“The eleventh,” answered Zander.

“I’m in trouble,” she muttered, and moved down the hall for some privacy.

“Hello, Corinne,” she answered.

“Ava. Where are you? You’re fifteen minutes late.”

Ava rubbed her forehead. “I know. I totally forgot our appointment this morning. I don’t know if you’ve watched the news—”

“Do you want full use of that arm or not?” Corinne asked. “You can’t miss physical therapy. You’re making good progress, and I don’t want you to slip behind.”

“I’ve been doing my daily exercises.” Except for the last two days.

“Uh-huh. I hear that from everyone.”

“Do you have an opening tomorrow?” Ava asked. She tentatively moved her left arm, trying some of the movements Corinne had taught her. Pain shot through her arm, and she gasped.

“Testing your arm, Ava?”

“Maybe. Just seeing how things feel.”

“Babying your arm isn’t doing yourself any favors.”

“I know. I’ve had two murders dumped on my plate in the last few days, so I’ve been a bit busy,” she snapped. “I’m sorry,” she immediately added. “I’m frustrated. And I want my arm as close to normal as you do. What about tomorrow?”

“I’m booked solid all week. Let’s keep your standing appointment for next week. If I get a cancellation before then, I’ll let you know. Don’t slack off on your homework this week, or you’ll be crying double next week.”

Corinne wasn’t exaggerating. Ava was driven to tears at least once every session. She ended the call.

I can’t miss physical therapy. She carefully moved her arm in a slow, large circle, feeling the healing muscles and bone shoot pain directly into her brain.

She’d never had an injury before. No broken bones, no sprained ankles. This was a new experience, and it affected how she got dressed, how she slept, and how she moved. Every. Single. Day.

In other words, it was a giant pain in the ass.

Zander caught up with her. “Hey,” he said. “Aaron King’s ex-wife is here. She brought Aaron’s roommate with her, which saves us some extra time, and I have a prelim from the medical examiner. You want to take a look before we go talk to them? The dental records have confirmed it’s him.”

“I’ll look while we walk.” Ava held her hand out for the paper in his hand. “Who is the roommate?”

“Gordon Oleson.”

She scanned the short email from Seth Rutledge. He’d confirmed that the cause of death was exsanguination, and the odontologist had matched the dental films to Aaron King’s teeth. Seth had attached a headshot of the victim to show the ex-wife if she wanted to confirm visually. Ava looked it over. Aaron King’s skin tone was definitely wrong, but there wasn’t anything gory or shocking in the photo. He appeared to be sleeping in bad lighting.

“Think they’ll ask to see this?” Ava asked, lengthening her strides to keep up with Zander’s long ones.

“I hope not. Let’s not offer unless the ex-wife seems to need to see it.”

Ava nodded. Some people had to see death to accept it. “I suspect she’ll want to go out to the ME’s building.”

“Has Duncan said anything about you working with Mason? They officially added Mason to the task force, right? Him and his partner, Lusco? I think part of the press conference today is going to show all the departments that are contributing to the search for the congressman’s murderer.”

“Duncan didn’t really say much. He let me know that he was aware of Mason’s and Ray Lusco’s roles regarding Congressman Scott’s murder, but he didn’t bring up any concerns over the two of us working together.”

“Good. They’re working on finding the van, correct?” Zander must have noticed she was nearly running; he slowed down.

Ava caught her breath. “I know that’s part of what they’re working on today. Their department recently got some great video enhancement software that rivals what ours back East can do. Hopefully they can get some fast results.”

“How’s the arm?”

“Sore. Stiff. Some days I put my sling back on in the evening to give it a break. It’s amazing how bad it can feel after a day of doing absolutely nothing.”

He stopped outside the door to the waiting area. “Ready to talk to Ms. King?”

“Absolutely.”

8

Mason nodded and tried to look as if he understood what the video technician was talking about. Charley was excited and in full geek-speak mode. He was demonstrating how he’d added and removed layers of the feed to enhance the image, and Mason was about to lose his patience.

Just tell me what you found!

Ray Lusco was also doing a lot of nodding and frowning, but Mason suspected he understood about as much as Mason did. The tech’s hands flew across his keyboard, lightening the image and zooming in on the van as it sat parked on the Fremont Bridge.

“This was the best I could do from this angle,” Charley stated. The image of their murderer and the back of the van suddenly filled the screen and the killer slid open the side door to his van. Charley froze the video as the man turned in the direction of their camera.

Mason leaned closer. The killer was still just a shadow. He couldn’t make out any features except his nose and chin. “You can’t get any more?”