Page 107 of Blue Moon

“Unlucky.”

“Not really. He had a prescription for diazepam, and he’d washed it down with Scotch. There was a near-empty bottle on the table in his study, and he was well on his way to alcohol poisoning before the snake got involved.”

“So a snake got into his home? Or did he keep one as a pet?”

“No pets. And maybe a snake crawled inside, but there are three types of venomous snake in Las Vegas, and the herpetologist says the fangs were too far apart for any of them. The lab work is still outstanding on the species.”

“Nobody spotted a snake when they were picking up the body?” Emmy asked.

“Guess not.”

“Are they going back to look?”

“I don’t have that information.”

“Try to find out. Fifty bucks says the snake was an asp.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that we’ve got a fruitcake who thinks he’s Mark Antony and a dead dude named Julius. He was taking out the competition.”

A chill ran through Ryder. “You think Julius’s death is connected to Luna’s disappearance?”

“You don’t?”

Truthfully, it hadn’t crossed Ryder’s mind. He’d just assumed one of Julius’s victims had plucked up the courage to take revenge. After all, it was a task he’d considered carrying out himself, only not so creatively.

“There are other reasons a person might want to kill Julius Whitlow.”

“Oh?”

He’d promised Luna that he’d keep her secrets, but he’d also promised to keep her safe and look where that had gotten them. Now, with her life potentially at stake, he had to disclose any information that might be pertinent to the case. Ryder kept his voice soft in case Elene was listening in from the back of the plane. Emmy had put a pair of headphones over her ears and instructed her to sit down and shut up, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

“Whitlow raped Luna when she was sixteen.”

“You’re kidding me? And she still kept him as her agent?”

“Her mother kept him as her agent. Luna didn’t have much of a say in the matter. I’m the only other person who knows, and this needs to stay quiet.”

“Understood.”

“When does a man like that ever stop at one? Especially if there are no consequences?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t kill him yourself.” Emmy twisted her lips to one side. “It wasn’t you, was it?”

“With a fuckin’ snake?”

“Just checking.”

“Luna told me not to.”

Ana snorted quietly. “I killed a man with a snake once. But it was a sculpture of a basilisk, and I hammered it up his?—”

“Let’s stick with Luna’s case, okay?” Emmy ate a couple of cold fries. “There are two possibilities. Either her disappearance is an escalation of the ongoing saga with Mark Antony, or it isn’t. Ryder, what’s your gut telling you?”

“Fuck, I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. These past few months have been a mind fuck.”

“Bullshit. You’re good at your job. Start at the beginning and talk us through everything that happened in Vegas.”

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