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

Whenever I’m idle—or at least most of the time when I am—I start to ruminate. This time I had lots to think about. The tape of Horst’s last hypnotic session wasn’t something I wanted people to hear particularly—since it would be pretty obvious what we were up to.


On the other hand, I did feel secure about the information the session had provided. Horst had not murdered Quentin. Had not killed him at all, at least not on purpose. But what exactly hadhappened—by which I mean what had killed Quentin—I stillwasn’t sure.


A moment later I was on my feet. Going to the entrance to the kitchen, I said to Horst that I had an errand to run. Before he could say anything, I was off, out of the apartment and down the stairs. At the moment I had no patience for elevators.


I burst into the manager’s office on the ground floor, causing the assistant to give a startled cry. I apologized, and asked to see the manager. The assistant picked up the phone and spoke into it.


Chapter 25