Gene leaned over and kissed Ethan on the lips. He tasted like maple syrup and fruit.
Just the way he liked him.
When he broke it, he palmed his cheek.
“All I needed was to know we are solid, because I can lose everythingBUTyou, EJ.”
He felt the same.
For the first time in his life, he had his person, and he was learning how to navigate that. Already, he was getting free of the lure to be here and near Callen.
He was so much stronger than he’d ever been before. This was him coming into his power.
“I won’t ever leave you again,” he said. “Pinkie swear,” he stated, holding up his finger.
It made Gene smile.
“Deal,” he said, locking his pinkie to his. “Then, let’s get this case handled so we can go be pizza-munching degenerates on our own couch.”
That worked for Ethan.
That was what he called a good day in their world.
To help his partner, Gene pulled out his laptop, and he began running people too, as Ethan kept digging into the law enforcement to figure out who had burned them.
“I’ll dig into Randal Crest and Tristan Hevin,” Gene offered. “Then, I’ll get those names of all the teachers at the school. Where do you want to go next?” he asked.
Ethan looked at his watch.
“It’s still early, so the pub for the second victim won’t be open, so let’s wrap the first victim. I’d like to see her home and get a feel for this.”
That worked for him.
Ethan was, after all, running this case. While they both had different methods, they tended to end up in the same place. Gene would be working backward, but Ethan put the puzzle together differently. He was a start at the beginning kind of a guy. Gene was more about the last victim.
As they were running people, Gene started his deep dive on Randal Crest. While the information was popping up, he was sharing it with Ethan.
“The cops were right. He works at a bank, and like we already found out, he’s near the pub and the retail store that our last victim worked at. Do we have Ivey’s address?” Gene asked. “Because the school isn’t near that location.”
Ethan passed him his notes, and Gene checked it out by opening the map function on his laptop.
It didn’t take long to find something.
“Here’s something interesting,” he said, once he saw it.
Then, he turned his laptop and showed Ethan. The drive from the school to Ivey’s home went right down that same street. It was the shortest route to get to her house.
“So, she would have gone right past all of those businesses?” Ethan asked.
He nodded.
“She probably shopped there or hit that bar at some point. People are creatures of habit. They go to familiar places. How many times have we driven past something and then gone there to‘check it out’?” he asked.
Ethan knew he was right.
“Okay, so we’re getting what looks like ground zero. We just need to lock that down. Serial killers tend to have a hunting groundIFthe victims aren’t tied together by something in common.”
Gene was curious.
