Until Death by Cynthia Eden Page B

to kill you…you weren’t my plan.” The tip of a knife slid up her chin and began to trail over her lips. “But then you said you saw me last night. I had my mask on, love. You weren’t supposed to remember me.”
    She…she… “Your eyes,” she whispered. “I remembered them.” Because she’d been at the whiskey bar with Hugh and Cameron. Cameron had been talking with that man. He’d looked over at them, and she’d been caught by his eyes. Such bright, blue eyes.
    Unforgettable eyes.
    Eyes that she suddenly wished she’d never seen.
    Shelly wanted to scream, but that blade was right at her lips. She had a horrible flash of him cutting her mouth. Of him using that knife on her…
    She stopped moving.
    “Are you going to be good to me, Shelly?” he asked her.
    She managed a nod.
    “Good. Then don’t make a sound…” He moved the knife away from her lips. Her breath heaved out. Her heartbeat was drumming in her ears. Maybe if she didn’t fight him, he’d just let her go. Maybe…maybe he was just going to scare her.
    “I won’t tell anyone,” Shelly whispered as tears stung her eyes. “I promise.”
    He smiled at her. “I know you won’t.”
    She tried to smile back at him.
    He drove the knife into her chest. “Because the dead can’t talk.”
    She stared up at his mask. Up at his unforgettable eyes. His eyes were the last thing she saw.
    ***
    “This is bullshit!” Hugh snarled. “Get out of my face,
Detective
Morgan!”
    Bennett just leaned closer. “You told me you had this phone with you all night. Then explain to me,” he ordered, “about the phone call that Ivy got less than thirty minutes ago. A call from the killer…from the guy I heard confess to stabbing the councilman.”
    Hugh’s face went slack with shock. “Wait…
what?”
    “If you had the phone, then
you
made the call.”
    “No, I didn’t!” Hugh denied. His gaze swung to Ivy. “Hell, I swear it! You know I’d never do anything to hurt you!”
    No, just the rest of the world.
    “It wasn’t Hugh.” And Ivy shoved around them both as she hurried up the stairs. “And you two are wasting time. He’s up there!”
    Bennett glared at Hugh even as he carefully put that phone in his coat pocket. He’d run the phone for prints and see what they turned up, and in the meantime, he’d keep Hugh in sight.
    Hugh tried to push past him, hurrying after Ivy.
    Bennett grabbed him and barked, “You do anything to hurt Ivy, and you are a dead man.” Ivy might trust her brother, but Bennett recognized the guy for exactly what he was.
    Trouble.
    He locked his hand in Hugh’s collar and pushed the guy up ahead of him. Ivy was at the top of the stairs now, and she glanced back, glaring at them both.
    She didn’t see her brother for what he was—she had her blinders on with him. Always had. But Bennett wasn’t blind.
    “I-I need to find Shelly,” Hugh mumbled. “I was going upstairs to get some air when I saw you come in.”
    Bennett’s eyes narrowed at those words. So Hugh wanted him to believe that he hadn’t been on the balcony.
    “Shelly was upstairs when I saw her last,” Hugh said, hurrying his steps as they neared the landing. “When we find her, she can clear everything up for me.”
    Bennett wasn’t seeing Shelly, though. He also wasn’t seeing anyone else that could have been the killer.
Just Hugh.
The other men they passed didn’t match the guy’s description. A few moments later, Bennett followed Ivy out onto the balcony. There were only couples out there. One man with red hair was embracing a blonde. A balding guy was slow dancing with his partner. A fellow in Navy dress blues held hands with his date.
    Where is the bastard in the mask?
    “He’s not here,” Ivy said. She hurried past him and ran back into the hallway. “We should look—”
    Hugh reached out and grabbed her arm. “If the killer is here, then I want to find Shelly, now.” A new urgency had entered his tone.
    Ivy searched his gaze,