Page 55 of Simply Perfection
“So the uniforms said two of our three suspects have airtight alibis. We haven’t tracked down the third. We’ve tried both his last known address and the employer listed on his last tax return,” Clay said.
Niall paced around his living room in circles. They’d moved the gathering across the channel because there was more space than at Matt’s.
“What about known associates?” Ethan asked.
“His employer said the guy always keeps to himself. He’s due to arrive for a shift at the restaurant tonight. We’ll obviously be on the premises to speak with him, assuming he shows up.”
Ryan heaved out a breath. “We’re closing in on thirty hours.”
“I know,” Clay said solemnly.
“No!” Niall exclaimed. “I will not have you giving up hope. Forget that twenty-four hour statistic. We will find him. We will bring him home! We have to,” he finished softly.
Niall was gathered into Matt’s arms, and a pair of hands rested on his shoulders from behind him.
“We 'ill fend 'imself. 'As anyone been ter 'is apartment lately? Maybe there is sum kind av clue there,” Conor asked.
Niall looked at Matt, Matt stared back. Niall turned to see Logan’s head shaking back and forth.
“Fine. Two of you go check that out. The rest will stay here.”
“I have a key. I’ll go,” Logan said.
Niall and Matt had keys as well, but he could tell Logan needed to do something productive. He nodded, then leaned up to kiss Matt. “Let me?”
Matt’s hands clasped the sides of Niall’s face and pulled him in for a deeper kiss. Their tongues dueled fiercely, and Niall clung to Matt’s sweatshirt.
“You be safe, you hear me? You come back to me,” Matt ordered.
“I will, I promise.”
Logan unlocked Trevor’s front door. When they entered, they froze where they stood. Someone had trashed the entire place. Couch ripped to shreds, curtains in rags hanging from bent rods above the windows. Trevor’s movies scattered to the fourcorners of the room, many snapped in half, and his prize television had what looked like bullet holes in the screen. Logan pointed at the TV. “Oh, he’s gonna be pissed about that one.”
“Yeah.”
Niall couldn’t tear his eyes away from the spidery round holes. If they were bullet holes, then that meant whoever had Trevor was not only armed, but unafraid to use the weapon. Why hadn’t anyone in the building reported the shots? Why hadn’t the police’s fancy bullet tracker system picked up the report?
“Shall we continue the tour?”
They walked back toward Trevor’s bedroom. As his feet crunched on the floor, Niall peered into the bathroom to see that someone had shattered the mirror and had spilled every household item Trevor kept under the sink all over the floor, shower stall, and sink.
Logan shook his head. “Now that seems a tad juvenile.”
They kept walking back to Trevor’s bedroom, and Niall saw that Trevor’s mattress had received the same treatment as the couch. Trevor’s clothes were torn to shreds and strewn all over the room. Niall even spied the pair of Armani jeans and shirt he’d gotten from that photo shoot back in the fall in pieces. He walked closer to the mattress. He knew Trevor kept his keepsakes in a box beneath the bed, so he bent down to see if it was still there.
Niall peered beneath the bed, found Trevor’s box and flipped open the lid.
“Wait! We shouldn’t touch anything. We’ve got to call this in, and if we get our prints all over everything, it’ll contaminate the evidence.”
Niall held the box in his hand. Something in his gut told him that there was something important inside. It was already compromised. To hell with the cops, he was keeping this.
“Fine. Call it in, but I’m still looking inside the box. I’ll tell them I touched it before we realized it wasn’t a good idea.”
Niall walked back toward the bathroom. He knew Trevor kept a box of rubber gloves in there for cleaning. He snapped on a pair and carried the box out to Trevor’s tiny kitchenette. Trevor’s few dishes now lay all over the floor in a colorful mosaic. The intruder hadn’t destroyed the frosted glass doors to the cabinets themselves. Curious, since he’d had no compunction about shattering the bathroom mirror. He sifted through old concert tickets and a faded photo of Trevor as a little boy. He sat between two adults who Niall assumed were Trevor’s parents. There was an open condom wrapper, and Niall chuckled, souvenir from Trevor’s lost virginity, maybe? Niall’s fingers caressed a photo of him, Matt, and Trevor from New Year’s Eve. Trevor’s bright blue eyes shone with happiness. The three of them wore silly hats and were blowing some of those shiny fringe noisemakers out at the camera. At the very bottom was a newspaper clipping. It had aged and yellowed, but was still in one piece.
"Okay, I'll let Niall know. Thanks again, Captain, and sorry we messed up." Logan looked over and grimaced. "Yes, I know better. Yes, I promise to only play with my guns and not crap on your crime scenes in the future." He tapped the screen on his phone. “Cops are on their way. Both Detective Marks from yesterday and Captain Fredericks.”
"For a minute there I thought you were talking to yourself."
