Page 20 of Tell Me Your Desires
Anya closed her laptop and tossed it on the couch beside her. “I feel awful about Maisie, bud, but I can’t find anything on her. And I’m not going down that road and asking for any favors.”
Anya yawned. After her terrible sleep last night, she hadn’t gotten out of bed until well past noon. It was now five o’clock, and she had yet to get out of her pajamas. What was the point? She wasn’t going anywhere, and Derek didn’t judge. She glanced at Derek, who was staring at her. Okay, Derek did judge, but at least he did it silently.
“Ready for dinner?”
“Mew, meow, mew!” He got up and trotted toward the kitchen, meowing the entire way.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Anya made her way to the kitchen, pressing the feed button on Derek’s bowl. “There. You’re taken care of. Now, what do I want?”
She opened her fridge, eyeing the takeout and leftovers with a critical eye. Nothing looked appetizing. Her stomach hadn’t felt right since she pulled into the club’s parking lot the night before and saw the police tape.
God, she should have listened to her gut.
Jaime glancedat the clock in the corner of her computer screen, grabbing her car keys from her desk. It was seven in the evening, and she was ready to get out of here. At least, that’s what she was telling herself. Max and Jackson stood at the board, going over the bare minimum of what they had so far, but Jaime wanted to be out on the street where she could think. Where she could go over everything in her head. Standingaround looking at a board wasn’t going to give her any new answers. There was nothing there for them.
“I’m headed home,” she said as she got to her feet. “You two find anything on there, let me know. I won’t expect a call, though.”
“Hey, Baros. You wanna grab some dinner and go over things?” Max reached for his suit jacket, slipping one arm through. “Burger?”
“Nah. I’m good. I wanna get home. Work out, you know.” Jaime shrugged, throwing her coffee cup into the trash. “I’ll see you in the morning, yeah?”
“Sure.” Max gave her a suspicious look. Jaime rarely turned down a burger and a beer. “You good?”
She nodded, and then she regarded him with a genuine smile. He always worried about her. Always checked in with her. But Jaime’s dream had been playing on her mind, and Max wasn’t the person she should have been discussing it with. No way. “I am. Thanks.”
“Alright, well, you know where I am if you wanna talk.”
Jaime was done talking. Taylor’s anniversary had come and gone, and it was time to work and put her mind to the serious stuff. And this was. This was her expertise and where she could apply her knowledge. Taylor… There was nothing she could do about that. But this? Jaime was determined to catch the fucker who was terrorizing women. “You had any more thoughts on this yet?”
Max scratched at his jawline, looking as deflated as Jaime felt. “No. Nothing new. But I think you’re right about Frank. Something isn’t right with that guy.”
“You want to take another run at him?”
Max nodded slowly. “Maybe. If he’s up to something, he’ll lay low for a while.”
“Could always have him under surveillance.” Jaime jammed her hands in the pockets of her pants. “Did we ever get any footage from the club?”
“None. No cameras inside. There were two in the parking lot. One was busted, the other doesn’t face the way we needed it to.”
“So, either the killer got lucky with that, or they knew the area and what could potentially be caught on camera.”
“Mm.”
“We need something soon, Max. If we don’t come up with a lead by the end of the week, I’m going to start tearing the place apart. I don’t give a fuck if Frank doesn’t like it. It’s time to come down hard on this case.”
“Let’s dig into this more, Jaime. We’re not even sure this place is anything more than wrong place/wrong time. Unless we find a link, I don’t think we can get a search warrant for the club. I also don’t think Cap will give us permission to do a stakeout. We need something, Baros. Some kind of connection between the victims. And so far, we have nothing. Not to each other or Frank.” He scrubbed his face tiredly. “Go on home. I’ll meet you back here in the morning, and we’ll go over everything again. You bring the coffee and I’ll bring the breakfast burritos.”
Damn it. Max was right. These attacks appeared to be random, but Jaime didn’t believe they were. Max didn’t either, she knew it, but he was right about the club. They’d never get a warrant for that place. Still, Jaimehadto go with her gut. And right now, her gut was telling her the club was involved in some way. Now, she just had to find the god damn connection. “Yeah, you got it! Night, Max.”
Jaime waited for the elevator, tapping her foot incessantly. She had no plans to go home and work out. Not really. No, she was going straight to the club to wait for the star attraction to arrive. This was business, or so she would tell herself. But Jaimeknew exactly what this was deep down. It was her… craving the eyes of that damn woman.
But then she had to consider what she would actually say when she arrived at the club. Would she pull out the detective badge, or would she slip that away in her pocket, purely there for pleasure? Jaime shuddered at the thought. She couldn’t possibly take herself into that room as anythingother thana detective. Could she?
Jaime’s heart pounded at the thought. Her hands grew clammy. Fuck, what would she say? Or do? Maybe this was a mistake. Someone would find out she’d been there eventually. Those nightsalwayscame back to bite you on the ass.
Anya clicked another link,bringing up yetanothernews article about the murder at the club.Young Woman Slain at Popular Brothel.The articles were of no help to Anya. They spoke briefly of the “young woman,” focusing more on the location because brothels were salacious. Like Maisie brought it on herself by just being there. This poor woman had lost her life, and it garnered nothing more than a quarter-page article that gave no real information about the victim.
“No suspect,” Anya said aloud. “Sounds about right. When sex workers are involved, it’s not a priority.”
