Jolene ended the call. “They’re on their way. What happened, Sam?”
“There’s blood and a few strands of hair stuck to that table. It’s the right shape. She could’ve fallen and hit her head on the table.”
“That would be enough to kill her?” Jolene sawed at her bottom lip with her teeth, her eyes wide and glassy.
“Do you see Melody’s phone? Her purse?” Sam inched away from the body. He had to get Jolene out of here. If there was any foul play, they didn’t want to be tromping around a crime scene.
Still gripping his phone, Jolene asked, “Do you think this was some kind of robbery gone wrong? Melody walked in on someone, and he pushed her? Took her purse?”
“I don’t know. Do you see the purse?”
“Melody always carried a small cross-body bag, It’s not...on her?”
Sam glanced down at Melody’s still form, her pink-streaked hair fanning across her face. His gaze tracked across her blouse, bunched around her waist, her skirt demurely smoothed over her thighs and her feet with one sandal on and one off. “I don’t see a purse.”
Jolene twisted her hair into a knot over her shoulder. “How could this happen? We just missed her at the bar.”
“Things happen when you’re drunk. Things happen when you’re drunk...and know too much.” Sam pushed up to his feet. “I hear the sirens. We need to step outside.”
Jolene seemed frozen in place. “Do you think someone killed her? That was my first thought, but I didn’t want to come off as paranoid.”
“Then we’re both paranoid.” Sam held out his hand. “C’mon. You already got your prints on that wall.”
“I’m a visitor here. My prints are going to be all over this apartment.” She grasped his hand with her cold fingers and he drew her up as the sirens ended in the parking lot below.
“We’ll let the police figure it out.”
“Like they figured out my father’s murder?” She shook her head. “They’ll take the path of least resistance. Her purse is missing, and she was drunk. That will be their main focus.”
“Whoever took her purse and phone must’ve turned it off. That’s why you couldn’t get through the last time you tried from my phone.”
Footsteps clumped up the stairs, and Sam led Jolene out of the apartment just as the first responders made it to the landing.
Sam raised his hand. “Over here.”
The next thirty minutes were a blur of activity. The EMTs didn’t try to revive Melody, as they’d discovered the same thing he had—no pulse.
How had that happened so fast? Melody had lost a lot of blood, but not enough to bleed out in twenty minutes. The blow to her head could’ve done her in immediately. Had someone hit her and then smeared her blood and hair on the table to make it look like an accident?
How many other deaths in that database were conveniently accidental?
Jolene had wandered back into the apartment when the EMTs called it quits on Melody. The crime scene investigators from the sheriff’s department were too busy to notice her presence. He hoped she wasn’t in there contaminating evidence. Maybe she just didn’t want to leave Melody alone.
The officer Sam had been talking to came up the stairs again. “The medical examiner is on her way. I don’t have anything else for you or Ms. Nighthawk. You have my card, and I have your phone numbers. We’ll be in touch if we need anything else.”
Sam pointed to the eaves running above the apartment doorways. “Too bad there are no cameras here.”
“We might be able to get something from across the street, and even though we don’t have her phone, we’ll get those records and see if she ordered another car.”
“I’ll be in Paradiso for a while on my case, so keep me apprised. Jolene, Ms. Nighthawk, is understandably devastated by the death of her cousin.”
“She’s Wade Nighthawk’s sister, too.” The deputy pointed down to the parking lot where Wade was talking to a uniformed cop. “Wade has friends in high places. Someone must’ve told him.”
Sam hustled back to Melody’s apartment and called to Jolene, who seemed transfixed by the CSI guys going through Melody’s living room.
She jerked her head to the side. “I—I just don’t want her to be alone.”
“I know.” He crooked his finger at her. “Come here a second.”
She gave a last look at Melody and approached him, tears streaking her face. She must’ve come out of the shock that had gripped her when they first discovered Melody.
He wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear. “Wade’s here.”
Her body stiffened, and he patted her back. “Don’t make any wild accusations against him—not here, not now. That’s his sister lying there.”
She nodded and buried her face in his shoulder. “We should’ve done more.”
“I know.”
As Sam drew her out onto the landing, Wade shouted. “What are you two doing here? They won’t let me pass.”
Sam steered Jolene toward her cousin. “We found her, Wade. The bartender at the Sundowner called Jolene to pick up Melody, and we got there too late.”
“How’d she get home? Who did this?” Wade’s smooth face had tightened into a mask. His dark eyes glittered with anger.
Jolene hugged her cousin. “We don’t know, Wade. We think she took a rideshare home. H-her purse is missing.”
“I told her not to live here on her own.” Wade smacked a fist into his palm. “She could’ve lived with us.”
With her arms still wrapped around Wade, Jolene asked, “When did she start drinking again?”
Sam held his breath.
“Don’t blame me for that. If you weren’t so busy running around with your head in the clouds, you would’ve noticed. I couldn’t make her stop.” He thrust his hand out toward Sam. “Ask your boyfriend there if
