Page 16 of Tangled
“Were things out of place?”
She couldn’t help but smile at that. “Gracie wasn’t tidy. It would have been hard to tell if the place had been tossed or not. But no, it didn’t look much different than it usually did. The air felt different, though. I know that sounds strange, but when you’ve been around death as often as I have, it’s a thing. I could almost feel it.”
“Did you find her?” Brad asked, his voice gentle.
She shook her head and reached for her tea with her free hand. “No. Her neighbor had noticed the unique smell andcalled 911. By the time I arrived, two days later, the paramedics had come and gone. And a known drug user dead from an overdose didn’t warrant an investigation, so they’d already closed the case.”
“But they didn’t know about the phone call,” Ryan said.
“Even if they had, it probably wouldn’t have mattered,” she said. “Gracie was a stunning woman, but she was still a Latina druggie from South Central LA who sometimes prostituted herself to make money for her next fix. She’s not the sort of person the LAPD spends a lot of resources on.”
“But you have,” Brad said, giving her hand a little squeeze.
“Yes, but I’m a nurse,” she said. “I may have gotten out of that neighborhood as soon as I could, but I’m not an investigator. I didn’t get far. Not far enough.”
“Far enough to get on someone’s radar, if Maria’s death was really a case of mistaken identity,” Ryan pointed out.
She sucked in a breath. She couldn’t stand the thought of a woman dying because of her. She’d experienced enough violence to know that she wasn’tresponsiblefor Maria’s murder, but that didn’t ease the guilt. Still, the best thing she could do was help Ryan and his team find the person who committed the crime. In fact, it was theonlything she could do.
“Apparently, I did,” she agreed. This time, she was the one who squeezed Brad’s hand. He responded by rubbing his forefinger along the tiny muscle beside her thumb, also a pressure point that helped relieve nausea.
“Are you ready to look at the video that the lodge’s security picked up?” Ryan asked. When she nodded, he pulled the laptop from the bag, booted it up, then handed it over.
After setting it on her lap, she clicked Play and watched the feed. One minute in, Maria entered the frame. She wore black pants, as required by the lodge, winter boots, and a blue jacketwith the hood pulled up. Peeking out from underneath the hood, Scarlett could see a bright pink scarf similar to one she owned.
“She walked home every day,” Ryan said.
“Like me,” Scarlett muttered as she continued watching. “Did she live far?”
“About a mile past your place. The apartment block on the right side of the road,” Ryan said. “She was found about a half mile from the lodge.”
Maria exited the screen and a minute later, a man entered the picture. “Is he the person you want me to look at?” she asked, flickering a glance at Ryan, who nodded.
Returning her attention to the screen, she waited until the camera got a good angle, then paused the footage. After a quick glance at the controls, she zoomed in.
“Oh crap,” she muttered.
“What?” Ryan asked as both he and Mari sat forward.
She stared at the image. It was a bit grainy, but she was 98 percent certain she knew who had followed Maria.
“I’d like to see a cleaner picture, but I believe that’s Alexei Petrov. He’s a thug for hire.”
“Russian,” Mari asked.
“Descent,” Scarlett responded. “He’s third- or fourth-generation LA. From my old neighborhood”
“Was he there the night you and Brad witnessed the murder?” Ryan asked.
She and Brad each shook their head. “No,” she said. “Alexei is new to the picture. The man I wanted to follow is blond and looks a bit like one of those round-but-square Lego people. He was Gracie’s connection to the supplier. I don’t know his name.”
“So it’s unlikely that Alexei has anything to do with the drug connection you were chasing before coming up here?” Mari asked.
Scarlett pursed her lips. “He wasn’t on my radar. But Alexei has a reputation. Anyone, including Gracie’s supplier, could have hired him.”
Ryan shot Mari a look, who nodded. “I’ll put an APB out on Alexei Petrov and canvass the area with his photo.”
“Is there anything else we should know?” Ryan asked, taking his computer back.
