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“Ye seem dead set on the suspect’s identity.”
I shrugged. “Path of least resistance. We don’t need to prove a court case, only protect our client. Ben is going to talk to Ariel about anyone else who might have reason to break into her car, but this guy, Larson, already has form. First, he tried to grab Daisy from the street into his truck. He was masked up, but we worked out who he was because he’d been hanging around her roommate previously and she was able to ID him, then I discovered he was on the payroll of her family. They wanted her back, so it wasn’t a stretch to work out that they’d sent him. After some digging, I was able to track his passport which showed he’d followed her here, but he gave up the hunt after her family’s business imploded. I guess they recalled him because we tracked him right back out of the UK. But, here’s the kicker. Larson, Daisy, and Ariel were all in the same school together in California. He was a teenage pervert who assaulted Ariel. Felt her up.”
A rush of pure outrage poured through me. Though I didn’t know the details, it enraged me. This was exactly why the ‘boys will be boys’ defence needed to be locked in the past with the ‘What were you wearing?’ question. Kids who weren’t checked when they were young only went on to be worse.
I knew that to my bones.
“Fucking little punk,” Valentine muttered. “So he was paid to find Daisy but is now after Ariel?”
“That’s my gut instinct.” Ben had called it my superpower. I wasn’t so sure. “If that car was stolen, I’ll feel a lot better about my working theory.”
Repeating the lesson Ben had given me not all that long ago, I walked Valentine through how to access the number plate database. The system spat out a list of potential hits which we narrowed down by the model and colour of the car until there was a single vehicle left. It was registered to a woman who lived in Inverness.
Valentine tapped his pen on the pad where he’d made notes. “What’s the odds that Terri McArthur reported her reliable old Volkswagen as missing earlier today?”
“Let’s find out. First I need to get approval from Ben because this will cost.”
We waited for a moment until Ben’s okay came through, then I dialled a number.
The police systems specialist took the details and promised a call back soon. We could’ve just waited for an officer to be assigned once Ariel had reported the incident, but that would be slower.
Then I sat back and breathed out for what felt like the first time since I’d recognised Ariel’s car.
It was cathartic working through the process. At least now I’d done something. She was safe. I just had to force my muscles to unlock.
I sensed Valentine’s gaze on me. “What?”
He wrinkled his nose. “Are ye and Ariel…something?”
“No,” I said, too fast and too hard. “Why do ye ask?”
“Just picked up on tension.”
I liked Valentine. He had the same openness as Raphael and the hard-work ethic I admired in Ben. Maybe in time I could trust him enough to confide about personal shite, but we weren’t there yet.
Instead, I gave up a different truth. “No, it was my fault for rubbing her the wrong way with my questions. Ben’s going to take over on that front. The two of us can research other areas.”
He gave up the scent easily. “Such as?”
“Put yourself in the mindset of a man who pursued her here from California. We don’t know his motive, but we know he has a lead which gave him a location. Where do ye go from there?”
Valentine lifted his phone. “I’d look more at that lead. That teenager had other videos on her account.”
I raised my fist for a bump. “Perfect answer.”
“Can we research over food? I’m starving. That pub over in the village does a mean ribeye.”
Come to think of it, I was hungry, too. I agreed, and we left the hangar, both of us piling into my car to head out.
It didn’t hurt that we’d be travelling the road where Ariel’s car had been ransacked and entering the village where she’d walked. Someone would already be on patrol, but it would make me feel better to be out and active before coming back and getting stuck into research all evening.
And I fully intended to. I’d investigated Landon Larson once before, but I’d go over every single step.
On the main road, a tow truck from a business I recognised was hooking up the Mini.
I paused alongside and rolled down my window. “Police check this over yet?”
The tow truck driver acknowledged me. “They couldn’t get here tonight so gave it the okay for pick-up. They’ll dust it at my garage. Better for it to be there than out here.”
