Page 64 (1/2)

I should have

It all happened in one elongated second-- on the knob; the voices of the contest director andthe closet door open E me from the darkness

"What the--?"

"Oh, h Emerson jumped out of her closet and puht--she was no th so I quickly rolled her off me, but in that millisecond my nostrils twitched and my mouth started to water It wasn’t her usual noxious scent It was so very, very different

Heavy Metallic

Blood

I felt e when I stared at my blood-covered hands, at the smear across my blouse

And then I looked at Emerson

"Oh, my--" I started to kick away, felt the inane need to put distance betweenwith her?" one of the models asked

"Is she okay?" Jason Forbes rushed toward me and Emerson "Are you okay? What happened? If you ladies can’t--" Jason paused, looked down at Emerson, and then crouched slowly A chalky white washed over his face He glanced at me and I knew exactly what the hard look in his eyes meant: Emerson Haas dead When I crawled over to see forout of Emerson’s concave chest were ure out that their sharp double-blades edged firmly and deeply into her silent heart

From the moment E zipped into a slick black coroner’s bag could have been five minutes or five hours The studio was a buzz ofmore than to crawl back to the cool, dark cave of an apartment and sort out what had just happened--and what it meant I was ready to dash when a fat, round detective sidled up toat me with his coffee breath I had expected Officer Hopkins, but the gentle his ill-fitting cotton-poly off-the-rack suit like it was an Armani

"I’m aware of the previous case but I’m not at liberty to talk about it" He shifted his eyes as though everyone were about to pounce in an attempt to overhear us

"It just seems odd that they’d send a detective out for this case but not Reginald’s"

"You are Nina LaShay, right?" the detective said, co my question

I nodded silently,my elbows

"I’m Detective Moyer You were the last to see the decedent alive, were you not?"

"Well--no, not that I know of" An i disheveled and nervous flashed throughso quickly I didn’t have tiestured to the closet door, still gaping open, its emptiness a quiet screech that E"

"Shekind offound me"

"Were you and the decedent friends, Ms LaShay?"

I wanted to focus on answering the detective’s questions, but every ti, he sesture and it was turning my stomach "I wouldn’t say ere friends, exactly We were colleagues And co at Moyer’s fat, pale lips ht better of telling this htfully at ht of Hopkins and his accusatory stare and then longed for it as Moyer’s eyebroent up He poised the pen over his notepad as though he were about to take down some frantic confession, and any inch of confidence I was harboring wilted

"Isn’t it true that you two got into soht?"

"I wouldn’t exactly call it an argureement Emerson spilled a little wine on my dress, that’s all" And by a "little wine" I meant half a bottle and by "on h until I had a faint purplish hue when I finally stripped the soaked gared and tried to smile "Crowded party andaccidents happen"

Accident htly purple ass