I parked in the far spot at the very edge of the long county morgue building. Normally, I'd sneak out through the trees and enter the building from an unlocked back door, but.... I wasn't feeling it.

VONNIE: Can you come to my car?

The day grew closer to evening, but the sun's rays lit up the parking lot like it wanted to fade the paint on my car. That wasn't what kept me under cover, though.

It was the bodies.

In the morgue.

They'd never bothered me before. Hell, some afternoons I just bugged Kelvin to let me take a peek in one of his freezers. But since seeing Emma's dead body and the tragic things her murderer did to her, I hadn't been able to think about bodies. At least not dead ones.

KELVIN: What? I can't come out there with county files. Frank will fire me.

I responded with a GIF of some movie actor rolling their eyes.

KELVIN: Give me five minutes.

A better person would have felt bad, but Kelvin once blackmailed me into being his fake girlfriend and then dumped me in front of his entire family after calling me fat. So...he deserved whatever I dished out as punishment.

His head peeked around the building's corner first, and his body followed. His long black hair covered his left eye. I'd bet money he styled it that way on purpose. He had on a thick winter coat that looked three sizes too big for him. Totally normal and not in any way suspicious... not.

Kelvin ran at my car with his head lowered, clutching his middle. He stopped at my passenger door, and I unlocked it for him. A second later, he had the door open and had slid into the seat.

"Yeah, that get-up isn't suspicious at all," I said, giving him a once-over.

He smelled like a hospital, and I did my best not to crinkle my nose. "It's not like I have experience in stealing."

"These aren't the originals. Right?"

He shook his head. "No, I made copies. I'm not stupid."

"Then I'm not stealing. I'm researching. What did you find?"

Kelvin pushed up the bottom of his thick coat while partially standing up in my front seat. I almost yelled until a brown-colored folder slipped out the bottom. He jerked it free and passed it over to me.

"Nothing that you don't already know. There were no traces of drugs or alcohol in her system, but they might have used something fast-acting. Otherwise, it's one bullet and the..." He drew his finger over his lips. "The lip thing."

I leaned back in the seat, not bothering to open the report. I didn't need to see any of the pictures in case he included them. Her image haunted my nightmares. It burned itself into the backs of my eyeballs, so I saw it every time I closed my eyes.

Once I solved the case and put Emma's murderer behind bars, I'd be able to face the morgue again. The bodies had never bothered me before, and I'd make sure this didn't last. It was probably all the stress.

"Leia says hi," Kelvin said, his gaze on the folder, probably wondering why I hadn't opened it.

"Who?" I asked, narrowing my eyes toward him. Did I know a Leia?

"My girlfriend. Remember?"

"Sorry, I'm under a lot of stress right now." Halfway through my sentence, I remembered about the girlfriend. My eyebrows narrowed so tightly they were almost touching. I smacked my lips and glared at Kelvin.

Kelvin said she was the reason he had to dump me so painfully. Something about then his family would find her amazing if I was a shit girlfriend. His logic had a lot of holes in it. Like, for example, we weren't even really dating, and I'd be a fucking amazing girlfriend. Broadrick would totally vouch for me.

Probably.

"I hope she doesn't eat too many carbs," I added for extra effect after what he said in front of his family about my eating habits, and then I slapped the folder on his chest to give it back to him.

His eyes widened as if he finally recognized the danger he'd placed himself in by getting into my car. "Vonnie, I apologized about that already."

"Yeah, but then you keep reminding me of your asshole ways." It was never cool to treat a woman crappy. Especially to discuss their weight. I blamed his parents. They obviously raised him poorly. It's possible they were actually from Clearwater.

"I told my mother that you and Leia get along wonderfully now that you've moved on, so if you ever want to come over for another dinner, let me know. We can make it a double."

I blinked at him, but he didn't retract his statement or offer me a million dollars.

"Kelvin?"

He adjusted himself on my seat, putting his hand on the door handle. "Yeah."

"Get the fuck out of my car," I said between clenched teeth.

He nodded, finally catching on, and hopped out of the car in the next second. "See you later, Vonnie," he said as he closed the door.

I backed out of the space and headed home.

Broadrick might want me to leave everyone I'd ever known and move to Florida, but he wasn't stupid enough to make a comment about my eating habits or love of carbs. In fact, he always let me get extra bread at our favorite pasta restaurant.

My stomach growled as I thought of pasta, bread, and Alfredo sauce.

Broadrick's motorcycle and big red truck were in the driveway when I made it home. That meant there was a ninety-nine percent chance he was inside waiting for me. Hopefully, I'd have time to talk him into getting pasta for dinner before I left to finish my next to-do item.

"Did you make Kelvin sneak you out county files regarding Emma's autopsy?" he asked as soon as I walked into the house.

I stopped by the front door to think about my answer. Broadrick was on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table and NB rested on his legs. The darn dog didn't even lift his head to greet me as Broadrick rubbed his left ear, lulling him into a deep sleep.

"There are treats depending on your answer," he added.

I grimaced. That made it harder. "Are the treats a reward for giving the truth or providing a plausible alibi?"

Broadrick rubbed his chin. "You know what? Give me the alibi."

"Kelvin invited us to his next family dinner so we can meet his girlfriend." It was not technically a lie. "And I am not in possession of any county files."

He raised an eyebrow. "Copies?"

"Nope." I gave him a head shake and held up my empty hands.

He reached beside the couch and pulled up a rectangular box of Swiss Rolls. "Good answer."

"Ohh, chocolate." I hurried over and took the box from him, opening the end and pulling out a package of rolls. The truth will set you free and get you cake. "These are my favorite. Thank you."

"I know," Broadrick said and pulled on my hand until I leaned over and let him give me a quick kiss on the lips.

"Don't tell Anessa." We were only allowed to buy sugary treats from her bakery. It was a friend rule, but Swiss Rolls reminded me of my childhood.

Broadrick laughed, disrupting NB's head. "Okay."

"Or Katy," I added after more thought.

He gave me a tsk. "That's going to require another kiss."

With a smile, I leaned over and gave him another lip peck. "Unfortunately, I'll have to eat this in the car. I've got to walk those dogs for our divorce attorney. They're on the south side."

The eye roll he gave me made even my eyes hurt from the effort. "I thought we finished with that joke?"

"Who said it was a joke?" I don't remember saying anything like that.

He picked up NB and set him on the floor in front of his feet. NB looked up and gave Broadrick a huff of agitation. "Funny. Why don't I drive so you can snack? Your driving is scary enough as it is."

"Now who's the comedian?" I grabbed NB's leash from the rack by the front door and slapped my leg. "Come on, NB. You need the exercise, too."

I'd check off two to-do items if I walked all the dogs at the same time. The faster we finished, the faster I'd talk Broadrick into going out for pasta. I wanted a heaping plate of ravioli.

**

"That's her house," I told Broadrick as he approached the two-story remodeled colonial home.

The GPS announced our arrival a second later.

"You have the weirdest cases," Broadrick said as he parked on the side of the road across from the home.

I shrugged. He had a point, but at least they paid. Unlike all those murders I solved for Anderson with barely a thank you.

"Let me go grab the dogs, and then we can walk them. Janet sent me the route we're supposed to follow," I said.

Broadrick locked the doors. "I don't think you should go to the house alone. What if he's there?"