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“That is fitting,” Aven agreed, carefully, guardedly. Sore spot, that one was.
“And because of her attachment to him, it seemed you and your mom drifted apart, leading you to move out when you were eighteen, jumping right into night classes for spa stuff while you worked during the day at a daycare surrounded by lots of snot.” Kai liked to draw pictures with his backstories. It wasn’t unheard of for him to half reenact an event. Using voices. “You worked out there for a while at a nice place. Got a parking ticket four years ago. Dated a man named, I shit you not, Snow. That is his legal name, in case anyone was wondering.”
“His parents were hippies,” Aven defended, cheeks a little pink, embarrassed by the mention of that boyfriend.
“Sorry to go here, doll face, but he cheated. You seemed to take that as the last straw in San Fran, and picked up, and moved your ass across the country. Why Navesink Bank, I can not figure out.”
She shrugged a shoulder at that. “I wanted to be close to the beach and the city. Here, it is about ten minutes from the water, and an hour to the city by train or ferry. Some of the houses were up for a third of their real market value.”
“Which had you getting a job at a really nice spa around here. You know the type,” he said, addressing all the guys. “Where your girl can go in planning just to get her nails done but ends up spending a grand.”
“You couldn’t walk out that door for less than a grand,” Aven agreed, making me figure it was one of those fancy ass places that catered to the rich on the west side of town.
“And, making a nice salary there. Slay,” he said, holding his hand out to fist-bump her, which she did, albeit a little awkwardly. “That led you to buying your house. Which, at the time, was great since you had the cash for the downpayment and a high paying job. Then the salon closed right after you moved in. You had to take a cut in not only position, but salary as well. You went out on two dates with a man named Roger. And then one date with a man named Rion. Nothing ever came of any of that. And that is about it.”
“No other guys?” I pressed, brows drawn together.
“What is so hard to believe about that?” Aven asked, referencing when I didn’t believer her earlier. “I don’t mind being alone. And my RBF scares men off.”
“RBF?” Smith asked, in the dark.
“Resting bitch face,” Kai supplied. “And sorry to break this to you, but your face could never look like a bitch.”
“Alright. Moving on then. Smith, Lincoln, Finn, what about this guy?”
Finn started. “He must have walked to her place every time. There were tracks into the woods that disappeared in the middle. No cars abandoned on any side streets.” And he meant any. Finn was meticulous that way. “He had no ID on him, as I said. No metal or plastic in his body.” I was glad he didn’t go into detail about how he knew that in front of Aven.
“Metal or plastic?” she asked though.
“Surgical equipment has serial numbers,” was his response. “From there. Dead end for me.”
That was where Smith picked up. “Finn sent over some DNA and fingerprints. The lab will take another day or two. Facial recognition didn’t pick up on anything from this part of town. We are spreading out the scope, but that is going to take time.”
“I have alerts set up for missing persons,” Lincoln went on. “And the scanner has been on. I’m recording it now. So far, no one is missing this guy. But it is early. He won’t technically be considered missing for a few more hours.”
“Nothing on a similar M.O. in the area?” I asked.
Lincoln shrugged as he reached for his iced tea. “You know how stalking cases go. Most don’t get reported. The ones that do don’t go into enough detail.”
That was fair enough.
“Checked out the picture,” Smith went on. “I don’t recognize him. And we keep a pretty close eye on the syndicates. I don’t think he is anyone. At least not anyone that we need to worry about in that way.”
That was a relief at least.
“This is high priority until we get a name. Finn is going to need to clean house. And that needs to happen before a rent or mortgage payment goes by, and someone comes sniffing around.”
The men nodded as they absentmindedly ate some of their food.
“Don’t worry,” Kai said, gently elbowing Aven’s arm. “We got you covered. Nothing at all to worry about.”
That wasn’t exactly true.
She had her own worries.
But we would make sure none of this came back to bite her in the ass. In a legal way.
