point-blank range with a thirty-eight. Took one bullet to the chest and fell to the ground. Found around five by two teenagers coming to make out on that bench over there.”
They walked the twenty feet to the bench. It was old, and she couldn’t imagine anyone sitting on the rotten wood. Yet the ground was littered with condom wrappers, suggesting that more than kissing occurred on the warped planks.
“Are the techs searching the school?” she asked, her gaze settling on the two end rows of windows, the ones facing the playground.
“Yeah, but so far they haven’t found anything. Not that it would be easy. The place is a mess. Tons of trash everywhere, vermin and bugs. There wasn’t anything obvious.”
“Obvious,” she repeated. “Let’s go across the grounds first.”
Andre read from his notes. “The teenagers told the first officer that everybody knows to stay away from the school. That’s for the drug users only. I guess the kids play on the equipment, and the addicts leave the kids alone, sort of an unspoken rule.”
They silently walked the perimeter, going around the long way. He pointed at a piece of fence ripped away from its post. Judging from its location, it was an entry for drug users, away from the street, away from patrol cars. Only a zealous cop, one who wanted to go looking for trouble, would bother to get out and inspect the area on foot, which was unlikely to happen very often.
They rounded the backside of the building, and she saw a second hole, the one the children used. She realized the school sat on a huge plot of land, and indeed it would be possible for the addicts and street people to enter through the east side of the fence and never know there were children to the west of the building. She doubted the two groups came in contact, but perhaps they had yesterday.
They headed toward the school as the last crime tech exited with a shake of his head toward Andre. Molly scowled, almost certain they’d missed a clue. Her gut told her there was something inside. She was sure of it.
The smell assaulted her as she crossed the threshold. She immediately shone her flashlight at her feet, worried that she’d step in excrement or a rat would scurry across her loafer. The path in front of her was clear, but trash and drug paraphernalia lined the walls. She imagined the classrooms were equally disgusting if not worse. They stepped into the first room they came to, the winter sun already struggling to set. A weak light seeped across the floor, the filthy windows obscuring the brightness she’d hoped to find.
“This is practically hopeless today,” she murmured. “We need to come back tomorrow.”
“Can’t we do it now,” he whined.
She threw him a glare. She knew he hated to get dirty. “Quit being such a princess.”
Chapter Six
Ari floated on the edge of consciousness unable to decide whether to rise and get an early start on what would likely be a hectic Monday or stay in bed for another half hour, avoiding the inevitable beginning of the week. Her head sunk deeper into the soft pillow, making the decision for her, and she reached for the comforter, longing to cocoon herself in the soft down.
Molly had other plans and pulled all the covers away. She wrapped her arms around her and caressed her nipples.
“Yes, my love,” Ari whispered.
She sighed, caught between the gentle touch of Molly’s lips as they lazily explored her earlobe and the very deliberate motions of Molly’s fingers, nestled between her legs in maddening foreplay.
“Let go,” Molly commanded and Ari felt her mind float away in the morning sunlight.
When she stopped quaking twenty minutes later, Molly’s hand drifted over the curves of her legs and bare bottom. “You have the most beautiful body,” she said. “I hope I please you.”
“Uh-huh. That was magnificent.”
Molly smiled at the compliment, but Ari knew her answer wouldn’t matter. She had come to realize that bolstering