Page 57 of Girl, Reformed

‘Need to go diving,’ she said.

‘Where?’

Ella edged closer and gently searched thevictim’s pockets. The usual detritus of a life cut short – keys, loose change,receipts for coffee and pie. And a wallet, worn buttery-soft with age and use.

‘Unsub didn’t have time to clean the vicout like he did with the others. Everything’s still here. Phone, keys, wallet.’

‘Phone contents could be vital,’ Lucasaid.

Ella flipped open the wallet, zeroing inon the driver's license tucked behind a scratched window of plastic. ‘HarryShepherd,’ she read out, committing the name to memory.

‘Harry Shepherd,’ Luca repeated.

Ella kept digging, sorting through punchcards and scraps of paper in search of something, anything to break the holdingpattern they'd been stuck in since this whole circus kicked off.

Her fingers caught on something stiff, arectangle of cardstock shoved into a backfold. She tugged it free, flipped itover. And promptly felt her eyebrows shoot up to outer space.

‘Uh…’

Luca leaned in, all barely-leashedcuriosity. ‘What you got?’

Wordlessly, Ella held up the card. Blackas a bible and twice as likely to give Luca an aneurysm, with LordLeatherworth, Dominant Extraordinaire embossed in blood-red foil.

Luca blanched. ‘Is that…?’

‘Professional male dom? Looks like.’ Thecorner of Ella's mouth ticked up. ‘Looks like Harry here was into the scene.’

‘Combined with the cuffs here,’ Lucagestured. ‘I mean, it paints a picture.’

Ella nodded. It sure did. A big, lurid,full-color centerfold of a picture, the kind to make a vice cop blush. But thequestion was: did that picture include a white-masked psychopath with a thingfor stocks and strangulation?

Only one way to find out.

‘Let's see if Harry here left us any otherbreadcrumbs.’ She jerked her chin at Luca. ‘Help me get his pants off.’

‘Come again?’

Ella fought the urge to laugh at Luca'sbug-eyed incredulity. Right, the guy probably never had to strip a corpse. Muchless in public, with half the Dover PD snapping pics for the scrapbook.

She relented with a wry grin. ‘Not thefull monty. Just need to check for any marks, anything that might confirm ourfindings.’

Luca cleared his throat as a dull flushcrawled up his neck. ‘Uh. Right. That's… yeah, okay. Are we allowed to dothat?’

‘Generally frowned upon,’ Ella said as shereached for the vic's belt.

Luca choked, a strangled sound somewherebetween a laugh and a whimper. But he knelt down gamely enough, helping Ellaease Harry’s rumpled slacks down over his hips. She wrangled his underwear outof the way, professional as a preacher's daughter, then flicked over themilk-white skin, the vulnerable backs of thighs. She frowned when she noticedthe stripes of fading pink cross-hatching Harry’s firm backside.

Bingo.

‘Well heck,’ Luca muttered. ‘Looks likeHarry here was quite the submissive.’

‘Agreed.’

‘These marks are fresh, too. Harry hasbeen spanked pretty damn recently. Probably today.’

Ella gave him a look. ‘Thought you weren’tan expert in weird sex,’ she smirked.

Luca blushed a little. Bless him. ‘Maybe Ilied.’

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