The First Death

The fire escape ladder screamed as Brooke kicked it loose.

Nora climbed down first because Brooke ordered her to and because Lila was already shaking too hard to move. The alley below was wet from a leaking pipe. Nora landed badly, pain snapping through her ankle, but she stayed upright.

Above her, the apartment door burst open.

A man shouted Lila's name.

Not Nora's. Not Brooke's. Lila's.

That mattered to Brooke even as she pushed Lila through the window. The threat had followed the first widow, not the current one. Nora's claim had not started the danger. It had reactivated it.

They ran two blocks before Lila stopped in a laundromat and vomited into a trash can.

Nora stood guard by the door with a detergent bottle in her hand because it was the only weapon she had. Brooke watched the street and made a call she did not log through Harbor Union.

"Detective Ruiz," Brooke said. "I need an off-record safety check."

Lila wiped her mouth. "Police make paper."

"So do corpses," Brooke said.

Nora looked at Lila. "Tell me about the first death."

"Here?"

"I read about it in my kitchen with my daughter breathing through plastic. So yes, here."

Lila sat on a cracked orange chair.

"Miles found three Kind Harbor patients whose life benefits had been assigned to shell charities before they died. He thought Judith was a donor being used by Evan Rusk. He was wrong. Judith introduced the donors. Evan cleaned the forms. Harbor Union paid because the files looked perfect."

"And you?" Brooke asked.

"I was a nurse. I copied charts. I was going to testify. Then a patient who talked to me died early, and someone put pills in my locker."

Nora's anger shifted. It had been pointed at Miles. Now it had too many targets.

"Miles staged his death to draw a payout," Lila said. "I collected because he needed to see the money move. He promised it would end in two weeks."

"It didn't," Nora said.

Lila shook her head. "Judith found out her son was hunting her."