Page 77 of Foxy Filthy Omega

Before I handed her back the phone, I hid the app I’d downloaded in a folder within a folder and deleted the download history.

“There are pictures in the hiking app too,” she told me. “I can send you the ones I took this morning.”

“Really? You’d do that for me?” I looked up and saw her pretty brown eyes were fixated on me.

I held her gaze and smiled slightly, pleased when she didn’t look down or away from me.

Leslie blushed and then looked down at the water bottle in her hands. “Yeah, I don’t mind,” she murmured. “I want to help in any way I can.”

Studying her, I tried to go through all the scenarios as objectively as possible. I didn’t think she was the murderer, but there was a chance.

Anyone was capable of doing the most horrible things imaginable. That was something I was forced to learn growing up in a world full of legacies and alphas who thought they were entitled to anything and everything simply because of their designation.

The odds of this beta woman being the murderer was pretty low, but it definitely wasn’t zero.

Another possibility that worried me was she had the same brown hair as all three of the victims.

There currently wasn’t anything else tying the victims together and if the head wasn’t already planted on the trail when she started hiking, there was a good chance the killer saw her. If they did, they might want to eliminate any possibility she’d get them caught, or…

Or she fit their victim type and end up next.

I haven’t had the time to study this killer’s patterns yet but they might not have a particular time frame between killings. We also didn’t have a specific time for these deaths. All I knew so far was they weren’t fresh.

“It’s my job to find whoever it is,” I told her. “And I’m actually pretty good at it so you don’t have to worry.”

“I’ve heard about you,” Leslie admitted. “You solved the Valor case.”

With Lucy’s help, but yeah.

I grinned and handed her back her phone. “I can’t believe you know who I am. That’s a little embarrassing.”

Pretending I was flustered wasn’t difficult and Leslie smiled again, giving me another indicator that she seemed to like me, if nothing else, so I decided to go for it.

“Would you happen to have a dash cam in your car?” I pulled my lip balm out of my pocket and slicked it on as I waited for her answer.

Leslie’s eyes widened. “I do actually.”

“If you don’t mind, could you send me the footage from that too? Here, I’ll send you my email address. Sometimes phones compress the files and it makes the footage too grainy to really see anything.”

I tucked my lip balm back into my pocket and pulled out my phone. “That should be everything though. I don’t really have any other questions, but if you think of something I might have missed, feel free to text me.”

Her phone chimed when I sent over my email and I placed my hand on her knee, shocking her enough she looked up and her eyes met mine once more.

“Do me a favor?” I lowered my voice and used a soothing cadence so she wouldn’t freak out. “Don’t go hiking for a little while. I want you to rest and take care of yourself until you feel ready. Maybe even get a buddy for the first few times you go back on a trail. This kind of thing doesn’t just go away and I don’t want you to be alone while you deal with it.”

Leslie gave me the tiniest smile, like she wanted to reassure me. “Thank you, Detective James. I will.”

I patted her knee, hoping she would stay away from this park for a while.

The last thing I wanted was for her to end up being one of the victims.

“I’ll get one of the officers to drive you home.” I stood and slipped my hands in my pockets, giving her a big smile. “You have no idea how much I appreciate all your help. It’s going to make my life a lot easier, so thank you Leslie.”

Turning on my heel to head over to Garcia, I found myself looking for Soren first.

My rookie was leaning against one of the trees with his arms crossed over his chest, watching me from under the visor of his cap.

I couldn’t tell what he was thinking with that neutral expression of his, but for some reason it felt like his gaze was sharper than normal.

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