart, too,” Luke added. “Are you up for another quiz today?” Still holding her hand, he extracted a notebook out of his pocket.
    “Luke always asks me baseball trivia, Doctor Anna,” Alicia said, responding to the look of surprise on the doctor’s face. “So far, my record is