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If she didn’t like something, she said so. She wasn’t the type to hide shit, hold shit in and let it fester, and then go out and kill her best friend because she was nuts. When he pulled into the station, he got out to go get her down from the truck knowing she was going to give him hell because a few of her colleagues were around.
“Geez Riley, dammit.” She scoffed when he lifted her down and kissed her before setting her on her feet. Riley just grinned and watched her walk away as her colleagues looked on, he even had the audacity to wave and call out to a few of them before hopping back in the truck and driving off.
Celia kept her head down and beat feet into the station house with her face in flames. If she doesn’t die of embarrassment, she just might strangle the oafish man in his sleep. Officer Bailey was already back at his desk when she walked. “How was lunch?” She knew from his twitching lips that he already knew.
“Don’t start.”
“I didn’t say a word. Heard you and your beau went to the diner.” Celia ignored him and sat behind her desk.
“Did you find anything in the stuff we took from Ms. Sherry’s home this morning?”
“There wasn’t much, but I did find a few notes and a number that I can’t place. It’s not saved in her phone, and tech’s still trying to retrieve the erased texts and voice mails which they say will take another couple of days at least.”
“So no new leads on her new job.”
“Not yet, no. I guess we can look into other businesses in the area, see if maybe she landed a job at another club, but there aren’t that many, not unless she drove a few hours away.”
While Officer Bailey talked it out, Celia went over her conversation from the night before with both Amber and Simon in her head.
She was still leaning more towards some kind of escort service or something along those lines. The kind of money Melissa had hinted at making wouldn’t come from much else in these parts where most of the residents worked at minimum wage jobs or a little better. Unless…
“Hey Pete, help me generate a list of all the wealthy men in this and the next town over.”
“We’ll have to put Riley O’Rourke at the top of that list.” Officer Bailey joked facetiously.
“Go for it.” Celia deadpanned, not missing a beat. It’s a thought that had been playing around the edges of her mind since leaving the club the night before.
The thought stemmed from her own personal situation believe it or not. After all, hadn’t she met a wealthy man who swept her off her feet and moved her into his home and his bed? The only difference between her and the victim is that the other woman was married. It was the only thing that was beginning to make sense.
Why else would Melissa Sherry hide the fact that she’d quit and was now working elsewhere from the husband who already knew what she was doing at the strip club? The more she thought about it, excluding all other possibilities, the more it made sense.
She put in a call to the evidence techs to have them check the mileage on Melissa’s car to see if the woman had been making any long-distance trips in the last few weeks since leaving her job at the club. Anything that would explain how she was making all that money. She’d already gotten a head start on checking into the other similar businesses in the two towns and knew that she wouldn’t find any answers there.
While Officer Bailey got started on his new task, Detective Sparks went back over everything with a fine toothcomb making sure she hadn’t overlooked anything. She went over the notes Pete had found and set aside for her along with the number. “Did you try calling this number?”
“Yeah, but it’s no longer in service.” Celia’s senses started to tingle at the news. Coincidence has never been something she believed in.
“Where did you find this number?” No sense in getting all excited if it turns out to be an old number that went out of service legitimately.
“It was tucked away in the pocket of a pair of jeans, her favorite pair, according to Gil. You think it might be something?”
“Oh yeah!” She started making some calls knowing the headache the cellphone companies would give her before giving her any pertinent information. A reverse phone lookup brought the number back as private, but it did show a general location of where the owner resided. Those things aren’t always a hundred percent accurate, but they can be good for a start.
Next, she turned her attention to the notes, which seemed more like some kind of poetic prose. The handwriting didn’t match either the victim’s or her husband’s, maybe Bobby had written them? She’s no snob, but somehow Celia didn’t see the mechanic writing such flowery words to the woman he was having an affair with. Just the same, she called him just to be sure.
