Page 51 of Loco

“Yeah,” I said, letting the word hang. “I’ve never told him about that, and I sure as hell know no one I trust did.”

Judd’s mouth pressed into a line. “You play it cool?”

“I looked down at my hands when he said it,” I told him, “which gave me a second to kill the reaction. In the end, I told him I’d been waking up in a panic about not being able to keep them safe and let him know I knew about his kids, too.”

Judd let out a low, humorless laugh. “Good.”

“His face said he liked hearing it a little too much about my kids but not about his own.”

“Yeah, well,” Judd said, shaking his head, “play him at his own game all you want but avoid him as much as possible. Whatever he’s hiding, it’s getting harder for him to keep it buried. You push the wrong button at the wrong time, and he might start swinging.”

I nodded. We were back at the cars now, and Judd leaned against his, arms folded, watching the woods like they might cough up more secrets.

“They didn’t get any prints off that envelope or the photo,” he said after a moment. “The one Kapono collected when the kids got sick.”

I felt that familiar tightness coil in my chest again. “Of course not.”

“But,” he added, “they did find DNA on the envelope. Saliva, probably from sealing it. We’re running it through CODIS, but it’ll take a bit.”

I stared down at the earth near my boots, then back toward where Ailee’s body lay, waiting for the coroner to take her away.

“Fuck, it’s messed up that they got to Ailee.” That was all I could say. I’d barely known her, but in the grand scheme of things, she was an innocent in all this. All she did was arrange for the girls to meet the guys and go to some appointments herself.

“Pretty much,” Judd agreed, eyes scanning the trees. “The dog walker found her and called it in. Looks like it’s a fresh dump, but the coroner will be able to confirm that.”

I nodded. “Yeah. No insects, no rigor mortis, no bloating. Whoever did this didn’t wait long.”

“Which makes you wonder,” Judd said, glancing back toward the body, “why the hell would someone risk dumping her in a busy spot at this time of day?”

“Desperation,” I mused. “Or stupidity. Could be both.”

Neither of us said anything for a few seconds. The wind shifted, and I felt my mood drop further as I realized the weight and reality of the situation. Whoever had done this was out there, and if they were getting sloppy, it meant they were scared. Or they were just starting.

Our phones buzzed at the same time—a message from Kai. He was nearby, maybe five minutes from where we were, and he wanted to meet there rather than at the scene.

For anyone watching, it would just look like we were discussing case details. There was nothing suspicious, just three guys working a scene. So we got in our vehicles and drove over.

Kai didn’t waste time. “We got a hit on the DNA,” he said as soon as we stepped out. “I figured I’d run it against a few of the guys we’ve been watching, just in case, and it came back to this guy.”

He tapped his phone screen, and Judd’s and mine pinged simultaneously. I pulled it up—a photo of a guy who looked like a sleazy knockoff gangster who watched too many Mob movies and thought he was the main character.

I didn’t recognize him. “Who the fuck’s this?”

“Tartin Echert,” Kai said.

The name meant nothing to me, but it definitely caught my attention. Judd squinted at the photo.

“Who the fuck calls their kid Tartin?”

Kai didn’t miss a beat. “This asshole’s,” he said, nodding toward the image on Judd’s phone.

I slipped mine back into my pocket like I couldn’t be bothered. “Do we know him?”

Judd reached into his SUV and grabbed the notebook he’d been scribbling in back at the scene. He passed it to Kai like he was filling him in on something routine. Kai flipped it open, eyes skimming the page as he answered.

“We’ve been tracking that guy AJ Lynch ever since we saw him visit Ailee. Whether it was to collect money or drop something off, we don’t know. But he led us to the barber shop on Pine Street and that new laundromat.”

Kai glanced up, tone shifting slightly.

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