Knockout. Erica Orloff

we let ourselves into the house and moved down the hall to the office. I didn’t want Destiny to see us going through her mother’s belongings. Deacon had hidden her luggage in a locked closet. All of them were Louis Vuitton suitcases that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe.

      On top of the first suitcase was a huge makeup bag. I started with that, going through each cosmetic—and there were a lot of them. I opened each compact, each jar of wrinkle cream, each tube of cleanser, everything. I smelled each one, thinking maybe they concealed drugs. All the cosmetics and skin products were from La Prairie—one of the most expensive cosmetic companies in the world. But nothing else.

      “Damn!” I looked at Rob.

      “Keep searching.”

      We went through suitcase after suitcase, each piece of clothing.

      “Feel along the hems,” Rob told me. “In case she sewed something into the lining of a skirt or a pair of pants.”

      “Like what?”

      “Like a safety deposit box key or the key to a locker. I don’t think she’d really be so dumb as to have whatever it is on her.”

      After an hour of careful fingering of her clothes, we came up with nothing. Now that the suitcases were empty, Rob and I began moving our hands along the seams, feeling the bottoms, looking for any indication there was a secret hiding spot.

      “Nothing,” I said disgustedly. I looked around at the floor where all her flashy-trashy Vegas clothes lay—sequins and tight low-ride jeans, stiletto Jimmy Choos. Suddenly, I felt tears overtaking my eyes. “This is all that’s left of a life, Rob. This and Destiny.”

      He reached out to rub my shoulders. “Baby, she touched a lot of lives. And that’s always going to be with you and Deacon and Big Jimmy.”

      “Yeah.” I wiped at my face. “And when I find out who killed her, his life isn’t going to be worth shit.”

      “Jack…” Rob’s voice was warning and measured.

      “Like you said. This whole thing stinks like rotten fish. And I’m not going to let her die without a word, just swept under Tony Perrone’s carpet.”

      “Did I ever tell you that you scare me sometimes?”

      “You tell me that all the time.”

      “Yeah, but this time, Jack, I really mean it.”