I looked up to see that Crawford had come in behind me. “It’s more what I’m not finding, unfortunately.”
He crouched beside me. “What do you mean?” His gaze swept over the body, taking in the details. I could see his eyes flick quickly from the clothing to the rumpled bed to the scarf, tallying it up, no doubt coming to the same conclusion that I’d come to.
“I’m not finding signs of struggle, defensive wounds, anything like that,” I said.
An expression of regret passed over his face. “Keep going.”
I sighed. “I think that our first theory was right, Sarge—this is sex play gone bad.” I gave a nod toward the silk scarf. “It wasn’t a robbery, because she’s still wearing her earrings and her wedding ring.” I pointed to the diamond studs in her earlobes and then to the fair-size diamond cluster on her left hand. “I can’t see anyone leaving those behind. I’m willing to bet she and Brian were engaging in some autoerotic asphyxia play, and it went a touch too far. I think he was slowly choking her and releasing, giving her that hypoxia rush—” I broke off with a curse. “What a fucking waste. Brian should have known better than to play with dangerous shit like that.”
“Yeah,” he said, voice quiet and hoarse. “I would never have figured him for something like this. Guess you never know people.”
I took a deep breath and made myself continue. “I think he was playing this game with her, and then one time when he let it go she didn’t start breathing again. He tried CPR—there’s even bruising in the middle of her chest—and when she still didn’t come back, I guess he panicked and bailed out.” I shook my head. “I dunno. It doesn’t make sense. He’s not the sort to panic. I can’t believe he wouldn’t have called 911 and at least tried to get help.”
“This whole situation is fucked from top to bottom,” Crawford said, and when I looked at him sharply, he winced and shook his head. “No pun intended there. I swear.” But even unintended, the horrific pun had broken some of the dark mood, which was a relief to both of us.
He inclined his head at me, a thin smile playing on his face. “How do you know about asphyxia play?”
“Back when I was a property detective, I worked a fraud case at the adult video shop downtown. It was a pretty complicated case, and I ended up learning more than I ever wanted to know simply by being around the place so much.”
Crawford nodded, eyes dancing. “I remember that.” He stood and walked to the door, and I followed suit. “What’s your plan now?”
I made a face at the wall of heat that enveloped us as we stepped outside. “Wait for Doc to do the autopsies. Anything else will depend on what he says.”
He peered into my face. “You look fried. As soon as you’re finished here, you should go home and get some sleep.”
I snorted but couldn’t help but smile. “I intend to. You just make sure no one else decides to die today.”
UNFORTUNATELY, MY DEEP DESIRE FOR A NAP WAS foiled by the coroner’s office, though I had to grudgingly admit that it wasn’t their fault. A nasty—and fatal—traffic accident on one of the highways at the north end of the parish meant that we had to wait for them to collect those victims before coming to get Carol Roth.
I took refuge in my car as the heat rose—keeping the AC cranked up as I pecked out my initial reports on my laptop. But by two p.m. there was still no sign of the coroner’s office, and I was uncomfortably aware that I’d promised Kehlirik to check on him during the day. And one did not blithely break promises to the demonkind.
Then again, I never promised to check on him in person. I grinned at the realization, pulled out my cell phone, and hit the speed dial for my aunt’s house.
By the fourth ring I was coming to the reluctant conclusion that Kehlirik had either forgotten how to answer the phone or was too busy with the wards to break away. But on the fifth ring I heard it pick up with a rumble on the other end that could only be from a reyza.
“Kehlirik, this is Kara Gillian.”
“Greetings to you, summoner.” The powerful bass of his voice seemed to vibrate the phone against my ear.
“And to you. Is everything going all right? Do you need anything?”
“All is well,” he replied. “The wards on the summoning chamber are cleared. The library will take more time, but a mere faas cannot create a ward that can defeat me.” I could hear him snort in derision at the thought.
“I have the utmost faith in you, honored one,” I said, keeping my voice grave, though I wanted to laugh. “It’s probably going to be a few more hours before I can get back over there.”