BLUE MERCY Read Free Page A

been protected: remnants of a pink leather skirt and a pale blouse. She wore no rings, no other jewelry, but her nails were long, sculpted, and polished by a salon, with glittering decals on each.

    “The hands look good,” Finn said. “You’ll get prints to compare to her past prostitution record.”

    Kay sat back on her heels. “It’s her.”

    “How do you know?”

    “The nails. Valley always had them done. She liked them long. Said they protected her on the street.”

    Hell of a lot of good they did tied behind her back, Kay thought.

    “And there’s this.” Kay caught the St. Michael’s medallion between her fingers again, angled it for Finn to see.

    “That hers?”

    “I gave it to her.”

    A beat of silence, then: “I’m sorry about this, Kay.”

    Finn’s discomfort radiated off him like the heat from Valley’s body. Kay had forgotten the awkwardness that came over him when confronted by genuine emotion.

    Behind them, Gunderson jammed his cell into his coat pocket. “I gotta get back,” he said. “You two good here?”

    Kay stood as Finn released the body. “What do you mean, ‘us two’?”

    “I’m giving you this one, Kay. But like I said, this here’s a red ball, so you’re working with Finn.”

    Kay caught the look that passed between the two men and knew arguing was pointless. The decision had been made before she’d ever set foot on the scene.

    “Take it or leave it, Kay.”

    Six years working under Ed Gunderson had taught Kayjust how far she could push the man. She got further than most of her peers when it came to Sarge, but Spencer’s death had taken the wind out of their relationship. Even though Sarge had fought for her when people needed someone to blame, when the brass needed to make an example of her, Kay would never forget the disappointment she’d seen in his eyes when he’d stood at her hospital bedside.

    “I lost one good cop, Delaney,” he’d said when she’d tried to hand in her shield. “Don’t make it two.”

    Kay had always wondered if there was more behind his hanging on to her. As though, in the midst of the calloused cynicism that came with working murders, she was Ed Gunderson’s last link to humanity.

    She nodded.

    “All right then,” he said, snapping the collar of his trench coat. “I’ll see you downtown later.”

    Watching him navigate the debris, Kay knew she should be grateful. A month ago he wouldn’t have let her anywhere near the case.

    She caught Finn studying her. “So, you’re the arson expert,” she said. “Tell me about this fire.” She bit down on the sarcasm too late and looked past the circle of light to the far reaches of the wrecked interior.

    “Well, she was probably dead before the fire was lit.”

    “And you can tell that how?”

    “This scene’s got all the signs of someone trying to destroy evidence. And you can smell it.”

    She took in a breath and immediately regretted it. “What exactly am I supposed to be smelling?”

    “Gasoline. There’s traces of it just under everything else. He used it as an accelerant.” Finn circled to her, closing the comfortable distance between them, and pointed out the blacker areas around the body. “Our boy splashedgas here. And here across the beam. But mostly over the body. The fire characteristically spread up from there. You can follow the path. From anywhere in the building I can show you how the fire originated from this one spot. See the V patterns?” He motioned to the wall next to Valley’s body.

    “These show you the fire’s point of origin. And here, where the burning is deepest, you can almost make out the trail of gas he laid. Arson’ll talk to the owner, find out if there was fuel on the premises. If not, we can assume our boy came prepared.”

    “A professional job?”

    “Not likely. This guy didn’t try to conceal the fact that he was setting a fire. Now that doesn’t mean he didn’t know what he was doing. See, either this