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Aiden
“Her name is Mary Whittaker,” Marlee says, pinning me a stare across the table between us.
Thankfully, I now have a decent cup of coffee in my hand as well as a burger and fries in front of me. Apparently aiding a cross-agency federal investigation comes with perks like getting fed after a fake kidnapping you thought was real.
“So, you already know about her? Guess it’s not much of a lead then” I say around a mouthful of cheeseburger goodness.
“It’s a connection we needed, Aiden. Now we have a link between Mary’s brother, Jason, and Justin, therefore Decker. The only link we had to Marquis was her working there. Obviously, I haven’t been able to ask Decker about it since he doesn’t know he’s a) under surveillance or b) that I’m undercover. This means any information we can get is helpful.”
“What happened to Mary then?”
“Nobody knows, that’s the problem. She worked a week behind the bar before she quit, or so the story goes. From there, we have her rent paid for two months—first and last—but nobody at her apartment building has seen or heard from her. Jason reported her missing two weeks ago after not being able to get in contact with her but we didn't learn about it till he reported it in Vegas ten days ago.”
“It's out of character for her then?”
“Very much so,” she replies. “Jason turned up at my precinct and demanded to speak to my LVPD boss because wouldn't you know it, Marquis just happens to be within our jurisdiction. And although he reported her missing in Cody, Wyoming, they're so behind on paperwork that they didn't pass it on. He then drove 800 miles to come find her himself.”
“LVPD couldn't locate her?”
“Not yet. The report was taken by a colleague of mine and since the taskforce I'm working with—”
“That I’m now working with too,” I add, earning rolled eyes.
“You’re my informant, Aiden. That’s the only capacity in which you can be involved. You realize that, right?”
I sigh. “Yes, Marls. I know. I was just fucking with you.”
“OK. Well as you know, I was already looking into Decker so the missing persons report was given to me. But we haven't been able to find her, or work out what happened as yet.”
I frown, wondering how someone can just seemingly disappear. “What about her cell phone?”
“She hadn't gotten around to getting one yet,” she replies. “She was a small-town girl in the big city and according to her brother, money was tight.”
“OK. Let's pin that for a moment. I have a question I've been dying to ask you and since you're now being so forthcoming with me, I should get a freebie.”
“You feel like I owe you that?” she says, arching a brow as a small smirk tilts her mouth.
“I want to know how you became involved in a cross-agency task force focused on Decker James.”
She frowns, tilting her head as she does it. All I need to see now is her nose to scrunch up and I’ll be out for the count. There’s something about the way she expresses herself so openly with her features that has always done it for me. Whatever the mood, whatever the situation, Marlee Manning has always been an open book. That is, until a year ago…
“Long story for another day,” she replies.
“That sounds like a brush off.”
She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms over her chest. “What is this, show and tell?” Her lips twitch. “Sorry to say, Aiden, but you’ve already seen everything I have to show, and I’m not in the mood to tell you anything more than I have to right now. How about that?” There's that fire I love.
“And here was I thinking we were making some headway. Damn, I must be losing my touch,” I say melodramatically.
“How about this then? It all depends on how badly you piss me off in the foreseeable future,” she retorts. I can’t help the slow-growing grin that takes over my face because that my Marlee. “Can we get back to Mary Whittaker now though? Because It’s 2 a.m. and I’d rather be sleeping than sitting here eating enough calories to see me through for the week.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her she could eat a million burgers and still be hot as hell but it’s not the time and Marlee is not anywhere near ready to hear anything like that from me.
“OK, Beautiful. We can do that,” I reply softly. Her eyes warm ever so slightly before she catches herself and it transforms into a glare. I hold my hands up in surrender. “Sorry, sorry. Force of habit.”
“Then make sure you break yourself out of that. Let’s get back to Mary. Did you hear anything else about her?”
“Nope. The first time was tonight at the bar. I was with Hawk and the bouncers from the club. just shooting shit and playing pool. It's the one night most of us have off together, so when Hawk invited me to tag along, I wasn't going to say no.”
