Brody Law. Carol Ericson
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punching in her client’s number.
She might be a party girl on the surface, but as a therapist Courtney was committed to her clients. She’d drop everything at a moment’s notice to see them and talk them through some crisis.
Elise asked for some to-go boxes and was scooping the food into the little white cartons when Courtney returned to the table.
Courtney unhooked her purse from the back of her chair. “I’m so sorry. I’m going to have to run out on you and meet my client at my office—emergency. Can you take the food? You can go straight to my place. I’ll give you the key.”
She reached for her wallet, but Elise held up her hand. “I’ll get lunch. After all, I’m going to be your guest for the next few days.”
“Longer if you need it.” She waved to an old Chinese woman stationed by the door. “Auntie Lu, come and say hello to my friend.”
Elise stood up and exchanged a quick hug with her friend, who then kissed Auntie Lu’s pale cheek on her way out of the restaurant.
The old woman placed a hand on Elise’s arm. “Sit.”
Elise sat down and Auntie Lu arranged herself in the chair across from her.
“Courtney busy girl.”
“Courtney is a good friend.” Elise pulled some bills from her wallet and dropped them onto the check tray. “How long has your family owned this restaurant?”
“Many years. You going to watch the parade today? Starting soon.”
“I am.”
Auntie Lu tapped Elise’s teacup. “You have leaves. Do you want me to read your tea leaves?”
“Can you do that?”
“Ancient practice.” She winked at Elise and slid the cup in front of her, wrapping her gnarled hands with their painted nails and heavy rings around it.
Auntie Lu studied the bottom of the cup, and the smile she’d been wearing faded. Then she pushed the cup away. “Silly.”
A wisp of fear trailed across Elise’s flesh. “What is it? What did you see in there?”
Auntie Lu spread her crooked fingers. “Nothing. I lost my touch.”
She eased from the chair, patted Elise’s shoulder and shuffled back to her stool by the door, where she stared onto the street through the window.
Elise tipped the cup and squinted at the residue swimming in the bottom. Then she splashed a little more tea into the cup and gulped it, leaves and all. “That takes care of that fortune.”
She dropped her wallet back into her purse, hitched it over her shoulder and hung the plastic bag of food over her wrist. She smiled and nodded at Auntie Lu by the entrance and grabbed the door handle.
Auntie Lu’s seemingly frail hand gripped Elise’s elbow in a vise. Elise looked into her dark, gleaming eyes.
Auntie Lu whispered, “Be careful.”
For a second, Elise thought she’d imagined the entire exchange as Auntie Lu’s grip turned into a light squeeze and she smiled and nodded. “Goodbye, Ming Na friend.”
Elise knew Ming Na was Courtney’s middle name, so she smiled back and pushed out of the suddenly oppressive darkness of the restaurant into the sunshine.
The pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk had doubled since lunch. Elbows and shoulders bumped as people jostled for position on the sidewalk facing the parade route.
Elise threaded through the crowd, looking for a gap she could squeeze through to get a clear view of the festivities. She darted across the street and then backtracked toward Han Ting.
Spying daylight, she scooted through two people and popped up behind a boy and a girl wiggling with excitement.
The acrobats led the parade, clutching sticks with colorful streamers on the end that created a kaleidoscope of hues as they leaped and tumbled. A float decorated with flowers sailed past, cradling the royal court of Dragon Boat princesses and their queen, all doing the parade wave and smiling.
A few firecrackers popped and the kids in front of her squealed as Elise jumped, clutching her purse.
A Boy Scout troop marched by and the fresh, innocent faces of the kids calmed her nerves.
Nerves? When had she started feeling anxious? The press of people didn’t bother her; even after coming from the wide-open spaces of Montana, Elise had reveled in the crowds and excitement of the city.
It must have been the noise from the firecrackers that had set her teeth on edge. Or the warning from Auntie Lu.
Ridiculous. She already knew to be careful after her encounter with a killer. Auntie Lu wasn’t telling her something she didn’t already have imprinted on her brain, and Auntie Lu probably issued that warning to all young women.
Standing on her tiptoes, Elise clapped loudly and whistled as the winner of the boat race passed by displaying his victorious boat. The kids in front of her covered their ears. She got the attention of her kindergartners by whistling—worked every time.
With each passing parade participant, the people behind her pressed in closer and closer. She leaned back, not wanting to push the children into the street. By now she could barely move, barely turn her head.
The dragon float made its appearance, its head shaggy with crepe paper tilting back and forth to the delight of the crowd, which surged forward. Elise hooked her arms around the kids’ shoulders to protect them.
The dragon undulated forward, its body twisting this way and that way. Another round of firecrackers exploded so close Elise could smell the acrid gunpowder.
A sharp pain stabbed her thigh and she lurched forward, knocking the kids off the curb.
“I’m so sorry.”
They giggled as she tried to pull them back onto the sidewalk. Elise couldn’t even drop her arms to her sides to feel her leg. Someone must’ve had something sharp in a purse or pocket, or maybe a little kid had jabbed her with some trinket from the knickknack shops that lined the streets.
The last flick of the dragon’s tail signaled the end of the parade, and people began to shuffle away, giving everyone a little more breathing room.
“Are you guys okay?” Elise finally had room to bend forward and check on the kids.
They nodded and scampered away.
Elise trailed her hand down the back of her thigh toward the sore spot. The material of her jeans gaped open, and she drew her brows over her nose.
What the heck had gouged her?
Her fingers probed the ripped denim and her skin beneath, and she gasped as they met moisture. She snatched her hand away and brought it in front of her face.
Her stomach lurched and a scream ripped from her throat. The people milling around her backed away, creating a ring of space around her.
She dragged her gaze away from her hand and tried to focus on the faces swimming before her. Only one face stood out—Auntie Lu’s as she hovered in the doorway of her restaurant, her dark eyes sharp amid the lines of age.
Elise swallowed and gasped to no one and everyone. “I’ve been stabbed.”
The woman had been stabbed, her throat slit.
Sean massaged his temples. So much blood. Had that been the fate this maniac had intended for Elise?
He pounded his fist on his desk, and the pencils in the holder jumped and rattled. He slid one between his fingers and rat-tatted it on the blotter.
Elise hadn’t called him yet with her phone number. He