A shocking murder leaves an affluent retirement community reeling in this riveting, high-stakes second installment of the San Diego Case Files, from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Karen Rose. Death is not an unfamiliar visitor to Shady Oaks Retirement Village, which provides San Diego with premier elderly support from independent retiree housing to full-time hospice care. But when a resident’s body is found brutally stabbed and his apartment ransacked, it’s clear there’s someone deadly in their community. Detective Katherine “Kit” McKittrick quickly discovers that Shady Oaks is full of skeleton-riddled closets, and most tenants prefer to keep their doors firmly closed to the SDPD. A longtime volunteer at the retirement facility, Dr. Sam Reeves honors his late grandfather’s memory by playing the piano for the residents regularly. So it shouldn’t be such a surprise when Kit crosses paths with him during her investigation, after she’d avoided the criminal psychologist—and the emotions he evokes—for the last six months. Sam’s rapport within the retirement village proves vital to the case, and the pair find themselves working together once again—much to Kit’s dismay. But she is determined to apprehend the shadow of death lurking around Shady Oaks...and equally determined to ignore the feelings she’s developing for a certain psychologist. Praise for the novels of Karen Rose "From the first rousing chapter to the last, Scream for Me is intense, complex, and unforgettable." —James Patterson, New York Times bestselling author “Riveting. Emotional. Karen Rose at her best.” —Christine Feehan, New York Times bestselling author “High-wire suspense that keeps you riveted.” —Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author “Cold-Blooded Liar had me in its grip from the first chapter. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Keep the coffee brewing—you’ll be up all night.” —Julie Garwood, New York Times bestselling author "A high-octane thrill ride that kept me on the edge of my seat and up far too late at night!" —Lisa Jackson, New York Times bestselling author “Karen Rose's amazing ability to blend fiercely smart suspense, compelling characters, sophisticated romance and a deep sense of place is nothing short of pure alchemy.” —Jayne Ann Krentz, New York Times bestselling author “Effortlessly balances romance and crime…an excellent example of how far-reaching and varied romance can be. The plot is complex, the characterization sound and the boundaries of the genre pushed.” — The New York Times “Rose writes blistering, high-octane suspense that never lets up.” —Karen Robards, New York Times bestselling author “Another page-turner! Karen Rose masterfully combines an intricate mystery and a heartfelt love story. Say No More keeps you riveted until the very end.” —Laura Griffin, New York Times bestselling author “Suspenseful and engrossing.” —Lora Leigh, New York Times bestselling author Karen Rose is the award-winning, #1 international bestselling author of more than 25 novels. She has been translated into twenty-three languages, and her books have placed on the New York Times , the Sunday Times (UK), and Germany's der Spiegel bestseller lists. Chapter One Shady Oaks Retirement Village Scripps Ranch, San Diego, California Monday, November 7, 11:20 a.m. Kit McKittrick allowed herself a moment to feel pity as she stood over the body of the elderly man lying dead on his apartment floor in the Shady Oaks Retirement Village. Then she squared her shoulders and proceeded to do her job. The mood in the dead man's living room was subdued. The ME was examining the body while CSU took photos and Latent dusted for prints, but there was little of the normal scene-of-the-crime chatter to which Kit had become accustomed in the four and a half years she'd been in Homicide. Everyone spoke in hushed whispers, like they were in church. Because it kind of felt like they were. Haunting melancholy music from a single piano was coming from the speaker mounted on the victim's living room wall. The music wasn't loud, but it was overwhelming nonetheless. Kit wanted to turn it off, because the music was so sad that it made her chest hurt and her eyes burn. But neither the speaker nor its volume controls had been dusted for prints, so she couldn't touch it yet. Until then, she could only square her shoulders, ignore the music, and focus on getting justice for Mr. Franklin Delano Flynn. The cause of death of the eighty-five-year-old white male was most likely the butcher knife still embedded in his chest. But she'd learned long ago not to assume. Still, a butcher knife to the chest was never good. It was a long wound, the gash in the man's white button-up shirt extending from his sternum to his navel. Whoever had killed him had to have had a lot of strength to create such a wound. The victim had been dead long enough for his blood to dry, both the blood that had s