Page 32 of Dead Girl Running

Mara dropped the shoe.

The room settled into a profound silence, marred only by the soothing harp music that played in the background. Then—screams, high pierced and terrified.

Like a cartoon character afraid of a mouse, Destiny jumped onto a chair and shrieked and pointed.

Xander stood in one smooth movement and stepped away.

Kellen tried to calm them down. “It’s a ring. It’s okay…”

Heads shook wildly.

Kellen got it. There was something about this ring. “What? Tell me. What?”

The screams died down. Shock quivered in the room.

Destiny visibly trembled, and her voice trembled, too. “That’s Priscilla’s ring.”

“Who’s Priscilla?” Kellen asked. Someone they knew, obviously. Then she remembered. “Wait. Priscilla, the assistant manager before me? The one who left without notice?”

Destiny nodded her head, up and down, up and down.

Xander went to the pitcher of lemon-infused water and poured glasses full. He put them on a tray and started around the room, offering them like fine wine.

“I never thought…” Mara took a glass and tossed it back like a shot. “That woman was such a—”

“Don’t speak ill of the dead,” Ellen warned.

“Right.” Mara gathered her thoughts. “She disappeared one day and we all thought… Well, her car was gone and her cottage was cleaned out, and we thought… But that’s her ring. Her toe ring. She always wore it, a Celtic knot with a purple topaz. She said it was her lucky ring.”

Destiny crouched down in the chair and covered her face with her hands.

“She hid it under the sole of her shoe. She must have done that when she knew she was in trouble.” Sheri Jean waved Xander away and turned to Kellen. “Whatdid you say killed her?”

Kellen thought about those hands cut off at the wrists. “I don’t know. I’m not a coroner.”

“The question isn’twhatkilled her, butwho.” Mara leaned down, wrapped the shoe in the towel and placed it on the table again. With the tweezers, she picked up the ring and placed it beside the shoe.

“Why do you think it’s murder?” Frances asked.

“Kellen said it was,” Mara answered. “She said it wasn’t a natural death, and I have to say I agree. Why would Priscilla hide her ring in her shoe if she wasn’t trying to send a message?”

“Definitely murder.” Kellen accepted a glass of water and sipped, a wonderful dampness in a mouth that had been dry for too long.

Destiny lifted her head out of her hands. “Was her other shoe out there?”

“I didn’t see it,” Kellen said. Because she hadn’t wanted to look. “But as gloomy and wet as it was, I didn’t spot this one, either.”

“I wonder if she hid any messages in the other shoe,” Destiny suggested.

Kellen had her phone pulled out before Destiny finished speaking. “I’m texting Lloyd Magnuson and Temo right now. If it’s out there, they’ll find it.”

“Good thought, Destiny,” Mara said.

“The killer can’t be one of us!” Ellen said. “It must be a stranger. A vagrant! There are always weird people floating through town.”

“It could be a guest.” Destiny took a glass, too. She tried to take a drink, but her teeth chattered on the edge. “Some of them are not nice people.”

Kellen’s phone chimed. She checked the message. “Temo’s got the other shoe. When Lloyd gets back with his car, it’ll go to the coroner with the other remains.”