Page 13 of One Last Chance

It took a second, and then—“What? No.”

“Yeah. That girl we found in the Copper Mountain ski area—she was shot with a?—”

“.270 Winchester.”

“Yeah. And the bullet matches the others.”

Axel looked away, shook his head, his chest tightening. “Does Deke know?”

“Of course. He got the news from the coroner in Anchorage and is the one who told me But more, the news knows, which means . . . Aven’s name is going to come up.”

Axel nodded, swallowed. “Yep.”

Moose paused. “You saved lives today, Axel. Focus on that.”

“Yeah. Whatever.” Axel turned and headed into his room.

He lay on the bed, staring out at the bright sky, not bothering to pull his blackout curtain. Circling. Circling. Circling.

Darkness or light, the nightmare simply wouldn’t end.

* * *

Flynn should have stayed the night at the station. Because three hours of sleep did no one any good.

She stood in front of her refrigerator in her tiny two-bedroom loft apartment overlooking the Mississippi River, just three blocks from the downtown precinct, and wondered what the shelf life was on blueberries.

And spinach.

Maybe if she didn’t look closely at them and added enough vanilla almond milk and some peanut butter, she wouldn’t notice the taste. No one died from bad blueberries, right?

She pulled out the plastic containers, opened the spinach, and picked out a few non-slimy leaves. After sorting the berries, she added them to her blender along with the milk and peanut butter. Some ice cubes.

Clearly, she should take her mother up on her invitation to tomorrow’s Sunday brunch. Her mom had left a voicemail last night, and one this morning, of course. But the invitation probably also meant church, so . . .

Maybe not.

She dumped the containers into the trash, then whirred the blender. Poured the mixture into a tall shaker bottle, capped it, and headed over to her bicycle. Picking up the remote from the table, she powered on her flat screen and opened up a YouTube biking video—this one through Rome.

Then she rolled her exercise bike into the open space beside her sectional.

Light shone through the floor-to-ceiling picture windows that overlooked the river, the rays of sunlight gleaming against the wooden floor all the way to her U-shaped kitchen, the stainless-steel appliances shiny against the white quartz surfaces. The loft at least smelled good, her cleaning lady leaving a lilac scent with her products. When Flynn had arrived home in the wee hours this morning, she’d fallen into the cloud of fresh sheets, her eyes closing hard.

She’d forgotten to turn off her alarm, so it buzzed way too early, and she might have slept in, but her head ached after way too much information from the sister of Magnum O’Conner, the man behind the 1039 murders who now lay on a slab at the coroner’s office, along with his victim, Kaitlyn Swenson.

Of course, Flynn had also dreamed, which meant she’d tangled herself in the sheets, a hot, sweaty mess. These cases always dragged up the what-ifs surrounding Kennedy. Longing, maybe, or simply relief that the body found didn’t belong to her twin. Still, the one good thing—besides justice—about ending the crime spree was that Kennedy came back to her in her dreams. Still alive. Still whole. Laughing. And with the dream, a revived hope that maybe, somewhere . . .

Flynn hiked up the volume on her TV, pressed play on the bike tour, and hopped onto her NordicTrack, the skinny seat a reminder to stay on her toes, that she wasn’t out for a joyride, even if they might be exploring the streets of Rome.

She dug down, pedaling up cobblestone streets, then down through the hills of the Forum and over to Trevi Fountain. A line of sweat trailed down her back when the doorbell rang.

She slowed the bike even as the bell rang again. Then whoever stood on the other side of the door sat on the buzzer.

“I’m coming!” For Pete’s sake.

She got off and grabbed a towel from the back of her Ikea rocker, wiped her forehead, and grabbed her protein shake.

Taking a drink, she walked to the door, then peered through the peephole.

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