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“You’re thinking of the CIA, not the FBI,” I told Julia, but I looked at Will to confirm if my assertion was correct.
He nodded, and I smiled back.
“I can’t go into details, but I can say that we’re looking into stolen goods that are being sold on the black-market because it’s a federal offense if a person knowingly sells the merchandise online.”
“Do you think the stuff that we found in Annisa’s closet could be stolen?” Julia looked at me, and I knew what she didn’t say aloud.
However, I felt that the question had to be brought up, so I asked, “Do you think that Annisa was the one who stole the designer goods?”
“I don’t know, but if you get pictures of the stuff at her house, I can try to match them to the database of stolen items.”
“Didn’t you take pictures at the apartment?” Julia asked excitedly.
“I did!” Thankful for Aiden’s suggestion, I withdrew my phone to show Will the pictures. “Here they are.” I gave him the phone to scroll through while Tristan and Julia leaned over the small table to look.
“Based on these pictures, I can’t tell if they are stolen or counterfeit,” Will said and handed the phone back to me.
“Counterfeit. You mean like fake stuff?” I recalled Julia asking the same thing at the apartment.
Then I said as an afterthought, “I wonder if the scuba diving equipment that Annisa was holding for Trevor in her closet was stolen.”
Will’s hand stopped in the middle of taking a sip of his coffee. He gave me a quizzical look and said, “Who’s Trevor?”
“We were supposed to go on a scuba diving trip, and Trevor was one of the scuba diving guides. He was found dead before the dive happened, and the police believe it might be foul play. Annisa’s being held in custody because the police think she has something to do with it.”
As he listened to my explanation, Will’s mouth turned upside down, and he drummed his fingers on his chin .
“And Claire’s boyfriend is representing Annisa,” Julia added, giving me a wink.
“Oh, Aiden’s your boyfriend now?” Tristan teased, piling on Julia’s statement.
I shot them a dirty look, but they smiled innocently.
“We’re still figuring things out,” I mumbled and kicked Julia lightly under the small table. When I got her attention, I mouthed Thanks a lot!
It wasn’t top secret that I was interested in Aiden, but we only met a few months ago. I was a superstitious person, and I didn’t want to put the cart before the horse and have it fall apart like a house of cards. I snorted at my own kitschy analogies describing my relationship with Aiden.
“What has Aiden found out?” Will asked. Bless his heart! He ignored Julia and Tristan’s teasing and redirected the conversation.
“Not much. He’s going to talk to Annisa again this afternoon. In fact, he should be talking with her right now.” I looked at my watch to see the time was 3:40 p.m.
We finished our coffees and got up from the table. As we walked out the door, the barista with the bright blue hair flashed us a smile and said, “Thanks for coming in. I hope you stop by again.”
We gave him a wave, and Julia said, “Oh, I’ll be stopping by again since I’ll be moving in this neighborhood.”
“Really? Well, welcome to Russian Hill!” The barista smiled as we walked out.
“Hey, thanks for switching the topic,” I whispered to Will so that Julia and Tristan couldn’t hear. They were holding hands a few feet ahead of us and were deep in their own conversation.
“No problem, and I can sympathize with you. Julia and Tristan are on a mission to find someone for me to date. Actually, at one point Julia was trying to convince me to date you, but I left for the FBI academy, and by the time that I got back, you started dating Aiden.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I said, shocked and flattered at the same time.
Will laughed and said, “It’s not a problem. I’m sure Julia will try to find someone for me soon. She’s not even a mom yet, but she’s doing all the Korean mothers proud with her matchmaking.”
I burst out laughing when he wiggled his eyebrows at me.
“You know, I was thinking the same thing earlier,” I said, giving him a wry smile.
