Page 124 of The Sister's Curse

I swept the light over the necklace, but saw nothing. Dr.Navarro went after the pendant with pliers, pulling the pearl from the setting while I shone the light on it.

The pearl glowed faintly.

The coroner dropped it into another evidence bag.

“You know what else I’m thinking,” she mused. “Benzene can be used as an anesthetic, to knock a victim unconscious.”

I remembered the drugged state Viv appeared to be in while on camera at the hospital. “And there’s a guy in town who has unlimited access to Vapozene.”

28

Taken

I doubled back for the forgotten pastries, got fresh coffee, and headed back to the house. I’d make plans to meet up with Monica later, to share the new evidence with her. Maybe she could replicate what I’d done, get to Viv’s house, and gain new samples from the debris to check for accelerants.

I pulled down the driveway, gravel crunching under the tires of the SUV.

My gaze fell on the front door of the house. It was standing open. The fox sat in the doorway, with an inscrutable expression on her face.

My breath hitched in my throat. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.

I erupted out of the car, with Gibby on my heels, and advanced soundlessly across the normally creaky porch. I lurched into the kitchen, and my heart plummeted to my feet.

A kitchen chair had been knocked over onto the floor. Papers were scattered on the counter.

“Nick?” I called softly.

No answer.

I moved deeper into the house. Gibby lunged past me, growling. The hair on his back stood upright. He ignored the fox, who refused to cross the threshold.

Signs of a struggle. The lamp on Nick’s side of the bed was broken. His glasses were on the floor, under the bed.

He wasn’t there. Wasn’t in the bathroom, not in the closet.

I returned to the front door, observing that it had been kicked in. The lockset dangled from splintered wood.

Rage poured through me.

My phone rang. I picked it up, saying nothing, feeling my pulse beat a slow, deadly metronome in my temples.

“Anna?” It was Monica.

I didn’t say anything.

“Anna? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

My voice came out as a hiss. “They took Nick.”

—

I might not have had the authority of law anymore.

I might not have had my service gun.

But I was far from powerless.

I was my father’s daughter. I had the blood of a fearsome killer seeping coldly through my veins.