Page 23 of Tell Me Your Desires
“No. Far from it, I’d imagine.” Jaime snorted, turning back to the board. “We need to go back there and find out more from her.”
“You think she knows more than she’s saying?”
A name, for fuck’s sake.Jaime wanted a name. So… she could do a little digging of her own. Digging thatwasn’trelated to this case. “I want to knowwhoshe is, Max. None of this Lady A bullshit. I want a name, an address, a fucking last will and testament if she has one.”
“This has really got to you, hasn’t it?”
“Dead women? Of course it has!” Jaime knew she was close to stepping over the line again with her attitude, but this was ridiculous. Maisie had been found outsideLady A’splace of work. She wasLady A’sassistant.Lady Ahad left her a messageapologizing. Surely Max found all of that suspicious? And then there was the fact that she hadn’t given them anything relating to herself. No name, nothing. Jaime couldn’t help but feel this woman was hiding something. “So? When do you want to do this?”
“The club isn’t open during the day, is it?”
Jaime shook her head slowly. “No. It doesn’t open until eight. Have Jackson find out what he can on Frank. I want a contact number. He’ll know where to find her. I’m not waiting until tonight.”
Max held up his hand. “Okay. Relax. Christ, drink your coffee, Baros.”
Jaime took a step towards Max, standing toe-to-toe with him. “I like you a lot. You’re like family, but telling me to relax when we have dead women out there isn’t helping. Lady A, at the moment, is potentially our prime suspect, and you’re standing around here drinking your coffee like we don’t have shit to do!”
“And I like you most of the time, Baros. But implying that I’m just dicking around is out of line. I get you want a suspect; we all do. But we have to be smart about this. Right now, only one of our victims is connected to Lady A. Both Jackson and I have been going over the evidence from the other four victims again, just in case. I can’t see that woman being a serial killer despite what her… chambers look like. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t checking every possibility.”
“Yeah, okay.”Fuck.Had she been too harsh with Max? There were times when Jaime took their friendship for granted here at work. He was her superior, but the way she had just spoken to him, he was well within his rights to discipline her. But the pressure was on the entire force to find this piece of shit terrorizing the city. Combined with her personal shit, that stress was bound to boil over every once in a while. Jaime just hoped Max understood that.
Max scoffed and turned away. He was halfway across the bullpen when he suddenly turned back. “Hey, Baros? You need to get some sleep.” He tossed his half-full coffee cup in the trash and walked out.
Jaime clenched her jaw, choosing to ignore Max’s observation. He was right, and she knew it, but sleep had eluded her lately. Partly because she wanted to see Lady A at the club, but mostly because she couldn’t handle the guilt of seeing her in her dreams.
Chapter Nine
Night five.Rain pelted the windshield as Jaime settled in for another long evening. Her neck was stiff and aching from the previous four nights staking out this freakin’ club waiting for Lady A to show up. Yet here she was, double fisting it with Red Bulls and water, washing down the stale potato chips she had found in the back of her pantry. If Lady A didn’t show up tonight, Jaime would have to change her tactics. Lying to Max was weighing on her. But how could she tell him she was stalking a woman she couldn’t be one-hundred percent sure wasn’t a killer, yet still had dreams about fucking? Plus, Max didn’t think Lady A was a suspect. This stakeout was unauthorized and, frankly, stupid. That didn’t stop Jaime.
She took another swig of her Red Bull, squinting against the headlights that flashed in her face as a car pulled into the club’s parking lot.
“Come on,” she mumbled as she picked up her binoculars to watch for the car’s occupant. “Fucking rain.” She turned the ignition to ACC, and her windshield wipers swished, clearing her view slightly. Jaime kept the binoculars focused as she grabbed her pen and notebook with her free hand. She awkwardly scribbled BLACK LEXUS and the license plate down. She tookher eyes away from the car for one second to make sure her writing was legible, though if this wasn’t Lady A, she’d be tossing this piece of paper in the back seat with the rest of the trash.
When Jaime brought her attention back to the car, she saw her. Ithadto be her. The woman had a long raincoat on and was partially obscured by a large umbrella, but Jaime had caught a glimpse of that auburn hair. Hair she had seen way too many times in her dreams lately.
“Finally.” Jaime’s eyes were riveted on the woman until she disappeared inside the club. Jaime picked up her phone.
“Baker.”
It took Jaime a second to register that her call had gone through. “Hey, Baker, it’s Baros. I need a favor.”
“Another one? You already owe me three.”
Jaime smiled at the woman’s teasing. Justine Baker was one of those cops who preferred riding the desk to being out in the seedy streets. She was also one of the best tech analysts in Reno.
“Double or nothing,” Jaime shot back with a grin. “You get me this info, and I’ll buy you lunch for a week.”
“Fine, but it better be good food. None of that crap you eat. What do you need?”
“I need the owner and residence of a black Lexus, plate number…,” Jaime rattled off the plate number, shaking her head at how abysmal her handwriting was.
“Yeah, got it. You’re fifth in line, so this will take a minute.”
“No problem. Can you just shoot the info to my cell when you have it?”
“Sure. Or I can give it to Max since I’m running a plate for him, too.”
Was Max running a plate? Whose? What did he know that Jaime didn’t?Probably a fuck of a lot since you’re dicking around out here instead of doing actual detective work.
