”
Thomas threw a hand toward the coroner. “What is it?”
“Just my hunch.” Felix steepled his fingertips together. “My hunch will never hold up in court—you know that, Detective. The defense would shred it to bits.”
Thomas waved that away. All he needed was a lead. He’d find evidence that would hold up in court once he had something to go on. “Tell me.”
Felix nodded. “Leather. I think the fiber was black leather.”
Thomas chewed on that for a protracted moment. “Any particular reason you think that?”
“None. Just experience, Detective. Nothing more, nothing less.”
But experience made up for plenty. He inclined his head and then rose to his feet. “Thanks, Doc,” he murmured, holding out his hand for a shake. “Let me know if you find anything else.”
Kimberly Cox arrived back home a little past two in the afternoon. She felt drained by the time she opened up the doors to the colonial-style brick mansion nestled within the elite suburb of Hudson, where she lived, worked, and had been raised.
To outsiders, she led a charmed life. Having been born the sole heiress of a multi-millionaire father, she had wanted for nothing her entire life. Indeed, she had never felt the social pressure to outperform others in the way that many of her school peers had. She had grown up knowing it wasn’t necessary, counting herself blessed that she could choose to work at a profession she loved rather than feeling obligated to choose one merely because it was high-paying.
She didn’t have to keep up with the Joneses; the Joneses were too busy trying to keep up with her. Not that she bothered competing.
Much to her social snob of a father’s dismay, his only child had never cared much about coming off to others as pretentious and worldly. She was just plain old Kim, a spinster schoolteacher who loved working with kids and was passionate about physics—a subject most people fell asleep just thinking about.
Kim valued logic and reason, higher thoughts and self-contemplation. She did not value this . . . this thing . . . that she had become.
She sighed a bit wearily as she padded into the bedroom, exhausted from a lack of sleep these past two weeks. She could only pray that the fates would grant her mind a bit of surcease and permit her to get some much-needed rest this afternoon.
Sleep without dreams. Sleep without nightmares.
She was beginning to forget what it felt like.
“Please,” she whispered to the walls as she stretched out onto the four-poster bed and closed her eyes. “No blood. No death. No screams.”
Her dreams of late had been a bit more complicated than what she’d expounded upon to Nikki. Not much, but a little. She hadn’t seen the point in going on and on about all the little details, though. She’d given her best friend the gist of it all, and Nikki had been correct in that talking about them aloud had helped her to feel less burdened. Perhaps Nikki was right. Perhaps she truly was suffering from nothing more than a recurring nightmare.
It wasn’t as if Nikki needed to be forewarned or anything, Kim reminded herself as she took a deep breath and blew it out. Her best friend was a sensible, logical, intelligent female. Not the type to get herself into weird scrapes like the woman in her dreams.
Kim smiled, bemused. Besides, she told herself as she drifted off into blessed slumber, Nik would never be into things like that .
Chapter 4
Monday, June 9 4:37 P·M·
“You’ve got mail.”
Nikki clicked the mailbox icon on her screen, her hands shaking slightly ever since the computerized voice had announced that there was something in her electronic inbox. She blew out a breath, mentally chastising herself for reacting like a teenager to email from men she’d never so much as met before.
So what that they happened to be into things she possessed the courage to imagine only in her wildest, most wicked dreams.
She smiled as she pulled up submissivegrrrl ’s
Thomas threw a hand toward the coroner. “What is it?”
“Just my hunch.” Felix steepled his fingertips together. “My hunch will never hold up in court—you know that, Detective. The defense would shred it to bits.”
Thomas waved that away. All he needed was a lead. He’d find evidence that would hold up in court once he had something to go on. “Tell me.”
Felix nodded. “Leather. I think the fiber was black leather.”
Thomas chewed on that for a protracted moment. “Any particular reason you think that?”
“None. Just experience, Detective. Nothing more, nothing less.”
But experience made up for plenty. He inclined his head and then rose to his feet. “Thanks, Doc,” he murmured, holding out his hand for a shake. “Let me know if you find anything else.”
Kimberly Cox arrived back home a little past two in the afternoon. She felt drained by the time she opened up the doors to the colonial-style brick mansion nestled within the elite suburb of Hudson, where she lived, worked, and had been raised.
To outsiders, she led a charmed life. Having been born the sole heiress of a multi-millionaire father, she had wanted for nothing her entire life. Indeed, she had never felt the social pressure to outperform others in the way that many of her school peers had. She had grown up knowing it wasn’t necessary, counting herself blessed that she could choose to work at a profession she loved rather than feeling obligated to choose one merely because it was high-paying.
She didn’t have to keep up with the Joneses; the Joneses were too busy trying to keep up with her. Not that she bothered competing.
Much to her social snob of a father’s dismay, his only child had never cared much about coming off to others as pretentious and worldly. She was just plain old Kim, a spinster schoolteacher who loved working with kids and was passionate about physics—a subject most people fell asleep just thinking about.
Kim valued logic and reason, higher thoughts and self-contemplation. She did not value this . . . this thing . . . that she had become.
She sighed a bit wearily as she padded into the bedroom, exhausted from a lack of sleep these past two weeks. She could only pray that the fates would grant her mind a bit of surcease and permit her to get some much-needed rest this afternoon.
Sleep without dreams. Sleep without nightmares.
She was beginning to forget what it felt like.
“Please,” she whispered to the walls as she stretched out onto the four-poster bed and closed her eyes. “No blood. No death. No screams.”
Her dreams of late had been a bit more complicated than what she’d expounded upon to Nikki. Not much, but a little. She hadn’t seen the point in going on and on about all the little details, though. She’d given her best friend the gist of it all, and Nikki had been correct in that talking about them aloud had helped her to feel less burdened. Perhaps Nikki was right. Perhaps she truly was suffering from nothing more than a recurring nightmare.
It wasn’t as if Nikki needed to be forewarned or anything, Kim reminded herself as she took a deep breath and blew it out. Her best friend was a sensible, logical, intelligent female. Not the type to get herself into weird scrapes like the woman in her dreams.
Kim smiled, bemused. Besides, she told herself as she drifted off into blessed slumber, Nik would never be into things like that .
Chapter 4
Monday, June 9 4:37 P·M·
“You’ve got mail.”
Nikki clicked the mailbox icon on her screen, her hands shaking slightly ever since the computerized voice had announced that there was something in her electronic inbox. She blew out a breath, mentally chastising herself for reacting like a teenager to email from men she’d never so much as met before.
So what that they happened to be into things she possessed the courage to imagine only in her wildest, most wicked dreams.
She smiled as she pulled up submissivegrrrl ’s
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