Frosted Shadow, a Toni Diamond Mystery: Toni Diamond Mysteries by Nancy Warren

weighing organs, the bone saw. He didn’t like the casual way the medical examiners treated dead bodies or the fact that he should have conquered his nausea by now.
    As always, he tried to concentrate on the facts Gil Sefton was throwing at him and Henderson.
    “Death due to pericardial tamponade, secondary to a penetrating knife wound.” He smiled at them. “Single knife wound killed her. Killer struck upward so the blade entered under the left breast and pierced the heart, causing blood to fill the sac around the heart -- the pericardium -- which then compressed the heart. She lost consciousness almost immediately and death occurred within two to five minutes.”
    “Time of death?” Henderson asked.
    “Between 10:30 and midnight.”
    “What can you tell us about the blade?” Luke asked.
    “Six inches long. Straight across the top, comes to a sharp point, and curved on the bottom. Around a half inch, wider where it meets the handle. I’d say you’re looking for something like a fishing knife.” He pointed to a spot on the body. “See this mark here? Made by the hilt.”
    “She was killed in a hotel. Could the blade be some kind of chef’s knife?”
    Gil nodded. “A specialty carving knife of some sort. Sure. I’ll have the full report to you guys tomorrow morning, but those are the highlights.”
    He turned to Henderson and said, “Let’s check out the hotel kitchen, see if any of their knives are missing.”
    Henderson nodded. “And find out if the husband likes to fish.” As they were leaving, Luke turned back. “Had she had sex recently?”
    “Not that day.”
    “Thanks, Gil.”
    As they were heading out, Henderson’s cell rang. He listened, seemed to tense slightly, then said, “Fine. Now is fine.”
    He turned to Luke. “It was the captain. He says the DA’s office wants a quick update on the Neuman case and now would be good.”
    “They don’t need both of us, Frank. You okay to take it? I’ll check the hotel kitchen and then we’ll go interview the husband.”
    Luke appreciated the smell of the hotel’s kitchen a whole lot more than the morgue, but there were odd parallels between the two locations. A lot of stainless steel, tools of a trade he had no clue about, and people who made a career of cutting into dead things.
    Lunch was over and dinner a few hours away but still, the place was hopping. And the first person he bumped into didn’t look like she cooked – not with diamond fingernails and a pale yellow sleeveless dress patterned with flowers.
    “Toni.”
    “Detective, we’ll have to stop meeting like this.” She presented him with her slick, pearly smile, then, when she looked into his face, the smile faded and a tiny frown pulled her brows together. He thought he saw concern in her eyes. “Rough day?”
    He was about to blow her off with some smartass remark, but instead he nodded. “Yeah.”
    To his surprise, she touched his arm lightly. “I’m sorry.”
    “Goes with the job. What are you doing in the kitchen?”
    “Checking on a special surprise dessert. It’s Lady Bianca’s birthday tomorrow. Even though she doesn’t travel to the conference any more, we thought it would be fun to arrange a huge cake for her and all sing; we’ll do a live video feed. Of course, we have to eat cake pretty early in the day so she gets to see it before she goes to bed in England.”
    He knew that Lady Bianca was an American who bought herself a title and a fancy estate in England, but he hadn’t realized she was still alive. “She must be pretty old.”
    She nodded. “Eighty. Which is a lot of candles.” She grinned at him. “Luckily, it’s a very big cake.”
    She opened her arms wide to illustrate and the way her biceps and triceps came to attention, he got the strong impression that Toni Diamond didn’t spend all her time selling cosmetics. Some of it she spent working out.
    “Who’s in charge here?”
    “Chef’s over there. He’s been a darling about the cake.