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Gary nodded. “I know what you’re thinking. Does this mean he’s gotten tired of waiting so long between victims? I asked Kathy the same question.”
“And what was our hot police psychologist’s opinion?”
He gaped. “Excuse me? One, you shouldn’t talk about her like that, and—”
Riley grinned. “Hey, she alreadyknowsI think she’s hot. I asked her out.”
“When was this?”
“Last month. She turned me down, in case you’re interested. So what did she say?”
“She couldn’t give me a definite answer.” He cocked his head. “Why’d she turn you down? You’re a good-looking dude.”
“She said something about not being a cougar.” Riley pushed out an exaggerated sigh. “And there you have it. My hopes of being the boy toy of a sexy older woman, dashed.”
Lewis strolled into the evidence room. “I finished going through all the statements from the residents in Marius Eisler’s building. I’m beginning to think this guy has Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak.” He flopped into a chair.
Gary’s stomach gave a slow roil. “Let me guess. No one saw anything.”
“Yup. They all said the same thing. Always a stream of different guys in and out of there. Some had to be models, of course. But maybe some were hookups too. He might’ve painted ’em then fucked ’em. Or it could have been the other way around.” Lewis’s eyes glinted. “Maybe sex got his creative juices flowing.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and peered at the screen. “One woman did report seeing a guy in a hoodie the night Eisler died. She can’t describe him, though. She said what they all said: ‘Just another one.’”
Riley headed for the door. “I need caffeine.” He waved his hand as he left the room. “Yeah, I’ll bring you some too.”
Lewis snickered. “You’ve got him well trained.”
Gary stared at the board. “He’s a good cop.” The three of them had worked together as a homicide squad for the past two years.
“I called you last night.”
“I saw that when I got home. Had my phone switched off as I wasn’t on call. I figured if it was urgent, you’d have called again.” The last thing he’d wanted to do was talk to Lewis.
“Since when do you switch your phone off?”
Gary raised his eyebrows. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I went out for a drink with a friend.”
“That gay guy again? The personal trainer?”
Gary narrowed his gaze. “Okay, a couple things I want to say here. Do you labeleveryone? Are we all reduced to gay, fat, skinny, pretty, ugly…? Do you ever refer to someone asthat straight guy?”
Lewis shrugged. “I look for the distinguishing characteristic. You got a problem with that?”
He had more than a few issues with Lewis, but none he was about to share. As a cop he got the job done, but with no flashes of inspiration. Lewis plodded through his cases, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.
I don’t have a problem with the way he works. I have a problem with the way hismindworks.Now and then what came from that mouth had a tinge of ugliness to it—nothing too overt but enough to leave a sour taste. Certainly not enough to be worth reporting. And while Gary and Riley might have gone out on the weekend a couple of times, Lewis had never received a similar invitation and never would.
“Next question. How doyouknow who I was drinking with?”
“I heard you talking with Riley one time. He wanted to change gyms, and you recommended this place where a friend worked. Cory something or other? You were talking about him, where you met, stuff like that.”
Gary took in Lewis’s pinched expression, his pursed lips, the flush in his cheeks, and realization slammed into him.He’s jealous. Pissed that he didn’t get an invite when Riley and I went out.But Lewis came out with all the guys when they went bowling or drinking.We’re not joined at the hip, right?
He regarded Lewis with wry amusement. “So you figured I had to have gone for a drink with Cory because I only have one friend?” Gary was done talking about this. “Let’s get back to work. We need to find this guy.”
“Except finding him is like looking for a proverbial needle in a haystack.” Lewis gazed at the photos on the board. “We still going with the theory that he’s using Grindr to choose his victims?”
“It fits the facts. He picks men who have a steady stream of sexual partners, where a guy going into the victim’s place is an everyday occurrence so no one bothers to look at them. All our victims were on Grindr—well, we assume Marius was. We’ll know more when they send us the records.”
“He’s trying to slow us down by taking their phones, isn’t he?”
