Love you to Death by Shannon K. Butcher Page A

but her stomach was distended, stretching her skin. Her legs were long. Her pubic hair was dark blond, trimmed into an unnaturally small patch.
    Did Ashley do that? Elise had no idea. It wasn’t something they’d ever discussed.
    What else hadn’t they discussed? Elise thought her sister told her everything. Apparently, she’d been wrong.
    “I can’t tell,” said Elise.
    Trent pulled the photo away and tucked it back into the file. “That’s okay. It’s hard to tell from a photo. I’ll check to see if we can get a DNA test done.”
    “Won’t that take awhile?”
    “Weeks, likely. You might be able to expedite it if you pay a private lab to do the work yourself. We’d still have to get the okay to take a sample from the body.”
    Elise couldn’t wait that long. She couldn’t stand not knowing. “I want to go see her.”
    “What?”
    “I want to go see the body in person. Maybe I could tell better if I was there.” Standing close enough to touch her, close enough to feel the chill of her dead body.
    “We can do that if that’s what you really want, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”
    “Why not?”
    “I won’t be able to hold my fingers over the body. You’ll see everything. Do you really want that image in your head?”
    “No, but I have to know.”
    Trent’s jaw tightened, making him look harder. “You didn’t notice, did you?”
    “Notice what?”
    “The fact that I was covering up her hands, too?”
    Elise had been so consumed with not looking where his fingers covered the picture that she hadn’t consciously taken note. “No,” she whispered.
    “Yeah. Her hands were missing, too. If it is Ashley, I don’t want you to see her like that. Do the DNA test. Wait for the results.”
    “I can’t. I have to do this. Now. Tonight.”
    “Damn it, Elise. You’re going to regret this.”
    “I can’t regret anything more than I already do. I should have been living with her, taking care of her. If suffering through some personal trauma is my punishment, then that’s what I’ll do.”
    Elise stood, waited for the wave of dizziness to pass, and picked up her purse.
    “I’m not letting you go alone.”
    “It’s better that way.” Better that he didn’t see her break down again. She knew she would. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be unbroken again.
    “Like hell. You’re in no shape to drive across town, much less up to Chicago. You don’t know where you’re going. You don’t even know who to talk to.”
    He was right. She’d been ready to jump in her car and drive. She probably wouldn’t have even realized she didn’t know where she was going until she was miles away.
    “Do
you
know?”
    “Yes. I used to work for Chicago PD.”
    “Can you give me directions?”
    “No, but I’ll drive you.”
    “I’d rather go alone.”
    He crossed his arms over his chest and the wet patches her tears had left behind. “Then you can wait until tomorrow, after you’ve had some sleep.”
    Sleep? Was he serious? Elise felt like she was never going to sleep again. She couldn’t even fathom lying down and closing her eyes. She knew exactly what she’d see.
    Headless. Handless.
    Ashley.
    Trent grabbed her arm, and until then, she hadn’t even realized how unsteady she was.
    “Go change. I’m going to call my brother and tell him I might not make it in to work tomorrow.” And just to make sure she didn’t leave without him, he snatched her keys and shoved them deep into his pocket. “We’ll leave in five minutes.”
    Elise was ready and waiting on him in three.
    Gary stored the dead woman’s lower leg in his refrigerator. He wouldn’t need the whole thing, but there wasn’t time to finish the job now. He needed the cover of dark to get rid of the body.
    He laid what was left of the woman inside the body bag and zipped it closed. Her head and hands were already in separate bags and stowed in the trunk of his car. As pretty as they were, he no longer had a use for them, and he