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

I didn’t, of course, sleep on the actual couch, not with Quentin’s room unoccupied. It didn’t bother me that the murder, or whatever it was, had happened in that room, in that bed. I wasn’t made that way. But I did suffer from heartache over what I thought might be a major, and possibly fatal, issue between me and Horst.


The next morning, I awoke to the best surprise possible: Horst was sleeping next to me—not touching, but still, there—in Quentin’s bed. I turned to face him and stared at him. After several minutes I watched him wake up.


At the first quivering of those pale gold eyelashes I felt my heart begin to pound. Then there was the increased breathing, the slight movements of an arm, and finally the opening of those beautiful blue eyes, which, since he was facing me, slowly focused on me.


A slight frown appeared on his brow and he said, “Why are you smiling?”


Chapter 32