The Rough Draft

Has it been a while? Definitely. Nearly 3 whole months. Not that I didn't need the break to find inspiration. It feels good coming back to this story--to David and Ky. I kind of missed them.

So without further ado...

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The kitchen was just as hot as the other rooms. David could almost feel the tile baking beneath his sneakers. Or it could have been his imagination.

He glanced around the room, noticing the dishes sitting in the sink, piled up and encrusted with food. He blanched, gagging at the subtle smell of sour food and stinking water.

But his stomach growled again and he dismissed the smell, hoping that the fridge would have been a safe haven for food untouched.

Stumbling across the floor, he knew he has to eat soon. Low blood sugar coupled with extreme emotional duress, the adrenaline that had pumped through his system earlier at the club wearing off, left him weak. He felt feeble, barely able to lift his feet to reach the fridge.

But somewhere in his mind, he knew this was an exaggeration. He wasn't that tired just yet. His mind was seeking an excuse to stop the search, to leave the strange events behind and curl up in bed. To forget Tab, forget the last few hours, the previous weeks, with sleep.

He wrapped his hand around the handle and yanked the fridge open.

Then he screamed, "Ky!"

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In the bedroom where she was ruffling through Susannah's drawers, she heard his scream and dashed through the hallway. The thought flashed across her mind, barely slow enough for her to register, that he had screamed the nickname Tab had given her instead of screaming the pseudonym Skye.

She shrugged it aside, running into the kitchen to find David slumped on the floor, his back to a line of drawers. He held his head in his hands and cried.

"David," she said as her eyes scanned the room. "David," she said again, forcefully to get his attention. He looked up at her between his fingers. She could see the tears falling down his face.

"What?" She asked again.

He motioned towards the fridge and scooted away simultaneously. Turning his back on the door, he stared at the ceiling. His tears were dried up.

Ky approached the door, apprehension sizzling through her. She felt it like an electrical spark, moving from her fingers to her toes as she reached for the handle.

Yanking the door open, she cringed.

Stuffed between fallen shelves, a gallon of milk, and take-out containers was the body of Susannah Jones. Her skin was white, her eyes wide open in fear, and a purple bruise lined her neck.

Ky let the door handle slip from her grasp. It shut with sucking sound.

She turned to David, surprised to find him standing and staring at her. His face clear of tears.

"I figure they hid her body there so you wouldn't find her as soon. I don't think whoever it was thought we would go looking in the fridge." He had his hands in his pockets, the arms dangling free, casually. His jaw was set and his eyes hard.

"Her body is still warm at the core. I'd say it's only been an hour, maybe an hour and a half since she died. Whoever she was conspiring with found out that we were seeking Tab and killed her to keep her quiet."

"How is she still warm? She's in the fridge!" David exclaimed. "I mean, if she's been in there for an hour she's got to be cold all the way through, right? What if she's been in there longer than that? What if she's been in there for days?"

Ky glanced at the clock on the wall. It was after midnight and the night was passing quickly.

"Come on," she said, leaving the room. David followed, saying, "But what about my questions?"

"First," she said as she crossing the elegant living room, looking around one last time for possible clues, "I can sense heat, remember? I'm practically a walking thermometer. She's still warm at her core because of the way she was crammed in there. It would take longer than a few hours to cool her at the middle."

She picked up the letter she'd scanned earlier, back in its envelope, and handed it to David. He glanced at it, seeing nothing meaningful and shrugged.

"She hasn't been in there for days. She was alive earlier. Look at the date on the postmark."

He looked at the envelope again. It was stamped yesterday, in Washington D.C.

"Okay, so, it was stamped yesterday. So that means it had to have been delivered today, and that means she picked it up earlier."

"And she had to be alive to do that. So whoever killed her did it here. But it wasn't noisy. Strangulation usually isn't. But it's an intimate way to kill someone. You have to stand right behind them and hold them tight.

"Whoever it was, it was someone who knew her well, who'd been here before. They felt comfortable enough to shove her body in the fridge and leave it there to be discovered. If they've been here before, more than likely the doorman has an idea who it is."

She ran to the front door and hurried into the hall.

"Aren't we going to go out the way we came in?" David asked, trying to keep up with her.

"No need for that. I'll have to talk to the door man anyway. Might as well take the easy way down." She stood in front of the elevators, waiting when he caught up to her.

"So I'll get to see the Jedi mind trick in action again?"

"The what?"

He laughed. "Nevermind. I'll explain that to you when you explain Salioni the Red to me."

"Sounds fair enough."

The elevator dinged and together they stepped into the cab. Ky pushed the ground floor button and they descended, moving swiftly towards the unknown, but at least further away from the dead body in the fridge.

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