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“Santiago’s.”
“Excellent choice.”
“You’ve been there?”
“Of course,” Melanie said. “We’ve been here for years. I doubt there’s a restaurant we haven’t been to. You’re evading.” She leaned forward on the counter. “So, what did you do after the date?”
Lesley rolled her eyes a little and laughed. “He took me out to the middle of nowhere and we danced in the desert.”
Melanie blinked. “That’s it?”
The heat of Antony’s body and his kisses flooded Lesley’s brain, and she took a shaky breath. Melanie smiled knowingly. “Good kisser, huh?”
“Amazing.”
“Then what happened?”
“He brought me home.”
“And that’s it?”
Oliver came around the corner. “If you don’t mind, there are things I don’t need to hear about my little sister.” He dropped a kiss on Melanie’s cheek and grinned at Lesley. “I’m glad you had a good time.”
Hours later, as Lesley was settling down to sleep, her phone beeped.
She picked it up and smiled at the message. Sweet dreams, beautiful.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The day drug on. And on. And on. Antony was beyond frustrated at the lack of information about the case. They all were. The case files from the previous incidents were hopelessly cluttered and incomplete. Some records were incomprehensible.
Antony leaned back in his chair and stretched. Sitting upright, he grumbled and spat out, “The level of bullshit in these boxes is...”
“Bullshit?” offered Simon.
“Yes. Fuck.” Antony stood up and began pacing in a circle around the office. “You cannot look at this crap and tell me that whoever worked on this case last didn’t intentionally fuck this shit up.”
Audrey had been quietly writing something down when he said that. She stopped and stared at him. Well, almost through him.
He looked at her. “What?”
“What you just said,” she started. A moment later. “Who was the supervisor on this case? I can’t recall seeing a name so far.” She held up her hands. “Hear me out. No names on the boxes. Signatures are worthless. And no printed names. I think you’re right, Ramos. This was on purpose.”
Antony looked at her like she was suddenly made of gold. “No printed names. That’s what I was missing! What the hell?”
Simon vanished down the hall. A minute later he reappeared, with the First Sergeant right behind him.
“So, you’ve been through all the boxes, and there are no identifiers on any of the documents?” His jaw clenched, and Antony was waiting for the sound of teeth grinding to fill the room.
“Just about.” Antony pointed to where Charlie was sitting. “That last stack with Madden is all that’s left.”
“Well, shit. Next step is to call DA and have them pull records. I don’t suppose you’ve got the year range for this mess handy?”
“Sure.” Audrey reached for her notepad.
“Hold on,” Charlie said. They all turned toward her. Her frown of disgust deepened as she gingerly pried a scrap of paper off the back of a form. “Gross. I don’t even want to know what this shit is.” She held it up to the light and squinted. “It’s super faded, but there are some numbers.” She looked closer. “Bowen? Bower?”
Randall held out his hand, and Charlie passed him the slip of paper. “Better than nothing. Let’s hope it pans out with the branch manager.” He stomped back down the hall, muttering something about red tape.
