boxes, and milk crates filled with a little of everything.
The body was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties. Quinn could not see any clear wounds on her, but there was a fair amount of blood puddled around her. It had gone beyond wet or sticky, having dried on the concrete floor.
She was pale as a sheet and her eyes were wide and unblinking. For a moment, Quinn thought she was staring right at him.
He felt a little cry rise up in his throat. Backing away before it could escape, Quinn dug his phone out of his pocket and called 911. He wasn’t even sure if that was who you called for something like this but it was all he could think to do.
As the phone rang and the dispatcher answered, Quinn tried to back away but found himself unable to take his eyes off of the grisly sight, his gaze locked with that of the dead woman in the unit.
Chapter Three
Neither Mackenzie nor Ellington wanted a big wedding. Ellington claimed he had gotten all of the wedding nonsense out of his system with his first marriage but wanted to make sure Mackenzie got everything she wanted. Her own tastes were simple. She would have been perfectly happy in a basic church. No bells, no whistles, no fabricated elegance.
But then Ellington’s father had called them shortly after they had gotten engaged. His father, who had never really been part of Ellington’s life, congratulated him but also informed him that he’d be unable to attend any wedding that Ellington’s mother was at. He did, however, compensate for his future absence by connecting with a very wealthy friend in DC and booking the Meridian House for them. It was an almost obscene gift but it had also put an end to the question of when to marry. As it turned out, that answer was four months after the engagement, thanks to Ellington’s father booking a particular date: September 5th.
And while that day was still two and a half months away, it felt much closer than that when Mackenzie stood in the gardens adjacent to the Meridian House. The day was perfect and everything about the place seemed to have been recently touched up and landscaped.
I’d marry him right here tomorrow if I could, she thought. As a rule, Mackenzie typically didn’t give in to overly girly impulses but something about the idea of getting married here made her feel a certain way—somewhere between romantic and absolutely geeking out. She loved the old-world feel of the place, the simple warm charm and the gardens.
As she stood and took the place in, Ellington approached her from behind and placed his arms around her waist. “So…yeah, this is the place.”
“Yeah, it is,” she said. “We need to tell your father thank you. Again. Or maybe just un-invite your mother so he will show up.”
“It might be a bit too late for that,” Ellington said. “Especially since that’s her, walking up the sidewalk to our right.”
Mackenzie looked in that direction and saw an older woman whom the years had been kind to. She was wearing black sunglasses that made her look exceptionally young and sophisticated in a way that was nearly annoying. When she spotted Mackenzie and Ellington standing in between two large beds of flowers and shrubs, she waved with a little too much enthusiasm.
“She looks sweet,” Mackenzie said.
“So do candy bars. But have enough of them and they’ll rot your teeth.”
Mackenzie couldn’t help but snicker at this, biting it down as Ellington’s mother joined them.
“I’m hoping you’re Mackenzie,” she said.
“I am,” Mackenzie said, unsure of how to take the joke.
“Of course you are, dear,” she said. She gave Mackenzie a lazy hug and a bright smile. “And I’m Frances Ellington…but only because it’s too much of a hassle to get my last name changed.”
“Hello, Mother,” Ellington said, stepping in to hug her.
“Son. My oh my, how on earth did you two manage to nail this place down? It’s positively gorgeous!”
“I’ve worked in DC long enough to make friends with the right people,” Ellington lied.
Mackenzie cringed inside. She absolutely understood why he felt the need to lie, but also felt at odds with being part of such a huge one involving her mother-in-law-to-be at this stage of their relationship.
“But not people that could help expedite the paperwork and legal ramifications of your divorce, I take it?”
It was a comment made with a bit of a sarcastic tone, meant to be a joke. But Mackenzie had interrogated enough people and knew enough about behaviors and facial twitches to know when someone was simply being cruel. Maybe it was a joke, but there was also some truth and bitterness to it.
Ellington, though, took in stride. “Nope. Haven’t made friends like that. But you know, Mom, I’d really rather focus on today. On Mackenzie—a woman who isn’t going to run me through the mud like the first wife you seem to be hung up on.”
My God, this is terrible, Mackenzie thought.
She had to make a decision right there and then, and she knew it might affect her future mother-in-law’s opinion of her, but she could deal with that later. She was about to make a comment, to excuse herself so that Ellington and his mother could have this tense conversation in private.
But then her phone rang. She checked it and saw McGrath’s name. She took it as the opportunity she needed, holding the phone close to her and stating: “So sorry, but I need to take this.”
Ellington gave her a skeptical look as she walked a bit further down the sidewalk. She answered the call as she hid herself behind some elaborate rose bushes.
“This is Agent White,” she answered.
“White, I need you to come in. You and Ellington both, I think. There’s a case I need to stick you two on ASAP.”
“Are you in the office right now? On a Sunday?”
“I wasn’t. But this call brought me here. When can the two of you be here?”
She grinned and looked to Ellington, still bickering with his mother. “Oh, I think we can make it pretty quickly,” she said.
Chapter Four
Being Sunday, there was no one at the desk in the small waiting area outside of McGrath’s office. In fact, his office door was standing open when Mackenzie and Ellington arrived. Mackenzie knocked on the door before entering anyway, knowing what a stickler McGrath could be when it came to privacy.
“Come on in,” McGrath called out.
When they entered, they found McGrath behind his desk, rummaging through several folders. Papers were strewn everywhere and his desk looked to be in a mild state of chaos. Seeing a usually tidy McGrath in such a state made Mackenzie wonder just what sort of case had managed to fluster him this much.
“I appreciate you coming so quickly,” McGrath said. “I know you’re using most of your free time to plan the wedding.”
“Hey, you tore me away from my mother,” Ellington said. “I’ll tackle whatever case you throw at me.”
“That’s good to hear,” McGrath
