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opening it.
    “Not me.”
    “ Why was this packed in plastic? It degrades biological evidence.” She pulled out a royal-blue garment that was stiff with dried blood. Shaking her head, she unfolded it and spread it out on the table.
    The dress was short, low-cut. The upper half was saturated with blackened bloodstains.
    Mia’s breath hissed out. She reached a tentative finger out and traced one of the many gashes in the fabric.
    “My God,” she whispered. “He must have stabbed her a hundred times.”
    •  •  •
    El Patio was loud and crowded when the man’s phone started vibrating on the bar. He checked the number and bit back a curse as he picked up.
    The caller didn’t say anything. The man waited.
    Finally, a shaky sigh. “Lake View Park,” the caller said. “South lot.”
    Unbelievable. He tossed some money onto the bar and went outside into the bitter cold.
    “Are you fucking kidding me?” he demanded. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”
    “Come soon. This one’s …” A nervous laugh, almost hysterical. “God, I can’t believe this. Just get here, okay?”
    The man stepped away from the cluster of smokers hanging out near the door. The place was packed tonight. Vehicles streamed in and out of the parking lot.
    “This is the last time,” he said, scanning the rows for his Buick. “I mean it. You still got that account number?”
    “Just get here! We’ll work that out later.”
    “We’ll work it out now. Do you have it or not?”
    “Yes.”
    He crossed the lot to his car and yanked open the door. “I want double this time. This is getting messy.”
    Shit, messy? It was a train wreck. But he was in it now, and there was no going back. The best he could hope for was to minimize the damage and get paid.
    He tossed his coat inside and slid behind the wheel as the caller wrestled with the decision. There was nothing to decide. This guy was an addict—completely and totally at the mercy of his habit.
    And so he went for the jugular. “Tick-tock,” he said.
    “All right! Come on! This is—” The caller’s voicebroke, and he started weeping. Weeping. The sound was
    fucking pathetic.
    “We got a deal or not?”
    “Yes. I told you. Are you in your car?”
    He turned the key, and the twelve-year-old sedan sputtered to life. It was about fifty thousand miles past its prime. The car, like his career plans, should have been junked years ago. He was getting too old for this shit. And he wasn’t cut out for it, never had been. He needed out. Soon.
    “Are you coming?” the caller asked.
    He turned out of the lot and cranked the heater. It was a long drive out to Lake Buchanan.
    He couldn’t believe he was doing this again. He took a deep breath and focused on the money. “I’m on my way.”

CHAPTER 4

    Mia tipped her head back to look at the sky, grateful for the break in the bleak winter weather. It wasn’t just clear, it was perfectly clear. And the sky wasn’t just blue, it was a brilliant turquoise. The day was gorgeous, filled with sun and promise and possibility.
    Just like the day Amy had died.
    For an instant, Mia was standing beside her banana-seat bike, watching her sister pull out of the driveway in the secondhand Chevy Malibu she’d bought with life-guarding money. Mia waved, and Amy tapped the horn before driving away.
    “Notice anything?”
    She snapped back to the present and glanced down into the grinning, freckled face of her six-year-old nephew.
    Did she notice anything?
    “Umm … you still haven’t tied your sneaker?”
    “Nope.” Sam’s smile widened, revealing a missing incisor.
    “Umm …” Mia crouched down to tie the shoe herself. “You got a haircut since I last saw you?”
    “Nope.”
    “You lost another tooth?”
    “Nope. Do you give up?”
    Mia stood and fisted a hand on her hip. “I give up.”
    “I’m standing on your shadow,” he said gleefully. “That means you’re it.”
    “I thought we called time out.” They’d been playing