Melting Point — Kari Anne Kilgore

An Invisible Countdown to DeathA cookie-cutter suburban house. A strange aroma. A dead body, and a suspect refusing to talk.Sometimes a stumped investigation needs a non-standard mind.A perfect case for Dana and her best friend Andre to work their magic.Can they solve the crime before the next victim's time runs out? A Dana Sanderson Short MysteryAlso available in Kari's collection Hacking Cybercrime: Dana Sanderson Short Mysteries. An excerpt from Melting Point:Mira took a long drink of her coffee, staring out over the trees outside before she focused on Dana again.We've got the suspect, sure. Sitting in lockup, smug as hell, and not saying a word. What we need from you, Dana, is how on earth she did it.Dana drew back, blinking. Me? I'm just an insurance investigator. This is your field. Surely the GBI has people on this.They do. And they're coming up empty so far. Some of these cases are months old. They're afraid this woman had a longer list of people she was paid to knock off.Mira took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a few seconds.They'll probably find it, she said, but I can't stop wondering what would have happened if someone totally innocent had walked into that bedroom instead. Like maybe her niece or nephew.