“Anyway, we caught the first missing person case. Until confirmation by the ME, we are assuming that one of those women is Ivey Slee, so that would make her the first victim.”
They kept listening.
“Apparently, she never showed up for work yesterday morning. She was a teacher, and when she didn’t show the next day, the school was concerned. They called for a well-visit from the cops. When the cops got there, they found her car, her purse, and all of her things, but no Ivey. That’s how we were called in.”
Yeah, lucky them.
Gene worked missing person cases and vice cases. A lot of the times, they ended up being homicides, so he understood the detectives’ frustration of straddling both divisions.
When he licked his thumb, Ethan glanced over and gave him a look.
Oh, Gene knew why.
His bagel was stuffed with so much cream cheese, and it likely should be illegal.
Sue him.
His arm hurt, and cream cheese was his happy place. Well, his real happy place would be in bed with his man, but a dude had to roll with the punches.
Ethan sipped his coffee as the cop kept talking.
“We heard there’s a function for her at the school tomorrow,” Dannie admitted.
Well, that wasn’t shocking.
“The teachers were out today after school, tying ribbons and putting up missing person flyers for their friend. By morning, word will circulate, and it will likely be a memorial,” Leah admitted.
That was pretty typical.
While people tended to know deep down that they’d lost someone they loved, there was always hope.
It kept humanity going.
Dannie continued.
“They are trying to keep the kids’ spirits high. Apparently, Ivey was well-loved by her students.”
Ethan was curious.
“Tell us more about her.”
Dannie did.
“She was single, and no kids. She’s worked at the school for about eight years.”
Ethan was curious.
“You said single, but did she have an ex?” he asked, knowing that sometimes, breakups weren’t pleasant, and that would be a good reason for murder.
It wasn’t odd to have a killing hidden among other killings to muddy the water. So, they had to eliminate that right off the bat.
Leah was honest.
“Yeah, she had an ex. He was on our list to interview, but we didn’t get to do it as of yet. We were hit with back-to-back victims.”
Sometimes, that was the nature of the beast.
Now, he was curious.
