Page 147 of Fire and Bones

No way, Brennan. You’re overreaching because you don’t like the guy.

Then why the red flags from my id?

I booted my laptop and opened a series of case files. Logging over to Zillow.com, I entered an address. Then another. And another.

Lightbulb moment.

Bloody hell!

Body details. Kitty litter. A man at a Petco. A real-estate listing.

I sat back, heart pumping fast and hard.

To calm myself, I drank more tea, now meltwater cold.

Still, I was thirsty. Desperately thirsty.

What’s going on? I don’t feel right.

Craving something cold and fizzy, I took the mug and descended to the kitchen. Was at the fridge when a noise at my back startled me.

I whipped around.

Something deep in my brain gave a sideways lurch.

CHAPTER 33

My skin felt strange. As if moths, maybe spiders were crawling over my body.

My thoughts were beginning to coalesce like sludge in a pond.

Zanetti said nothing. But I’m also good at that game. I said nothing.

Silence filled the space between us.

Zanetti stood motionless, one hand on the door frame, the other behind him and out of sight.

The air crackled with tension. Or was I imagining hostility that didn’t exist?

“Forget something?” I asked.

No response.

The mug slipped from my grasp and hit the tile with a sharp crack.

Disjointed memories flashed in my brain, slides in some cerebral power point delirium.

A chinchilla.

A face obscured by a Wizards cap.

Tattooed arms.

A Victorian building in sooty ruin.

Charred corpses.

Body bags rolling on gurneys.