Page 19 of Dirty Liars

“No,” I said. “You always put lettuce and tomatoes on them.”

“Because I’m a grownup,” Jack said, rolling his eyes and making a sandwich with military precision.

“You guys working on that case you sent me earlier?” Doug asked. “All the golf cart logs and stuff?”

“The honeymooner murders over at The Mad King,” Jack said.

“Brutal,” Doug said, cutting a brownie for me and scooping it out on a napkin to put in front of me. “I haven’t had a chance to start going through your data. I had an exam that had to be finished by seven o’clock tonight, so I’m finally coming up for air.”

“Of course you waited until the last minute to take it,” I said dryly.

“Of course,” Doug said. “No need doing that stuff early. I’ve got procrastination down to a science. I turned it in with twenty minutes to spare. So what’s up with the honeymooners? How’d they get dead?”

“Multiple gunshot wounds,” I said, reaching for the brownie Doug had cut for me. “At least for the bride. Single bullet wound to the head for the groom. The death do us part came early.”

“Good one,” Doug said with a snort of appreciative laughter, his eyes lighting up at my gallows humor. He perched on one of the kitchen island stools, swinging his lanky legs. “Murder-suicide?”

Doug had the makings of an excellent cop, and it was sometimes hard to reconcile the contradiction between his analytical, adult brain and the gangly teenage body that housed it. One moment he’d be cracking inappropriate jokes, and the next he’d make an observation that would have impressed veteran detectives.

“No, definitely murder,” I said, savoring the rich chocolate flavor as I took a bite. After hours in the clinical sterility of the lab, the homey sweetness was almost overwhelming. “Two different weapons. Most likely two different killers. I found a good fingerprint on Chloe Vasilios crusted in the blood on her arm. There was a smear that looked like a handprint, presumably from where he moved her body. Only the index finger left a print. Based on the pattern, I’m thinking he was wearing gloves but there must have been a tear in them. I sent it over to Jack to see if it matched the print on the 9mm that was used to kill Theo Vasilios.”

“It was a match,” Jack confirmed, leaning against the counter with his sandwich untouched in front of him. The lines around his eyes had deepened during the day, a testament to the toll the case was taking. “We just got a partial from the weapon, which supports your glove theory. Caught a break there. Prints are being run through the system, but nothing has come back yet.”

“I need murder details, people,” Doug said, his fingers drumming impatiently on the countertop. “The media isn’t saying anything about anything, so I’m completely in the dark here.” His excitement was palpable, the same vibrating energy he got when diving into a particularly challenging computer problem.

“There are more details than I even know where to start,” I sighed, feeling the weight of the day settle back onto my shoulders despite the sugar boost.

“That must have been a heck of an autopsy,” Jack said, his eyes meeting mine across the kitchen island.

“Did you not get my report?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I haven’t had a chance to look at it,” he admitted, running a hand through his hair. “I wanted to hear it from you first.”

“Oh, good,” I said with mock enthusiasm. “I love giving surprises. Has next of kin been notified?”

“The wedding was at the Briarly Country Club, so all of the family is still in town,” Jack said, finally picking up his sandwich. “I sent an officer and the chaplain over to break the news to his parents. Rogers told me they’re taking it pretty hard. Apparently Theo was their only son. They’ve got no other children.”

“Did the bride have any family at the wedding?” I asked, suddenly curious. The lack of connections for such a young woman had been bothering me since I’d first seen her on the villa floor.

“No,” Jack said, his tone suggesting this had raised his suspicions too. “Not that we’ve been able to find. She doesn’t have a next of kin, so there’s been no family notifications. Looks like attendees were only the groom’s family or mutual acquaintances. We asked for a full guest list from his parents. They’re supposed to have the wedding planner send it over.”

“Curiouser and curiouser,” I murmured, brushing brownie crumbs from my fingers.

“Why’s that?” Jack asked, alert to the shift in my tone.

I pushed the autopsy file across the island to Jack, the manila folder sliding smoothly across the polished granite. “I’ll just start at the top. That will be easiest. I do agree with Derby’s initial background check that she’s under twenty-one. Her wisdom teeth still hadn’t fully erupted. But her medical history is sketchy at best. She’s got third-world dental care and a couple of broken bones that weren’t set properly.”

“Maybe she was trafficked from another country,” Jack suggested, his expression darkening.

The words hung heavy in the kitchen. We’d just closed a case involving child sex trafficking, and those wounds were still fresh for all of us. I could see the memory flicker across Jack’s face—the same haunted look he’d worn for weeks after we’d found those children.

“That’s a definite possibility,” I said, keeping my voice clinical to distance myself from the emotions the thought stirred. “She wasn’t malnourished, and it doesn’t look like she ever has been, based on the health of her organs. She had no signs of drug use, recent or prolonged. Her tox screen came back showing a blood alcohol level of point one. So she was definitely drunk. Theo’s BAC skimmed right at the legal limit, but he weighed eighty pounds more than she did. He’s a smoker, but not a serious one. Otherwise, he’s a healthy forty-six-year-old male.”

“Gross,” Doug interjected, his teenage sensibilities clearly offended. He wrinkled his nose. “She was nineteen and he was forty-six? He’s old enough to be her dad.”

“Europeans age differently,” I said teasingly.

“So what’s the surprise?” Jack asked, drawing us back to the central mystery, his eyes scanning the photographs I’d included in the file.

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