Long Gone. Alafair Burke

how the end would go down. Obviously the owner was pulling the plug.

      She was tempted to walk out the door and leave the entire experiment behind her, but thought Drew owed her an explanation. She assumed, based on the open gate, that he’d be returning.

      As she walked toward the front of the gallery, she noticed a shadow on the floor—some sort of pile. She took each step carefully, as if the sounds of her footsteps might disrupt it. Fifteen steps from the pile. Now ten. Five.

      Despite her caution, she felt the sole of her boot slide beneath her on the floor. Felt her weight pulling her down backward. She reflexively stuck her hands beneath her, forgetting all those old ski lessons about protecting your wrists in a fall. She heard her cell phone tumble to the floor.

      Her body hit the ground, palms first, and then slid against the tile. Wet. Warm. Sticky. Paint?

      She pulled herself to her knees and crawled toward the form on the ground. Used a tentative hand to tap what she recognized upon touch as some kind of fabric. A rug? A large canvas?

      She patted the form’s edges and jerked upright when she finally identified a texture with certainty. Hair. Coarse human hair.

      She scrambled on the slick tile, fumbling for her phone. Found the button at the bottom. Aimed the tiny beam of light toward what she now suspected was a body.

      Drew Campbell lay on his side, a magenta pool forming beneath him despite the bundling of his winter coat. Her hands and knees and shins and forearms were soaked in his fresh blood.

      She felt her fingertips stick to the glass screen of her phone as she dialed 911.

      CHAPTER SIXTEEN

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      “God damn it.”

      Detective Jason Morhart hit the enter key on his computer once again, this time so hard he thought it might not pop back into place.

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      “Fuck.”

      “Cursing’s for the uncreative. They say ‘Frack!’ on Battlestar Galactica, and everyone still knows what it means.”

      Nancy had appeared at his desk about six presses of the return key ago. Her job was to process file requests. In her mind, that plus a few software classes at the community college made her the resident computer expert at the police department. No one had the heart to disabuse her of the notion. He knew for a fact that Nancy could out-cuss a cussing contest at a sailor’s convention, but that wasn’t going to stop her from ribbing him about his temper.