In Death 17 - Imitation in Death

then."
     
     
"I guess I reneged on the out-of-town nookie. "I'll put it on your account."
     
     
She dozed in the shuttle as it flew over the country, and dreamed of rats who become men dressed in white. Of a man without a face who strangled her with a long white scarf, and tied it with a pretty bow under her chin.
     
     
Chapter 17
     
     
Marlene Cox worked the ten to two shift, three nights a week at Riley's Irish Pub. It was her uncle's place, and his name was actually Waterman, but his mother had been born a Riley, and Uncle Pete figured that was close enough.
     
     
It was a good way to help finance her post-grad work at Columbia. She was studying horticulture, though her plans for what she wanted to do with the degree once she'd earned it were vague. Mostly she simply liked college, so she remained a student at twenty-three.
     
     
She was a slight and pretty brunette with long, straight hair and a pair of guileless brown eyes. Earlier in the summer her family had worried so much about her-several college - students in New York had been murdered-that she'd canceled her summer classes.
     
     
She had to admit she'd been a little scared herself. She'd known the first girl who'd been killed. Only slightly, but still, it had been a shock to have recognized the face of a fellow student in the media reports.
     
     
She'd never known anyone who'd died before, much less known anyone who'd died violently. It hadn't taken much persuasion to convince her to stick closer to home, to take extra precautions.
     
     
But the police had caught the killer. She'd actually known him a little, too. That had been not only a shock but also a little exciting in a weird way.
     
     
Now that things had quieted down again, Marlene didn't give much thought to the girl she'd known slightly, or the killer she'd chatted with briefly at a cyber-club. Between her family, the part-time job, and her studies, her life was as normal as normal got.
     
     
In fact, it was just a little too normal at the moment. She couldn't wait for classes to get into a serious rhythm again. She wanted to get back in full swing, spending more time with friends. And she was toying with getting a bit more serious with a guy she'd started flirting with during her aborted summer session.
     
     
She got off the subway two blocks from the apartment she shared with two of her cousins. It was a good location family approved-with quiet streets and a neighborhood feel. The short walk didn't worry her. She'd been taking the same route for over two years, and no one had ever bothered her.
     
     
Sometimes she almost wished someone would, just so she could prove to her doting family she could handle herself.
     
     
She turned the corner and saw a mini moving van, one of the rentals from the same company she'd used when she'd moved 'from her parents' place to the one she shared with her cousins. -
     
     
It was a weird time for somebody to be moving in or out,' she thought, but she heard thumps, and a couple of breathless male curses as she came up alongside of It.
     
     
She saw the man struggling to get a small sofa into the back. He was well-built, and though his back was to her, she took him to be young enough to manage it. Then she saw the thick white cast on his right arm.
     
     
He tried to muscle it up left-handed, using his shoulder, but the weight and angle fought against him, causing the end of the sofa to thump onto the street again.
     
     
"Damn it, damn it, damn it." He took out a white handkerchief, mopped -at his face.
     
     
She got a look, at him now, and thought he was cute. Under his ball cap, curly dark hair-her favorite on a man- spilled out over the collar of his shirt.
     
     
She started to walk by. Cute or not, it wasn't smart to talk to strange men on the street in the middle of the night. But he looked so pitiful-hot, frustrated, and just a little helpless.
     
     
Her good nature had her pausing; her New York caution had her keeping her distance. "Moving in or out?" she asked.
     
     
He jolted, making her bite back a laugh. And when he turned and saw her, his already flushed face went pinker. "Ah, looks like neither. I guess I could just leave the stupid thing like this and live in the truck."
     
     
"Did a number on your arm, huh?" Curiosity had her edging a little closer. "I've never seen a cast like that."
     
     
"Yeah." He ran his hand over it. "Two more weeks. Broke it in three places rock climbing in Tennessee.