Lyra glanced up at him from inspecting the dresser drawers. “That’s a good question. I’ll go ask.” She promptly left the room to search for the answer.
While Jace examined the area around the bed, he watched Tala out of the corner of his eye. She had started her search in the farthest corner of the room, a reading nook of sorts, complete with a built-in bench along the window. It was a good place to start. One he would’ve picked himself if she hadn’t beaten him to it.
While he waited to hear back from Lyra, Jace got on his hands and knees and checked under the bed. He found a bag shoved to the middle. Reaching, he grabbed it and dragged it forward. Once in the light, he could see that it was a black-leather gym bag.
He unzipped it. Inside were a sports bra, cotton shorts, socks, running shoes and a Louis Vuitton compact makeup bag. Jace reached in and took out the makeup bag. When he opened it, a plastic ID card fell out onto the rug. He picked it up.
“Looks like she worked out at Hard Bodies Health Spa.” Setting the card down, he continued to search the bag.
“Beats me why people insist on working out indoors with a hundred other people, when all they have to do is put on some good sneakers, step outside their door and start running.”
Nodding, Jace glanced over at her. “I hear that. I’d rather go for a long run any day.”
“I do three miles every day,” she commented offhandedly as she set a plastic card onto the window sill. “I got prints on the window.”
Jace did a slow perusal of her body from toe to head. She definitely had a runner’s body. Long and lean. He bet she had exquisitely shaped thighs and calves.
As he continued to watch her, he pictured her in a tank top and shorts, her auburn hair bobbing up and down in a ponytail as she sprinted up a path much like the one on Silent Hill in Necropolis that he ran whenever he could get away. He could see the way her muscles would bunch as she ran, the way her sweat would trickle down her back and chest. With a clarity that almost startled him, he imagined the sweat trail traveling down her neck, in between her pert br**sts and pooling inside her navel.
Licking his lips, he thought about dipping his tongue right in that spot and then trailing it lower still….
“I’d say you found some flake.”
Blinking, Jace shook his head and stared at Tala. “Excuse me?”
She pointed to his hand. “The lip gloss container you’re holding, it’s full of coc**ne.”
Jace looked down at the cylindrical tube he’d been holding while fantasizing about Tala. When he held it up, he could see a white powder inside. Unscrewing the lid, he pulled out the lip applicator. The tip was covered in a snow-white substance.
He slid it back into the container and screwed it on. Jace looked at Tala as she continued to search through the victim’s books near the window. “How did you know?”
She shrugged. “I worked drug intel for a couple of years. I know how people hide drugs. Their ingeniousness and stupidity are limitless.”
“No, I mean how could you see it from over there?” Eyeing her still, he slid the lip gloss into an evidence bag. He could smell her anxiety and taste it on his tongue like smoke from a fire.
She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I have great eyesight.”
Jace set the gym bag aside, slid the evidence into his kit and wandered over to where Tala was inspecting one of three stuffed bears sitting daintily on the bench along the window’s ledge.
He noticed the way her body quivered when he stepped in next to her. His muscles were doing the same thing. Being near her was like stepping out into an electrical storm with lightning flashing across the sky and striking the ground a mere foot away. Exhilarated and powerful. That’s how he felt around her.
Concentrate on work. Work is safe.
Taking up his camera, he took several shots of the things Tala had indicated with the yellow markers. Fingerprints on the window. Likely the victim’s, but because the window opened onto a ledge that could easily be accessed from the large tree next to it, he would lift the prints. Maybe she was abducted from her room. Or she left that way of her own accord. Sneaking out at night to rendezvous with a secret lover. Or worse.
Going back to his kit to grab the black dusting powder, a brush and a lift card, Jace noticed that Tala waved the stuffed bear in front of her face. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear she was scenting the toy. Which was a ridiculous notion, but one he wasn’t able to dismiss out of hand.
He came back with his equipment and dusted the fingerprint while Tala inspected another of the little bears. This one was white with a bright pink dress. Before Jace could react, she ripped its head off and was tearing out its stuffing.
“What are you looking for?” he asked.
Ignoring him, she continued to pull out white cotton batting. Digging in with her fingers, she came away with a clear plastic bag. She dropped the bear and held up the bag to Jace.
“Show me the love.” She smiled. Inside the bag were a handful of small blue pills with panda bears stamped on them. “MDMA, Ecstasy, XTC, whatever you want to call it. She was definitely a regular user.”
“Damn.”
She set them down on the bench next to the decapitated bear so Jace could photograph it. “I once found he**ine in a baby’s diaper while the baby was wearing it. Nothing surprises me anymore.”