Fast Track to a Honeybun

CHAPTER THREE-2

FABIANA ENTERED HER home and locked the door behind her. She stood very still, listening, until she determined that the apartment was empty. Then she flipped the overhead light switch and headed into the living room.

The message light on her phone was blinking. She walked across the room to her desk and pressed the button. The message had come in that morning, around nine am. It was from one of her sponsors, Vespard Tire. “Ms. Maricruz, in light of what happened to your partner, we need to speak to you about your sponsorship. Please call us at your earliest opportunity.”

Fabiana frowned. What happened to Casio? What were they talking about?

She grabbed the TV remote and pressed the power button, turning to the local news station. She had only to watch for a few minutes before the news clip she was looking for came on.

A picture of Casio flashed across the screen and the scrolling headline told her that he was dead.

Brutally murdered.

Fabiana saw stars as a wave of shock and revulsion hit her. The remote thudded to the rug at her feet and she sat in a state of shock as a young female reporter, standing in front of Mario’s with a microphone in front of her face, informed the viewing public that Casio’s body, and the body of an unknown woman, had been discovered in an alley next to the bar.

Disconnected phrases floated across her mind, creating a fairytale sense of horror and worse...a déjà vu moment that caused her heart rate to spike. “Lautaro was bludgeoned...stabbed repeatedly...mangled almost beyond recognition...” the woman informed the world.

Fabiana’s face flashed across the screen. “This woman, Fabiana Maricruz, who was Lautaro’s racing partner, is wanted by the Indianapolis police for questioning.”

A vision, like a horrible YouTube video in her mind, slammed Fabiana backward onto the couch.

Casio screaming, No! His hand flying up in a feeble attempt to protect himself. Something long and sharp swinging in a deadly arc toward his chest. The horrible, wet sound of something tearing through his flesh again and again and again. His breath, dying to a burbling sound in his chest.

Fabiana’s head screamed with pain. Her vision clouded and vertigo swamped her. She felt herself falling sideways and off the couch. The rug barely cushioned her head as she hit the floor.

Somewhere in the distance a voice called out. The door slammed open and someone called her name.

Hands tugged at her. Strong hands that grabbed her arms and yanked her upward.

But she wasn’t ready to face the owner of those hands.

She wasn’t ready to face anything.