Love Lost by Maria DeSouza

“I bet she will.”
    The oven timer rang, breaking the moment , and Selene got up to take the cake out.  She cut the cake into slices and as it cooled, she started to wash and cut the remaining strawberries.  She grabbed some ice cream from the fridge, scooped some on top of two slices, and placed some of the fruit on top to finish it. Jason cleaned up the table and as he finished washing the dishes, she removed the chocolate dipped fruit from the fridge.  He walked over to her and lifted one from the plate to her mouth.
    “Ladies first?”  Jason smiled as Selene took a slow bite.  She grabbed some of the fudge from the bowl and touched his nose.
    “I’m so sorry.  It was an accident,”  she replied, laughing the whole time.  She started to back into a corner as Jason stalked toward her.
    “Really?  An accident?”  He grabbed her and rubbed his nose to her cheek. The chocolate fudge smeared on her face.  She laughed and tried to run, but he had her by the wrists. He didn’t let her go as he grabbed a nearby towel. He started to wipe her face.  She looked up at him . He started to lean in to kiss her when his phone rang.  Selene looked away, disappointed, and started to clean up.  Jason grabbed his phone and walked out to the living room to answer it.
    “Hello ?”
    “Yo, it’s Vin.  I need your help.  I’m in a jam, can you swing by my place?”  Jason looked over at Selene, who was still cleaning in the kitchen.
    “Vin, you have horrible timing.  Can this wait?”
    He heard a loud commotion in the background, and then the phone died.  Jason felt like something was really wrong.
    Selene walked over.  “Everything ok?” 
    He gave her a look that Selene already knew what the answer was going to be.
    “You have to go.  I’ll just let myself out.”
    Jason stopped her.  “No.  Wait.  It won’t take me that long. He probably just locked himself out.  Just pop in a movie and relax.  I’ll be right back.  Please.”
    She looked around. “One movie and then I leave.”
    Jason drove like a demon toward Vin’s place.  It was only a few miles away, but it seemed like it was taking forever.  He pulled up and he noticed the door was wide open.  He pulled out his gun from the holster and started toward the door.
    “Yo! Vin. Where are you?” He walked into the apartment and Vin was standing over a woman lying still on the floor. As he got closer, he saw that she was badly beaten with two shots to the head, just like the barista. Vin had his gun out and pointed toward the body.
    “What the hell are you doing?” Jason walked over to him, and reached for the weapon.  Vin looked surprised to see him there. 
    “Jason, how’d you get here so fast?  I didn’t even think you’d show up.” 
    Jason knelt by the woman. He checked her vitals and confirmed she was dead. Vin walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer. He offered one to Jason.  Jason was growing more and more impatient with him.
    “What happened, Vin?  Why do you have a dead woman on your floor?”
    Vin shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Don’t know.  She was here when I got home.”  Jason noticed a tattoo on the woman’s ankle.  It was a pink bunny.  Could she be related to his case? 
    “Did you go check on the leads at the Pink Bunny?”  
    Vin huffed.  “Yeah.  I went in and was talking to the bartender about Mike, like you asked.   Some guy comes out from behind the bar and drags me to the basement. Then some other guy wants to know why I was asking for him.  I lied and told him Mike owed me money.  The guy looked at me up and down, before telling me to leave.  They must have sent someone to follow me home.  I am glad I came home and not the station.”
    “How did the body get here?”
    “I went to the store to get some beer.”  He lift ed the beer for emphasis.  
    “They must have brought her here to see if I am a rat.  We need to keep this quiet.  I don’t know what is going on in