Chapter 4 - A Dead Woman on the News
“My murder?” Mara said. “I'm standing right here.”
Detective Elena Ruiz didn't blink. “Then somebody wants your body found before sunrise.”
She held up her phone. A breaking-news alert showed Mara's face above the headline: FEMALE SUSPECT KILLED DURING HALCYON HOSTAGE INCIDENT. Another alert named Adrian as the gunman.
“That's impossible,” Mara whispered.
“Impossible is getting popular tonight,” Ruiz said. “Get in.”
Adrian didn't move. “You arrested my mother's investigator eight years ago.”
“I did. He had stolen evidence in his car and enough cash to buy a small island. I found out later both had been planted.”
“Convenient.”
Ruiz raised her chin. “You can hate me in a moving vehicle.”
A sedan squealed around the corner. Its rear window lowered. Mara saw the flash of a rifle barrel.
“Down!” Adrian shouted.
Gunfire chewed into the SUV. Ruiz fired twice, jumped behind the wheel, and floored it. Mara slid across the back seat as the vehicle smashed through trash cans and lurched into traffic.
“Do we have a destination?” she yelled.
“City records annex,” Ruiz said. “Your father's final appeal included a sealed evidence inventory. I pulled it before the court could delete it.”
Mara's throat tightened. “You believed him?”
“I didn't, not when it mattered.” Ruiz checked the mirror. “That's one mistake I intend to fix.”
Adrian took Mara's necklace in his fingers, careful not to touch her skin. The pendant was shaped like a tiny silver bird.
“Your father made this?”
“He repaired watches. He used to make me little things from spare parts.”
Adrian twisted the bird's wing. A faint click sounded. Inside lay a narrow metal key marked N-17.
Ruiz glanced back. “That number's on the sealed inventory.”
“What does it open?” Mara asked.
“A locker in the old Larkspur subway station.”
Mara stared at the key. Her father had told her, on his last visit, Don't let them tell you what happened. Make them show you.
Ruiz's radio burst with static. “All units, officer-down report at the Halcyon. Detective Elena Ruiz is wanted for questioning.”
May you like
Adrian turned toward the rear window. Two black SUVs were gaining on them.
Ruiz gave a humorless laugh. “Well, now we're all officially dead.”
