Chapter 4
"There's no blood spatter on her hand," Brenda said. "You tell me how you shoot yourself in the temple without splattering your hand with blood."
"Looks like we've got a homicide, boys,” the sheriff said. His jaw tightened, and he shook his head. "Talk to her friend. Figure this out."
I put on a pair of nitrile gloves and examined the pistol after it had been photographed. There was no serial number. It had been filed down or acid etched, then polished.
We left the salon, climbed the companionway back to the cockpit, then transferred to Lacey's boat. She looked frazzled with weepy eyes, sitting in a chair at the helm.
"Tell me what happened," I said.
Lacey pulled herself together. "Eden missed her livestream last night.
She never misses a livestream. People started messaging me, asking where she was.
I was doing a livestream myself. I called, but she didn't pick up. It was highly unusual. That girl was serious about making money. I figured maybe something came up. Maybe something with her parents. Maybe she got sick. Then I heard she had a meltdown earlier on stream. I was worried about her.”
“What kind of meltdown?”
“Just all the bullshit with her dad. I knew she was staying out here for a few days. I thought, maybe, you know… I mean, anything can happen out here.” Lacey paused.
“Eden liked anchoring out at some random place and going off-grid.
Well, as off-grid as you can get when you're on the Internet all day.”
"So you decided to come out here and check on her?”
"Yeah.” Lacey teared up and broke into sobs. "I knew something was wrong the minute I stepped on board. It was just eerie. Then I saw her at the settee." More tears spilled. Lacey covered her face. "I'm never going to get that image out of my mind."
"Did you touch anything aboard the boat?" I asked.
Lacey shook her head.
"We’ll need to get a set of elimination prints from you, just in case.”
Lacey nodded.
"Was she depressed? Suicidal?" I didn’t think we were dealing with a suicide, but I wanted to cover all the bases.
Lacey frowned. "She wasn’t exactly happy. Eden was going through a bit of a rough patch.”
"How so? Sounded like she was on top of the world.”
"Looks can be deceiving.”
“What was going on?”
"Well, her boyfriend left her,” Lacey said. "She lost her account on For the Fans. That was her source of income. She was panicking.”
“If she lost her account, where was she doing a livestream?”
“On Instabook. She was trying to find another platform to move her audience to, and she was trying to keep in touch with them via the socials."
"Why did her account get banned?"
Lacey's face tightened. "It's a long story."
"We've got plenty of time.”
Lacey paused. She took a breath, and her face tensed with anger. "Her father is such a dick.”
"So there was tension there," I said.
"Well, of course. I mean, who wants their daughter doing that kind of thing for the whole world to see?”
"I take it your father's not too thrilled about your line of work," I said.
"My father's dead.”
"I'm sorry.”
"I'm not. He was an asshole.”
"Tell me about Eden's father.”
"He did everything he could to make her life miserable. He'd send his legions of followers to report her account. They finally kicked her off the platform.”
“Followers?”
“Her dad is Richard Scott.”
I lifted a surprised brow. “The evangelist?”
Lacey nodded.
“I can see why he might be upset.”
Lacey rolled her eyes.
"What did Eden do to violate the terms of the platform?” I asked.
"Nothing! They just made up shit about her. Said one of the guys she slept with on camera was underage.”
"Didn’t she have records for that kind of thing? IDs, contracts, health certifications?”
Lacey scoffed. "Sugar, this is the Wild West. Eden was breaking new ground. Plus, it's kind of hard to keep track of everyone when you sleep with 1,100 guys in a day.”
My jaw dropped, and my brow lifted with surprise. "1,100? Is that even physically possible?”
"She was going for the world record.”
I glanced at JD.
He shrugged.
“Did she get the record?” I asked out of curiosity.
“It hasn’t been verified yet.”
"I can see why her boyfriend left her," Jack said.
"Yeah, he had a hard time with the concept. Sure, he was all on board when he first met Eden. She bought him whatever he wanted. He certainly liked the lifestyle. Didn’t take long for him to get possessive.”
“I don’t know a lot of men who would be okay with that kind of thing,” JD said. “I’m sure he was pretty mad about it?”
JD and I shared another look.
“Yeah, he was pissed when she came up with the idea,” Lacey said. “Up until that point, he’d been the only performer she’d worked with.”
“I’d say that’s a motive,” Jack said.
“Where can we find the ex-boyfriend?” I asked. “You got his number?”
Lacey nodded.
I dug into my pocket and handed her a card. “What’s his name?”