Chapter Four Bree #3
“That’s such crap!” I waved a hand at him. “Please, you just sit there all up in your lies till you’re ready to tell the truth.”
Brad leaned back and rested his arm along the back of my chair. “Sit here like this?” I rolled my eyes. “’Cause I’m comfortable sitting in the truth.”
I caught his mother smiling at his father. “I see nothing’s changed between these two.”
We both sat up straight and went back to our food.
It felt so good to slip back into our old banter.
To feel like my old self again, the one who hung out here years ago.
I caught Brad’s eye for a split second and read his expression.
We both knew what was there. We’d always had an attraction toward each other back in high school.
It was mostly physical, not that we ever acted on it, but also intellectual, as we were both on the debate team.
It was a strong connection that couldn’t be denied, but we were young, and he was dating Sherry.
I always wondered if we might have eventually ended up together if we hadn’t stumbled upon the Barbed Wire Killer that day.
I always thought Sherry wouldn’t last. Even Kennedy joked about ole Doritos breath.
Yet here we were, years and a lot of pain later, with the same chemistry crackling between us.
Too bad it was too late for us. I loved my job back in New York, and I had no intention of staying.
We finished eating, cleaned up and said goodbye, then hopped into his car.
“That was really nice.” I felt like something needed to be said because neither of us had said a word all the way to the main highway. “Your brother seems a little different.”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “A lot has changed since you left.”
I looked away as his comment ate at me. I left because I had to. It had been the decision I’d felt I had to make at the time, and I shouldn’t have been punished for it. We rode in silence the rest of the way.
We spent most of the day running through videos from the nearby businesses, but nothing stood out.
Officer Smith joined us partway through and offered some theories, but they didn’t lead to anything.
“Can I see the club videos again?” I asked Brad in spite of the fact that my butt was numb from sitting.
We’d been in the office for ages, and I looked forward to a bit of sunshine, but we had a job to do, however tedious it might be.
“Yeah.” Brad pushed a few buttons, and the club videos came up. “What are you thinking?”
“Nothing yet.” I stretched my neck and squinted to see the screen.
But the sheer volume of people in the frame made it nearly impossible to pinpoint any one person. Even though we knew roughly when the attacks had happened.
“Well, if Shelly died in the bathroom,” Officer Smith asked, “wouldn’t you just follow her steps and question anyone that had contact with her?
” He scratched his leg absently, then got up and pushed his back up against the doorframe.
Like me, he needed a stretch. It was wonderful that he’d offered his help, and it was a good experience for him.
“That’s a lot of people.” Brad tapped his fingers on the table as he thought.
“And because we don’t know what the actual substance is, we’re not sure how quickly it takes effect.
” He paused. “We have a rough timeline of how long the substance may take to attack the system thanks to the surveillance videos, but what we really need is to be able to pinpoint any possible suspects. There’re just too many. ”
“Right.” I leaned forward and pointed to Shelly on the screen.
“She interacted with at least seven people since she arrived at the club, another six as she walked up to the bar top, three at the bar, and one on the way to the bathroom. And that’s just men—it doesn’t include the entire party of women she showed up with. ”
“We’ll still question them,” Brad added, “but narrowing it down is the hard part.”
Smith tossed his sandwich wrapper into the trash. “Okay, yeah, that makes sense. It’s just, all this sitting around is hard. I hope I can learn the patience you two have.”
“Always nice when they’re interested in learning,” I commented to Brad as the young officer slipped away.
I grinned as I heard his groan when he reached his desk just outside the room.
I’d seen the pile of paperwork on it. “I need more coffee.” I yawned and stretched my arms out and heard my elbow snap.
“Why don’t you keep watching, and I’ll grab us some? ”
“We just had coffee.”
“And?” I blinked at him.
“So why do you need more coffee?”
I squinted, confused. “I’m sorry. I don’t follow.”
Brad shook his head and pulled out his phone. He scratched the shadow of a beard on his chin as he took in the time. Seven thirty. “Fine, I’ll go check in with Cap, and I’ll meet you in there when you’re done being an addict.”
“We all have our thing, Brad.” I hooked my bag over my arm. “I’ll find out what yours is soon enough.”
“It’s Bradley or Detective Stone,” he grumbled and made me laugh.
“Bye, Brad.” I waved over my head.
The next four days, we ate, slept, and breathed the case.
We hunkered down and went over every single piece of evidence till I could see everything in my head when I closed my eyes at night.
I felt like I was going squirrelly at one point.
My old job as a PI had a lot more action than being hunched over a table rereading statements and rewatching videos over and over.
“I feel like I should take up yoga if this position is to be my new normal.” I plucked my coffee off the table, took a sip. I wrinkled my nose as I realized it had gone cold.
“That I’d like to see,” he snickered, and as I went to swat him, Captain Robert appeared.
“Brad, a word?” He head-pointed toward his office.
“Sure thing.” Brad shot me a quick glance, scooped up his phone, and left. I took the opportunity to feed my addiction without his judgy eyes following me to the elevator.
The coffee shop was busy, so I ordered and sat in a chair by the window while I waited.
I scanned the faces and fell into my routine of watching teens.
I always looked for something in their expression that might indicate they were in trouble.
Old habits were hard to break. I wondered if one of them might somehow be connected to a runaway case I’d never solved.
I found myself wondering which one of them might die next.
Whoa! That took a dark turn. Then I saw a young woman who had her phone on a tripod across the street.
She was pointing to the bakery sign as she bit into a pastry of some kind. I watched her for a bit.
Two young girls kept giggling over something they were watching on a phone.
It was irritating. Lord, social media was always in our face.
I wasn’t from the generation that saw its potential to make an income; I just viewed it as invasive.
The giggling girls also watched the one outside with the tripod.
Then one of them held up her coffee and pointed to the brand on her cup as she spoke into the camera lens.
“This is the best coffee in town! I highly recommend it. Oh my god, we’re influencers!
” Her shrill voice made me cringe, but her friend just giggled more.
I leaned back in my chair and shook my head as I tried to shut them out.
I looked down at the file I had in front of me and noticed advertisements for both Sea Foam Brew and East Dog Brewery from the photos I had taken at the nightclub.
I wondered if either company had influencers too.
If so, maybe they’d have some footage from the nights of the murders.
Not bad. Thanks, girls. I grabbed my coffee and called Brad on my way back to the station.
It went straight to voicemail. I called Adam, curious if maybe he was still stuck in paperwork.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Adam. I mean, Officer Smith. It’s Bree.” I was pleased now that we’d exchanged numbers. “Do you know where Brad is?”
“It’s okay for you to call me Adam.” I could almost see his eager smile. “He’s still in his closed-door meeting with the captain, and the chief of homicide just went in with them.”
“Okay.” I slowed my pace and looked down at my bag. “I’m going to follow a possible lead. Will you tell Detective Stone to call me, and I’ll fill him in?”
“Sure thing.”
I unlocked my truck and climbed into the cab. I let out a breath as I settled in. “Ahhhh.” It felt good to be back in my office. The cab of the truck was quiet and cozy and had everything I needed.
I searched social media like a champ. Hashtags were a PI’s best friend—well, that and people who didn’t have their accounts set to private.
East Dog seemed to do just fine without any influencers, but to my delight, Sea Foam Brew was brewed locally, and it hired college kids to promote the products through their accounts.
The company paid them per post. I clicked on one girl’s account, and there must have been over a hundred videos posted there for the company.
It didn’t take long watching her videos to see she spent a lot of time at the Velvet Nightclub, and a lot of her posts were recent.
It made me wonder how much footage she had versus what she posted as a rep.
“You’ll do just fine,” I happily said out loud.
I felt hopeful as I direct messaged her.
I shouldn’t have been surprised she answered me back almost immediately.
I had, after all, said I was looking for exclusive footage and would pay for it.
I was surprised she wanted to meet in person.
We could have done it over email, but I went along with it.
She told me to meet her at the city library.
We agreed on five minutes. Good for her, she chose somewhere public.
Maybe there was hope for the next generation.
I grabbed my things, refilled my coffee, and headed out to meet her.