The St. Bridget High “Missing Corpse” Bloodfall

Chapter 1

Officer Maya Lockhart and Dr. Adrian Cole got into it again at the crime scene.

They did it right in front of the forensics techs and the logistics crew, a dozen pairs of eyes watching like it was free entertainment.

"This is obviously a homicide," Cole said, still in his white coat, standing there looking like he belonged on a magazine cover. A couple of students walking by kept glancing back at him.

Lockhart sat on a roadside bench with one leg crossed over the other, a blade of grass tucked between her lips.

"Sure," she said, easy as anything. "Find me the body. You find the body, I’ll open the case."

"If you don’t open a case, how am I supposed to investigate and find the body?" Cole said.

Lockhart shrugged. "That’s your problem. No body, no case."

Cole tried to keep his tone level. "Think about it. Someone falls from that height and all we get is a puddle of blood? What, they just melted like a snowman?"

Lockhart brushed at the dust on her clothes like she couldn’t be bothered. "Who knows. Maybe a stray dog dragged it off."

Cole stared at her like she’d grown a second head. "A stray dog, on a school campus?"

Lockhart didn’t bite. "No body, no case."

They went in circles and somehow ended up right back where they started. Cole looked ready to blow.

"Lockhart, you’re being impossible. You’re doing this on purpose."

Lockhart spat out the grass and tilted her head at him. "Yeah, I’m being impossible. I’m doing it on purpose. If you’ve got a problem with it, bring me the body."

Cole ground his teeth, then nodded once. "Fine. I’ll find it. Just give me two officers and I—"

"Can’t," Lockhart cut in with a bright, almost sweet smile. "No case number, no manpower."

Cole muttered, "How have I not strangled you yet?"

Lockhart kept smiling. "Murder’s still illegal." Then she put on an innocent look. "Also, if there’s no body, why do we need a medical examiner here? Jay, clear any nonessential personnel off the scene."

Two junior officers politely but firmly escorted Cole away.

As he left, Cole tossed one last line over his shoulder. "Lockhart, you’re unbelievable. I’ll see you at the precinct."

"Anytime," Lockhart said, still smiling.

The second Cole drove off, Lockhart’s expression snapped cold.

She swept her gaze over the officers lingering to watch. "What are you all standing around for? Is this a show? Move. Go do your jobs."

One of them spoke up quietly. "Boss, what are we even checking? Didn’t you say we weren’t opening a case?"

Lockhart tapped him on the head with her notebook, hard. "Are you seriously that slow? A whole body doesn’t just vanish. You think that’s not suspicious?"

The officer rubbed his scalp. "Then, Boss, back there you…"

"That was me getting under his skin," she said. "On purpose."

"Oh," he said, looking like he kind of got it and kind of didn’t.

Lockhart had barely made it back to the precinct before the Chief called her in.

"I heard from Ari you refused to open the case on that campus fall today," the Chief said.

Inside, Lockhart cursed Cole for running his mouth. Out loud, she smiled. "Refused? No, sir. I agreed. Completely. Chief, I already filled out the paperwork."

The Chief nodded, smiling like he was enjoying this. "Captain Lockhart, you haven’t been taking work too seriously lately, have you? Went drinking with your team again last night, didn’t you? And after that you all hit a karaoke spot and stayed out all night."

Lockhart stalled. "Uh…" I definitely blocked the Chief on my socials. So how did he…

Adrian Cole.

"You want to live at this precinct?" the Chief barked. "You’re on desk duty. Paperwork and intake, like an assembly line. Let it be a warning. Don’t make me repeat myself."

When Lockhart walked out of the office, Cole was leaning against the wall, wearing that smug half-smile like he’d won something.

Lockhart rolled her eyes and walked right past him without a word.

Cole followed anyway.

"Why are you following me?" Lockhart stopped and turned.

Cole looked pleased with himself. "This hallway yours? Only you get to use it?"

Lockhart smiled through her teeth. "Sure. Walk all you want."

She took off down the stairs. Cole kept right behind her.

She turned right, he turned right. She turned left, he turned left. She went up, he went up. She went down, he went down.

Behind her, just to annoy her, he said, "Captain Lockhart, your stamina’s slipping. You should train more."

Lockhart didn’t answer. She just smirked, pivoted, and walked straight into the women’s restroom.

Cole nearly walked into the door before he stopped himself.

Lockhart took her time washing her hands. When she came back out, Cole was still there.

He was on the phone, long fingers wrapped around it. The black case somehow made his hands look even sharper, annoyingly so.

Lockhart had to admit, looks alone, he was the kind of man people noticed. Add his personality, though, and she was pretty sure no woman alive would last a week.

Cole hung up and walked over. "The officer who went to pull the school’s security footage says every camera that could’ve seen that spot, the recordings were deleted."

"Does campus security know?" Lockhart flicked water off her hands, about to wipe them on her pants, when Cole frowned and handed her a clean handkerchief.

Lockhart rolled her eyes, then took it anyway.

"Security says they don’t," Cole said. "To be safe, we brought the guard back to the station for questioning."

"Good. Have them keep at it," Lockhart said. "You and I are going back to the scene."

She tossed the handkerchief back at him once she was done. Cole caught it and, like it was normal, folded it neatly and slid it into his pocket.

They’d found the bloodstain on the open ground in front of a dorm building.

"No drag marks," Cole said. "Whoever did this had some way to transport a body."

Lockhart nodded.

They headed up to the roof together.

"Our techs found fabric caught here," Lockhart said, pointing at a section of railing. "Lab says it’s polyester. Looks like someone went over the edge from this spot."

Cole glanced at it, then shook his head. "Until we have a body, it’s too early to lock anything in."

The wind was strong up there. Lockhart’s hair lifted and whipped behind her, framing that lazy, unfazed expression she wore like armor.

"You’re a medical examiner. You believe bodies tell the truth," she said. "I’m a cop. I believe the scene talks."

She turned and pointed. "This roof access door is usually kept locked. The key stays with the dorm supervisor."

Lockhart ran her fingers along the railing, then held her hand up in front of Cole, showing him the dust on her fingertips. "A roof nobody uses, and then one day someone ‘falls’ off it and dies. Up here, we’ve got one real clue. You think it’s unrelated?"

Cole didn’t answer. He just gave her dusty fingers a look of pure disgust and said, "You’re filthy."

Lockhart stared at him. Of all the things to focus on, that was what he picked.

Cole pulled the handkerchief back out and tossed it to her, then spoke again, calm as ever. "At the end of the day, you’re still guessing."

"So what if I am?" Lockhart shot back. "It’s a reasonable read based on what we have."

"This building’s eight stories," she went on. "Every window from the second floor up has metal bars. The only place that makes sense is the roof, and the only physical trace we have is this fabric. That’s basics, even rookies know it. Why do you always have to argue with me? Is that your hobby or something?"

Lockhart slapped the handkerchief against his chest.

Cole caught her wrist with one hand and peeled the cloth off himself with the other, looking almost amused. "You got it. My hobby is going online and picking fights with strangers. Arguing with anyone, about anything."

Lockhart let out a cold little laugh and yanked her wrist free. "Get lost."

Only she knew the real problem.

Where his fingers had closed around her wrist, her skin still tingled, like a faint current running through it.

And in her palm, there was this phantom echo of his steady heartbeat.

Once. Twice.

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