Chapter 3
LEIF
"What are we doing?" Woody said behind us, quieter now.
Good, his stomping could have woken the dead. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be chased up stairs by a zombie with a knife in his chest, harboring resentment over whoever put it there.
"Walking up stairs." I grinned over at Woody.
"No shit." He glared back. "Why are we doing this? Guy back there is dead. Whoever did it is long gone."
"Are you sure about that?" Forrest asked.
"I'd bet fifty bucks on it," he said, offering his hand to Forrest.
Forrest didn't take it. "He might have left the area, but he might have left a clue."
"Unless…" I said ominously.
"Unless what?" Woody asked, his expression even darker.
"Unless whoever killed that guy was a woman," I said.
They both rolled their eyes at me.
Fair call.
"You understood what I meant," Forrest said, with what sounded like rapidly diminishing patience. "Whoever did that had to be strong enough to stab him in the chest and push him down the stairs."
"Even Woody could do that," I said, stepping away from him before he decided to demonstrate on me.
"Fuck off," Woody told me. "If anyone was here, they're gone now, after hearing you two blabber on.”
"I never blabber," I said. "Chit-chat, yes. Chin-wag, definitely. Blabber, absolutely not."
"You're not giving me a reason why I shouldn't pick you up and hurl you over the railing," Woody said.
"Don't hurl him over the railing," Forrest told him.
"Spoilsport," Woody muttered.
"You wouldn't do that anyway," I said. "You love me too much. Go on, admit it."
Woody gave me the side eye. He didn't admit it, but he didn't deny it either.
Yeah, that was what I thought.
We reached the top of the stairs without seeing anyone or any sign anyone had been here recently. No convenient trail of crumbs, blood or dismembered body parts pointing the way. What? It's a thing, but that's a story for later.
Forrest pushed out the door that led to the roof.
"You might get your chance to throw someone yet," I said, looking around into the shadows. "If someone's up here, you could throw them off."
"Did you hear him volunteer to be thrown off?" Woody asked, directing the question to Forrest.
Forrest responded by giving us both a quick glance, then turned away. "There's no one up here."
"Only one way down too," I said, peering over the side to the street below. "Unless they can fly. Or jump across to the next building."
I looked from the building on one side to the building on the other, but decided both rooftops were too far for anyone to safely make it across. That didn't mean they didn't try, but I couldn't hear any sounds of distress from below. No one suggesting an ambulance be called because somebody fell.
Considering there were a couple of doors between us and the rooftop, if they were there when we arrived, chances were they slipped out one of those. Woody was right, they were long gone by now.
"The police will examine the knife. With any luck they'll find fingerprints," Forrest said, gazing out across the same rooftops, evidently coming to the same conclusions I had.
"Is there any chance this was random?" I asked, the question redundant. Why would anyone try to lure Sable here and kill someone else, if there wasn't meaning behind it?
"My guess is there's zero percent chance it's random," Woody said. "I told you not to get involved with her."
"I believe you said that because you thought she was trying to take our money," I pointed out.
"Doesn't mean I'm not right." He crossed his arms, his chin in a stubborn jut. "The woman is trouble."
"You still think that?" I asked. "You didn't seem convinced of that after she was on her knees for you."
"I told you that was a mistake," he snapped.
He looked like he was going to say something else, but he turned and stalked away towards the door leading back into the building. He wrapped his hand around the knob and tried to wrench it open.
"Fuck." He shook the knob, making the door rattle. "Fucking thing is locked."
I snorted a laugh. "I guess one of us should have held it open."
"Trust you to find this funny," Woody said. He kicked at the door, cursed again and hopped a couple of times. "Fucking fuck!"
"Don't get yourself arrested for destruction of property," Forrest said.
Why was he always so cool and calm? We were locked out of the building. We could be stuck up here for who knows how long.
"What about the destruction of my foot?" Woody growled.
"I don't think it's broken." Forrest pulled out his phone and was about to press on the screen when it started to ring.
"Unknown number," he said, his brow creasing.
I thought everyone knew better than to answer an unknown number, but he pressed on the phone to receive the call and put it to his ear.
"Hello?" he said simply.
"Did you get my message?"
The rooftop was quiet enough for a deep voice to be heard from the phone. Forrest pressed to put it on speakerphone and held it out in front of him.
"What message is that?" he asked.
"The one I sent to your girlfriend. And the one you found in the stairwell."
"Who the fuck is this?" Woody demanded.
"Think of me as a friend," the voice responded.
"Bullshit," Woody muttered, echoing my thoughts exactly. This wasn't the actions of a friend.
I rubbed my forehead with my thumb and fingertips, listening carefully and trying to figure out who it was. If it was an authentic voice at all, that was. Who could be sure these days?
"We got your messages," Forrest said, his tone giving away nothing. His eyes flashed with irritation, but it was brief, quickly shoved away so he was back in control. "What do you want?"
"I want you to pay attention," the man said.
"Pay attention to what?" Woody asked.
"Everything." The call ended.
"Well, that was clear," I said sarcastically. "Friend of yours?"
Forrest frowned at the phone. "No one I recognize."
"I told you this was about Sable," Woody said.
"It's about us too. He called Forrest," I pointed out.
I dropped my head back and looked around. If anyone was watching from a distance, chuckling at us for standing out here looking like fools, I saw no sign. That didn't mean they weren't in a darkened window lurking like a lurker. Spying like a motherfucker.
Forrest shook his head and tapped on his phone screen again. "Sable, we're locked on the roof. Yeah." He chuckled and ended the call before putting his phone away. "She's going to come up and let us out."
"Lucky you and I are here," I said. "I don't think she'd come up and let Woody out."
He flipped me off. "Yes, she would. She's nicer than you are."
I blinked at him a couple of times in mock surprise. "Did you say something nice about her?"
"No," he said quickly. "You didn't hear anything, it's your imagination."
"I heard it too," Forrest pointed out. "It's all right to admit you like her. We all do."
"I don't like her," Woody said. "She's a pain in the ass."
"You're a pain in the ass," I told him.
He flipped me off again.
"It's not too late to push him off the roof," I said to Forrest.
"You're not pushing him off the roof," Forrest said as the door opened and Sable peered out.
"Hey," she said softly.
"Hey." Forrest placed his hand on her cheek, rubbing his thumb up and down her skin.
"Yeah, thanks for rescuing us," I said, inching over toward her and swiping my lips over hers.
Woody grunted something before stepping past all of us and heading down the stairs.
"He has a hard time showing his gratitude.
" I glared at his back. Did he have to be such a prick?
It was no secret he also had feelings for Sable.
At some point would he stop with the whole denial thing?
It was going to get old pretty fast if he didn't. I didn't want to regret not pushing him off the building.
Or leaving him out of group activities altogether.
Sable, Forrest, and I were perfectly capable of killing without his help. Of course, it was easier with his help, but unless he got an attitude adjustment, I was going to stab him myself. If Sable didn't do it first.
"I figured that about him," Sable said, also glaring at Woody's back. She shrugged and made sure we both got through the door before closing it behind us. "I'm guessing you didn't find anything."
"Nothing," Forrest said regretfully.
I gave him a look behind her back, asking if he was going to tell her about the phone call.
He responded with a minute shake of his head.
I didn't want to keep secrets from her, but if he wasn't going to tell her, no doubt there was a reason. It better be a good reason, like he didn't want to worry her. Or because it was almost five o'clock in the morning. If we got into it now, no one would get any sleep.
I stifled a yawn with my fist. I might not get any sleep as it was. I had a couple of meetings in a few hours. I'd try to catch a nap after that. Like I told Sable at our picnic, the beauty of working for myself was deciding when and where I worked, and when I took a nap instead.
Forrest, on the other hand, would have to be at work in a couple of hours.
I hated to be on the receiving end of his tired judgement.
He wouldn't be lenient towards any criminals today.
Not that he ever was anyway. The people that went through his courtroom tended to be the worst of the worst. People who deserved the proverbial book thrown at them.
People like me, if I'm honest. Woody too. Actually, Woody in particular. I took the time to be nice to people once in a while. Besides, I donated a ton of money to the animal shelter. That made up for it, right?
Kill a bad guy, save a puppy. The perfect balance.
We took the elevator back down to Savannah's floor, giving our weary legs a rest for a while.
"I want to check on her before we leave," Sable said. She stopped in front of Savannah's apartment.
"Did you leave the door open?" Forrest asked.
"No," Sable whispered. "Savannah closed it behind me."
You know that feeling when you're sure something bad has happened, or was about to happen? Yeah, that one. I had it right now. Impending 'oh shit.' Maybe future 'fuck this.' Nothing good ever followed.
It might have been the few drops of blood on the floor near the door.
"Savannah!" Sable called out.
She got no answer.
Before we could stop her, Sable trotted into the apartment, looking around frantically. Checking the bathroom. The bedroom. Even under the bed.
She came back out of the bedroom, her face as white as a sheet like you'd get in a hotel before they were covered in cum stains.
"She's not here."