Wicked Craving Read Online Free PDF Page B

nice to see a bit at a time, as you chose to, rather than getting hit with the whole effect at once.
    She walked up to the tarp and pulled back one corner to find she was looking at a leg, and a foot wearing a jeweled, designer high heel with an ankle strap. Flipping the tarp back a bit more, she saw the dead woman was wearing its mate on the other foot.
    Glancing at the imposing cliff above them, Savannah said, “Wow, that long fall and she managed to keep both shoes on.”
    â€œHow do you know for sure that she fell off the cliff?”
    â€œHer shoes have four-inch heels. It would have been really hard to walk down those stairs wearing them. Besides, they cost a fortune, even for her budget. No woman wears her best heels to the beach to get all gritty and wet. She’s a beach girl, living here on the water. She would have changed her shoes or come down here barefoot.”
    â€œHm-m-m…that’s what I figured, too.”
    Yeah, sure you did , Savannah thought, Mr. Expert on Women’s High-Fashion Footwear. But she kept her mouth shut. She had to limit how many times she pissed him off in the course of a day. A pissy Dirk was not a thing of beauty.
    â€œWhat’s the body like?” she asked.
    â€œActually,” Dirk said, pulling back the rest of the tarp, “she’s in pretty good shape, considering she’s outside and it’s the beach. No crabs yet.”
    â€œGood. I might sleep tonight after all.”
    As he uncovered the face, she realized she had spoken too fast. The crabs might not have found the body yet, but the insects had. And while the coroner, Dr. Jennifer Liu, would find the degree and phases of infestation all quite fascinating and helpful in her investigation, Savannah could do without it.
    But, as always, she pushed the horror to the back of her mind and switched into an analytical, professional mode.
    She squatted beside the body and studied what she could see without touching or moving anything.
    Even with the smears of blood on her face, it was obvious the dead woman was wearing heavy evening makeup. And her blonde hair was styled in a formal updo, which was slightly askew, but still in place, thanks to copious amounts of hair spray.
    â€œShe’s got a head wound,” Savannah said, staring at a nasty gash on the side of her forehead.
    â€œYeah, I saw that.” He knelt on one knee next to her. “In the temple area like that, it could have been a fatal blow.”
    â€œIt’s clean, no dirt in it.” She looked up at the cliff that was more sand than rock, and added, “It doesn’t really look like a scrape…or like she smacked it coming down. She might have gotten it before she fell.”
    â€œYeah, that’s what I was thinking.”
    She resisted the urge to give him a smack of his own. “Did you notice that the sun’s shining today, too?” she asked.
    â€œWhat?”
    She sighed. “Never mind.”
    He uncovered the rest of the body, revealing a beautiful, full-length evening gown made of black, shantung silk. A thousand hand-sewn beads accented the front and the waistband.
    The woman would have blended in nicely on the red carpet at the Academy Awards.
    â€œWow,” Savannah said. “She was dressed…uh…fit to kill.”
    â€œYeah, the husband said they went to a charity ball last night.”
    â€œThere’s just one thing.”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œShe isn’t wearing any jewelry. No earrings. A woman doesn’t dress up like that and go out without even a pair of earrings in her pierced ears.”
    â€œOkay, if you say so. Maybe it was a robbery.”
    â€œWe’ll have to ask the husband about the jewelry. What time does he say they left the party?”
    â€œHe said they came home separately. She had a headache and left early, around nine thirty. He stayed until nearly midnight.”
    â€œHow did she get home?”
    â€œShe