Last Grave (9781101593172) Read Free Page A

disturbance was anonymous, and there was no one outside when I got here.”
    â€œNo one? Not even the homeless?” Lance asked sharply.
    â€œNot a living soul.”
    â€œSo, where’s the body?” Samantha asked.
    â€œInside.”
    â€œWas the alarm tripped?” Lance asked.
    â€œNo, but when we got here, a side door was unlocked.”
    Samantha paused and turned to look at the officer. His name badge proclaimed him to be Zack. “Zack, what made you go inside?”
    Zack looked sheepish for a minute. “My boy and his Scout troop are having one of those overnights at the African Hall exhibit. When I realized the one door was unlocked . . .”
    â€œYou didn’t feel you could not investigate, just in case.”
    â€œThat’s about the size of it,” Zack admitted.
    â€œSounds like it’s a good thing you did,” Lance noted.
    â€œNone of the Scouts heard anything?”
    â€œNo. Not a sound.”
    They entered the structure and headed straight back.
    â€œThe body’s in the Swamp area,” Zack explained.
    â€œWhat was she doing, filming a PSA? I’m proud to be a Native American?”
    Samantha blinked at Lance, wondering what he was talking about.
    Lance glanced at her. “When I was a kid, they used to make all these public service commercials there. All about being proud of your heritage.”
    â€œI’m proud to be an Italian American,” Zack said with a grin.
    â€œAnd with her red hair, clearly Samantha’s proud to be an Irish American,” Lance said.
    â€œWhat does that make you?” Zack asked Lance.
    â€œHe’s proud to be an Asshole American,” Samantha snapped.
    Lance jerked his head around to stare at her. She bit her tongue. She shouldn’t have gotten on him. Lots of homicide cops had a macabre sense of humor. His joking was a way of coping with the death he saw every day.
    Before she could apologize, he nodded. “I’m going to use that.”
    She rolled her eyes, fighting down her annoyance with him. Which was good, actually, because it kept her from focusing too much on her surroundings, which were spooky at night.
    The Swamp was part of the aquarium complex. It was where they housed alligators. Poisonous snakes and spiders also shared the space.
    â€œSomeone didn’t feed her to a gator, did they?” Lance asked as they got closer.
    Zack shook his head.
    Samantha had been through the museum complex, the California Academy of Sciences, once since she’d moved there. She’d gotten sick of having everyone she worked with suggest she see it, so she’d gone on a Saturday.
    Now, with the sound of their footsteps echoing eerily and darkness reigning over much of the area, it was a completely different experience.
    The body came into view, and Samantha caught her breath. The woman was well dressed, wearing a business suit. Her eyes were frozen wide in terror. And her arms were lifted straight up, hands clenched into fists that looked like they were clawing at something Samantha couldn’t see.
    â€œWhat the hell?” Lance said, stopping abruptly.
    â€œWe found her like that,” the officer said. “Took us a minute to realize she was actually dead. I’ve never seen a body do that before. It’s like she was frozen.”
    â€œI’ve never seen rigor mortis like this,” Lance said.
    Samantha grabbed a pair of gloves and slid them on. She knelt down on the ground and touched the body. The skin was warm to the touch.
    â€œShe’s still warm. She can’t have been dead more than a few minutes, so this isn’t rigor mortis and she isn’t frozen.”
    She pushed gently on the arms, then on the woman’s stomach, and finally on her cheeks. Everything she touched was hard. It didn’t even feel like she was touching flesh. She sat back, head reeling.
    â€œWhat is it?” Lance asked, kneeling down next to