Karin Schaeffer Story 01 - The Domino Killer

ago,” I said.
    He nodded, understanding me. “A lifetime.”
    “Thank you, detective. I have your number.”
    He drove away and I went through the locked iron gate most brownstones had at the ground floor entry, separating a small space from an inner door. Between the two doors there was a cupboard beneath the front stoop that served as a catch-all for stuff I didn’t want to bring into the house, like the bag of rock salt I’d bought to melt ice from my entryway in the winter when I’d first moved in, and the dirty gardening accessories I stashed there now. The inner door itself had a glass-paneled upper half and a flimsy lock I rarely bothered turning. I turned it now and stood in my front hall, knowing that even the best of locks couldn’t keep JPP out if he wanted to get in.
    I had tried to make my new home as comfortable as possible, more like the apartment I’d lived in before Jackson and I bought a house together and tossed our eclectic stuff away in favor of the more mature and dignified stuff of coupledom. I’d sold all our real furniture with the house and started fresh when I came here, collecting cast-offs from the sidewalk and buying cheap furniture off Craigslist. I bought what I liked and what I wanted . It had been one of Joyce’s dictates. No shoulds . Except for one thing: she specifically asked me to put a mirror near the front door so I could check myself coming in and going out. She wanted me to catch myself if I “zombied-out” again. I’d hung an enormous mirror with an ornate faux-gilt frame on the wall above a shoe caddy. There were four pudgy angels, one at each corner, each aiming an arrow at the image in the mirror, the idea being to make you feel beautiful, chosen by love, when you looked at yourself.
    But I didn’t feel anything when I looked at myself today. What I experienced was a kind of muted unfeeling I’d gotten used to since after my suicide attempt. It was the best I could do and it was better than despair. I looked at myself, at the long hair I’d colored blond at Joyce’s insistence; in the weeks after my family’s murder my hair had turned prematurely gray and Joyce said that, when she met me months later, my faded appearance had shocked her. She said it wasn’t good for me to “go around looking like a ghost.” Now that I’d dyed my hair, its lack of natural color made me feel like a blank canvas, as if I could be anyone, and in a way I liked that. I wanted nothing more than to be someone else, someplace else, without any of my own memories. I looked at myself. Tall. Thin. Flat. Sinewy limbs like a boy’s. Expression a blank wall between memory and feeling. I felt no fear, and I had nothing left to lose.
    I knew what I wanted: I wanted him to find me.
    Then this could be over, once and for all.

Learn more about the Karin Schaeffer series, watch the trailers , and order your copy of the novels:
    You Are Next
    Next Time You See Me
    Vanishing Girls
    The Money Kill
    In the UK, please visit www.katialief.com/uk.php
    “Katia Lief skillfully weaves a complex tale of an emotionally scarred central character, nail-biting suspense, and a diabolical killer that will grip you until the very last page. I can’t wait for the next Detective Karin Schaeffer thriller.”
—Richard Montanari
    “Lief pens a diabolically brilliant story and takes us on an amazing, wild ride... Karin will not rest until she finds Suzanna and untangles the web of lies and murder to find out what’s really going on with all the players in this fantastic mystery.”
—Terri Ann Armstrong, Suspense Magazine
    “If you love suspense and excitement (and your heart can take it!), then this is the chilling thriller you have been waiting for. The tension and heartache Karin suffers brings tears to your eyes as the terror ripples through your body. This book is too exciting and thrilling to put down until the last page is read. I definitely look forward to Katia Lief’s next story in this series. What a sensationally gifted writer!"
—Kay Quintin, Fresh Fiction
    “The eyes of a former cop are the windows into a darkly disturbing tale of murder and madness. The semi-suicidal heroine has been nearly destroyed by death and horror, but her journey is just beginning. Lief is a bold new voice in the suspense genre who demonstrates a talent for intricate plotting and ominous atmosphere. Someone to watch!"
— Romantic Times Book Reviews
    “An exhilarating thriller”
—Harriet Klausner, The