by Kay Bigelow
Summary
In this sequel to Killer Winter, Leah Samuels has moved to the planet Xing to get away from the killer winters on her home world. Her investigative firm is hired to find the killer of the daughter of one of the richest families on the planet when the police are unable to find the murderer. With meticulous attention to detail, Leah and her team delve into the crime, pursuing leads that weren’t even on the radar of the police. They encounter intrigue, danger, and deception while trying to unravel the mystery, all afforded them by a corrupt system and a powerful underworld.
When she meets the sister of the murdered woman, Jardain Bensington, Leah falls into lust, something she didn’t think was possible until it happens to her. Her mind tells her to walk away, but the rest of her body, including her heart, tells her to take a chance on Jardain. But Jardain’s playgirl reputation and her possible involvement in her sister’s murder threaten to keep them apart, despite the mutual attraction.
Join the Black Orchid Investigations team in this second in a four-book series featuring Leah Samuels.
killer Spring
killer spring
Kay Bigelow
Sapphire Books
Salinas, california
Killer Spring
Copyright © 2018 by Kay Bigelow. All rights reserved.
ISBN EPUB - 978-1-948232-40-1
This is a work of fiction - names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without written permission of the publisher.
Editor - Heather Flournoy
Book Design - LJ Reynolds
Cover Design - Treehouse Studio
Sapphire Books Publishing, LLC
P.O. Box 8142
Salinas, CA 93912
www.sapphirebooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition – October 2018
This and other Sapphire Books titles can be found at
www.sapphirebooks.com
Dedication
As always, to RedDeer for listening to me go on and on about the exploits of Leah, Cots, and Peony, and for not complaining when I carried around my copy of Howdunit Forensics and doled out tidbits about dead bodies.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Christine Svendsen and the team at Sapphire Books for creating a supportive environment in which authors can nurse their books from concept to publication. I’d especially like to thank Heather Flournoy, my editor, for her ability to be sensitive to the characters who have lived in my head for three years and whom she has just met. Her suggestions were spot-on and she never once became tyrannical.
Chapter One
Leah Samuels was sitting with her back to her desk staring at the lake behind her office building. The trees in the copse beyond the lake were just beginning to sprout new leaves the color of a fine green mist. She never tired of looking at the view in all its many and varied transformations. Her former world had been white at best, dirty gray on bad days, and downright depressing on the in-between days, the result of perpetual winter. Flowers, trees, and grass had ceased to exist on New America, but flourished here. Not for the first time, she wondered if she would flourish here, too. When she’d moved here, she firmly believed the flowers, trees, and colors of Xing could and would heal her psyche and save her life. And she’d been right.
When the door to her office slammed open behind her, she was out of her chair and reaching for her weapon as she turned toward the intruder before she remembered she no longer wore the leather holster holding her police-issued weapon and she was no longer a police officer. Now, she was the fifty-two percent owner of Black Orchid Investigations. It was just as well she had no weapon, otherwise she would have shot one of the richest men on Xing. She was sure the fallout from that would mean the end of her not-yet-a-year-old business.
“I’m sorry, Leah, he just barged through the office,” Stacy, her assistant, said.
“That’s okay, Stacy. I’m sure Mr. Bensington didn’t mean to scare you and the others. Please send Cots in.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Mr. Bensington, welcome to Black Orchid Investigations. How can I help you?” Leah asked the man whose face she recognized from the daily vidnews programs.
Cots entered the office and stood with his arms folded across his chest near the door. He was an imposing figure and seemed to take up much of the space in any room he entered. He stood six feet seven inches tall, without an ounce of fat on his lean frame. He was the firm’s techno guru, knew about 97,000 ways to kill someone, and owned twenty-four percent of Black Orchid Investigations.
“I don’t want to waste time on pleasantries. I want to hire you.”
“Why don’t you sit down, then, and tell me how we can help you,” Leah said, choosing to ignore the man’s rudeness—for now.
Bensington sat heavily on a chair as if he were carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was disheveled, his white shirt looked like he’d slept in it for a week, his blue tie was askew and had a grease stain on it, and his hair looked like he’d hadn’t washed it in many days. Leah knew from the vidnews his daughter had been killed a few weeks earlier, and the local cops were having a hard time finding the killer or killers, according to the media.
“I want you to investigate the murder of my youngest daughter, Sarah.”
“I thought the police were handling the investigation. Have they closed the case?”
“All but. The detective in charge of the investigation has been handling other cases over the last week or so.”
“Most detectives generally handle more than one case at a time.”
“I told the Chief I wanted this specific detective to handle my daughter’s case and I didn’t want him handling anything but my daughter’s murder. Now I find out he’s been assigned at least three additional cases.”
“Mr. Bensington, what exactly do you expect me to do for you?”
“I expect you to find my daughter’s killers. Sooner rather than later.”
“The person most likely to do that for you is the detective in charge of the case.”
“If that’s true, then why hasn’t he done it?”
“The possibilities of why he’s not closed the case yet are legion,” Leah said.
“I don’t care what his excuses are, I want him to find the damned killers.”
“You asked for him to be assigned to the case for a reason…what was that reason?”
“I’d been told he’s the best detective on the force. Now I find out he’s an idiot.”
“What’s his name?”
“What does that matter?”
Leah wasn’t about to explain why she wanted to know the detective’s name, so she sat waiting for Bensington to answer her question.
Bensington clearly wasn’t used to others questioning his authority, so it seemed he wasn’t about to answer Leah’s question. Leah waited patiently. She briefly glanced at Cots standing at the door behind Bensington, who grinned at her. Obviously, Cots’s money was on Leah winning the contest.
“His name is Andrew Becker,” Bensington finally said, ending the stalemate.
Leah was familiar with the name, but hadn’t yet met the man. She, too, had been told he was the best the Victoria Police Department had.
“Thank you. So you have the best detective assigned to your daughter’s case and yet here you sit in my office.”
“I told you. Becker’s an i
diot. He’s no closer to solving the case than when he was handed it weeks ago. Everyone knows these kinds of cases go cold fast. I don’t want that happening to my daughter’s case.”
What Bensington said was true, unfortunately. However, Leah wasn’t sure she wanted to take on a case still being investigated by the police department’s top detective.
Bensington saw her hesitation. “Look,” he said. “I’ll pay you whatever you want.”
“It’s not a matter of money, Mr. Bensington,” Leah said.
The man sitting across the desk from her could make or break Black Orchid Investigations. If they were unable to solve his daughter’s murder, Leah was sure he’d guarantee they’d never get away from surveilling wayward husbands and wives. Without having the details of the murder scene, possible witnesses, and suspects, they’d be trying to solve a murder with one hand tied behind their backs. However, she was intrigued by the case and had been following the media’s reporting on it.
“Listen, I’ve done my research and I know you moved here two years ago from New America where you were the most decorated detective on the police force there. You had a very successful career with the police department. And you almost single-handedly cleaned up the most corrupt police department in the galaxy. If you could do that, I’m confident you can find my daughter’s killers.”
Leah glanced at Cots. He raised an eyebrow and smiled at her. They both knew Leah had been in the midst of solving a case involving a mass murderer, and incidental to that was a serial bomber, a mobster, and some seemingly corrupt police officials and officers.
“I’m prepared to transfer 750,000 Xing credits into your business account today if you’ll take this on for me. I’ll transfer another two million credits when you find the killers.”
Again, Leah looked at Cots. This time both his eyebrows were nearly touching his hairline. He gave her a nod she took to mean he thought they should take the case.
“How old was your daughter, Mr. Bensington?”
“She was only twenty. She was beautiful and brilliant. She was going to be an astrophysicist,” Bensington said, tears obscuring his voice, making him difficult to hear. “Please find the monsters who killed my little girl.”
“Mr. Bensington, I will take your case, but with conditions.”
“What are they?”
“The first is that you stop trying to solve the case yourself. You could compromise our ability to find the killers by meddling. I want you, and your people, to back away as of now.”
“But I could be helpful. I need to be involved.”
Leah didn’t say anything. She sat and watched Bensington, suspecting he was arguing with himself about his need to be involved and thus in control, and his desire to have the case solved. She sensed those two things were at war with one another.
“Okay,” he said with a sigh. “What else?”
“I want you to send me all the information you have on the case, including police reports, photographs, and autopsy reports. Everything. And I want it by the end of today.”
“Okay.”
“Cots will give you our standard contract to sign, and the pertinent information for transferring the money into our account.”
“Very well,” Bensington said as he stood up.
Cots crossed the office to offer his hand to Bensington, who took one look at him and turned to Leah. “But he’s—”
“My business partner.” Leah interrupted him before he could point out the obvious—Cots was an alien. “If we solve this case, he will have been instrumental in our having done so. If you have a problem with him, I suggest you find someone else to hire.”
“There’s no one else I can turn to.”
“Then I suggest you go with Cots, sign the contract, and get the funds transferred.”
Leah stood up and held out her hand to Bensington. He took it, and said, “Thank you.”
Leah had mixed emotions about what she’d just agreed to do. She took a deep breath and left her office to get a cup of tea from their break room. She stopped at Stacy’s desk. “Tell Cots and Peony I want to see them as soon as they’re available. Also tell the staff to join us in the conference room in an hour.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
As she continued down the hallway to the tea kettle, she had a familiar feeling in her gut. They’d caught what was sure to be an all-consuming investigation until they found the killers of Sarah Bensington. And it excited the hell out of her to be on a serious case once again.
Chapter Two
Leah returned to her office with a mug of tea. She sat at her desk thinking about how to proceed. As the ideas began fermenting in her head, there was a knock on her open door.
“Boss, what’s up? Stacy said you needed to see me,” Peony asked as she entered Leah’s office.
Peony Fong was the third and youngest partner in Black Orchid Investigations. She had the striking looks of a Xing native: thick, deep, rich hair the color of a Sirulian panther stylishly cut short, skin the warm brown of hot chocolate, and almond-shaped eyes so dark her pupils couldn’t be seen. She’d been a rookie detective on the mass murder case on New America. She’d had the makings of a first-class detective when she’d first joined Leah’s squad. She’d earned her chops on that case by being the only one of them capable of thinking outside the box. When they’d become frustrated by the lack of progress, she’d made a suggestion about who the victims might be that was spot-on. When the case was over and they’d all been wrung dry, emotionally and physically, she’d been the one to suggest they relocate to her home world of Xing. When Leah decided to open a private investigations firm, Peony was happy to throw her lot in with Leah and Cots.
Following Peony into Leah’s office, Cots came in bearing fresh pastries from the bakery down the street. In addition to his height, he was strikingly handsome with the pale reptilian-blue eyes of a ruling-class Devarian, and often passed for a native human with ease, at least on New America where blue eyes of any shade had not been unusual. Here, on Xing, he had trouble passing as a native because ninety percent of the humans had brown eyes, so any blue-eyed person stood out like a sore thumb. He had been a soldier in an elite division of the Devarian military before emigrating to the Americas. Like many Devarians after the war between them and the New Americans had ended, he assumed a human name in a gesture of good will. Cots had made up the name Cotsworthy, which he thought sounded British and therefore aristocratic. He was also the brother of Leah’s dead wife.
“We’ve caught a case that will either make Black Orchid Investigations, or we’ll end up doing stakeouts for the rest of our lives. Have you brought Peony up to speed, Cots?”
“I have.”
“Boss, how are we supposed to solve this case when the lead detective hasn’t been able to?” Peony asked as she reached for one of the pastries Cots had put on the small conference table.
“One of the bad things about working with the best of the best, Peony, is that you grew up as a detective thinking it was easy,” Cots told her with a smile.
“Plus our electronics are better than ninety-nine percent of the police departments in the galaxy,” Leah said. “And we’re undoubtedly more motivated to solve the case than the detective in charge of it.”
“Why is that?” Peony asked.
“I, for one, like my job and would like to keep it.”
“Oh. That.”
“Let’s get to it. I’ve got a list of things I think need to be done first.”
“Like what?” Cots asked.
“Like setting up our murder board.”
“I’ll take care of that. I’m going to assume we want this board to be separate from the firm’s boards and accessible only by the three of us?”
“Definitely. Our client is sending over everything he has on the case. He’s been very hands-on so he’ll have more than what we’d get from official sources. We’ll need to go through his files carefully. Next, we’ll need to know what we don’t know.”
Leah continued listing items they needed to do or know to get the case off the ground. Cots and Peony added their ideas to what turned out to be a rather long list.
There was a knock on the door.
“Enter,” Cots said.
“The staff is gathered in the conference room.”
“Thank you, Stacy.”
When the door closed behind Stacy, Leah said, “Pass off your caseload to a staff member. You’ll still be supervising the cases, but I want the majority of your attention on the Bensington case.”
“Most of the staff doesn’t have hands-on experience,” Peony reminded them.
“Then we’ll give them some. They didn’t hire on with us because they wanted to sit behind a desk doing grunt work. Give them something to sink their teeth into. Make sure they know you’ll be closely supervising them and they should come to you if they have questions or just need you to hear a crazy idea they have.
“Cots, I want you and Peony to do the electronics-related investigating yourself. The youngest daughter of the planet’s richest man does not get killed for no reason. I’ve got a feeling we’ll be hip-deep in some ugly stuff very quickly. Cots, use the young woman you’re training, but sparingly. And not in the quasi-illegal hacking you’ll undoubtedly do. Keep her clean, Cots.”
“Her name is Alex, and she can probably teach me a thing or two about hacking.”
Leah didn’t believe that for a moment. Cots made sure his was the best electronic gear in the galaxy and that his cyber skills matched his equipment. Leah had firsthand knowledge of his hacking capabilities with that equipment. In the event he did get caught, she didn’t want any of their employees implicated. She knew from past experience a case could become very dangerous once they started getting close to the truth.
“All right, let’s go tell the staff they’re about to become real private investigators,” Leah said as she stood.
