She ignored him. “I need to hear this,” she repeated to the bartender.
He picked up the remote and raised the volume. There was a collective groan from the majority in the bar, who turned to see why the TV was allowed to cut into their lives.
She was making fists, tightening, then loosening. “Louder, please.”
“Planet earth to Zo?. Planet earth to Zo?. Rick speaking.”
“Just to conclude,” the field reporter said, “the body of a woman was found at Pier 25 earlier tonight. Details are vague right now. The SFPD hasn’t released any information, but according to eyewitnesses, the victim was naked, bound by the wrists, suspended from the structure, and possibly whipped.”
The fear slammed into her, the impact of it forcing her to grab the bar. The world spun, and when it stopped, she wasn’t in the bar or even San Francisco, she was naked, alone in a shed in the desert. It was happening again. It was happening here.
She grabbed her purse. “I have to go.”
“What?” Sobona said. “What’s going on here? Did I suddenly get boring? I thought we were moving this party.”
“I’m sorry. Another time.”
She spun around on her barstool and hopped off. She had made her way about halfway to the door through the wall of patrons when a hand grabbed her trailing arm. She whipped around to find Sobona holding her wrist.
“We aren’t done.”
The grasp was a mistake. She wasn’t the hapless victim she’d been in the past. She had learned the skills to defend herself.
Zo? didn’t argue or complain. She acted on instinct. With her free hand, she grabbed his thumb and jerked it back. He yelped and released his grip on her. She maintained the pressure. The simple maneuver drove his arm into his chest and him down to his knees to prevent his thumb from breaking. Zo? released her grip.
“You bitch.” The hatred behind the word seemed born more out of the public embarrassment than anything else.
Sobona lunged and met the heel of Zo?’s hand coming in from the opposite direction. It smashed into his nose with enough significant force to bring tears but not enough to break it.
“You never, ever touch a woman like that again,” she screamed in his face. “Do you understand me?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Neither Rick Sobona nor anyone from Ferdinand’s chased after Zo?. That didn’t mean someone wouldn’t call a cop. She couldn’t deal with that noise right now. There was too much going on in her head as it was. She needed the police, but not for this. She had to know if the murdered woman was linked to Holli. Had she known Holli?
She moved fast and grabbed the first cab to come her way. She told the driver to take her to Pier 25. One thing about the killer choosing an obvious landmark like Pier 25 was that it was easy to find.
She leaned forward in her seat, her hands balled into tight fists. Her body thrummed with the adrenaline coursing through her. She wished it was just a side effect of taking Sobona down, but it was pure fear. Fear of what had happened to her and Holli. Fear of what had happened to this murdered woman. Fear that it could be starting all over again for her.
Fear is the enemy, she thought. It was one of Jarocki’s phrases. Fear clouded the mind, obscured judgment, and ruined recovery. She was in a state of panic and needed to calm down. She performed one of his breathing techniques. She sucked in air and held it for a second, before releasing it. She repeated it ten times and felt the fear ebb away with each breath. She wasn’t sure if Jarocki’s party trick worked because the forced injection of oxygen brought clarity to the brain or because the simple act of controlling her inhalations took her focus off her panic. Either way, it worked. She wasn’t calm, but she was in control of herself.
She caught the taxi driver eyeing her in his mirror. She must have looked crazy to him. Was she? Her reaction to the news story certainly felt nuts. She’d seen dozens of murder reports since the event and had never reacted like she had tonight, but the way this woman had been suspended screamed a connection with her case. She had to know if that connection was real. She didn’t care if she embarrassed herself in the process.
The cab stopped two blocks short of where she asked to be dropped, but with all the cops, camera crews, and onlookers, it was as close as anyone was getting. She paid the cabbie and jumped out.
She raced up to the crowd, but the wall of people in front of her gave her only glimpses of the developments beyond.
“Have the cops said anything?” she asked the people around her.
“They ain’t saying shit to us,” the man next to her said.
“All we’ve seen is people go in and come out,” the woman directly in front of Zo? said. “The body’s still in there because no one has brought it out.”
“Did anyone here see the body?”
She got a round of nos and head shakes.
“Did we see the body?” a woman snapped. “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you have anything better to do?”