up the porch steps to the front door, talking nervously. “I love where I am. Easy access to everything I need. I bought it from my parents. They always wanted to move down to Key West and finally did a few years ago. I love Key West, too, but I like to stay closer to most of my clients with quick and easy access to an airport. Of course, Miami International is superbusy, we all know that. Come in... Hey, Titan!” she called.
The dog was already at the door, and as she’d said, it was big. It was a shepherd, Axel thought, though the animal’s fur was pitch-black. He wasn’t sure what kind, but he was the biggest shepherd Axel had ever seen.
The animal barked—a deep bark with a hint of a growl.
“It’s all right, Titan. We have a guest.”
Axel set his hands out for the dog to sniff. Titan backed away a bit, then looked at Raina, wildly wagging his tail.
“He’s a Belgian shepherd,” Raina told him. “A rescue. Someone bought him and decided he was too big. Anyway...”
She paused. Titan was sniffing Axel’s fingers and wagging his tail. Axel barely had to bend to scratch the dog behind the ears. “Well, I guess you two will be fine,” she said.
“He’s great,” Axel said. “And amazing for a rescue animal.”
“He works with me, too.”
“In your work as a trainer?”
She nodded. “Dogs are wonderful, but they’re usually a mirror of the way they’re treated. I mean, sometimes aggression has been bred into them. But they’re such amazing companions. Not that he’s my only companion—I didn’t mean it that way. Well, he is my only roommate. I just meant that—never mind. I went to college knowing what I wanted to do and my degree is in animal science. Lots of biology and psychology, really. Here I am, rambling away...”
“Because you don’t want to put the dress on,” he said. “Listen, I can’t make you do this, and I wouldn’t, either, but we’re at a loss here, with no evidence chain to follow, and when I heard you had called the body in... I was hoping we could find something out. Anything.”
“Because you believe I only saw the body in the mirror because I tried a dress on.”
“Yes.”
She looked at him doubtfully. The dress—on a hanger with a plastic wrap over it—was draped over his arm. He offered it to her.
She took it. “Okay, I’ll just step in my room. There’s a mirror in there. I’ll put the dress on and then call when I’m ready.”
“Thank you.”
“Uh, make yourself at home. Can I get you anything?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” he assured her, hunkering down. “I’ll get to know Titan.”
Raina disappeared into the bedroom. Titan watched her go, but kept a wary eye on Axel. He was happy enough to be scratched behind the ears.
“No one bare-handed would mess with her with you around, huh, buddy?” he said to the dog, looking around the house as he did.
It was nice. Not elegant, but nice. The living room furniture was handsomely coordinated in leather and tan fabric. The house had a fireplace with a mantel and he wondered if it was maybe older than he thought. Despite Florida’s reputation for heat, he could remember several winters when—if only for a few days—the temperature had hit the low thirties. Now air-conditioning systems reversed for the sporadic cold days, but many homes here had once been built with fireplaces.
The mantel was filled with family pictures; her older brother with a woman Axel assumed to be his wife, her parents with her and her brother when they were young, a few pictures of dogs and one of Raina on a big, beautiful quarter horse.
The living room offered a hall to the left with bedrooms, he assumed, since she had gone that way. Straight ahead was a dining room and through that he could see the door to the kitchen. Beyond that, a Florida-style family room with glass windows that opened to the backyard.
He was still surveying the house and scratching the dog’s ears when both he and Titan heard a terrified scream.
Dog and man jumped as one and rushed to the bedroom. Titan woofed. Axel shouted her name. “Raina!”
Two doors were open along the hallway, but one was closed. He twisted the knob, instinct and logic telling him she would have closed the door when she went in to change.
She was there, dead still in front of a full-length swivel mirror, just staring in a dress that