Cause of Death Read online

  All Vi Akiak wanted when she came to Spokane was to earn her medical degree, get a job in the medical examiner’s office, and keep her biggest secret safe. She didn’t plan her attraction to Kate Renard, the beautiful K9 search and rescue handler who lived next door, and she really didn’t plan on chasing a serial killer.

  Kate is delighted when Vi moves in next door. She’s attractive, fascinating, and best of all, she likes dogs. When dead bodies start turning up in forested recreational areas around Spokane, Vi and Kate must work together to find the killer before they end up the next targets. In the race for survival, they discover that love may be the biggest risk of all.

  Praise for Sheri Lewis Wohl

  She Wolf

  “I really enjoyed this book—I couldn’t put it down once I started it. The author’s style of writing was very good and engaging. All characters, including the supporting characters, were multi-layered and interesting.”—Melina Bickard, Librarian, Waterloo Library (UK)

  The Talebearer

  “As a crime story, it is a good read that had me turning pages quickly…The book is well-written and the characters are well-developed.”—Reviews by Amos Lassen

  Twisted Echoes

  “A very unusual blend of lesbian romance and horror…[W]oven throughout this modern romance is a neatly plotted horror story from the past, which bleeds ever increasingly into the present of the two main characters. Lorna and Renee are well matched and face ever-increasing danger from spirits from the past. An unusual story that gets tenser and more interesting as it progresses.”—Pippa Wischer, Manager at Berkelouw Books, Armadale

  Twisted Screams

  “[A] cast of well-developed characters leads you through a maze of complex emotions.”—Lunar Rainbow Reviewz

  Vermilion Justice

  “[T]he characters are so dynamic and well-written that this becomes more than just another vampire story. It’s probably impossible to read this book and not come across a character who reminds you of someone you actually know. Wohl takes something as fictional as vampires and makes them feel real. Highly recommended.”—GLBT Reviews: The ALA’s GLBT Round Table

  Cause of Death

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  Cause of Death

  © 2019 By Sheri Lewis Wohl. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-63555-442-7

  This Electronic Original is published by

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, New York 12185

  First Edition: August 2019

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editor: Shelley Thrasher

  Production Design: Stacia Seaman

  Cover Design by Tammy Seidick

  By the Author

  Crimson Vengeance

  Burgundy Betrayal

  Scarlet Revenge

  Vermilion Justice

  Twisted Echoes

  Twisted Whispers

  Twisted Screams

  Necromantia

  She Wolf

  Walking Through Shadows

  The Talebearer

  Drawing Down the Mist

  Cause of Death

  Acknowledgments

  I can’t say thank you enough to my editor and friend, Shelley Thrasher. A beautiful person, a wonderful writer, and a world-class editor. She makes my life better.

  To Jeni. I still can’t believe you’re gone. I miss your laugh. I miss your magic. I miss you. Rest easy with the angels, my beautiful friend. I will see you on the other side.

  For God shall bring every work into judgment,

  with every secret thing,

  whether it be good,

  or whether it be evil.

  Ecclesiastes 12:14 (King James Version)

  Prologue

  It began and ended with the eyes. His mother had taken her last breath to show him the way, and while he’d understood her message, even as young as he’d been at the time, he’d also known his quest would require much work. When the time was right, he began in earnest. Years of study and experiments had now confirmed for the Seeker one critical thing. He could find what he had dedicated his life’s work to only in the organ of sight. That discovery had been a game changer.

  Part of the journey had taught him to look at everyone in a different way. Like right now. The young man with him was handsome, maybe eighteen or nineteen, with curly blond hair and lashes that women would spend hundreds of dollars to achieve. Regular people would see only a tall, attractive man with model potential. The Seeker couldn’t care less about his glossy hair or chiseled cheekbones. He zeroed in on the man’s incredible blue eyes and the thick lashes he’d apparently been born with. They perfectly framed the ice-blue eyes that stared up at the night sky and the twinkling stars.

  This subject, as well as all the others, confirmed the truth behind the trite saying that the eyes are windows to the soul. Until the one special day with his mother, he’d been unaware. The surprising gift he’d received at his mother’s side had remained the guiding force behind his current spate of trials. He sought knowledge, and with each successive trial, he understood more clearly that the saying that sounded so stupid contained the truth he had long searched for. The joy that success brought was, at first, indescribable. He had expected the feeling to last.

  It hadn’t, which had been brought home only two months earlier. Like the young man with him now, the pretty woman with the chocolate-brown eyes had been special. He’d waited a long time for her, and when he’d completed his work without the expected rush of satisfaction, he’d been crushed. Then as he’d stood next to her and stared at the treasured jar holding her precious gift, a new realization gave birth to a revised and wonderful course. He’d returned home, added the jar to his collection, and started planning for the next phase.

  As it began and the power it brought with it revealed itself, he couldn’t stop. No other way to describe it beyond intoxicating and far better than any ingested, mood-altering substance. Who needed drugs or booze when this existed? One simply had to have skills and a bountiful supply of subjects. One had to be as smart as he just happened to be.

  The Seeker reached for his shiny new scalpel and smiled as he completed tonight’s work, his hand rock steady. Blue was one of his favorite colors, and tonight’s treasure would fit in very nicely with the rest. As he stood and slipped the jar into his pocket, his smile grew, the joy of it flooding him. He walked away with a light step and didn’t look back.

  Chapter One

  Vi gazed down at the newly minted identification card and grinned. Her full name, Bavilla Akiak, was printed right below the picture. Not her best photographic moment, but then again, she’d driven directly to the medical examiner’s office, as instructed by her friend and former boss, Shirley Yarno. Shirley, the chief medical examiner in Anchorage, had been instrumental in securing her a position here in Spokane. Her direction to Vi as she’d left to head south had been crystal clear: go meet the ME before she even thought about going anywhere else. From Alaska through Canada and across Washington State, she’d kept those marching orders in mind. Like always, Dr. Yarno had been right. It took ab
out two seconds for her to grasp that her new direct report, Dana Kelsey, MD, appreciated a prompt appearance at the office. One gold star and she wasn’t even officially on the payroll yet.

  Back out at her car, she stood for a while staring at the driver’s side door. The journey from Anchorage to Spokane had been thousands of miles long, and she felt beyond ready to be out of the car for a good long while. She wouldn’t object to never getting behind the wheel and driving again. Given that she’d rented a little home in a small bedroom community north of the city, where all the houses were situated on acreage and near enough to nature to make her feel somewhat like she was back home, she didn’t have a choice about another stretch of travel. She hoped the compact house turned out to be as good in reality as it had looked in the pictures. Even if it was half as pretty, she’d be happy.

  The adventure of coming here had been, and remained, nerve-wracking. It represented a dream coming true, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t terrified by the prospect of a complete change. To move away from the only home she’d ever known to achieve her goal held a certain amount of thrill. To leave behind her friends, her hometown, and everything she knew—well, that wasn’t quite as thrilling. Her friends were generous with their encouragement and, more than that, with the push she needed to follow through. They understood why she wanted to become a doctor and, more specifically, a forensic pathologist in a medical examiner’s office.

  The figurative road to get here hadn’t been quick or easy. It had taken her far longer than she liked to be accepted into medical school. She’d never given up, even when her application had been rejected not once or twice, but three times. The fourth submission turned out to be the charm, and her exhilaration to be starting school at the Spokane-based Washington State University School of Medicine needed no explanation.

  So here she stood, gratefully employed, a fledgling medical student and a brand-new resident of eastern Washington. Once she’d located the place she’d signed a one-year lease on, sight unseen, she’d be, as her grandmother liked to say, in fat city. That turned out to be easier than she thought. The commute from the medical examiner’s office just north of downtown Spokane to Highway 291 took her out to the area a road sign declared to be Nine Mile Falls. Her navigation app directed her to a lovely home on the Little Spokane River. As she drove down the long driveway, bordered on both sides by well-maintained fences, she saw llamas or alpacas inside the pastures, though she wasn’t quite sure which was which. After her long drive, the beauty of it projected a calming effect that had her relaxing already.

  A nice house sat at the end of the driveway. Not big. Not small either. A one-story painted beige with dark-brown trim and a railed porch that spanned the entire length of the front. Shrubs lined the outside of the porch and provided a pleasant spot of color. Double doors with leaded-glass inserts graced the entrance. She hoped her little rental house would have the same homey vibe as this lovely, welcoming one.

  Vi got out of the car and walked up the few steps to the front doors. She had just reached out to ring the doorbell, when the sound of pounding feet made her turn around. Racing toward her sped a dog, medium-sized, with a mostly blue-gray coat and black hair around its eyes that made it look as though it were wearing a mask. Its deep, dark eyes were intent on her. She backed up, not because dogs scared her, but because by the looks of this one, in about five seconds, she’d be flat on her behind. She braced for impact.

  “Lucy, sit!” A woman’s voice came from somewhere around the corner of the house.

  To Vi’s astonishment, the dog stopped immediately and sat down at the bottom of the steps. Its tail continued to wag, and its whole body wiggled as if unable to contain its excitement. It was cute and impressive. Vi relaxed now that she wasn’t about to be knocked down.

  “I’m so sorry.” A woman rounded the corner and headed up the steps in Vi’s direction. “Lucy gets really excited when anyone shows up. Some kind of guard dog, eh?” She recognized the voice as the same one she’d heard on the phone as she’d arranged for the lease. Kate Renard.

  She was medium height, with long, purposeful strides, but the red hair captured Vi’s interest the most. Short and wild, it made her want to reach out and touch it. She kept her hands to herself, not wanting to make that kind of first impression. When she got close, she could see that her eyes were deep green and, well, gorgeous. She held out her hand. “I’m Vi Akiak.”

  The other woman took her hand, her grip sure and firm. Nice too. “I was pretty sure it was you.” She winked, which made Vi smile. “I’m Kate, but everyone calls me Kat. How was your drive?”

  She’d been right. Kate Renard, her landlord. So far, so good. Things were going well with this move. She’d been impressed with her boss in the ME’s office, and now she had to say, her first impression of her landlord came off positive too. If she hadn’t been exhausted, she’d be anxious to take time to get to know her new home. “Long.”

  Kat laughed. “No shit. I did that drive a million years ago, and you couldn’t pay me enough to do it again. I think my butt still hurts from all those hours in the driver’s seat. These days I’m about alternate and much quicker modes of transportation. Can you say airplane?”

  Amen to that idea and yes, her butt felt fairly numb too. Vi would have loved to fly and bypass all the days on the road. If it had been a simple trip, she would have jumped on a plane in a heartbeat with a suitcase or two. Simple hadn’t been in the cards. To move an entire life in a couple of suitcases would have been impossible. In a single vehicle it hadn’t been much easier. She’d done it, though she never wanted to have to do it again.

  She’d had to make some hard choices about what to keep and what to let go of. Some of her friends had suggested that she move the things she didn’t need in the immediate future into storage and bypass a complete downsizing. Tempting as the idea had been, she’d had to go a different direction. Everything she still owned was in her car because she didn’t know if or when she’d be back in Alaska. It would be years before she became a full-fledged doctor, and even more before she finished her specialty of forensic pathology. She would have to go where life took her from here on out. Planning for this life-altering experience had been stressful while home in Anchorage. Now here with her whole life boxed up in the car, it was even scarier. She was up to it. She hoped.

  “Too much stuff to fly.” She inclined her head toward her car, unsure if it looked like she was relocating or homeless.

  Kat glanced at her vehicle, with the boxes stacked in the back, and nodded. “Gotcha. Come on. I’m sure you’d like to see your new home. I’m confident you’ll find it comfortable here. We sure do.”

  We? Vi glanced toward the house and then back at Kat. None of her business who else lived here. “I’m liking things already.” And she was. It was pretty here and, even better, quiet. Sleep and peacefulness were both treasured in her world and would be even more so once school began.

  Kat smiled as she looked around. “Appreciate the vote of approval. I’ve loved this place since the first day I laid eyes on it.” She returned her gaze to Vi. “I bet you’re tired, so let’s get you settled in. You can put your feet up and enjoy some serious R&R.”

  “That would be nice.” What she didn’t say was that she was less concerned about settling in and more about the bed. She’d like to sleep for about a month, not that rest would be on the agenda in any measurable amount. With her first full day of work scheduled to start at eight tomorrow morning, and school beginning in three weeks, she wouldn’t have much time to relax. The way she figured it, she’d have about enough time to unpack, check in at the school, and get her sea legs at work before the insanity of her new life began in earnest. It was daunting and exciting all at the same time.

  “Come on, I’ll show you su casa.” Kat turned and looked at the still-sitting dog, her tail moving back and forth as if she could barely contain her excitement. “Free dog.”

  Lucy sprang up and ran to Vi. Her tail picked up spee
d. Vi laughed as she reached down and ran a hand over her head. “You’re a pretty girl.”

  Kat laughed too. “Don’t tell her that. Trust me, it’ll go right to her head. She already thinks she’s the best thing since sliced bread. Don’t you, my little girlfriend?” Lucy barked as if agreeing with Kat.

  “She’s awfully pretty.” Vi liked the way the black hair around her eyes gave her character and how infectious energy rolled off her.

  “Pretty talented too. She’s a search dog and certified in multiple disciplines.” The pride in Kat’s voice shone through, and Vi could understand why. She was acquainted with several of the K9 officers back home, and the work they put in was nothing short of insane.

  Vi squatted to be at Lucy’s level and held out her hand. Lucy sniffed and seemed to smile. She ran a hand over her head. “So you’re a working dog.”

  Lucy licked her face as if to say, “Absolutely.”

  “She’s quite the worker,” Kat said. “In more ways than one. She will work to find you if you’re lost or work you until she gets half your hamburger.”

  Still squatting next to Lucy, Vi rubbed her head as she looked up at Kat. “Let me get this straight. You’re a dog handler, but your name is Kat?”

  Her hearty laughter lit up her face in a really nice way. “You hit that oxymoron right square on the head. Blame my brothers. They started calling me Kat when I was a baby, and it stuck. When I turned out to be a dog person, everyone in my family found it hilarious, but by then it was too late to change a thing.”