Page 19 of Colton's Second Chance
Chapter 6
The next morning, Noelle found Dove St. James’s yoga studio and joined a class. Dove, a tall woman with long auburn hair, welcomed her warmly. A prick of something Noelle refused to call jealousy needled her as she prepared for the class and watched Dove greet the other participants. Eli’s brother had found a lovely girlfriend—the sort of woman the Colton family likely wanted Eli to find.
“You’re from out of town, you said?” Dove asked, returning to her after finishing with the other ladies. “How did you find the studio?”
“My hostel is just down the way a bit.” Noelle chose not to mention her connection to Eli. She didn’t want to answer the inevitable questions.
We’re not through with this conversation.
Noelle shoved aside the unfinished business with Eli and tried to clear her mind as she worked through a few warm-up stretches. She had to admit, the soothing scent of diffused essential oils and tranquil music Dove played during the class helped her relax more than if she’d gone through the motions by herself at the hostel.
She thanked Dove at the end of the class, promised she’d be back, then went into the dressing room to change before heading to the ABI offices.
When she arrived at the ABI building an hour later, something big clearly had the staff busy and buzzing. The receptionist wason a phone call and held up a finger asking Noelle to wait. After a few minutes, Noelle called Eli directly from her cell phone.
“I’ll be down in a moment. I’m wrapping up a meeting,” he said.
She wandered across the lobby to the coffee pot, remembering that Scott Montgomery had claimed the lobby coffee was better than what was brewed in the offices. She’d just finished doctoring her java with creamer and sugar when Eli arrived from the stairs.
“Sorry for the wait. A patrol officer found a woman in an alley last night, and my team needed to look at the evidence in case she was a new victim of the Fiancée Killer.”
Noelle gripped her coffee tighter, her stomach swirling. “And was she a new victim?”
Eli rubbed the back of his neck. “Probably not, it turns out, but we have to go over all the evidence.” He hitched his head toward the stairs. “Come on. I have everything you need upstairs.”
She followed him, casting her gaze around the office, knowing this space, these rooms, these people were a huge part of Eli’s world now. She drank it in, wanting to fill in as many blanks about his life as she could. “How do you know this woman’s not a new victim?”
He seemed ready to answer, then held up a finger. “Let’s get in my office before we talk.”
He led her through a door at the end of a long corridor and closed the door behind them. A man with light brown hair, beard and mustache glanced up from the desk across from Eli’s. With a wag of his finger, Eli introduced Noelle to his partner, Asher Rafferty, and vice versa.
Asher rocked his swivel chair back and linked his hands behind his head. “I hear you’re joining the investigation. You must have really dazzled Eli with your analytics skills.”
“I’m not suredazzledis the word,” Eli said, “but I saw the merit of a fresh set of eyes and applying the unbiased perspective of latest technology to the case.”
“I just want to help any way I can,” Noelle said. Turning to Eli again, she said, “You were going to tell me about the woman found last night.”
Eli motioned to the chair beside his desk, and she sat. “Right. Her age was what caught the patrol officer’s attention. She was young and pretty like the other victims, but we think she died of a drug overdose. No sign of strangulation.”
“No little black dress, no pose with her hand up, no diamond ring,” Asher added.
The office door opened, and a familiar handsome face appeared. “I’m headed down to the morgue now to start the postmortem on—” Scott Montgomery spotted Noelle and stopped midsentence. “Oh sorry. I didn’t know you had a visitor.”
Eli waved the forensic specialist in. “It’s okay. We’re reading her in on the investigation as a consultant.”
A curious wrinkle in his brow, Scott stepped into the office and closed the door behind him. “What kind of consultant?”
“Analytics,” Noelle volunteered. “I use specialized computer software and statistics to look at data from any number of angles.”
Scott sat on the corner of Asher’s desk and folded his arms as he focused on her. “Interesting. What sort of things can your program tell us?”
Asher coughed in his hand. “Geek.”
Noelle cast Eli’s partner a glance. “What?”
Scott waved a dismissive hand. “Ignore him. He’s just ragging on me because I love all kinds of science. Biology, computers, forensics… It all fascinates me. So you were saying about your program…?”
“Don’t you have a body waiting in the morgue?” Eli cut in. “If Noelle’s program comes up with anything relevant to your area of the investigation, we’ll let you know.”
