Page 40 of Perfect Order
Sam rolls his eyes. “You know, Caleb, if you went up against the proposals team from Castor on a regular basis, you might feel a bit more sympathy for Keene.”
Carys wisely steps in to stop the verbal clashing. “Caleb, Sam, perhaps we should take Leanne into the conference room before anyone else overhears us?”
A feeling of nausea over the events of the last few weeks overwhelms me, and grief descends when the reason I’m standing here smacks into me like a 2x4. “Please.”
Caleb guides me forward. “Grief is a journey no one wants to be on, Ms. Miles. One moment, you feel anger so severe you feel nothing but the need for retribution. Then there’s the pain so debilitating it’s almost crippling.” He pauses temporarily by a door that’s partially open. His eyes are drawn to something before he continues. “There are times when it feels like you’ll never remember the times of joy.”
Just before Carys and Caleb join us, I probe, “Did you lose a family member suddenly, Caleb?”
His chocolate-colored eyes stare down at me so hard, I feel like twitching. He doesn’t give anything away verbally, but as I stand next to him, he emanates the same energy swirling inside of me. I sense it. My voice drops to a whisper. “Then you understand my need for vengeance.”
Suddenly, Caleb Lockwood’s face sharpens. The gregarious lines of his face become lethal when he growls, “Absolutely.” Then he morphs back into the calm businessman as he swings open the conference room door for me and the others to pass by.
Carys whirls on Sam and Caleb. “I can’t believe you both are listening to her half-assed idea.”
“When you’re trying to flush out a perp, you have to take drastic measures.” Caleb’s voice is calm, even if his eyes are sparkling with malice. Okay, it’s confirmed. He’s on the list of my new favorite people.
Sam is a bit more reticent. “The best thing to do is to announce to everyone that Kylie is dead and Leanne is alive, Caleb.”
Bickering ensues. While the three of them go at it, I whip out my computer and quickly hack into Hudson’s mainframe.Sorry, Sam,I apologize to my idol for breaching his network without a by-your-leave. I cover my tracks and throw data up onto the screen. “Let’s look at the facts,” I announce calmly.
Sam’s jaw falls before a wide smile breaks across his face. Caleb smirks. And Carys’s head falls into her hands before she asks, “How many laws did Leanne just break in under fifteen seconds?”
Caleb waves away her concern. “And what are the facts as you see them?”
I rip the card out of my bag and toss it onto the table. I go through everything I’ve unearthed recently about my sister—including the hit list of men, Carys’s assessment of them, and my own encounter at Snowy-T’s party. I conclude with a heartfelt “If you had been on the phone with her the way I was, you’d know there was no way she was planning on leaving the Plaza.”
Caleb’s suddenly intrigued as I flash the police report on the screen. As an aside, he reveals to Carys, “Now, we’re looking at some serious jail time if anyone caught her. Though, I don’t think Leanne gets caught often.”
“I haven’t yet,” I drawl. Besides being the truth, I don’t bother mentioning my all-purpose get-out-of-jail-free card.
Carys begins banging her head on the table in front of her but still manages to get out, “Shouldn’t the police have pieced this together?”
Sam’s scanning the report. “Best- or worst-case scenario? Despite the notoriety of the victim, unless they receive a tip or something's fenced, there's little hope of finding the killer in this type of case. They have no suspects, no leads other than the obvious. They had a body—sorry, Leanne. Your sister. She was there with her identification in her pocket. It matched. Plus, she was still alive at the time. And from what you told us, you call her Lee?”
“Yes. Ever since we were children or in times of extreme emotion, that’s what we both called each other,” I confirm.
“Kylie and Leanne,” Carys murmurs. She turns her face away, her throat working.
“If I was the kind of man who made assumptions—and I like to think I’ve learned not to be—I’d bet they assumed ‘Lee’ was ‘Leanne,’ not just a treasured nickname you gave each other,” Sam concludes.
There’s silence around the table while everyone absorbs the mistakes in identifying my sister. Then Carys questions, “What about an autopsy? Why didn’t this come up during it?”
“Because one was never performed,” I say dully.
Sam scoffs. “Are you kidding? We’re talking about a newsworthy death. I mean, we’re talking about ‘Leanne Miles’?” he air quotes.
Caleb interjects. “Statistically, only about five percent of the deceased bodies in the US are autopsied annually.”
“Including deaths arousing the family's suspicions?” Carys is incredulous. She whirls on me. “I can’t believe you didn’t ask for one.”
“Sorry. I was too destroyed over Lee’s death and subsequently in too much shock I didn’t recognize I was literally signing my own death certificate to remember to ask my parents if they wanted to have their daughter sliced and diced to add to the media swirl we were all about to endure. Let me be sure to add that to my list of items to correct once I get back to my lab. Right after I build that time machine and somehow manage to save my sister’s life,” I bite out.
Carys has the good grace to look abashed but still presses to ensure there wasn’t a mistake. “Caleb, seriously? It wasn’t mandatory?”
Caleb shrugs. “New York doesn’t require it. Suspicious deaths are required to be investigated, but it’s up to the ME on whether one needs to be performed. Since Kylie died under the hospital care, why waste the money when they had a cause of death certified by a medical professional?”
Why indeed?Bitterness crashes over me like a tidal wave that in my grief I didn’t ask for that—that there could have been some physical clue I missed—but I dive through it.
