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“You, me, the boyfriend that came around this morning.”
Mila didn’t have a boyfriend. That had come up in their first conversation. About her lack of support, and her fears over what Stephanie went through coming back to bite her.
“He didn’t happen to leave a card or a name or… anything?”
“Wasn’t the kind of guy who carried cards,” he said as they descended the stairs. “Didn’t ask either. Mean looking fucker. I wasn’t getting into it with him. Asked him for rent though…” He paused on the landing, peering down his nose at her. “He gave me a hundred and asked the same questions.”
Widening her smile, she recognized the shakedown. “And you gave me the information for free. Thank you.”
“Wanna know what he looked like?”
Yes, she did. Damnit. Satisfaction crept onto his expression.
She opened her purse and offered him a fifty. He took it but kept his hand open until she slapped another one on top.
“Spill,” she said, shoving his hand toward him.
“Had a tattoo on his neck. A snake with like a Chinese thing.”
That didn’t help. “A Chinese thing?”
“A dragon or something. I don’t know.”
Distinguishing. Interesting. Had she seen anyone at the club with a snake-dragon tattoo? Not that she remembered, but it was dark, and she’d been distracted. In Mila’s picture of Stephanie’s boyfriend, there hadn’t been a tattoo like that… had there?
“Anything else?” she asked before realizing the guy had started down the stairs again.
“Yeah,” he called back to her. “Next time come back with rent…” He paused at the top of the next flight down to the basement. “Or pussy.”
Her smile was tight, but she kept descending, one slow step at a time. “My boyfriend carries a badge… and a gun… sure you want to proposition me?”
Ex-boyfriend, but whatever. That was splitting hairs.
He shrugged and continued. “Never hurts to ask.”
“No,” she muttered, pausing on the first floor, the light from the entrance flooding the foyer. “It never does.”
Snake-dragon tattoo. How could she find him? If she couldn’t find Stephanie’s boyfriend, she had to find this Snake Guy. Still pondering, she went out the front door and paused on the street to look around. She needed eyes… into the past.
A camera on the store opposite provoked another smile. Undoing a button over her cleavage, she pulled her shirt down a little. She just needed a quick look, so she’d offer another in return.
SEVEN
“I DON’T KNOW HIM.”
Sitting at the bar next to Lachlan, she was showing him the still picture of Snake Guy she’d got from the store camera.
“Are you sure?” she asked, lifting the phone closer to his face. “Doesn’t feel like you’re looking at it.”
“I’m looking at it, babe. I don’t know him.”
She exhaled and scrolled back a few pictures. “Do you recognize this tattoo?”
The same one all the deceased women had.
“Where’d you get that?” he asked, taking her hand to angle the phone.
“From a guy I know.”
