Velvet Haven

of a drug cabinet and a set of keys are long gone. The dispensing is all computerized. No chance I’m signing out two Percocets and taking a handful, if you know what I mean.”
    He nodded, and Mairi knew he was just fishing, trying to bait her. Jackass. “So you go to Our Lady once a week. Why there? Why not some other place, in a better part of town?”
    She shrugged. “The sisters were good to me and my mother. So I return the favor.”
    His shrewd gaze landed on her left arm, where her fingers still clutched the cuff of the lab coat. He’d seen them—the scars .
    “Were you one of those troubled girls, Miss MacAuley?”
    Damn it. She didn’t want to go into this.
    “I don’t see how that’s pertinent.”
    His gaze shifted to the gurney. “Maybe she’d think it important.”
    Mairi tried desperately to look anywhere but at the mottling body beside her, but it was like trying to look away from a train wreck. God, why would someone do something so sick?
    “Miss MacAuley?”
    Mairi shook herself, trying to focus on Detective Morris and not the satanic symbols that had been drawn on Lauren’s body, or the scars that marred her own wrist. “My mother was a cook there, and when my father took it into his head to beat the crap out of her, the nuns let us stay with them till he came around, begging for forgiveness.”
    The detective stared at her with knowing eyes. “Did he do that a lot?”
    “Sometimes. Sometimes it’d be months and we’d be thinking he’d reformed. Then the hammer would drop.”
    His gaze once more dropped to her left hand. “And your world would collapse?”
    She really hated cops. Detectives most of all. Far too perceptive. “Look, the nuns fed us, clothed us, and they helped pay for my education. I think I can give them back a day a week, Detective.”
    He nodded and dropped his notebook onto the bedside table. “Did you examine her last week?”
    “Yes. And she didn’t have the artwork. I would definitely have remembered that.” Her gaze traveled over the pale skin that was marked so cruelly. “Who the hell would do something like this?” She’d seen a lot of shit in her career as an ER nurse, but this topped the list.
    “Someone with a lot of time, and a place where he knew he wouldn’t get caught.”
    “Where’d you find her?”
    “On Sanctuary, in the middle of the road. The guy who nearly drove over her with his minivan stopped and called 911.”
    “Was she dressed?”
    “Nope. She was lying on the ground, spread-eagle on an inverted pentagram that had been drawn on the road in chalk. Her belongings were dumped on the sidewalk.”
    Mairi pressed her eyes shut. “And she was still alive.”
    “Barely.”
    Exhaling, she looked at the young girl’s body. “I write a report and file it every time I counsel the girls. You’ll find my report at Our Lady.”
    He nodded, reached in his pocket, and unwrapped a piece of gum. “Do you remember offhand what you talked about?”
    A shiver caught her unaware and she couldn’t hide it before the detective saw. He was studying her as he popped the gum in his mouth.
    “We talked about a man she had met,” Mairi said. “She said his name was Aaron. She seemed . . . happy. She said he was nice. Treated her right. Took her out to dinner and bought her stuff.”
    “He was older?”
    “Yeah. But it’s common for these girls to look for older men. They want security. To know they can be taken care of.”
    He’s so hot. He’s a total gentleman, and, wow, is he good in bed. Way better than any guys my age are. He knows how to make me feel good, you know? His name’s Aaron . . .
    Mairi shivered again. The similarities were there: the same name, the same age. But Mairi had nothing more to go on, no proof that Lauren’s Aaron had been the same Aaron who had stalked and terrified the hell out of her friend Rowan two months ago. It could be coincidence that both Rowan and Lauren had met a man named Aaron. Still, Mairi found herself wondering if Lauren had met her Aaron while he was visiting his niece at Our Lady, just like Rowan had.
    The detective coughed, catching her attention. “Ah, she didn’t happen to mention anything about being into the kinky stuff, did she?”
    Mairi shook her head. “But I know she was into the rave scene. She and another friend used to sneak out of the house and down to the dockyards to the warehouse district. It’s only a block away from the home. I’m sure that’s where she met up with