Private investigator Ian visits his friend unannounced, only to discover the man lying in bed, not asleep but dead. Ian resolves to find out how his friend died and, if he was murdered, to bring the killer to justice. But the details of the case are bizarre: the door of the condo unit is locked and the only other occupant is a bodybuilder, Horst, found sitting on the living room couch, half asleep or drugged. Ian calls 911 and the cops, when video footage showing no one entered or left the condo around the time of death, fixate on Horst as the most likely suspect. Ian is convinced Horst is innocent and offers his services to help the police solve the mystery of his friend’s death. But the situation is complicated, not only by the self-contradictory nature of the physical evidence, but by the fact that Ian increasingly finds himself drawn to Horst. Worse, the lead police detective shows increasing signs of interest in Ian himself. Love and death become strangely intertwined, their resolution not easily discovered. Is Horst as innocent as Ian believes? Can Ian help solve the locked-room mystery?

Bliss

“The detective said you used to be a cop. Is that true?”


“I guess I couldn’t hack the politics, and the rules, and—well, I’m just not really a regimented kind of guy.”


I watched him digest this. When he had, I tapped the table top with my forefinger. “But I still like catching bad guys.”


“It’s what I do,” I continued, feeling a little defensive.


“I thought it was mostly divorce cases, stuff like that.”


“Yeah, there’s a lot of those. Not particularly enjoyable to find out what the spouse is doing—cheating, or whatever.” I frowned. “You really have a problem with that?”


This challenge appeared to take him aback. He blinked—flashing those gold eyelashes—then shrugged. “I guess not.”


“I suppose this is going to sound pompous,” I said, “but I value truth just as much as I value decency.”


“I guess that just sounds sentimental.”


Chapter 15