Page 77 of Pretty Cruel Love

“There you are,” the realtor says, stepping in behind me. “Gorgeous bathroom suite, huh?”

“Yes,” I say. “I can almost look past the fact that someone was murdered in here.”

His smile falters. “You’re not actually a buyer, are you?”

“I’d like to seriously buy your silence.” I hand him a few hundred-dollar bills. “Give me two hours. Go eat lunch.”

He accepts the money and vanishes without a word.

Robin throws me a disapproving look. “Really?”

“Why did you drag me here again?” I ask.

“I wanted to get a feel for it. See it for myself.”

“Not really your job. That’s something her lawyers should be doing.”

“True,” she says, pulling latex gloves from her bag and slipping them on. “But something Sadie said stuck with me. I want to see if it’s here.”

I arch a brow.

She doesn’t need me for this.

“I’m heading back to the office,” I say. “Drive safe.”

Robin pulls out her phone and plays back an old session through the speakers.

“He left something at the crime scene,” Sadie’s voice says.

“Too bad it wasn’t his DNA,” I’d replied.

“It was a memento, a thank you to our love.”

“I take it back,” I say, folding my arms. “This is something for a forensics team.”

Robin crouches by the bathroom sink and opens the cabinet. She shuts off the water, unscrews the pipe, and shakes something into her hand.

A skull-shaped ring that matches Sadie’s necklace.

Still exactly where I left it, where she was supposed to leave hers too…

I don’t have to come any closer to know what’s engraved on the inside:

O.L.I.F.

O.L.I.P.C.

Robin stares at it like it’s burning her palm.

“You told me to research what those letters meant when we started this project. It was the very first fucking thing you asked of me.”

“So, you’re just now getting around to it?”

“You know what those goddamn letters stand for.” Her chest heaves up and down. “Because this is your sadistic matching charm that goes with hers.”

I blink.

“What does it stand for, Dr. Weiss?”

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