Page 80 of My Killer Blind Date

A gentle cough behind me makes me turn – Elsie, in a black minidress and black stockings today, staring at me.

I stare back. She didn’t even know Zoe. I don’t want any platitudes.

‘I got the invoice,’ she says, her dark eyes unblinking.

Huh? For the floral wreath that just got delivered? I put it on my personal credit card, so I don’t know why she’d have the paperwork …

Her eyebrows lift infinitesimally. ‘For the expedited meat testing.’

Oh. I swallow. I’m too removed from myself to feel panic, but this would be a particularly sucky moment to get fired.

‘I can reimburse the company for it,’ I say, my voice deadly calm. ‘Next week, after I get paid.’

Elsie crosses her arms and tilts her head, considering me. ‘What did you have tested?’

I let out a sigh. Why hide it, now? ‘Some ground-up meat I found in this guy’s freezer. I thought maybe he was Zoe’s killer.’ I don’t fill in the rest – that he is, in fact, Zoe’s killer.

‘So you thought the ground-up meat was …’ She gestures to Zoe’s picture. It was one of the few pictures I could find where she was wearing a full-on smile, her eyes alive, her joy infectious. I snapped it right after she got her first piece accepted into a gallery. Now I know the painting was Life. Once Liam is behind bars, I wonder if there’s a way to get it back.

‘Yeah,’ I say.

Elsie looks more interested in me than ever before. ‘And was it?’

‘No. Just beef.’

She purses her lips. ‘That’s pretty dark.’

‘Yeah.’ I look at her for any hint of where this is headed. ‘So – are you going to tell Bill?’

‘Extenuating circumstances. But what about the guy? Do you still think he did it?’

‘Yep.’ Elsie has never invited this much conversation. Maybe it’s just me responding to her sudden interest, maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t really talked to someone in days, but suddenly, I find myself spilling out the details like verbal diarrhea – my late nights on Reddit, the two other women, all living in adjacent North Side neighborhoods, the timing of each disappearance, and now there’s Brooke Walsh too. Elsie’s expression doesn’t change as I narrate, but I can feel her focus on me like a laser beam.

When I finish, she says, ‘Damn. So this influencer is the latest victim?’

‘Looks like it.’

Elsie scrunches her brow. ‘But bodies showed up for the previous two women, and just a foot and ashes for Zoe? That’s weird.’

‘Yeah. I don’t know.’ And I truly don’t. Theories have flitted through my brain. His deep freezer breaking, so he had to cremate most of her; her foot would fit in a normal-sized freezer, so he kept that back. Or, going much darker, her body was harmed in ways he wanted to hide. But I’ve let these unproductive thoughts go. They’ll be forcing a confession out of Liam soon, and then I’ll know everything.

‘Did he keep the other women’s feet as trophies, do you think?’ Elsie asks.

‘Sounds like it.’

She shivers. ‘But the opposite with Zoe, huh?’

I sigh. ‘I don’t know. Maybe he dumped one foot but kept the other.’

‘But he cremated most of her. Why not cremate everything?’

‘It seems like he wants people to be able to identify the victims, so everyone knows who he killed.’

‘Wow,’ says Elsie. ‘What a psycho.’

‘You can say that again,’ I mutter.

In the lobby, the front door opens, pulling my attention away from the grim conversation. Two people enter, and I know right away it’s Zoe’s parents. Tim, I recognize from his Facebook profile picture, with his full head of white hair and square jaw. Sue, in a navy blue sheath dress, looks nothing like Zoe. Her hair is cropped short and she wears a pair of glasses with a delicate chain. It’s only on closer examination that I see the resemblance to her daughter in the high forehead and huge brown eyes. Deep breath.