Read Online The Finishing School by Michele Martinez - Free Book Online

cranked it up to maximum capacity. It was so cold inside the house it was like the body was refrigerated. Nobody smelled anything. Not only was the killer long gone by the time the body was found, but the coroner couldn’t even determine the date of death. We caught the guy and took him to trial, but he walked. Whitney’s open windows reminded me of that.”
    “It was probably just the Crime Scene team airing the place out because it reeked, don’t you think? That’s not as suspicious to me as cranking the A/C. Besides, we have no reason to think the Holbrooke girls were murdered.” She paused for a beat, eyes searching his handsome face. “Do we?”
    He shrugged in a way that said there was enough to make him wonder. Dan was third-generation cop. He had flawless instincts, almost like something in the blood. He was generally right about stuff like this. On top of which, she had suspicions of her own.
    “You have a weird feeling about this, too?” she asked.
    “The windows bother me,” he said.
    “
Seward
bothers me,” she confessed. “He took his time about calling the police. Says it’s because he was worried about the press. I don’t know, maybe I’m overreacting. But the building super was vague about the timing, too. It struck me as odd.”
    “Did Seward have any reason you know of to want his stepdaughter dead?”
    “She was obviously a wild girl. Maybe she was a campaign liability?” Melanie ventured.
    “Not as much alive as she is OD’d. Think how bad
that
looks.”
    “True.”
    “I’m with you, though. I’m raised up, too. I noticed another thing looking at the pictures of the bedroom just now,” Dan said.
    “What’s that?”
    “Kinda strange. Whitney’s computer was set up with the mouse on the left side, so I’m guessing she was a southpaw. But the empty glassine was next to her right hand.”
    Melanie flashed on those dead girls’ faces, and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Could someone have done that to them on purpose?
    “You think the crime scene was staged,” she said.
    “I’m not saying definitely. There could be another explanation. Like Whitney rolled over the Baggie when she was dying or something.”
    “She was found in a sitting position, so I don’t think that could account for it. But there was something else about the positions of the glassines that bothered me.” She explained her concerns about Brianna Meyers’s clothes being found in the bathroom, away from her naked body.
    “If the ODs were faked…” Dan began.
    “Then the girls were most likely murdered,” Melanie finished. “And what would that say about Carmen Reyes’s disappearance? I have my doubts she ran away. She just doesn’t seem the type.”
    “If she didn’t run away on her own steam…” Dan began, and Melanie knew just where he was going. Man, it was great how they
got
each other.
    “Exactly,” she said. “Carmen could be kidnapped or dead somewhere, Dan. We better figure this out ASAP.”
    “Your boss ain’t gonna be too happy if we start looking into apparent ODs like they’re something else,” he pointed out.
    “Oh, great. Justice should be sure and swift, unless it damages Bernadette’s career? That’s not what I signed up for when I took this job,” she said, shaking her head in disgust.
    “I always liked the way you talked.” He grinned, his eyes lingering on her.
    “We’re going to investigate these deaths right, Dan. You and me. We’ll just,
you
know…”
    “Keep it on the down low?”
    “You read my mind,” she said.
    “I’ll follow up on the crime-scene stuff right away, see if there’s anything else off,” he said.
    “I’ll see what I can get out of this Salvadoran kid Carmen was hanging out with. We should follow up every last angle with Whitney and Brianna. Did they have secrets, enemies, anything?”
    “Be careful, okay?” he said.
    “I’m not worried. Look, if we find something, Bernadette will do the right thing. She always