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“Will you be here?” Celina asked her.

Don’t depend on me, Eve wanted to say. Don’t look at me as your anchor. “If I can. I’ve got a line I’ve got to follow, and a lot of routine to deal with on the latest victim.”

“If you can.”

“Anything I should know?” Mira came back to sit. “As applies to profile?”

“Close to the same pattern. It looks like this Annalisa Sommers was cutting through—”

She broke off as Celina’s tea cup shattered on the floor.

“Annalisa?” She pressed her hands down as if to push herself from the chair, then simply fell back again. “Annalisa Sommers? Oh, dear God.”

“You knew her.”

“Maybe it’s someone else, with the same name. Maybe it’s . . . of course, it’s not. This is why. This has to be why I’m linked to this.” She stared down at the broken china. “I’m sorry.”

“No, sit still. Don’t worry.” Mira crouched down, laid a comforting hand on Celina’s knee before picking up the shattered pieces. “Was she your friend?”

“No. I mean, not really.” She pressed her hands to her temples. “I knew her a little. I liked her. You had to like her, she was so bright and full of life.” She dropped her hands, and her eyes went huge and dark. “Lucas. Oh, my God, Lucas. He must be out of his mind. Does he know?” She reached out, grabbed Eve’s hand. “Does he know what happened?”

“I’ve talked to him.”

“I didn’t think it could get worse, but it can. It does when it’s someone you know. Why would she be in the park?” She thumped a fisted hand on her leg. “Why would any woman go near a park now? After what’s already happened?”

“Because people do what they do. How did you know her?” Eve asked.

“Through Lucas.” She accepted the tissue Mira gave her, stared at them as if unaware tears were sliding down her cheeks. “Lucas and I were involved. We lived together for a long time.”

“Right.” Eve nodded. “He’s your ex.”

“My ex-lover, yes, but not my ex-friend. It wasn’t a nasty breakup. We just drifted apart, and moved on. We cared about each other, very much, but we weren’t in love anymore.” Finally, she pressed the tissue to her eyes. “We’ve kept in touch. We even see each other now and again for lunch, for a drink.”

“For sex?”

She lowered her hands, slowly. “No. I suppose you have to ask something like that. No, we weren’t intimate anymore. And some months ago, almost a year ago, I think, he and Annalisa began seeing each other. I know, because I could see it, and because he told me, it was serious between them. They were happy together, and I was happy for them.”

“Broad-minded of you.”

“Oh, for—” She broke off, swallowed whatever angry remark she’d been about to make. Took a calming breath. “Haven’t you ever had someone in your life you loved, then you didn’t—not in the same way?”

“No.”

Celina gave a kind of sobbing laugh. “Well, people do, Dallas. And still manage to care about each other. Lucas is a good man. He must be devastated.”

“He is.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Should I go see him? No, not now, not yet. My being part of this would only make it worse, for everyone. Can we start sooner?” She reached for Mira again. “Couldn’t we start right after the physical?”

“No. You need this time, particularly now. If you want to help, you need to take this time.”

“I’m going to help.” She balled her hands again. “I’m going to see his face. I swear it. When I do. . . .” Her eyes burned as they lifted to Eve’s. “When I do, you’ll find him. You’ll stop him.”

“I’ll stop him.”

Chapter 16

“She knew the vic?” sympathy rippled over Peabody’s face. “Lucas, Lucas Grande, her ex. Didn’t click before. Man, that’s got to be rough. Especially rough. Must’ve been the trigger all along. It’s the kind of logic in paranormal elements.”

“You can’t use logic and paranormal in the same sentence.”

“Sure you can, oh stubbornly grounded one.”

They were going to check out shoes, Eve thought. That was logical.

“When can I drive the new ride?”

“When you learn that a yellow light means haul ass to get through it before it turns red instead of slowing down to a crawl a half a block away.”

“You force me to point out that you drive