Page 18 of Out of Control

I ignored the innuendo. I wouldn’t think of a person of interest in my case in that way. I could control myself enough for that. “What did you find?”

“She sometimes interacts with a small group of people, but not a lot of close knit friendships. She eats out a lot, isn’t one for cooking at home. And the girl dates around a lot.”

I whipped my head around to face him. “What makes you say that?”

“Selfies, man. Kane likes to dress up like a fucking maneater, take a selfie, and post about it. She’s not shy, not ashamed. Girl knows she’s fucking hot.”

I took out my own phone and looked her up. Her profiles weren’t even set to private, but with the way those short little dresses hugged her curves she should probably rethink her privacy settings.

“Out in the real world I take charge of the room.”

Yeah, no shit. This girl knew how to work a room and have men eating out of the palm of her hand. And she wasn’t afraid to show it. My finger hovered over the “follow” button. It would just be for research. I wouldn’t be doing it to be a pervert and stare at her long, lithe legs.

I didn’t press the button. I didn’t want her to see the notification and think the wrong thing.

“Speaking of,” Mark began, but hesitated when I turned to him. “Who’s the pretty young thing you’re going to be bringing home to your mom this month?”

“I wasn’t aware you kept track of my dating habits.”

“Word travels fast through the proper channels. I hear you just broke up with someone a couple weeks ago, so your mom should be expecting to meet a new girlfriend any time now. Do youevertake a break? What's the longest you've gone between girlfriends?”

“Do I grill you on who you’re dating?”

“Only the once,” he grinned, but dropped his smirk quickly. We wouldn’t be talking about my sister. “Sorry. I’ll let it go. I’m just saying maybe give your mom a break. Stop getting her hopesup and bringing home girls you know aren’t going to be sticking around. Hope's a killer.

It was a fair observation, but it wasn’t fair of him to bring up any of that. “We’re not close enough to discuss personal shit like this. Do you know anything else about Athena Kane?”

“No, but I think you need to stay on her. Any lead is a good lead at this point. We got Witnesses C and W out of town, but we can’t close the case on the Morellis with their testimony alone. Antonio Conti, sure, once we get a hold of him, but not the Morellis. We need more.”

“I’ll go through the files that C brought in again. See what we’re missing.” He nodded. We lapsed into silence for the rest of the drive back to where I left my car parked a couple blocks from the surveillance van.

The van was continually recording and didn’t need monitoring; I only visited the operation to make sure the job was done right. And it was. The van was collecting the feed from several cameras hidden around the front and back of the building. The pictures were great, though the audio could have used some work—that wasn’t anyone’s fault, just the name of the game when you have a shit budget to afford shit equipment sometimes.

I thanked Mark formally for the ride again, ignoring his ridiculous salute as he drove off. Where the hell did he get off lecturing me on my own mother’s feelings?

Climbing into the car, I called her. Not out of guilt, but because I usually called her most days to check in. She hadn’t been the same for the last decade, but it only got worse when my stepfather passed last year.

“Lucas!” She was always so enthusiastic when I called, for the first several seconds at least. “Did you get that promotion yet?”

“Not yet, but I’m working on it. Gotta close this case first.” She didn’t know any details, but she knew that I was working harder and later than usual the last few weeks.

“Oh.” She was very aware of how important it was for me to get into the CACHTU. “I haven’t met your new girlfriend, yet. I know you broke up with Jennifer a couple weeks back.”

Hell, did I really go through women so fast? It wasn’t intentional, I just didn’t like being single. When one relationship ended, it wasn’t long until I found a new one.

“I don’t have a girlfriend, Mom.”

“Alright, well, bring her around when you do. You know how I like the company.”

I almost wished Mark Rosenberg was hanging around eavesdropping on my calls so I could give him the oldI told you so.She liked meeting them. It didn’t break her heart whenever I stopped seeing someone. “I do know that, Mom. I know you like having someone to talk girl things with. Denzel, Leo, Timothée Chalamet. I know.”

She ignored my teasing, but I could hear the smile in her voice when she changed the subject. “Are you going to come see me soon? It’s been almost a week.”

It was always almost a week. I came over on Saturdays to have breakfast and sometimes even took her out to do something fun. Last week we walked around the pier. It would have been better if there wasn’t so much construction around, but the fresh air was good for her. This weekend we’d probably stay in while she found reasons to keep crying herself to sleep at night.

“I’ll see you soon, Mom. I promise.” Unless she called sooner, begging me to come over and look over something important.

She sighed heavily. “Alright then. Thanks for checking up on me. I’ll talk to you soon.”

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